Reception Project: What’s at the top? – Summer 2 2022

This term we are learning all about growing. We are launching the topic by looking at lots of different seeds and beans. We will become seed experts as we discover what makes them similar and different, we will take part in lots of different 2D mark making projects during the first week as well as learning about how they travel and using story telling to share this information.

Throughout the rest of the term we will be growing and caring for plants and learning about their life cycles. We will be using imaginative language to retell the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, reading alternative versions and beginning to develop and create our own stories to share at the end of the term.

Week 5

This week we have been creating our own alternative versions of Jack and the Beanstalk, with ourselves as the main character to answer our topic big question "What's at the top?"

 The children began by deciding what they would sell and what type of magic beans we would receive. Before making our decision we picked puppets and beans out of a story sack and told funny versions of the story as a class.

Next we had to decide what building we would see at the top of the beanstalk and what scary monster or creature. The children enjoyed creating their own monsters with craft materials and castles out of bricks. 

We were then set a challenge to investigate the different materials that might make a good crash mat in case we fell down the beanstalk. We made predictions and used eggs to test out each material.

Finally, we enjoyed using story dice to create a funny ending to our story and resolve the problem. The children thought of some incredibly imaginative endings involving toilets, cactus and much more. 

Week 4

This week we learnt about cocoa beans. We investigated cocoa beans at school and cracked them open to see what was inside. The children discovered how cocoa pods were harvested and dried before selling and transporting factories ready to make chocolate. 

The children watched a video how chocolate was made and then taste tested four types of chocolate before choosing their favourite. Later in the week we then designed our very own chocolate lolly pops and created them. Before we took them home we evaluated them as a class. 

Week 3

This week we have focused on the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. At the beginning of the week we read the story as a class and took part in lots of different activities related to story to help us become familiar with the different characters, setting and repeated phrases. We learnt a song about the story to the tune of 'She'll be coming round the mountain' and used actions to act out each part. Later in the week we practised ordering the story and acting it out with our friends using lots of imaginative language. 

We have also been monitoring how our own beanstalks are growing. The children discussed how the beans had change and why some beans hadn't grown yet. We  discovered that some beans had been planted further down the pot and that certain varieties of beans seemed to be growing faster than others. At the end of the week we did observational drawings to show how they had grown so far. 

Week 2 

This week we have been learning about beans. The children explored different types of beans as a class and worked out how many beans and pots we would need to use. This put our subitising and sharing skills to the test as we organised them on ten frames and discussed what we could see and how we saw it. We also looked at the information on the back of the packets to work out what we needed to do do care for our beans once we had planted them.

Later in the week we watched a time lapse video of a bean growing. We discussed what we knew about plants growing and learnt new vocabulary related to the parts of a plant. 

At the end of the week the children read Jasper's Beanstalk. This helped us to recap our learning so far as well as consolidating our understanding about the life cycle of a bean.

Week 1

This week we took part in Sky Arts Week. We started by exploring the seeds that are in different types of fruit and vegetables. We used magnifying glasses and tweezers to look closely and compare their similarities and differences. The children then created a variety of different 2D mark making including, sketching, adding colour, digital art, transient art and printing.