Solving problems to save Funky Monkey!

Today in maths we received a letter from Funky Monkey asking for our help! His letter said:

Dear Reception,

Please help me! A nasty sea monster says I have to give him half my treasure or he’ll eat me! I don’t know what half of these numbers are – can you help me?

I have:   6 glittering red rubies

              14 gold coins

              10 pieces of silver

              8 sparkling diamonds

              12 shiny pearls

Please let me know how much I need to give the sea monster!

Love from Funky Monkey

We talked about what 'half' meant and agreed that if you split something in half you are splitting it into two. We then went further by discussing how we would know the two groups were really both half the amount. Dexter said "they're even." We talked about the words 'equal' and 'same'.

Then we discussed what we could use to help us work out half of these amounts for Funky Monkey, and decided to use counters.

We used the counters to help us find half the amount. First, we had to check the amount on the letter. Then we counted out that number of counters. Then we had to share them into two groups. To make sure they had been shared evenly we had to count both groups to make sure they were the same. If we had done it right, both groups had the same amount in. However many counters were in each group was our answer. Then we just had to write the numbers down on the letter so Funky Monkey could know how much treasure to give the nasty sea monster!

Hopefully now Funky Monkey will be okay!

Exploring shadows

Today we have been continuing our learning on light and dark by exploring shadows.

First of all Hannah shared her learning with us from during the half term holiday. She explained how she had learnt that a shadow is made when something, like your hand, blocks the light. The light can't reach part of the wall and that's why it is dark.

We used a torch and shone it on the board. Then we looked at what happened when we put our hand in front of the torch and why the shadow was created. We then discussed whether only our hand could make a shadow, or anything. We tried some toys to see if they could make a shadow too. Reece did some excellent scientific thinking when he was holding the toy to make a shadow. "If you move the toy nearer the light the shadow gets bigger, and if you move it further away the shadow's smaller," he said. Great scientific work Reece!

We explored an activity on the interactive whiteboard that helped us understand how shadows can change, for example, when the light is moved or it becomes stronger or weaker. We saw a torch shining on some things inside and discovered that the biggest source of light is the sun.

We also used torches to explore light and shadows around the classroom. We used our hands to make different shadow shapes and explored how shadows could be made with different objects, such as toys, and on different surfaces, such as the floor, wall or ceiling.

We couldn't go out onto the playground today to see our shadows - why do you think that was?

This afternoon Reception also made some shadow puppets, practising their skills in drawing, cutting and sticking. They then used the puppets to develop their scientific knowledge as they explored them using torches, finding out whether details of the puppets could be seen in the shadow, how to make the puppet move and what would happen if the light and the puppet were moved closer together or further apart.

Super Science Day!

Today was a whole school super science day and we came into school dressed as mad scientists!

Ann from Sam's Simple Science came in and did lots of exciting experiments with us. First we poured red cabbage water onto three different liquids to see what would happen...

Each one changed a different colour!

Then we did an experiment with milk. We added drops of food colouring to our plate of milk. Then we added some washing up liquid...

When the washing up liquid touched the milk, all the colours whooshed to the side of the plate!

Then we looked at what happens when you mix cornflour and water and how it can change from being a solid to a liquid. We put our cornflour and water mix on a speaker to see what would happen...

It made very strange shapes as it moved around on the speaker!

Then we made some silly putty to take home using glue. We had to keep stirring the ingredients and then use our hands to shape it. The more we handled it the more rubbery and bouncy it became!

During the rest of the day we have begun to explore our new science topic, light and dark, as well as looking at some more experiments with colour.

Exploring how colours can change with the colour paddles

Exploring concave and convex mirrors - our faces are upside down!

Exploring materials and using torches as we learnt the words transparent, translucent and opaque

Exploring optical illusions like these spinners. We started to make our own coloured spinners this afternoon and will finish them tomorrow!

Using icing sugar and water paste and food colouring to make colourful frost patterns

Our learning next week

Next week we are going to be learning about...

• light and dark
• doubling and halving

We will be learning...

