Reception- Dinosaurs
This half term has been very exciting in Reception, as our chicken eggs were delivered to school. In Reception, we all agreed to look after the eggs and care for them until they hatch and grow up a little before moving to our chicken coop outside. The children took an active role in learning the life cycle of a hen and created their own life cycle using different materials. All of these chicks will become a part of our Clapgate family and we are excited to continue watching them grow.
Another learning topic that has sparked the children’s curiosity has been dinosaurs. They have not only learnt about different dinosaurs and their diets but have also demonstrated a deep understanding. They learnt that carnivores have sharp teeth in order to only eat meat and that herbivores have softer and blunter teeth to help them chew plants and leaves. We also learnt that omnivores mean they eat both.
We also learnt about human diets. We learnt about our diets as humans and discussed some people are vegetarians like herbivores and some are omnivores and eat both. We also discussed if we were carnivores we would feel sick eating meat all day.
In literacy, the children had the opportunity to be exposed to writing in a fun and interactive way through ‘Drawing Club’, which ‘opens up the magic world of tales and story to children whilst at the same time enriching their language skills, developing their fine motor and sharing really special time with them’. Drawing club, as the name suggests, starts with a drawing focussed on the character, setting or event. Then, through focused writing practice, children learn the joy of writing, using phonics and the conventions of a sentence. This half term we focused more on non-fiction texts. The children learnt how to draw dinosaurs and write facts about them.
To end our learning of dinosaurs, we were visited by Teach Rex. Teach Rex provides creative learning workshops with the power to ignite young minds and imaginations. This workshop is an interactive session, and it focusses on personal, social, and emotional development. Through effective questioning they explored different feelings and emotions with the children, while they get to know some impressive dinosaurs along the way.
