What makes me, me?
Project Overview
The most important thing about the first term of Reception class is for the children to feel safe and happy. In Reception we lay the foundations for children to become life long learners. In the first few weeks we will focus on the prime areas of the Early Years curriculum which are: personal, social and emotional development; communication and language and physical development. From there we will weave in the specific areas which are: literacy; maths; understanding the world and creative arts and design.
We will use this project to establish The Bumblebees as a community of kindness, play, joy and learning. Project time will be a sacred time to get to know each other more, cherishing our similarities and our differences and sharing our likes and dislikes. It will be a time to develop relationships, understand and practice the rules, develop a strong sense of self and learn more about our unique abilities.
We will encourage the children to share who is in their family and where in the world they come from, exploring family cultures and traditions. We would love parent visitors to help us with this! As well as continuing with seesaw, we will begin a learning journal in book form for each child. This journal will be added to throughout the Reception year. The journal will come home each holiday so that experiences can continue to be recorded in the journal. The parent voice is important to establish our holistic approach to learning.
Project Goal
To create a celebration of me and share the traditions and cultures of my family
Steps to Success
Step 1: What makes you unique?
Step 2: Who is in your family?
Step 3: Where are your family from?
Step 4: What cultures and festivals do your family celebrate?
Links to EYFS curriculum
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
-Show an understanding of their own feelings and those of others, and begin to regulate their behaviour accordingly;
-Set and work towards simple goals, being able to wait for what they want and control their immediate impulses when appropriate;
-Give focused attention to what the teacher says, responding appropriately even when engaged in activity, and show an ability to follow instructions involving several ideas or actions.
-Be confident to try new activities and show independence, resilience and perseverance in the face of challenge;
-Explain the reasons for rules, know right from wrong and try to behave accordingly;
-Manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs, including dressing, going to the toilet, and understanding the importance of healthy food choices.
-Work and play cooperatively and take turns with others;
-Form positive attachments to adults and friendships with peers; -
-Show sensitivity to their own and to others’ needs.
Communication and Language
-Listen attentively and respond to what they hear with relevant questions, comments and actions when being read to and during whole class discussions and small group interactions;
-Make comments about what they have heard and ask questions to clarify their understanding;
-Hold conversation when engaged in back-and-forth exchanges with their teacher and peers.
-Participate in small group, class and one-to-one discussions, offering their own ideas, using recently introduced vocabulary;
-Offer explanations for why things might happen, making use of recently introduced vocabulary from stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems when appropriate;
-Express their ideas and feelings about their experiences using full sentences, including use of past, present, and future tenses and making use of conjunctions, with modelling and support from their teacher.
Understanding the World
-Know some similarities and differences between different religious and cultural communities in this country, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class;
-Explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries, drawing on knowledge from stories, non-fiction texts and – when appropriate – maps.
Expressive Arts and Design
Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques.
Team Area
Portraits
This half term we have mostly focused on finding our place as The Bumblebees of Liberty Woodland School and thoroughly celebrated 'me!' We painted our portraits in our learning journals, looking closely at our similarities and differences to our friends.
Foil prints for display
We painted colourful pictures on foil which was so wonderfully sensory. Then we made a print of our creations on card with our photograph and 'I like' statements. We love looking at our pictures and our school community have also been enjoying seeing our pictures and learning more about us.
Families
We used stones to recreate our families and we learnt that families work in many different ways. Most of us have some common family experiences, such as, meal times and holidays.
We have enjoyed making family trees by thinking about generations that came before us and what happens as time passes and we grow up.
Maps and Languages
We have looked at a world map and found the countries that our families come from. We have learnt how to say hello in some of those languages.
Halloween and Fireworks
We carved a pumpkin for Halloween. We dried the pumpkin seeds and counted out over 100! Then we made pumpkin muffins! We used straws and glow in the dark paints to make firework pictures. We know that different cultures use fireworks for many different celebrations.
All Saints
We learnt about Remembrance Sunday and why people buy poppies. Then Katarina taught us about All Saints day followed by All Souls day which is a tradition she celebrates as part of her religion and culture. We made All Saints biscuits. We also spoke about going to church and what happens there.
Diwali
The Bumblebees loved hearing the story of Diwali and enjoyed dressing up and playing Rama and Sita. We were so taken with the story we decided we would like to retell it to you at exhibition. We learnt that Diwali is also known as the festival of lights. We enjoyed making diva lamps with clay.
St. Lucia and Thanksgiving
Emilia's Mummy supported the Bumblebees in their learning of St. Lucia. We learnt that in Sweden St. Lucia marks the beginning of winter, so we made some light jars.
Christmas
We have been busy making recycled Christmas cards and Christmas decorations! We will learn more about the Christmas story next week and we are looking forward to some Christmas. We really got into the Christmas spirit when we went to see 'The Night Before Christmas' at The Polka Theatre. It was great inspiration for our exhibition performance!
Thank you Bumblebee families for coming to see our exhibition of 'What makes me, me.' We have had a great first term at school sharing who we are and where we are from. The children's performances were fantastic and we hope you enjoy all the arts and crafts they have made.