Morning with Pre Reception

In Pre Reception at The Mead Tunbridge Wells we have experienced a lot of change, perhaps we have siblings at home live learning. Maybe we are missing our Grannies, Grandpas or other family members that are staying safe at this time? This can generate a lot of feelings that might be tricky to understand.

Luckily we had the Colour Monster, by Anna Llenas, to help us learn all about our feelings through the medium of colour. There is yellow, bright like the sun and twinkly like the stars “you feel bright and light. You want to share that feeling with everyone”; it is happiness of course. Red is for anger “which blazes like fire” and can make you want to stomp! Green is for calm, soothing, restful green like the trees and their leaves. Of course, sometimes we experience our feelings all at once, like a rainbow of emotion.  Thankfully our Colour Monster helped us to understand that this is OK too.

We all know that children love the box as much as the present inside; this was certainly the case in Pre Reception when a gigantic box was used to bring practical understanding to the concept of ‘in’, ‘under’ and ‘below’. Climbing ‘in’ the box was a firm favourite, as the box gave context to our learning.  Making the most of the The Mead School approach of ‘In the moment planning’, an educational concept of observing the children and developing their learning journey through play and imagination.  Our box went on to be a pirate ship, a space ship and a helicopter rocket.

The box later became our paper for some fabulous mark making and drawings. The writing journey begins here after all in Pre Reception.  Forming the shapes, holding the pencil development of those fine motor skills.  All leading to beautiful writing we perfect later as we travel through Reception and beyond.

Before outside play on the Astro, there was time for another story.  This time it was the turn of Stanley stick, by John Hegley. Stanley’s stick can be a dinosaur, trumpet, or a fishing rod.  Just like the box had become all these different things so too did the stick.  Inspiring children to trust in their own imagination, is embedded in the Mead approach of allowing our early years learners to learn through play, leading to authentic learning that is rooted in their own creativity.

After races on the Astro, we went to China.  Our rocket helicopter space ship from earlier came in handy here as we zoomed over the Great Wall of China to begin exploring Chinese New Year. The globe came in handy just to remind ourselves where The Mead School, Tunbridge Wells is exactly? Giving situational context to our learning. Our Pre Reception are used to seeing the Globe on birthday celebrations when they enjoy learning about how the Earth has travelled around the Sun the exact number of times of our birthday year.

We have been discovering what animal we are in the Chinese New Year calendar and learning how Chinese families and communities celebrate around the world as we continue to explore our planet.

After a fabulous lunch of chicken and vegetable pie, with mousse for pudding it was almost time to go home.  Just time for a quick reminder of our Mead Moto, with our hands on our badges “To be kind, to listen and to do our best”. 

Thank you for visiting.  We look forward to welcoming you in person soon, just as soon as we can.