Reception – Let’s Celebrate!
In Reception this half term, we have been learning about different celebrations. We started by learning about the Hindu festival of Diwali. We looked at how people celebrate the festival of lights and made our own rangoli patterns and Diva lamps. We also shared the story of ‘Rama and Sita’ and discussed how the first Divali came about!
We then looked at Bonfire Night and talked about fire safety. We were really lucky to get a visit from the local fire station. The children were excited to go on the fire engine, use the hose, and learn about the firefighters’ equipment. We also went to the campfire to learn how to be safe around a fire (we even toasted some marshmallows).
At the end of October, we experienced first-hand how many children in the United Kingdom celebrate Halloween. When we visited the campfire, Miss Taylor read us the story ‘Room on the Broom’, which kicked off our spooky learning about magic! We couldn’t believe it when we found a broken broomstick on our carpet. Who could it belong to?! The children enjoyed locating the missing witch, and they helped her numerous times across the half-term, creating various spells and potions. At home, the children made some beautiful witches’ and wizards’ hats, and we went to the hall where they had the chance to show off their beautiful creations.
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 magical event. Then, through focused writing practice, children learn the joy of writing, using phonics and the conventions of a sentence. The children loved drawing Meg (the witch) from Meg and Mog and they added some great passwords that made the pictures come to life!
Finally, it was time to celebrate Christmas. The ‘Land of Faraway’ was turned into Santa’s workshop, and the children had lots of fun wrapping presents, writing cards, and pretending to be Santa and his elves. We had a Christmas craft day, making cards, eco-friendly Christmas decorations, and reindeer food. We also worked really hard to help the Grinch enjoy Christmas a little more!
We all worked so hard to bring the nativity story to life in our end-of-term play! The children were fantastic on stage and made us all proud. Well done, Reception!
