Investigating slimy slippery snails, the hi-light of our week in the reception class

Another week packed with activity and learning. Monday started with a quick chat with ‘talking partners’ and we soon discovered that between us we knew quite a lot about snails. A non-fiction Usborne text entitled ‘Snails’ added to the children’s knowledge and they all wrote some interesting facts for their writing in class. Story recall of ‘Odo the Snail’ on Thursday was for some, the best writing of the week and we added lots of adjectives (Wow words) to our word wall. On Friday for our ‘Big Write’ the children chose a picture of a snail and wrote their own story. Once again it is very clear which children are remembering their spellings and diagraphs to help them spell words. It is also clear which children are remembering the fundamentals….a sentence needs a capital letter and a full stop at the end, in a story characters have names, names start with capital letters. Some creativity is starting to develop but making up stories is something that needs to be practised and developed and children have to be confident to try.

    Spellings are more demanding with a few more year one words to learn. After the test we are writing a spelling sentence and many children are missing the chance of another sticker and house point by not putting capital letters or forgetting the full stop at the end, or spelling one or more of their spelling words incorrectly. Keep practising!
    We watched the Whale and the Snail’ on You Tube on Friday and made a model and the children did  snail sums as an indoor orienteering activity on Thursday.

    Art and technology this week reintroduced the children to the artist Henri Matisse and his work called L’Escargot.(The Snail) Having observed snails in their investigation and drawn them throughout the week. The children were pleased with their pictures which they made using off-cuts of felt from the Scrap Store. I think that they look more like snails than the great artist himself created. Look at some of the pictures and see what you think!
     In our science work we watched ‘Come Outside’ where they visited a giant African land snail. It also involved observing and investigating the way in which snails moved and what they choose to eat. Each group had 4 or 5 different size snails to observe and then we had an interesting discussion. Looking closely at the one year old African land snail was also extremely interesting,
     The butterflies have nearly all changed into a chrysalis so we are hoping that they will change into butterflies by next Friday!
     Look out for a letter about Shepreth on Monday confirming details of what you need to bring and the visit is on Wednesday. We will be mini-beast hunting on Tuesday if the weather is suitable and learning more about the creatures that live in our school grounds and gardens.

    Don’t forget the summer fete on 6th June. Volunteers are needed to ‘do a stint’ on the many stalls that are run, and also have a look and see if you have any toys that your child has grown out of playing with. Full tins and bottles are required for the tombola’s and all donations for these will be gratefully received in school. Enjoy your weekend.