Our Reception classes have been carefully observing the metamorphosis of a frog. They have now been able to see all of the stages of the life cycle from frogspawn to frog as this week we have many frogs jumping around in the tank! The children have been using the vocabulary they have learnt such as ‘amphibian’, ‘camouflage’, ‘metamorphosis’ and ‘hibernate’. What a very exciting week we’ve had!

Children in reception were so excited when ten eggs arrived in an incubator and they waited eagerly for them to hatch. It has been wonderful to hear the observations the children have made while they observed this process. They have learnt so much through this experience alongside our shared books about the life cycle of a chicken.

We were able to welcome a paramedic into our reception classroom today who spoke to our children about his job. They learnt about the recovery position and even had time to practise this with their friends and teachers. We talked about when we might need to call 999 and how to keep each other safe. The children showed lots of curiosity when looking around the ambulance asking some great questions and learning some new vocabulary from our visitor.

Reception have been learning about the animals in the Chinese Zodiac this week through our shared story. They have been busy in the art room making Chinese lions and lantern and they have tried some Chinese food. We have seen some beautiful ribbon dancing and enjoyed performing our own lion parade outside! What a fun week celebrating Chinese New Year.

It is fantastic to see the engagement in the classroom which comes from interest in our story of the week in reception. In recent weeks the children have been looking at books about art and colour and we have seen a much higher level of curiosity and creativity in the art area. We have looked at four books in particular which the children have very much enjoyed. Many of the children have been experimenting with shades of colour this week, knowing that adding white makes a lighter shade and adding black makes a darker shade. There have been lots of discussions between the children about the different colours they create. A lovely shade of pink was made by some of the girls and they then began turning their art in to the colour monster from our shared story. The discussion then changed from colour shades to the emotions of the colour monster. There is also a much higher interest in the junk modelling area. We have seen excellent concentration from the children when joining parts of models together with different joining materials.