Jasper's Beanstalk

The Reception children have returned for the last half-term and it was delightful to see them enthusiastically return and excitedly greet their friends. This week we have been Reading Jasper’s Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen. It is the story of Jasper the cat who, having found and planted a bean, looks after it in his own way. The children have been busy planting peas this week, and we will be waiting eagerly, to watch them sprout. To prepare for this the children have been finding out what a plant needs to grow and sharing their experiences of helping their families in gardens and allotments.  We have also been learning the names of parts of a plant such as, roots, shoots, stems, leaves and petals. Some sunflower seeds have been closely investigated with magnifying glasses, and dissected to see what they look like inside, before they grow.  Both classes have now made wild flower ‘seed bombs’ in Forest School, and they have discussed how important it is to have a lot of flowers so that bees have enough food to collect pollen for their honey supplies.  In Maths, we have revisited addition number facts to ten, using two numbers; for example, how many ways could they make seven using two numbers – 6 + 1, 5 + 2, 4 + 3 and 7 + 0. A busy first week.