Reception - AOLE - Summer 2025 

The Eatwell Guide - 

The Eatwell Guide is a policy tool used to define government recommendations on eating healthily and achieving a balanced diet. It is a visual representation of a balanced diet, showing how much of each food group to include in our daily meals.  There are 5 main groups to consider.- starchy carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables, dairy and alternatives, meat/fish/eggs/beans, and fats and oils. 

We looked at different types of food and drink. We discussed which food group they belonged to.  We then placed the food/drink in the correct group according to the Eatwell Guide. 

Using the Eatwell Guide we discussed what a healthy lunchbox should contain and then drew our own healthy lunchboxes.

Are our hands clean? - Handwashing Experiment 

We carried out this fun experiment to see why washing our hands is so important.  We placed a finger in a bowl of water that was sprinkled with pepper (pepper acting as germs). The pepper stuck to our finger.  We then rubbed soap on a different finger and then placed that finger in the bowl with pepper and water. The water pulled the pepper away from the spreading soap film because the attraction between water and pepper is greater than soap and pepper.  It showed us that soap removes germs from our hands and teaches us that rinsing hands with water doesn't work well!  Germs don't like soap which is why it is important to wash hands regularly with soap and water to stay happy and healthy. 

Body parts

The girls took turns to label the body parts of a girl and the boys took turns to label the body parts of a boy.  Then we swapped to see what was the same and what was different.  We discussed the private parts and used their real names - vagina and penis.  Everyone took part and enjoyed this activity even having lots of giggles.

RECYCLING  -  

Our topic this term is called 'Healthy Me'.  As part of this topic we also discussed keeping our planet safe and healthy and ways in which we could support this.  To kick start the second half of this term we invited Kath from the Bryn Pica Recycling Team in to school to help us learn more.

Kath read us the story of  Somebody Crunched Colin.  Colin  is a discarded crisp packet who eventually ends up being recycled into a plastic watering can.  Kath explained that not all plastics can be recycled at home.  Some, like crisp packets, have to be taken to a special recycling bin which can be found at our local Tesco and Asda stores.  She also explained the process of  how this happens, from  cleaning the crisp packets and shredding to breaking down into plastic pellets. The pellets are then heated up with the liquid being poured into moulds to create watering cans and plant pots and lots of other objects..  Kath was very kind, she gave us 2 recycled watering cans to use in school.

We designed our own posters to highlight the importance of recycling and looking after our planet.

Floating and sinking

From the pond clean up we discussed floating and sinking and took part in our own experiment in class.  We made predictions about whether or not things would float or sink and carried out our experiment to find out of we we correct or not.

Creative Cariad

The children have practised their cutting skills making ocean scenes.  They have made sea creatures using cereals.  They enjoy using their creative skills drawing their own creatures to decorate.

Following on from the floating and sinking experiments, the children decided to make their own boats out of recycled materials in the hope that they would float and not sink!  Some added sails and flags and decorations to their boats.

Then it was time to test them out. Would they float or Sink? 

One boat sank! We looked at its design and thought of reasons as to why this happened. We realised that the shape of the plastic bottle that was chosen for the boat was not buoyant and the boat turned over on to its side, filling with water and sank.

In the story 'Someone Swallowed Stanley', with Stanley being a plastic bag that was nearly eaten by a number of sea creatures, Stanley washed up on the shoreline where a young boy found him and decided to reuse him by turning into a kite.  

In class we looked at the possibility of making kites out of plastic bags and gave it a try!