Autumn Term 2023

Information for parents and families

Week Ending 24th November

We have taken our learning all the way to outer space! We enjoyed watching an episode of wacky races where Saturn was destroyed. We then made our own stories about races and spaceships. We made our own rockets and tested them in a solar system drawn from chalk to see how far they would really fly. We made lists for aliens and counted stars and explored different textures by making planets. 

Week Ending 17th November

This week we enjoyed the story of ‘Where the Wild things are’ by Maurice Sendak. We were very excited to use our new vocabulary to talk about how Max feels throughout the story. We sorted animals according to whether they had wings or claws or where they liked to live. We then used this information to make our own wild things from boxes. We made wild thing masks from paper plates and had our own rumpus in the small hall. To finish the week we made monster biscuits as a special treat because we have been reading so much at home. 

Week Ending 10th November

We started the week thinking about Diwali and learning how similar this celebration was to some that we have had recently. We enjoyed making cards and using photographs, books and videos to learn more. Then we shared the book ‘The colour Monster’ and learnt lots of new words to describe how we feel; we learnt that if we use these words then people can help us more. We made our very own jar of happiness by adding lots of things that make us smile. We practised using our newest app to make faces that explain those feelings. We have explored shape in maths and described the properties of shapes we have used to make monster characters. 

Week Ending 3rd October 

We continued sharing the funnybones series this week, we can tell the beginning all by ourselves. We have written shopping lists for the witch and shared our stories of our trick or treat adventures. We have programmed some mice using both our maths and our logical thinking to take a journey to eat some cheese. We have also learnt how to use a new app to bring our creations to life so as we can practise talking in longer sentences. We had to help another hedgehog in trouble but this time we knew exactly what to do! We have learnt how to behave with dogs too and enjoyed a chat with a lovely member of the Woodgreen animal shelter team. 

Week Ending 20th October

This week we have enjoyed sharing The series of the funnybones books. We have learnt about the job of the skeleton and the jobs of the different bones as well as how to eat healthily to help our bones grow big and strong. We carved pumpkins and made pumpkin soup with roasted pumpkin seeds which was delicious. We have used our phonics to read and write labels used our maths to count out ingredients for witch’s soup. We also found a hedgehog in the spinney that was too small to hibernate in our hedgehog houses so we helped him find a new home for the winter. 

Week Ending 13th October

This week Reception have very much enjoyed sharing the story 'The Hairy Toe'. They have talked about the things that keep them awake at night and designed traps to capture the owner of the hairy toe. They have focused on the 'brushing their teeth' part of the bedtime routine and practised their techniques on the dolls and teddies.  The children have checked on the hedgehog houses looking for signs that one of our spikey friends has been there but there's been no luck yet. We have had great fun measuring comparing objects taller and smaller than a metre and measuring the worms in our tough tray as well as the worms outside.

Week Ending 6th October

This week we have shared the story of Peace at Last by Jill Murphey. The children have thought about all the sounds that kept the bear awake and made him so cantankerous.  They have learnt about animals that like to stay awake all night and those that like to sleep all winter. They have made comfy, cosy caves at the making table to help Mr Bear and hedgehog houses for our real life visitors outside. The children have explored painting techniques in response to 'Starry Night' by Van Gogh and made up stories set at night. 

Week Ending 29th September 

This week the children shared the story of The Little Red Hen and learnt the words 'collaborate', 'sickle', 'concoction' and 'thresh'.  They learnt how bread was made by making some of their own and then enjoying it with butter and jam. The children made up their own tales of the hen making a different concoction to give the animals their 'just desserts'. They thought about collaboration and team work and practised asking their friends for help at tidy up time. In maths, the children used the sorting animals to group objects and make up their own rules. 

Week Ending 22nd September

This week the children have finished the series of Supertato by Sue Hendra and made up their own stories about the evil pea. they have had great fun drawing them and adding codes and speech bubbles to their work. In maths they have been grouping objects and spotting patterns. The children have enjoyed playing games with the sounds they have learnt in phonics and spotting them in the stories we have shared. They have explored their sense of smell and mixed different herbs and spices into their paint to create spicy smelling peppers and earthy smelling carrots as well as fresh, minty evil peas.

Week Ending 15th September

This week the children in Reception have trapped the evil peas in a giant pan, added mint, blended them and enjoyed them with bread! They made sure they had them all by counting each and every pea with great accuracy. They have made observational drawings of Super Veggies by looking carefully and matching colours and shapes. They practised anti clockwise circles as we drew evil peas; this will also get them ready to write the letters a and p. They have learnt the sounds s,a,t,p,i,n and can hear them at the start of words and blend them.  There were air grabs and celebrations when the words 'sat' and 'tap' were read all on their own.