This week the children arrived back at school to find that someone or something had been in our outdoor area. There were HUGE footprints. The children were feeling brave and we followed them into the woods. As we walked the children discovered a mouse. Then they spotted a fox, owl, snake and eventually (have you guessed?) a … Gruffalo!

Following our adventure through the woods, we were joined at the fire pit by Mrs Whittaker. We enjoyed the warmth of the fire while we ate a biscuit and drank some delicious hot chocolate.

Once we were back in the classroom we had fun doing lots of Gruffalo related activities!

As part of our learning during Black History Month, the children enjoyed finding out about some famous inventors. We found out about Garett Morgan who invented traffic lights, Phillip B Downing who invented the postbox and Dr Bath who invented a machine for improving sight. We thought about why these inventions were so important and finding out about Dr Bath inspired us to design some glasses of our own.

RBD have enjoyed visiting Harlow Carr this week. The purpose of our visit was to find out more about autumn. We participated in a fun workshop about signs of autumn involving an expert from the team at Harlow Carr. We also had fun exploring the grounds! We loved collecting leaves of different shapes and colours in special bags and building nests for hedgehogs.

This week the children have loved learning the story ‘Little Rabbit Foo Foo’. We began the week by listening to the story being read and looking at the pictures in the book. Then we have used imitation to learn to recite the story using actions to help. We created a story map to help us remember the order of the story. In the areas of provision the children have used puppets to tell the story and have also enjoyed playing in the forest small world area. The story led to lots of conversations about whether the rabbit was making the right choices!

This week we have been thinking about what it feels like to be learning something new. We have talked about how new learning feels hard and that it is OK not to be able to do something straight away. In class we use our learning line to help us talk about this. We have thought about some things that can help if we can’t do something straight away e.g. we might try again, ask for help or try it a different way. Our learning character ‘Tough Tortoise’ has helped us discuss persevering and not giving up if we make a mistake. We have seen lots of evidence of this in class, particularly when trying to form our letters correctly and learning to tidy the different areas of provision. Well done everyone!

This week RBD have been inspired by the story ‘The Dot’ about a little girl who is afraid to have a go at a drawing that the teacher has asked her to do. We saw the little girl’s confidence grow through the story until she created her own gallery of dots! The children have really impressed us with their ‘have a go attitude’ at creating dot pictures of their own.

Just like the girl in the story the children were encouraged to sign their name next to their drawing.

This week in RBD we have been learning about how we can work together as part of a team, just like ants do! We helped each other at tidy up time and took turns during snack time. We have had fun mark making together and making up our own games.

We have had a wonderful first week in Reception. We have enjoyed getting to know each other and exploring the different areas to learn in the classroom and outside.