Shrove Tuesday!

After hearing the bible story about Jesus in the desert, we retold the story in our writing. We also found out how Christians around the world mark Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. We learnt what Mardi Gras means and made carnival Mardi Gras masks. And of course, we made pancakes and ate them!

We practised writing our numbers to measure how many strides it would take to reach the wolf. Then we played “What’s The Time Mr.Wolf?” We also played a physical board game, using the log cookies and a dice with one and two more on to reach the Wolf’s house. We made clocks and explored time as well as made a den that had to be big enough to fit us all in to hide from the wolf.

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This week Willows learnt a little about Chinese New Year.

We listened to The Great Race Story, used the word “and” to describe the animals, made dragon wind socks in Forest School, tried Chinese fortune cookies, looked at where China is in the world and watched videos to find out more, played Chinese games and puzzles including dominoes and tangrams, made a pellet drum and much more!

If you click on this link, you will see photos from our walk around the place we live - the village of Ruardean. We looked for and at different features as well as explored the purpose of a playground! 

Reception made their own map of an imaginary place. They used different papers to show different features. What features can you spot? 

We continued with our tracks and trails, directions and exploring our environment - all by wearing a blindfold! It was a tricky trust challenge in the beginning, but we got better by talking to each other and explaining which direction to move our feet, bodies and hands.

We launched our geography led topic this week. By rotating around different activities, we have started to develop our knowledge of maps, symbols, features and map making skills.

We had a shock when we returned to school. An old woman was asleep in our classroom!

It was Little Red Riding Hood’s Granny! She had escaped from a Big Bad Wolf and found our cosy, safe classroom. 

We couldn’t believe it! 

Reception children have been absorbing themselves into the story of Little Red Riding Hood by making Granny’s Cottage, dressing up as the characters through role play, making granny a healthy meal in the mud kitchen, creating a small world forest to match the story and trying to trick the wolf by making pathways, with obstacles, that don’t actually lead to Granny’s house!

Year One have also been familiarising themselves with the story through role play, hot seating and question asking and answering.