Handa's Surprise 

This week Cherries has been reading Handa's Surprise. We have been thinking about the difference in the way we carry our shopping and the way Handa does this in our story. The book is set in Africa and the book has taught us how resilient Handa was whilst carrying her basket of fruit on her head. Cherries wanted to see if they could carry a basket of fruit across a lumpy mat and be resilient like Handa. 

This tested our physical development and strength whilst creating a mountain of opportunity to talk about the fruits and taste them too. We tasted mango, guava, oranges, passion fruit, pineapple and avocado. 

Culture and Geography 

Handa's surprise has given us the opportunity to explore African animals, terrain and weather. The children have taken a particular interest in the clothing worn by the African people, with focus on the hot weather and how the clothing is more suitable as loose fitting. The children worked hard to create African necklaces in our learning time. 

Owl Babies

We have been reading the emotional story of Owl Babies this week and linking it with Art. We have had the opportunity to explore clay and use our clever fingers to manipulate it to make an owl masterpiece. 

We then worked collaboratively as a class to think about what colours owls are, and we used a variety of brushes and techniques to finish them off. 

P.E. 

PE this term for Cherry Trees is balance bikes. We will be looking at safety equipment and the correct way of balancing the bike when walking and riding. 

The Hungry Caterpillar 

Cherries have been reading The Hungry Caterpillar and learning all about the life cycle of a butterfly. They listened to the story with great interest and used their fantastic imaginations to act out the story using coloured scarves. They started off scrunched up like an egg on a leaf, then they wriggled out of the egg and became a small caterpillar. They then weaved their cocoon. When they had finished making their magic happen inside, they burst out into beautiful butterflies. 

We have had a lot of conversations around healthy eating and how to keep our bodies fit and healthy. Cherries have expressed an interest in trying all the foods the hungry caterpillar ate. 

We tried lots of yummy watermelon too. For some of us, it was the first time we had eaten it and were all surprised by how delicious it was. 

On Sudden Hill 

We had such an adventure on our school fields working collaboratively to find ways to build a cart to move down the hill. We used planks, ropes, wheels, boxes, cones and stepping stones to create our moving devices.  

Phonics 

We have been looking at Vowels and Consonants this week with fun songs and group activities to challenge each other and create fun words, both real and alien. 

We have also mastered the order of the alphabet in Cherries with songs, chants and the rearrangement of our fun phonic characters. 

The Jolly Postman 

We enjoyed the story The Jolly Postman so much we decided to write our very own letters to our grown-ups and post them via our local postbox. We learnt about sorting offices, post offices and why we need stamps on our post. All children in Cherries wrote their own letters using their beautiful phonics knowledge. 

2D and 3D Shape learning in Maths 

Cherries have been exploring shapes both inside and outside. Amazing pictures and videos have been sent from parents to support Cherries learning with household items and walks to school being included. 

Have a look at our unique explorative maths. 

What the ladybird heard! This is our story this week. 

We have been working on maps together in class to explore where we live and our capital city, London. We have explored landmarks in London and even made our own maps. Once we read our story, cherries were very keen to get creative and start making their own farms to hide their own prized cow. Have a look! 

Math this week in Cherries 

We have been learning lots of new math skills including longest and shortest and the concept of time. We first started with drawing worms for our partners and pointing out the longest and the shortest of the pair. Cherries did an amazing job on this using the mathamatical language 'longer, shorter, longest, shortest'.

Then we moved on to time and what we are doing now, next and later. We supported this learning with fruit kebab making. We started with a grape, then a strawberry, then a grape next and to finish a grape. We all had the same end result, and were very proud of our learning. 

Learning time! 

Cherries have had an amazing term, they explored, made new friends, used there phonics knowledge and showed their creativity. Take a look at the fun and game this term! 

 

First School trip for Cherries!

Cherries visited Jeskyns nature park for the chance to find the Gruffalo on the trail. Their behavour was outstanding making Greenfields extremely proud. Throughout the trail Cherries explored the wooded area, searched for clues and even stopped off by the lake to make a witches potion just like the witch from their favourite story, Room on the Broom! 

What's in the witches kitchen

Cherries have read the book What's in the witches kitchen which has lead to lots of new foods being tasted cupboard exploration. They have been faced with new foods that they never heard of and took turns to watch each other smell and taste each one. 

On the menu was Anchovies, kiwi, mozzarella, passion fruit, grapefruit and dates. Take a look at Cherries faces when trying. 

Capacity exploration 

Cherries have been exploring capacity with water and lots of measuring tubs. They enjoyed the freedom of pouring and tipping with each other. They half filled the tubes, fully filled the tubes and left them half empty. 

Great learning! 

The Colour Monster 

This week Cherries has been looking at the book The Colour Monster. We have been exploring the colours in the story and what feelings they link to inside us.

We now know Red is Angry, Pink is Love, Green is Calm, Blue is Sad, Black is Scared, and Yellow is Happy.

We carried out lots of activities during learning time to explore our feelings, using colourful paints, ink, rice, water and musical instruments. 

Ice Exploration 

Outside learning has been particularly interesting this week for our Reception children. Whilst the weather has been freezing, our cherries have been enjoying the opportunity to explore the wonders of their frozen surroundings. They used tools to dig out shapes and gems hidden beneath the surface, and were fascinated by the thickness of the broken fragments. 

How do Dinosaurs...........? 

