Our Topic - Winter Wonderland

We are starting to look at how the season is changing from Autumn into Winter. We started with looking at signs of Autumn as we went exploring to find yellow and brown leaves, which had fallen from the trees. Then we took them back to class and made our own 'Leaf people' as we were inspired by the story 'Leaf Man'. We thought carefully about which leaves would make good body parts and brought them back into the classroom and enjoyed sticking our Leaf People together. 

Phonics

The Chameleons have finished all of our RWI Set 1 sounds and will be continuing to practice our segmenting and blending. Moving forwards, the children will be taught in RWI ability groups. We have also been applying our phonic knowledge in our play. For example, reading CVC words on ping pong balls in the water tray, playing real or fake words.

Art - Kandinsky

We have been inspired by the artist Kandinsky to learn the skill of colour mixing. We have learnt how to independently dispense and use powder paint and poster paint to colour mix primary colours into secondary colours. Then we worked collaboratively to recreate Kandinsky's circles piece. We each painted circles and carefully cut them out. We then put them all together to make one piece. This also linked in with our work in Maths as we have been recognising and describing 2D shapes including; circles, triangles, squares and rectangles. 

PE

We loved our first visit to the dance studio with Dazzle Dance Amy! We had great fun dancing to 'Baby Shark' and 'Gummy Bear'. Thanks Amy, we are already looking forward to next week. 

Maths

In Maths, we have been composing the number 3. We have played games and explored different ways to make 3. This led to us thinking about the concept of addition. The children were challenged to find all the different ways to make 3 using different concrete resources. 

After the Storm

After reading the story, 'After the storm' by Nick Butterworth and learning about where British woodland animals live, we decided to create our own homes for the woodland animals in Forest School. The children worked as part of a small group to create and describe to the rest of the class which animal they had, where they built there home and why they built it there. We had great conversations around which animals hibernate or are nocturnal and the children showed some great teamwork. 

Martin Ridley Art

We have been researching the artist Martin Ridley, who draws and paints wild animals in nature, in winter. The children talked about what they liked and disliked about his art. We then had a go at creating texture while developing our pencil skills, creating lines, zig-zags and curls on an outline of an owl to create the appearance of feathers. Next, we will be learning how to draw a woodland animal by following a set of instructions. 

Composing Numbers to 5

We have been counting, comparing and composing numbers to 5. We used the vocabulary of parts and whole to work out different ways of making the number 5. We used lots of concrete resources to consolidate our learning through play including; using Numicon to make number bond towers, using double sided counters and 5 frames and using multilink cubes to find all the different ways to make the number. 

Bird Feeders

After learning about British Wildlife and Winter we decided to make bird feeders to hang outside to feed the birds over Winter. The children had to use their fine motor skills to thread cereal on to string so we could hang them on the tree. 

Positional Language

In Maths, we have been learning how to use the vocabulary of positional language including; next to, behind, in between, above and below. We first had to follow a positional language treasure hunt which led us to Forest School. Back in class, we played a game where we had to direct woodland animals on a map. We also directed the Beebots to different locations on the carpet to reach the woodland animals. 

2D Shapes

In Maths, we have been exploring 2D shapes, focusing on squares and rectangles. We learnt that squares are special rectangles because all the sides are equal length. We also had a go at folding shapes on paper to make new shapes. We played lots of games involving describing 2D shapes and their properties.