Swans Class 2022/23

Welcome to Swans Class at Greenleas Derwent Road. Both myself, Miss. Lumsden (Class Teacher) Mrs. Borrey and Miss Kent (Class Teaching Assistants) are pleased to welcome you to our class page. Please come and talk to us to discuss your children's celebrations, achievements and we are happy to answer any questions that you may have. 

We are looking forward to getting to know each other and having a great year playing, learning and growing together. On this page we will be sharing our learning journey.  Throughout the year we will be sharing snapshots of our learning through photographs.

This will provide you with a fun way to talk to your child about their learning and share in their experiences.

Learning in Swans Spring 1

Being Creative

The children have been practicing their cutting, drawing and joining skills to enable them to create their own hand-bags, wallets, signs, lolly-stick super heroes and people in the creative area. They have also been playing their own imaginative role-play games with each other in the home corner. They have also been ordering and building and practising writing the numbers to 10. The children have also enjoyed using the run-away pancake imitation station to re-tell the story to each other and having a go at writing their own story maps.

Our Art

This half term we have been learning about the artist Joan Miro. We learnt that he used to get inspiration for his art from his dreams and letting his go for a walk over his canvas. He used black for his lines and added colour using red, yellow, blue and green. First we learnt how to create our own colour wash using ready mixed and powder paint and enough water to create a wash. We then had a go at doing our own line drawings using closed shapes. These were finally combined to create our own Miro inspired pictures.  

Chinese New Year Learning Day

In Reception we have been learning about the traditions that families may follow during the 'Lunar New Year' with their families, friends and communities. We had our own learning day where we learnt the traditional story of the animal zodiac. We also dressed in the traditional colours of red and gold for good luck. We had traditional food to cook in the home corner and also prepared and cooked and then tasted our own Chinese vegetable noodles. We also had a go at doing our own Chinese writing and matching Chinese symbols for 0-10 to the numbers in our maths area.

Wooden Blocks and Loose Parts Play

The children have enjoyed planning and building their own elaborate creations. Throughout this half term the children's creations have included a garage with 2 levels, a skyscraper for dogs, a zoo and a cathedral. During their play the children also joined up their different creations to play collaboratively as a group.

 Learning in Swans - Autumn 2

Maths Day - We are the Numberblocks!

We had lots of fun on our maths day where we had lots of opportunities to explore number and shape. We started the day by reading the story of Walter's Web. We then helped Walter to design a stronger web by deciding what shapes we thought would make a stronger web for Walter. We also enjoyed playing in our own role play classroom in Swans and shop in Puffins. We also had great fun playing different number games with our friends.

Pattan's Pumpkin

For the first few weeks of this half term as part of our Talk for Writing 4 Literacy we have been learning the story of Pattan's Pumpkin. The children have been learning the story through oral story telling and actions. We have also been having a go at creating out own story maps for the different parts of the story.

Learning in Swans - Autumn 1

Creativity in Swans

We have enjoyed being creative this half term. We have been using props and acting out the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We have also been learning how to follow a recipe to make our own play dough. We have also been learning how to create our own bowls using the technique of papier mache. 

Diwali Learning Day

We enjoyed learning about the Hindu festival of light called Diwali and some of the traditions that are followed by children and their families. We talked about the differences and similarities we noticed between Diwali and other festivals we have experienced like Christmas. We took part by dressing in bright coloured clothes and tasting traditional foods. We painted our own Rangoli patterns, made our own Diwali cards and had a small picture painted on our hands using traditional Henna. We had the opportunity to safely hold our own sparkler and make our very own diva lamps out of clay. We also enjoyed learning some  dance routines. 

Forest School

In Forest School we had lots of fun exploring the trees, bushes and surrounding area. We noticed that the leaves had started to change colour and fall off the trees showing us that the season had changed to become Autumn. We enjoyed climbing the small trees and weaving through the shrubs and bushes. We also used the different coloured leaves we had found to create our own leaf people and animals just like we had seen in the book we shared called 'Leaf Man'.