Spotlight on: Reception
Miss Natalie Shale shares stories from Reception class
The Reception class topics this term have been Amazing Animals and Super Senses and it was lovely for the girls to be able to share some of their learning with their parents last week during their class assembly. This was the girls’ first experience of performing in front of a large audience on their own and they rose to the challenge admirably. It was wonderful to see such happy and confident performers during the assembly.
The class assembly started off with the girls singing Toc, toc, toc, qui est la? in French, having learnt it in their French lessons. Madame Lea has also taught the girls the names of lots of animals and how to ask simple questions. During the assembly, different animals knocked at the door and their identities, with the aid of animal noises and masks, were revealed to the audience.
A highlight of the term was when The Animal Experience visited the Reception classroom. Mitch and Hazel brought in different African animals and it was exciting to be able to touch and handle most of them. The girls were fascinated by all of the animals and the facts they learnt about them. The prize for the cutest animal had to go to the 16 day old baby meerkat, which Mitch and Hazel were hand-rearing after it was rejected by its mother. Along with the scorpion, the python was probably the scariest animal, but many of the girls were quite happy to hold it and let it sit on their laps! After the visit the girls drew the animals and wrote some ‘fabulous facts’ about them, which they read out in the assembly.
One of the class’s book studies this term has been based on The Little Red Hen and the girls started the topic by making up a story to accompany the pictures in the book. The girls then learnt and performed the story by heart by using different actions to match their words. Mr Matthew O’Reilly and the girls’ parents were very impressed by their engaging and expressive performance of the story in the assembly – especially when the little red hen told off her friends.
The assembly finished on a high note when the girls sang When we’re on the farm, which they had been learning in their Music lessons with Miss Elise Hickey. There was some very convincing, and loud, animal noises when the animals introduced themselves!
Throughout the Spring Term the girls have been thrilled to see how tall the tulips – that they planted in the Sensory Garden in the winter – have grown. Our prize tulip is now 55cm tall! The long wait from planting the bulbs in November to seeing the first tiny green shoots in January and finally the blooms this month has been well worth it. The daffodils are also in bloom but our snowdrops were less successful, with only one of them managing to flower – we have decided to blame the hungry squirrels!
It has been a very busy term and the girls deserve a well-earned rest during the Easter break; I’m sure they’ll return to school revitalised and ready for their last term as Reception pupils. We are looking forward to visiting Home Farm at Wimpole Hall at the beginning of next term especially as there will be lots of lovely new-born lambs to see.