At the beginning of the week we became palaeontologists. We used special tools, called a mallet and a chisel, to excavate rocks and find fossils. It took us quite a while to do this, as we had to be careful not to damage the bones as we dug. When we arrived at school on Tuesday morning, the dinosaur egg had hatched. We found footprints leading to the outdoor area, but could not find the dinosaur.
We then began to learn about our senses. We learned that we have 5 senses; sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste. During the week we completed various activities, using each of these senses.
To learn about sight, we closed our eyes as we wrote some words. We found this quite tricky to do because we couldn’t see what we were writing. We also played eye spy, and wrote down what we could see in the classroom.
We listened carefully to sounds we could hear in the outdoor area, and recorded what we heard. We also made our own musical instruments, including shakers and guitars. We used rice and butter beans in our shakers, and we noticed that they both made a different sound when shaken. We played the instruments loudly and softly, and listened carefully each time to identify how the instrument was being played.
We explored smelly pots during the week. We placed objects with a range of different smells into covered cups. We had to guess what was inside the pots by smelling them. We discussed the smells we liked and the smells we didn’t like.
To explore our sense of taste, we made mini fruit kebabs. We talked about healthy types of food and why we should eat fruit every day. We then helped to cut up the fruit to make our mini skewers. We chose the fruit we would like on our skewers, and really enjoyed eating them when they were ready.
We looked at 2D shapes this week, and learned how to describe them. We learned that 2D shapes have different numbers of corners and sides. Using our sense of touch, we reached inside a feely bag and felt the shape to guess what it was. We gave clues to our friends so that we could guess which shape was inside.
In music this week we learned some songs about dinosaurs. Mrs. Caperon used her cello to help us sing a song about dinosaurs. Then she told us a story about two dinosaurs that were quite afraid of each other. We added instruments to represent some of the sounds in the story.
We have really enjoyed exploring our senses in Reception this week. Remember to keep a look out for dinosaurs over weekend, and if you find one, please return it to Hedgehog Class!