Year 3

Year 3 Parent Information Session

 

year 3 parent information session slides.pdf

Letters 

Year 3 Spring Term Information - 06.01.2025

Year 3 Autumn Term Information - 05.09.24

• Maths Knowledge Organiser - Number and Place Value
• Maths Knowledge Organiser - Multiplication and Division
• Maths Knowledge Organiser - Addition and Subtraction
• Grammar and Punctuation Knowledge Organiser
• Computing Systems and Networks Knowledge Organiser
• Geography Knowledge Organiser - Rivers
• History Knowledge Organiser - Ancient Egypt
• RE Knowledge Organiser - Hindu Story Rama and Sita

Year 3 Blogs 

 

Blogs from Year 2

19 July 2024

We made it!  It has been a fun and busy year.  All the children have worked incredibly hard and should feel so proud of the excellent progress that they have made this year.  Their achievements have been amazing.  Good luck to everyone in Year 3, I will miss you all.

MHST session on friendships and resilience

The ladies from the Fenland Mental Health Support Team came in to lead a workshop on relationships with others at school and the children discussed what they would do in certain situations.  They talked about what resilience means and why this is so important.

Nick and Phoebe

Year 2  persuaded Finn to come into our class so the children could meet Phoebe, Nick’s new dog.  Phoebe is too  young at the moment to be a therapy dog but Nick is hoping that she will join Finn as one in the future. 

DT – cooking

The children thoroughly enjoyed making a healthy recipe (Vegetarian chilli) during the last week to eat at Forest School.  Before we started cooking, they learnt how to use knives safely and about food hygiene.

Stone-Age Art

The children learnt about where pre-historic paintings in caves have been found and looked at some examples of art that has been found.  They then attempted to recreate some examples of these paintings.

Reward

Year 2 enjoyed their attendance reward this week with a 10 minute session of Just Dance in the classroom.

Forest School
The children enjoyed their last day at Forest School.  They were there all day!  The children worked in teams to put up shelters, we made bread, ate the vegetarian chilli that the children had made, had yummy s’mores and then played lots of games.  The weather was glorious and the children all had a great time.

21 June 2024

During our reading of the book in English, Grandad’s Secret Giant, the children enjoyed making a conscience alley where they had to whisper advice to Billy about what he should do next. 

During Art, the children have enjoyed sketching flowers using pencils. They have made some amazing roses from clay and painted these.

In our Art topic on the Stone Age, the children have enjoyed learning some new words, including nomadic, pre-historic and hunter-gatherer.  They worked together to identify foods that our human ancestors would have hunted or gathered. 

This week, the children had a fantastic time dressing up as rockstars for Times Tables Rock Stars Day and taking part in lots of games and activities to support their learning of Times Tables.

In Maths, one of our recent topics was to learn positional words, such as forwards, backwards, left, right, between, etc.  To help understand this better, the children enjoyed practising their movements in the corridor. 

In Design Technology, we have recently started our Bag Tag project.  The children have learnt about patterns and about the designer, Cath Kidston.  They have also learnt how to sew using running stitch onto fabric.  Their first attempts have been outstanding!

The children had great fun last week meeting some local businesses and some representatives from the emergency services.  They enjoyed taking part in activities such as building helicopters. 

7 June 2024

Our new book is called Grandad’s Secret Giant by David Litchfield.  This week, the children have been looking and comparing different giants.

This week in Maths, the children have been learning about different types of chart, including pictograms and tally charts.  Some of the children have been doing additional Maths support to consolidate their learning of other topics, including times tables facts.

The children have enjoyed developing their quick response reactions in PE, in order to catch balls sent by their partner.

In Computing, the children have enjoyed learning about presenting information.  Their final task was to choose their way of presenting and to make a presentation about whatever they wanted.  Some children made e-books, others a fact file, some a concept map or a quiz. 

For National Numeracy Day, the children enjoyed dressing up and taking part in lots of Maths games and activities.

The children have been looking at different flower heads in Art.  They have made sketches of these and then formed them using clay. 

The finished results are amazing!  We have yet to paint them.

