Welcome back to the final term of the year. We can't believe we're here already!

For the first four weeks of this term, our topic centres around growing and thinking about where food comes from. We will then spend the final 3 and a half weeks thinking a lot more specifically about the move to Year One and how we might be feeling.  Whilst Buckinghamshire has a 'transition day' in early July, where all children spend a morning in their new classes, we feel that to support the transition from Reception to Year One we need to offer more than this. We are planning, therefore, for the Year One teacher to spend time with the Robins approximately once a week throughout the term, so that the children can begin building a positive relationship with them ahead of September. We hope that developing this familiarity will ease the transition process for the children.

Week 1 - The Giant Jam Sandwich

The class absolutely LOVED this story and thoroughly enjoyed retelling it to Mrs Chadwick-Cooper when she came into school on Wednesday! We thought about the ingredients, equipment, and steps needed to make a jam sandwich, writing down our recipes with a real air of professionalism. The children then shared ideas for how to make a GIANT jam sandwich. After a class vote, we ended the week making through each child making an individual sandwich and then stacking them up as high as we could!

In maths we have introduced the 'rekenreks' and exploring using them to represent quantities. A rekenrek is apparatus that is not dissimilar to an abacus - a visual tool with two rows of 10 beds, 5 coloured red and 5 coloured white on each row. See photos below for an image of these. 

Week 2 - The Enormous Turnip

We've enjoyed learning a little more about where our food comes from through the story of The Enormous Turnip. The children have then had the opportunity to be really creative in Drawing Club, coming up with their own characters, vegetables to grow, and methods for harvesting their yield without going to all the effort of pulling it out themselves! Children are working hard on writing phrases and sentences, forming their letters correctly and including spaces between words.

In Maths we have been recapping numbers to twenty, and looking more deeply at the construction of teen numbers. We've also shared methods for counting larger quantities accurately, including ways to do this when the objects can't be moved. Great thinking, Robins!

Between Ofsted visits, heatwaves, sports day, STEM week, concerts, and various other events, Summer 2 has been an extremely busy term! The children have taken it in their stride and we are so very proud of how well they have engaged with their learning throughout the weeks. We've enjoyed learning about plants and where our food comes from, what the world was like in the past and comparing some of the different environments across it. Thank you to all families for your continued support this term - we are so very grateful for all you do.