This week we have been looking at the book series, How to Dinosaurs........... (Love, Go to School, Eat their dinner). The children really enjoyed all the discussions about dinosaurs, with focus on how long ago they lived and which foods they ate. The children's knowledge was amazing, they were able to understand and retell the group what a carnivore is and a herbivore. Following an in-depth discussion, the children were able to tell us that they are now EXTINCT! 

Science.... We explored how dinosaurs became extinct with a replica of a meteor hitting the earth. 

Mathematical thinking and exploring - The Number 5

Cherries have been exploring the number 5 in depth. We have been using manipulatives and looking at ways to show the number 5 as a whole number and understanding that we can move around parts of a number, and still retain the number as a whole.

Our next lesson in maths involved practising our fine motor skills. We used scissors and glue to cut out our numbers 0 to 5 and ordered them. We practised our social skills by working in pairs and helping each other throughout this activity. 

Math - Looking at the times of the day

In our maths lesson all about times of the day, Cherries were given print-outs of the most important times of the day. They all worked independently and some with very little adult input, to cut out, order and stick to their sequence of daily activities. Amazing work Cherries. 

This Christmas Cherries have stolen our hearts 

We have been practising our Christmas songs and performing for our grown-ups with tremendous confidence. We are all very excited about the big day and to show our festive spirits, we have been carrying out lots of holiday-themed activities in class as part of our learning time. 

We have been 'Out of this world' in Cherries 

Cherries has been reading 'How to Catch a Star'. This is a story about a boy who is determined to have a real star as his friend, but he cannot find a way to catch it. Cherries have been looking at space and thinking of ways to get right up amongst the stars. Some very clever ideas included making a magnet for the star, using a net and making a giant rocket ship. Cherries then looked at space in more detail and shared their amazing knowledge of the surrounding planets. Have a look at their favourite planets they made out of rich tea biscuits and icing. 

Attendance award 

Cherries have managed to achieve four gold medals for attendance this term. They are simply amazing at turning up for school and have had a few throws of the attendance monopoly dice. One very well deserved treat was some extra play time on the large play equipment. This gave Cherries time to explore the apparatus without the rest of the school. I think you will see their enjoyment from the pictures.

 

Developing our maths language 

Cherries have been working very hard to establish their maths positional language. After a group exercise of discussing where objects are, the children were able to explore the classroom with their partner to place objects 'on top', 'behind', 'under', 'next to' and 'between'.

Maths Subitising

Cherries have grasped the skill of subitising up to three with confidence and skill. They have been able to work with a variety of objects individually and in pairs to cement this new skill. They are starting to feel very comfortable with their numbers and seeing them displayed in new unique ways. Have a look at some of our lessons. 

Rainy day fun 

It's fair to say that the English weather has been rather rainy, however Cherries have not let it stop them in their learning time. We donned our waterproofs and splashed our way through with lots of teamwork and laughter. 

 

Celebrating Diwali 

Cherries have been learning about Diwali, we read books talking about Hindus and how Diwali is celebrated with the 'Festival of lights'. The children enjoyed making and painting Diva's and making beautiful Rangoli patterns. Cherries really enjoyed this learning experience. Take a look. 

Our Diwali celebrations have also seen us make our own unique salt dough Diva's. We all used our strong clever hands to mould our own design and paint them in bright celebratory colours. We took a candle home each to show our grown-ups and share our learning. 

Maths - Patterns 

We have been learning all about patterns in maths this week. We have been looking at two recurring colour patterns, three colours and some have been really clever and ventured into four and five. Our environment has offered children ample opportunity to explore and embed their learning in depth throughout their day in child initiated learning time. 

 

 

Rainbow Fish and Friendship 

Cherries have been reading Rainbow Fish. They have been looking at the ways Rainbow Fish treats his friends at the start of the story and exploring the feelings identified around it. They have been really keen to explore ways of being good friends and showing how they can be kind to each other in class. Every cherry made their own unique scale for our class fish and put them together to make the most amazing piece of art. 

Maths

 Comparing mass with objects in our environment. We have been looking at Mass and how things are Light, Heavy, Lighter and Heavier. To make this learning come to life, we become human scales, have a look at our experiments. 

Our environment 

Our environment has been focused on mark making to extend our phonics and creativity with our classroom resources and natural resources. We have also had a focus on physical development for our Cherries both inside and out. Take a look......

Story of the week

'Misha Makes Friends' - This story was a super way to encourage language and thoughts around friendship. The children read the story with pleasure and were able to follow what Misha did and make their own friends. They used a  variety of resources and were very proud of their outcomes. 

 

Story of the week

'Aliens in Underpants' This was our second fun story. We enjoyed this book so much. It made us all laugh and think about how aliens help us by keeping our underpants in check. 

 

 

Story of the week

Our first story in Cherries was 'We're going on a bear hunt'. We had lots of fun reading our story and learning poetic words. We acted out our story in our learning time and created pictures using natural resources. Our poetic language really helped us with the prepositions of 'over', 'under', and 'through'. 

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Our first week 

Cherries had an amazing first week in class, settling in and exploring their learning environment. Our first week has been full of amazing art, building, fun conversation, reading and getting to know each other. Have a look at our cherries. We have all made lots of new friends and started to adapt our environment to best suit us. Have a look at our explorations and social interactions. And don't forget those smiley faces. 

First group activity 

Our first group activity in Cherries consisted of forming a circle and meeting our classroom teddy. We all took turns introducing ourselves and saying something that we love and that makes us happy. Cherries did an amazing job of using their loud voices.