• to name some sources of light
• to know how to stay safe with light, for example, not looking directly at the sun
• to understand how we get night and day and talk about some differences between night and day
• how light can create shadows and how shadows can change
• to explore materials, including finding out whether materials are reflective or not and if they are transparent, translucent or opaque
• to find double and half of a number using objects
• to learn some double and half number facts by heart
• to solve some problems involving doubling and halving

You can help me at home by...

• exploring light and dark with me, for example, making shadow shapes on the wall
• looking at my shadow and at the shadow of things around us, talking to me about why we can't always see our shadows
• talking to me about night and day and some of the differences between them

Reminders:
We would appreciate donations of any tubes (e.g from wrapping paper or kitchen roll) to use in some activities this week

Please bring Library books back into school on Wednesday

On Thursday our sound of the week will be 'h'
We would appreciate any contributions of mark making or writing from outside school for our 'Learning outside school' board
Tuesday is 'Science Day' and children are invited to come into school dressed as mad scientists - we look forward to seeing all their costumes!

This week we will be learning...

This week we are going to be learning about...

• food from around the world
• making music
• writing and mark making

We will be learning...

• about some food from around the world
• to recognise how food varies in different countries and cultures
• to try new kinds of food, sharing our opinions and talking about our preferences
• to listen to different kinds of music, including music from different parts of the world, and move in response to it
• to use instruments and our voices to make sounds, exploring how they can be changed
• to develop our mark making and writing skills, working on our own writing targets

You can help me at home by...

• talking to me about the food we are eating and which part of the world it originates from
• using books and computers to help me find information about countries where some food I like comes from
• listening to music with me and talking about the different sounds, for example, what instruments can be heard or whether the music is fast or slow
• supporting me in my mark making or writing and helping me to mark make or write for a purpose at home, for example, helping to write a shopping list or writing in a birthday card

Reminders:

Please bring Library books back into school on Wednesday

On Thursday our sound of the week will be 'g'
We would appreciate any contributions of mark making or writing from outside school for our 'Learning outside school' board
We will still welcome contributions for our discovery table that support our understanding of autumn, for example, autumnal leaves, conkers etc

Humpty Dumpty Investigation

This afternoon we sang the nursery rhyme 'Humpty Dumpty' and talked about the rhyming words we could hear.

Then we did a science investigation to find out which material would make the best crash mat for Humpty Dumpty.

We had six materials to test - paper, bubble wrap, wood, foam, plastic and cloth.

We discussed what we thought would happen with a partner and then talked about it as a group. We wrote down what we thought would happen on our investigation sheet.

We tested each material by putting it under our wall and pushing our Humpty Dumpty egg off to see if it would crack. We found that even on hard surfaces the eggs weren't cracking, so Luke had the good idea of making the wall higher.

When the wall was higher we found that Humpty Dumpty cracked when he landed on the hard materials, but he didn't crack when he landed on the soft materials.

Well done to Hannah and Luke, who took the last 3 photos on the iPad, and to all of Reception for their super thinking and great scientific investigation skills this afternoon. We now know that soft materials are much better for stopping things like eggs breaking! We can also talk about how to investigate something, what we think will happen and what we have found out.

This week we will be learning...

This week we are going to be learning about...

• nursery rhymes
• using technology in the classroom
• estimating and counting

We will be learning...

• to join in with some familiar nursery rhymes
• to recite some nursery rhymes and poems ourselves
• to use nursery rhymes to help our learning in other areas, for example, exploring clocks and time when we look at 'Hickory Dickory Dock' and exploring stars and space when we learn 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star'
• how to use different types of technology in the classroom, including computers, iPads and technological toys
• how to choose technology to use for different purposes, for example, recording ourselves reciting a nursery rhyme or using an iPad to take a photograph of a model we have made
• how to estimate how many objects we can see and check by counting

You can help me at home by...

• reading and retelling nursery rhymes with me
• playing games with me to help me hear rhyming sounds in words
• talking to me about the technology we have at home and how we can use it for different purposes
• asking me to estimate different things, for example, how many carrots are on my plate, and then check by counting

Reminders:

Please bring Library books back into school on Wednesday

On Thursday our sound of the week will be 'f'
We would welcome contributions for our discovery table that support our understanding of autumn, for example, autumnal leaves, conkers etc