Forest School:

Year 2 were thrilled to meet the author, James Mayhew (who has written many books, including:  Once Upon a Tune, Ella Bella Ballerina and Katie).  James told the children a story (Baba Yagu) and whilst he did this he painted this marvellous painting.   The children then did their own versions of a picture of his story.

15 May 2024

We have now completed the book, The Last Wolf and the children are now learning about trees and forests.  We have been reading a non-fiction text (Fact Cat Woodland) and the children have made some excellent non-chronological reports.

In Maths we have been working on money and how to find different ways of making the same total, recording our answer as £ or p.  We have also been revisiting our learning on multiplication, division, addition and subtraction.

The children have enjoyed developing their throwing and catching skills during PE, aiming towards a target and also working in teams in competitive activities.

The children have learnt about different ways of presenting information.  They have looked at e-books, concept maps, quizzes and fact files.  They have been using their knowledge of the United Kingdom to make a fact file about it. 

Because of their excellent attendance last week, Year 2 won the attendance award.  Their prize was a disco in class!

The children have planted cress seeds and discovered that not watering them results in them not germinating!   They have also been looking at flowers, plants and bulbs and been making careful diagrams of them. 

26 April 2024

In the first 2 weeks of the term during Maths, we have been revising some of the work from earlier in the year on addition and subtraction.  We have used equipment, such as bar models and base 10 equipment to support this.

For English, we are now reading a new book: The Last Wolf by Mini Grey.  So far, the children have enjoyed reading the story, retelling the story in their own words (orally) and investigating the characters, such as Little Red and the Last Wolf.

The children are continuing to learn about plants.  They have been planting seeds and looking at the structure of plants from their roots to their leaves.  This week at Forest School they were writing a poem inspired by nature and the wonderful trees all around them.

In PE, we are now learning effective techniques for sending and receiving a ball.  We will build up the skill and speed so that we can play competitive games.

We are continuing to learn about monarchs during our History lessons.  We have learnt about Henry VIII and considered whether his actions were positive or negative.  We have also compared two very significant monarchs: Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria and found similarities and differences between them.

The children enjoyed looking at the artefacts from the past when we visited our local museum.  We will be taking them a book of the children’s work (based on Major Glad and Major Dizzy) that they can then show to any visitors. 

15 March 2024

During English, the children have been continuing to read the book, Major Glad and Major Dizzy and to learn about old toys from the past.  This week, we have had a visitor in (Mrs Attwood) who brought some old toys in so that the children could see what they looked like and how they were made.  There were all sorts of toys, including a mini mangle and an old-fashioned spinning top.

They have also enjoyed making their own Major Glad and Major Dizzy peg dolls, whilst learning about instructions.  We will be writing our own instructions next.

In Maths, we continue with our unit on fractions.  The children have been learning about unit fractions (with 1 as a numerator, including ½, ¼ ) and non unit fractions (eg 2/4 and ¾).  They have been calculating fractions of amount, using diagrams to help them.  

In Science, the children have continued to build their shelters in addition to starting to learn about plants.  Last week, they were learning about bulbs and drawing diagrams of the inside of bulbs. In Science week, the children have been carrying out experiments relating to time, such as making and testing their own pendulums and observing the changes that happen to an apple during the course of a week.

The children have continued with their unit on Making music in Computing.  Using a digital program, 2Sequence, the children have been editing a piece of music (Twinkle Twinkle), adding in different instruments and changing the tempo and volume.

We were tremendously lucky to have a visit from a local author, Vicki Clarke who came to talk to the children about how she thinks of the ideas of books.  She then showed them how to get started with their own illustrations.

In PE, the children have been practising ball control rolling balls on and around their own bodies and working with a partner to develop a short routine. 

1 March 2024

In English, the children have completed their adventure stories based on The Dragon Machine by Helen Ward.  They feel very proud of their writing and their excellent vocabulary.

We are now reading our next story, Major Glad and Major Dizzy by Jan Oke.  The children will then write diaries based on toys from the past.  This week, the children have loved bringing in either their own old toys or ones belonging to members of their family and talking about them.  Thank you for supporting the children by allowing them to bring these in. 

