Life in the The Very Hungry Caterpillars

Starting School 

We have had a great start to our new year. We have learnt lots of new names and started making new friends. We have had a look around our new school and met some of Walkley Primary School's trusted adults. We are getting to know where things are in the classroom and learning lots of new routines. We have talked about our school rules and how we stay safe. 

Here on our blog, we will update you on what the Caterpillars have been doing at school, linked to our areas of the Early Years Curriculum. 

Exploring our new classroom 

Personal, Social & Emotional Development 

We have read the story of The Colour Monster. We related it to our feelings and discussed how we were feeling at that time. We talking about the Walkley '5 point scale' and how we can show our emotions to others by using the scale. 

We went to vote in our School Council Elections. 

Physical Development 

We have loved starting our Dance lessons. Dazzle Dance Amy has taught us how to use the big mirror to see what she is doing so we can copy. We danced to Ballet Barn and loved moving like different animals. Over the next few weeks, we are excited to learning the routines to more songs. 

We are busy practising writing our names and using the correct tripod pen grip. 

We draw our families and who lives in our house. We used our communication and language skills to talk about who lives at home. We used our fine motor skills to draw people whilst we practised our pen grip. 

Literacy- Phonics

We have started using the magnetic boards to make words using the magnetic letters and read them using Fred Talk. We have learnt about partner work and how to use 'my turn, your turn'

We have been using our Fred Fingers for writing. 

Maths 

We have been subitising numbers 1-3. This is looking at a quantity and knowing how many there are without having to count them. We subitised fingers, dots and objects. 

We have been teaching a teddy how to count. We have used our counting wands and are working on using a 1:1 correspondence to say a number each time we count something. The number we stop on the it total.  

We leant about Goldliocks and the 3 bears. This helped us with our maths and how to understand the 'three-ness' of three. We found we could have 3 of any object, no matter the size, shape or object. 

We have been learning about more or fewer. The Caterpillars have loved exploring whether our teddies have had more or fewer items hiding beneath the cushions. 

Understanding the World 

We have read the story of Goldilocks and the 3 bears and have enjoyed exploring the story through our time in Continuous Provision. We have made beds for Goldilocks using junk modelling, retold the story in the home corner and made spoonfuls of playdough!
We looked at items which we would use in the past and what we might use in the future. We would use a nappy, dummy and baby bath when we were small. When we grow up, we might use car keys, a diary or an iron. 

In RE the children have been learning about special people, including their family, friends and role models. We talked about the things that make each of us special and why we like our friends. In continuous provision some children made friendship bracelets for a special friend.

We looked a a map of the world and found where we live. We came to the conclusion, much to their amazement, that we all live in Sheffield! We talked about where in Sheffield we lived. We talked about family who you might need to visit on a plane. We added them to our map. We used Google Maps on the big screen to find our houses and walk along the roads near school. 

We have been building Walkely using familiar buildings from around our community. 

We have been exploring Autumn and the seasonal changes it brings to our outside. We went on a Autumn Walk and discovered lots of leaves on the ground and some beautiful colours on the trees. We went up to the forest and found apples on the trees. We brought them back to school and decided to use them for some baking. 

We made apples cookies using bananas, apples, oats and honey. The Caterpillars we excellent at following the recipe and helping with all of the jobs. They even offered to do the washing up and hoovering! 

We enjoyed eating the all together at the end of a very busy day. 

Expressive Art and Design 

We have been exploring colour mixing with the primary colours to make secondary colours. We loved using our hands to mix the paint and watch the colours change. 

We learnt about Kandinsky and how he looked at colours and explored colour mixing. We used a paper plate to twist the paint into circles in the style of Kandinsky. 

We have printed Kandinsky style circles using bottle tops and loved the patterns and designs we came up with. The children know lots about Kandinsky and enjoyed being an artist themselves.