Shape and number patterns

Today we have been exploring patterns in maths. This morning we explored mathematical patterns using shapes. We made patterns with different shapes and had to try and remember the names of the 2D and 3D shapes we were using. We also used the shape tiles to make patterns and explore how they fitted together.

This afternoon Reception were doing some mathematical investigations. We talked about what 'investigation' means - Harry said "it's when you test something out." We looked at some multilink that was in the pattern pink, blue, blue, pink, blue, blue. The question was: If we make this pattern with 10 pinks cubes, how many blues will there be? We estimated how many we thought there were going to be and then worked out how to test it out. We had to make the pattern of pink, blue, blue until we had used 10 pink cubes. Then we had to count how many blue there were. How many do you think? There were 20! We talked about why this was and found out that there are always double the number of blue cubes as pink in this pattern. If there is one pink cube, there are two blue ones. If there are two pink cubes, there are four blue ones. If we made this pattern with 20 pink cubes, how many blue cubes do you think we would need?

Then we explored some more patterns. Lucy, Hope, Aaron and Harry had a tricky challenge! In a pattern of square, square, circle, if I had 12 squares, how many circles would there be? They used paper and a pencil and drew out the patterns to work it out. We found out that the answer is 6. This is because there are half as many circles as squares. If we had 10 squares, we'd have 5 circles. If we had 20 squares, how many circles do you think we would have?

Musical patterns

This afternoon we have been exploring musical patterns. We looked at music cards and said which instrument it showed. Then we had to practise playing it so we knew how to hold it properly to make the right sound. We put four cards in a line and played the instruments in the right order - for example: triangle, bell, tambourine, wood block. We had to make sure we took it in turns and only played when it was our turn.

Then we split into groups and composed some musical patterns of our own. We used the cards to make up musical patterns, then practised playing them in the right order. As well as developing our musical skills we were showing good speaking and listening, turn taking and teamwork - we had to show this month's value of patience!

When we had rehearsed we performed our pieces of music to the rest of the class. We had to make sure we did good listening when the other groups were playing.

Whoops!

This morning we have been singing nursery rhymes and songs with rhyming words. We learnt a funny song called Whoops! about a peanut who sat on a railway track. The first verse goes like this:

A peanut sat on the railway track
His heart was all a-flutter,
Round the bend came number one
Whoops! Peanut butter!

We looked at which words rhymed and talked about what had happened. The second verse goes:

A strawberry sat on the railway track
Her teeth were wobbling loose,
Around the bend came number two
Whoops! Strawberry mousse!

Then Miss Ayres read the rest of the verses and we had to guess what the last word of the poem was. Can you fill in the missing words? Remember that the last word has to rhyme with the last word of the second line, and it has to show what happened to the food when the train came round the bend!!

A lemon sat on the railway track
His eyes were on his belly,
Around the bend came number three
Whoops! Lemon .........!

An orange sat on the railway track
Her face required a wash,
Around the bend came number four
Whoops! Orange ........!

A tomato sat on the railway track
His skin was red, of course,
Around the bend came number five
Whoops! Tomato .........!

A potato sat on the railway track
A smile was on his lips,
Around the bend came number six
Whoops! Potato ........!

A biscuit sat on the railway track
A-twiddling her thumbs,
Around the bend came number seven
Whoops! Biscuit ..........!

Some fruit and nuts sat on the track
Feeling rather sad,
A hungry traveller took them home
Which wasn't quite so .........!
Or was it?

Alliteration

This afternoon we met Funky Monkey's friend, Freddie Fox. We knew that Freddie Fox's name didn't rhyme, because the end sounds were different. But the first sounds in his name were the same. That's not rhyme, that's called alliteration. We read the book Superhero ABC. All the superheroes have powers and do things that begin with the same letter as their name. For example, 'Danger man duels with dragons!'

We took it in turns to say the first sound in our name, then to think of a word that begins with the same letter. If we couldn't think of something our friends were good at helping us. We tried to think of words that could describe us or what we are doing, so 'laughing Lexi' rather than 'lamp Lexi'!

