Sukkot

Yesterday we learnt all about Sukkot, which is the Jewish harvest festival. During Sukkot Jewish people build a shelter in their gardens called a Sukkah. They decorate it with leaves, branches and fruit and they eat their meals inside it. Being in the Sukkah reminds Jewish people of long ago, when God looked after their people who were living in the desert. It also reminds them of the wonderful world God made. They use Sukkot as a time to say thank you, like Christians use Harvest time to remember all the things God has made for us.

We built a Sukkah inside the classroom and sat in it to eat our snack. When the wind had died down we explored making a Sukkah outside. We have also made some models of Sukkah shelters by decorating, cutting and sticking.

The Little Red Hen

This morning we have been learning how to create a story map and use it to help us retell a story. We learnt the story of the Little Red Hen, who grows some corn to make bread - but her friends don't help her at all! When the bread is baked, they all want to help her eat it - but the little red hen eats it herself!

We talked about whether she should have shared the bread or not. Some people thought she should have shared, because sharing is a kind thing to do and the animals were hungry. Others thought she was right not to share it because the other animals hadn't helped her to make it. There isn't a right or wrong answer - this is your opinion and we can all have different opinions to each other!

We made story maps either with playdough or by drawing pictures and writing captions. We had to make sure we had the parts of the story in the right order or the story wouldn't make sense!

To test out our story maps we used them to retell the story. If we were able to use them to retell the story, we'd been successful - and we were!

In our Play and Learn time we used the playdough to make different characters from the story...

We made special cone-shaped Little Red Hens...

We created scenes from the story on the interactive whiteboard, adding the right characters and props to the scene...

And we made some story maps of our own. Harry made a fantastic story map of We're Going on a Bear Hunt!

What is the most popular fruit in Reception?

This afternoon we read another story about Oliver, the character we met in Oliver's Vegetables. This story was called Oliver's Fruit Salad. In the story Oliver says he doesn't like fruit - but he loves the special fruit salad he makes with his family!

We talked about what fruits we like and how we could work out who likes which fruits. Miss Ayres asked the question - Do most people in Reception like apples? We wrote two labels, yes and no, and put them on the carpet. Then, one at a time, we went and stood in the right place to show whether we like apples or not. The lines were similar in length, but 7 people were in the 'no' line and 6 people were in the 'yes' line - this means that more people don't like apples than do like apples.

Then we had to answer the question - What is the most popular fruit in Reception? We talked about what 'popular' means. Miss Ayres showed us a blank pictogram and we talked about what it is. Each picture that we add to it will represent one person. We took it in turns to choose the fruit we liked best and stick the picture on in the right place.

When our pictogram was finished we looked at it and answered the question - What is the most popular fruit in Reception? The answer was - strawberries!

Then we learnt how to 'read' information from the pictogram and answer other questions. Did more people like bananas than peaches? Was there a fruit no one chose as their favourite? How many more people liked grapes than liked apples?

Here is our completed pictogram and some of the things we said about it. Can you check to see if our statements are true?

"No one liked watermelon." - Charlie ("There's no picture, that's how you know" - Jack)

"There's only one by peach and pineapple so not many like them." - Tommy

"Strawberries are the most popular." - Emily and Fallon

"Grapes were next best after strawberries." - Harrison

"Apples, bananas and oranges are all liked the same." - Brianna

A soup-er morning!

This morning we have been using some of the vegetables that we've been looking at on the discovery table to make soup!

First we used our special safe knives to chop the vegetables.

We used potato, carrot, onion, cabbage and tomato. After we had chopped the vegetables we put them in a pan with water and a stock cube. Then we had to cook it on the hob.

When it was cooked the vegetables were soft. We let it cool down then used the blender to make the soup smooth.

Then we ate it. It was very popular - nearly everyone liked it and asked for more! We took some to Mrs Comer and she said it was delicious.

The best thing about vegetable soup is that you can use whatever vegetables you like - and don't use ones you don't like! What vegetables would you like in your vegetable soup?

Growing things!

