Personal, Social & Emotional Development

We read the story of 'Monty the Manatee', a seal who wasn't very kind to his friends. We talked about the unkind things he said and how we wouldn't like it if those things happened to us. Throughout the story, Monty changes and realises his errors. We had a cirlce time about the kind of people we like to be friends with. The Caterpillars used the STEM sentence of 'A good friend ...' and they came up with some fantastic ideas. They suggested a good friend is 

• kind 
• makes me laugh
• shares 
• plays with me 
• chats to me 
• makes me happy when I am sad 

We wrote/drew what makes a good friend and filled a heart with our positivity! 

We read 'Gilbert the Great'. A book all about friends so we talked about being a good friend and what that means and looks like. We had 2 apples. We said kind things to one apple and horrible things to another apple. When we peeled them, we could see the bruises we had caused with our unkind words. We learnt a lot about the power of words and how they can hurt people.

We read 'Meesha Makes Friends' and talked about what we could do if we were lonely or if somebody looked lonely. We thought about asking people to play with us and letting them join in our games. We had a lovely conversation and all wanted to help each other. 

Physical Development

We had so much fun in the snow! We enjoyed building snow people, using it for recipes in the mud kitchen and stomping in the snow. We observed the snow slowly melting throughout the day. 

In PE, we have been playing lots of games to develop our listening and coordination skills. The children have also been learning balances and jumping. 

We raised money for Children In Need by doing a sponsored 100 mile cycle. The children amazed us with their pedalling skills. 

For our Class Wide Reward Celebration, the children carefully decorated leaves and made leaf bunting to hang in the forest. They worked hard on their fine motor skills. 

We made playdough hedgehogs to make our fingers strong. We pushed the spikes into the dough so they didn't fall out. 

Literacy

We read 'Percy the Park Keeper- After the Storm' and thought about items which would be useful for the woods. The Caterpillars are doing so well in our phonics groups that they have amazed us with their use of Fred Fingers for writing CVC words. Well done! Look at these amazing examples! 

Our Year 6's came to read 'Pudsey's Great Fundraiser' to celebrate Children in Need.

We are looking at 'Percy the Park Keeper - After the Storm.' We have been building habitats for our small world woodland animals. 

We have loved exploring space after we read 'Whatever Next'. We built a rocket and went on our own adventures. We have been great at retelling the story in our small world. 

We read 'Lucy and Tom's Christmas' and made toys using household resources. We talked about the past and how they didn't have the resources and toys that we have today. The Caterpillars thought very carefully about what they were going to make with a dolly peg, string and a piece of material. 

Maths 

In Maths, we have been comparing amounts. We looked at different amounts and worked out which had more and which had fewer. We compared handfuls of pompoms, objects from around the classroom and groups of children. When we were confident with more and fewer, we looked at having an equal amount. We held a picnic for 3 bears and made sure we had an equal amount of food, plates and cutlery. The Caterpillars did a great job using the correct mathematical language. 

We have been talking about part-part-whole and how parts come together to make a whole. 

We have been making Stampolines. The Caterpillars loved using the ink pads to create their own shapes with each number. The found the higher the number was, the more shapes we could make with the stamps. Poor 'Number 1' can't make many shapes, but 'Number 5' can make many more! 

We have been looking at equal amounts. We have found lots of ways to show equal. We have been clapping, stomping, jumping and even building to find our stopping number. When we used the blocks, we built a rocket, counted how many and after knocking it down, discovered if we still had an equal amount. 

We had lots of fun making repeating patterns. We made them in so many different ways. We used blocks, resources for our continuous provision and even us to make the pattern go on and on. 

We have been learning about 2D shapes and their properties. 

We have been looking at positional language whilst reading 'We're going on an elf hunt'. We had great fun describing lots of different positions and places. 

Understanding the World 

We loved our Forest School week! We explored all of the signs of Autumn and how the forest had changed since our Autumn Walk earlier in October. There were leaves everywhere! We found the final fruits on the trees, squirrels burying food for the Winter and a noticeable drop in temperature. 

During our time in the forest we 

• made bird feeders
• built habitats for woodland animals 
• leaf and bark rubbings 
• bird watching 

For our act of Remembrance, we made poppies and wore them we pride throughout the day. We held our 2 minutes silence and watched this clip from Cbeebies as we thought about people we would like to thank. 

We used the Beebots and had a go at programming them to arrive at different woodland animals on the map. It took great team work and lots of communication to work out the best route to send the Beebots. What tripped us up the most was remembering to cancel each instruction before we start the next, otherwise we had some extreamley confused Beebots. 

We had great fun with the parachute. We played a game of 'Percy in the Park'. Percy crawled onto of the parachute looking for his animals he had lost in the storm. We created the storm by wafting the parachute. We had great fun whilst naming which woodland animal they were going to be. Ask us to name a woodland animal... we are pretty good! 

In our R.E, we have been talking about presents and how we feel when we give them to others. We talked about the importance of saying thank you. We thought of all of the people in our lives we would like to thank. We made thank you cards and out smiles on every bodies faces as we gave them out. 

We had a great trip to the space dome! We explored the skies from our school hall and learnt lots of new facts about space.. We were even taught by an astronaught how to brush our teeth in space. 

We loved taking part in our Wriggly Navitity. Our cast were amazing and we are so proud of all they achieved. 

We used the computer to type the inserts of our Christmas Cards. The Caterpillars looked very carefully at each letter and made sure they only had one appear on the screen. 

We have a great day joining in with the Walkley Christmas traditions. We had Christmas Dinner, a Christmas Party and lots of laughs. 

Expressive Art and Design 

We worked together as a team to make an emergency service vehicle. We were getting to know how to use our Creative Area in the best way, so thought carefully about the resources we had and how we could use them for our vehicle. The Caterpillars learnt how to use the paint, glue and resources and made the most fantastic vehicles. We have a fire engine, air ambulance, police car, ambulance and life boat! 

We are learning about Martin Ridley. He is an artist who draws the most beautiful pictures of wildlife. We looked at his incredible skills to create lifelike paintings. We had a go at sketching to create different textures. The Caterpillars did a fantastic job sketching their owls. 

We looked at Martin Ridley and how he creates texture using light and dark shades. We experimented with colouring pencils and applied different amounts of pressure. The harder we pressed, the darker the shade was. 

We drew step-by-step rabbits using instructions. We thought very carefully about which body part we were drawing and how big that needed to be compared to the body. We were so impressed with our drawings. We had 2 attempts so we knew how to make the second one even better than the first.