We drew pictures of ourselves and wrote our names and the word we were using to describe ourselves. Some of them were quite tricky! Here is what we wrote:

Jammy Jamie
Marvellous Matthew
Red Rhys
Lovely Lexi
Orange Olivia

Some of us wrote sentences with alliteration using our names. We wrote:

Amazing Aaron ate an apple.
Lovely Lucy licks a lolly.
Mad Maddie munches meat.
Happy Harry has a hairy hat.
Great Grace grabs green grapes.

Then we played some games to help us practise alliteration and read a story called Super Sid the Silly Sausage Dog. We did such great work that Freddie Fox understood what alliteration was, and how it was different to rhyme. Well done Reception!

Exploring rhyme

This morning we met a new friend called Funky Monkey. Funky Monkey has been told that his name rhymes... but he didn't understand what that meant! It was our job to think of some rhyming words and try to work out why they rhymed so we could help Funky Monkey understand. We heard some examples of rhyme, for example, 'cat' and 'bat', and worked out that the words must have the same end sound to rhyme. 'Cat' and 'bat' rhyme, but 'cat' and 'cap' don't, because their end sound is different.

We explored rhyme in lots of different ways, and used paper and clipboards to record some of the rhymes we found.

We listened to nursery rhymes and followed them with the book.

We had to write words that rhymed with the words on the whiteboards. Some of them were tricky, like 'crunch' but Lucy came up with a good word - 'bunch' and Harry said 'lunch'.

We searched in the sand for buried coins. Each coin had a word on it. We had to read the word and try to match the rhyming pairs!

We had a big piece of paper that we could use to write rhyming words on, or sentences that had rhyming words in. Grace wrote "The fox got a box." Super rhymes Grace!

We played rhyming games like rhyming pairs. You have to turn over two cards, read the words and see if they rhyme. Here Harry has a pair because 'sun' and 'bun' are rhyming words.

We looked at books with rhyme in. Some were story books and some were poetry books. Here Olivia is looking for rhyming words in one of our big books of poetry.

When we found rhyming words we wrote them down on our clipboards so we wouldn't forget them!

We played a rhyming game on the interactive whiteboard called 'Cake Bake'. You have to put words into the bowl if they rhyme with the word already in there. Here you can see Jamie has to find words that rhyme with 'cat' to go into the bowl, and he is choosing 'bat'. Well done Jamie!

We picked things out of the story bag and then found the rhyming card that went with it. Then we said or sang the rhyme. Here Lexi is holding Humpty Dumpty and singing the Humpty Dumpty rhyme.

We used the iPads to write ideas we had and also to listen to a story. The story was called 'The Steam Train' and it was a rhyming story. We could read it ourselves or choose 'Read to me' and the iPad read the story to us while we looked at the words and the pictures.

We had to find rhyming words to fit the pieces of this rhyming puzzle together. Here Grace has already found 'frog' and 'dog'. Maddie also found the tricky rhyme 'tie' and 'pie'.

Then we shared what we had learnt with each other and with Funky Monkey. We had done such a good job of finding rhyming words that Funky Monkey understood what rhyme means! We finished by reading one of our favourite stories, The Gruffalo, and joining in with all the rhyming words.

How to make a symmetrical butterfly picture

Yesterday we told you about all the symmetrical pictures we were making and that we had learnt to say and write instructions to tell other people how to make them too. As promised, here are Grace's instructions so you can make a symmetrical butterfly picture!

Fabulous Writing

This afternoon we have been making up stories about some of the characters we dressed up as today. We talked about introducing the characters in the first sentence, having something exciting happen in the second sentence and then finishing the story in the last sentence (the conclusion). We also added a fourth sentence to our story to make it sound like a proper fairy tale! Here is the story we wrote altogether:

Once upon a time there was a beautiful and kind princess called Rosie. One day a fierce fire-breathing dragon took the princess and locked her in a tall tower. A brave knight fought the dragon and rescued the princess. They lived happily ever after!

Then we all had some time to try writing stories of our own. We looked at each other's work on the board using our new visualiser and talked about how we could make our stories better.