This morning we did a science investigation to find out what seeds need to grow best. We had some cress seeds and we put them on some pieces of kitchen roll on plates, using pastry cutters to make them into interesting shapes!

What do you think seeds need to grow well? We think they might need water, so to test that out we put water on two of our plates and kept one dry. We put the dry plate on the windowsill. Do you think the cress will grow without any water?

We also think seeds might need light to grow. To test this out we put one of the wet plates in a dark place. Do you think the seeds will grow in the dark?

The last plate had water and was put in a light place.

Which place do you think will be best for the seeds to grow? We are going to check our seeds every day to see how they are growing, and will keep the wet ones watered!

In our Play and Learn time we had lots of fun outside turning the playhouse into a garden centre. We grew flowers, sold them and made deliveries from our garden to the shop.

We explored seeds on the discovery table. We sorted them into different pots and talked about their shape, size, colour and texture. We also used some seeds on the making table to make some pictures.

Where does it grow?

This morning we went out looking for things that grow in the school grounds and found an apple tree! We looked at some of the apples that had fallen on the ground. Fallon said they were "rotten" and we talked about what this means and why we wouldn't want to eat them! We compared the rotten apples to the ones we had picked from the tree and discussed the differences - how can we tell the apple is rotten?

We also went into the garden, but there weren't any apples left on the apple tree! We did see something though... what do you think grows here?

During the morning we looked at the apples we had gathered this morning and at some of the other things we have been collecting for our discovery table inside and outside. We have lots of different types of vegetables, conkers, acorns, pine cones and some lovely autumn leaves to explore.

We also cooked some of the apples (the ones that weren't rotten!) and some of the rhubarb we've been looking at for our story Oliver's Vegetables that we've been reading. It was delicious!

This afternoon we were learning about where things grow. We read Oliver's Vegetables again and looked at those vegetables, as well as other vegetables and fruit we have gathered in our discovery area, and thought about where it grows. We had a picture of a garden and had to place the fruit or vegetable in the right place. Does it grow on trees? Under the ground? On the ground? On bushes? 

Here are some of the things we said:

"The green tomatoes haven't grown as long as the red ones." - Fallon

"Satsumas grow on trees like pears and apples." - Summer

"Onions grow under the ground." - Jack

"Cabbage is my favourite. It grows above the ground." - Brianna

"You have to take the skin off an orange before you can eat it." - Charlie

"You can see apples growing on trees." - Harry

"Some fruit is soft and some is harder. Grapes are soft and apples are hard." - Olivia

"When you cook spinach it goes little." - Emily

Do you think all kinds of fruit and vegetables can be grown in our country? Have you seen a banana tree growing near your house..?

Oliver's Vegetables!

This week we are learning all about harvest, autumn and food! We started by reading the book Oliver's Vegetables. Oliver visits his grandparents' house and finds lots of different vegetables in the garden. He thinks he doesn't like vegetables - until he tries them and loves them!

We looked at all the different vegetables from the story and learnt their names. We explored them using our senses and talked about how they are different to each other, such as their different shapes, sizes and colours.

The vegetables are in our discovery area and we've been looking at them closely using the magnifying glasses and magnifying pot.

This afternoon we talked about how some vegetables, like carrots, can be eaten raw - this means they haven't been cooked. Some vegetables need to be cooked before you can eat them, like potatoes. We talked about the different ways you can cook potatoes and how we like eating potatoes - do you like chips? Roast potatoes? Mash? Baked potatoes?

We looked at the spinach and talked about what it looked like before it was cooked. We thought about how it might change when we cooked it and decided it would "get hot."

When we cooked it we saw that the leaves turned darker and they seemed to get smaller - that's because the leaves were wilting and didn't look like leaves anymore!

Then we tried the spinach. Everyone except one person loved it, and most people had second and third helpings - Fallon was very keen and had lots!

Remember, it's important to eat a variety of food - it's not healthy to eat the same thing all the time, like Oliver at the beginning of the story when he only eats chips! Can you be brave like Oliver and try some new foods? You might discover something new that you love, like Reception today when they found out how much they love spinach!