Autumn 1 Light and Dark

First time experiences

Our first half term in Reception there are a lot of first time experiences. 

Please click the star below to see some of those 'first' our children have experienced at school. 

Autumn 1: Light and Dark 

This half-term we have been discovering what happens at night and day. How light travels and makes shadows and what animals are nocturnal and why. 

In book explorers we read the stories 'Day Monkey Night Monkey' 'Peace at Last' and 'Can't you sleep little bear?'  to help us understand our learning project. 

Day Monkey and Night Monkey 

Expressive Art and Design link 

We made puppets of all the things day and night monkey saw in the book. 

Peace at last 

Links to Physical development and communication and language. 

Using our story square technique we acted out the story 'Peace at last'. We acted out all the things and animals keeping Daddy Bear awake. We had to use our bodies in different ways to portray different tings like a dripping tap or an owl tooting. 

Can't you sleep little bear?

Links to shape space and measure

The children used this book to help with size language. The little bear couldn't sleep as it was too dark so daddy bear got a bigger and bigger lamp. The children ordered the lamps by size. 

Making Shadows

Links to Understanding the world 

We learnt that light travels in a straight line and that's how we can make shadows. We used our hands to make different shadow puppets. We could make a dog, wolf, butterfly and a bird. We also matched some animals to their shadows. 

Nocturnal Animals 

Links to Literacy and Understanding the world

We researched what animals were nocturnal. We experimented with how those animals would move and any special qualities they might have because they are nocturnal. We even did some writing and labelled some nocturnal animals. 

Our fabulous finish 

Our campfire event. 

We invited our parents to join us after school in our secret garden, where we made a campfire and toasted marshmallows. We made paper lanterns and explored the garden with our family members. 

We finished off with a story and a sing along with Mr Heffernan's guitar.