The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

The children have enjoyed reading about this Very Hungry Caterpillar and learning about the Life-cycle of a Butterfly. We have been observing our very own caterpillars as they have changed, which the children have found enthralling. They have been inspired to do some wonderful writing about the life-cycle and have also enjoyed counting the food, exploring pattern and sequencing the days of the week in maths lessons.

This story has encouraged the children to think about others and learn about what perspectives are.  We have looked at the different perspectives of the characters within the book and discussed how our grown ups would feel if a tiger arrived at our house.  We have enjoyed looking at how we could make the story different with our own endings and have illustrated alternative pictures. 

The Little Red Hen has demonstrated to the children how helping each other can build better relationships and make it fairer for everyone. All of our reception children were really excited to act out the story for real and everyone wanted to make sure they helped with the tasks involved in making some bread so that they could see if they actually got to eat some too.

Bear wants to tell his friends a story but all of his friends seem to be getting ready for winter.  This story advises the children about hibernation and migration as the animals gather seeds, find warm places to stay or fly South during the cold winter period. The children really enjoy waiting to see if we ever hear Bear's story before he sleeps. 

Our Traditional Tale of 'The Three Little Pigs' looks at the different materials which can be used to make houses, either successfully or not. The children have really enjoyed examining the materials and thinking about the best ways to build houses which will last.  They have retold the story and enjoyed acting it out in the role play areas taking it in turns to be each of the characters.  

'I want my mummy' is a repeated phrase that we hear in Owl Babies as Bill misses his mummy who has gone hunting.  This story allows the children to discuss different creatures and think about nocturnal animals and what they may do when we are all sleeping.  The class favourite also encourages the children to start to think about how stories are structured and discuss the repeated phrases that we hear throughout the story. 

To commemorate Remembrance Day, the children looked at the rhyme 'The Grand Old Duke of York' where we were able to discuss the uniforms and some of the terms used in the Armed Forces before looking at how some of the words in the verses rhymed.  It allowed the children to think about Remembrance in more detail and get into character to retell the march.

The book Ruby's Worry encourages the children to think about different worries that they may experience and how they can help each other to work through them.  Sensitively thinking about Ruby, our Reception children can think of ideas to calm themselves and make them feel better if they experience any concerns. 

We understand that starting school can be a difficult time with lots of new things to remember as well as making new friends.  This book tells the story of how making new friends can be tricky and allows the children to discuss the best ways to communicate and help others. It allows everyone to think about how others may be feeling in unfamiliar situations and encourages all of our new starters to consider how best to help children in the same circumstances.  

As we have been discussing our families, this text allows us to look in more detail at the adults who are important to each of us. 

We are in the process of making our own party scenes and look forward to the results. 

We have started the school year with our first book, 'The Colour Monster'.  This book allows us to discuss our feelings and emotions and think about what things make us feel that way.  It also allows us to discuss how the things that we do can make others feel and what we can do to help others with their emotions.