Terrific Traditional Tales

 Hello Reception Families, 

Over the last few weeks, Reception Class has been on an exciting journey through the world of Traditional Tales. We have explored The Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Little Red Riding Hood, incorporating a variety of activities to enhance communication, literacy, numeracy, and to explore and understand the world around us.

Traditional tales provide a wonderful platform for developing children's communication skills. Through storytelling, role-play, and discussions, the children have been expanding their vocabulary and improving their ability to express themselves. Retelling The Three Little Pigs using puppets and props encouraged children to sequence events and use expressive language. 

Maths has been seamlessly integrated into our storytelling journey. The children explored a variety of shapes while building houses for the Three Little Pigs as well as using their problem solving skills to explore how to put shapes together to fit within the spaces provided (such as putting two triangles together to make a square). 

To deepen children's Understanding of the World, Reception have been investigating all of the adults / professions needed and involved in building houses; making real-world connections to the stories. (Such as architects, plummers, electricians, bricklayers, etc.)

Creativity has flourished in the class as children designed their own vibrant beanstalks to crafting their own wolf disguises, the children have been able to express their ideas and imagination through a variety of artistic media.

As we dove into Jack and the Beanstalk, Reception have been learning about plants' growth cycles. All children have planted their own Bean and we are excitedly waiting for these to grow over the next few weeks. This has lead to lots of interest around plants and flowers within our open learning environment.

 

We have made a conscious effect to explore the moral lessons within these Traditional tales, which have led to meaningful discussions about kindness, honesty, and making good choices. Children have explored themes of bravery, resilience, and teamwork, such as discussing how Jack showed courage or how the Three Little Pigs demonstrated perseverance.

Our journey through Traditional Tales has been an enriching and engaging experience for our Reception Class. We can’t wait to continue our storytelling adventures and see how these young learners grow in confidence and ability!

Within the wider life, Reception have taken part in Stampede by the Sea. For this project, Reception have been focusing on using primary colours to mix and create their own secondary colours. This hands-on exploration of colour mixing encourages children to explore and use a variety of materials, tools, and techniques, experimenting with colour and design. Through this project, children have developed their understanding of artistic processes, engaged in creative expression, and built confidence in their ability to experiment with and refine their artistic ideas.

In our Reception classroom, we love to celebrate cultural festivals as part of our learning journey. This year, we embraced the Lunar New Year with an immersive experience through our curiosity table and engaging roleplay activities. The children were captivated by the traditions, symbols, and stories of this special celebration.

To spark curiosity, we set up a vibrant and interactive curiosity table filled with artifacts and objects related to the Lunar New Year. The table became a hub of exploration, decorated with red and gold fabrics, symbolic of good fortune and happiness. 

The children enjoyed discovering: Traditional red envelopes (hongbao), which we used to discuss the significance of giving and receiving gifts. Lanterns and dragon decorations, inspiring conversations about the Lantern Festival and dragon dances. Chinese zodiac animals, allowing children to find out which animal represents their birth year and how the zodiac cycle works. Chopsticks and bowls, which we used to explore fine motor skills and discuss traditional Lunar New Year meals. Storybooks about Lunar New Year traditions, encouraging language development and storytelling.

And finally I just wanted to share some additional smiles from the last few weeks! 

Coming up this week: 

On Monday, Reception and preschool are lucky to have a special theater company come in to share the African Traditional Tale - Hot Hippo 

On Wednesday, Family and Friends Games afternoon has been CANCELLED as Miss Godden is not in school at this time due to unforeseen circumstances. 

On Friday, Reception are going to be having a Teddy Bear Picnic as their well deserved class reward. We invite all children to bring in a soft toy of their choice. We will be playing party games, having a picnic, sharing our toys with Yr2 to help with their science investigation and sharing our toys with our friends. I just want to remind that this is a class treat and children are still expected to leave toys at home on regular days at school. I would also like to remind that children are responsible for the one soft toy they choose to bring in and I recommend not bringing in anything considered 'precious' as the environment of the Reception classroom can be busy and messy. 

Thank you so much for another fabulous week and as usual, feel free to email me with any questions you may have. 

Miss Godden, Mrs Rogers, Mrs Smith and Mr Long.