In Reception this week we have been learning all about China and Chinese New Year. We have been learning about people who live here in the UK and how they celebrate Chinese New Year. We have thought about what they do and how it is different or the same as how we celebrate Chinese New Year and how we can be respectful of these differences.

In Reception we have been learning about our right to rest and play. We are so fortunate to have a wonderful outdoor area to rest and play in as well as our classrooms. We enjoy playing and resting together and even though we can be independent and choose our own snack time and what we eat, recently for our harvest topic we have read the story of stone soup, so we decided to make our very own vegetable soup to share. We rested together for a break and shared the soup, dipping our toast in to try it. We enjoyed working as a team to cook the soup and sharing it together.

In Reception today we read a story about Elmer. We discovered that Elmer is special and that he is kind and funny and makes his own choices. Then we thought about how we are all different and what we are good at doing. We are all free to be ourselves and we are wonderful!

Then we told each other what things we are good at. Raven is good at taking care of people. Thea is good at making friends. Ollie is good at playing football. Ronnie is good at using the monkey bars and Alice is good at holding bugs.

We have been thinking about our rights this week as the children visit other classes as part of their transition. we know that every person has rights and moving up to year 1, we will still keep our rights and have access to ‘rest and play’ throughout our childhoods.

This made us think about our right of the term ‘we all have the right to play and rest’. We think we have certainly had lots of opportunities to put it into practice this term- We have been a trip to Plymouth Aquarium, been gardening and growing potatoes, made an obstacle course outside and designed African necklaces for our Handa’s surprise topic during our play, we also have plenty of opportunities to rest- we love to relax in our book corner, listen to stories in the library, make and eat pancakes for snack and eat lollies in our orchard sitting with friends on a sunny day.

Article 24 talks about how we have the right to safe water and nutritious food to help us stay well. In Reception we have been looking at how to stay healthy through the topics of Supertato and Handa. Look at the basket of healthy fruits we painted!

In Reception this week we went on an imaginary rocket ship to the future and thought about what our favourite job would be as an adult. We explored different occupations and discussed what we might need to learn to be able to do that job. We shared ideas in talk partners and as a class. Some of our favourite ideas were police officers, vets, doctors and an Olympic trampolinist. In our learning time we drew pictures of our dream job. We can’t wait to continue our good learning that will help us reach our goals!

We have a right to find out things.

In Holly and Oak class we had great fun doing a mindful tasting activity. We each had a chocolate button that we had to explore using our senses before we were finally able to eat it! We have been learning about how to look after our mental health through learning about our brains and one way to help our brains is to have some mindful moments throughout the day.

Part of this right says that we have the right to the best healthcare possible. In Oak and Holly class, we have been learning about different ways to stay healthy.

Every school day after lunch, we brush our teeth together. This helps protect our teeth and keep them in good health.

Since September, we have made lots of new friends in Reception. We have been learning about what makes a good friend and have learnt about the parable of The Good Samaritan. Look at us playing with our new friends!