During Maths, we have been using money – sadly, only plastic stuff!  The children have been finding out about different coins and notes.  How to add coins or notes (or both!) to find totals and thinking of different combinations to make the same total.

We have also just started to learn about fractions.  The children have been finding ½, ¼  and 1/3 so far.

The children have now completed the unit on materials in Science.  They enjoyed learning about recycling and upcycling and were very knowledgeable about the harm that unwanted plastics cause on beaches and in oceans.  They enjoyed upcycling a bottle to make a planter, we will be using these at Forest School after half term!

In PE, the children have worked on their holding stance in order to balance on the low beams.  They have improved their core stability and worked well with a partner. 

For Safer Internet Day the children read the book: Troll Stinks by Jeanne Willis which they found very amusing!  They then used the Now Press Play! app to act out a program on staying safe online.

At Forest School, the children have now designed their huts including personalised decorative effects.  They have made detailed and labelled diagrams that Mrs Jackson was very impressed with.

In Computing, the children have started their unit on Making music.  We are using a digital program, 2Sequence, which allows the children to compose their own short pieces, changing the tempo, volume and experimenting with the types of instrument.

2 February 2024

The children have started to read another book in English, based on dragons called The Dragonsitter by Josh Lacey.

In Maths, we have continued to work on multiplication and divide.  The children have used cubes to build groups of 2, 5 or 10 to solve multiplication questions and they have also practised sharing and grouping in order to divide.

At Forest School, the children have continued to develop skills to help them to create their mini shelters.  They have learnt how to lash and to ‘frap’ in order to secure bindings around their structures.   

 

In Science, the children have continued to learn about properties of materials and relate this to their uses.  They have carried out tests on paper to test it for properties of strength, texture and absorbency.  The children all enjoyed using the pipettes and working with their groups.

 

 

In PE, the children have been creating their own dynamic pathways and working in pairs to create their own movement sequences.

Following our class assembly on the NSPCC programme 'Speak out, Stay Safe', Derek came in to talk to the kids again about this important message and about how to get help should they ever need it.

18 January 2024

In English the children have started to read a new book called The Dragon Machine by Helen Ward.  We will be writing an adventure story for Year 3 children this half term.  This week, the children have been reminded what noun phrases are and are developing their vocabulary in relation to the book, learning words like: unnoticed, ignored and troublesome.

In Maths, we are learning about multiplying and dividing.  This week, the children have been using equipment to group and to share as a way of introducing division.

At Forest School, the children have looked at shelters and what they are made of.  This term, they are going to be building shelters of natural materials.  They will first start to develop skills of sawing/cutting and tying knots.   This week, they were practicing lashing two lollypop sticks and securing with a knot.

 

This half term in Science we are learning about everyday materials.  The children have started to think about properties of materials such as whether it stretches or whether it is hard.  They have also done a materials hunt, looking for different objects and thinking about what they are made from. 

In Computing this half term, the children have been learning about internet safety.  This week, they have learnt about e-mailing and have sent emails with attachments using a safe system (2Email) on our Purple Mash computer platform.

 

 

 

 

15 December 2023

The children developed their vocabulary as part of our work based on the book, A Small Miracle by Peter Collington.  Please remember to ask the children if they can think of a better word for walk or ask.

In Maths the children have been learning about shape.  The children have learnt the name of many 2-D and 3-D shapes and can talk about their properties, such as how many sides or vertices they have.

The children have been learning about still life paintings in Art.  They have done pencil sketches of their own still life arrangements and have learnt to use different techniques to add shade.  They have learnt how to use water colour paints to create a background.

 

 

After lots of rehearsals, the performance of the Christmas songs was excellent and the children were very proud of themselves, as were we. 

 

1 December 2023

In English, the children have finished their non-chronological reports about Anti-Bullying.  They did very well, remembering to include lots of features, including sub-headings and a clear introduction.  We are now moving onto a book, A Small Miracle by Peter Collington and the children will be writing fantasy stories.

The children have persevered with addition and subtraction during Maths.  They have learnt how to add and subtract using the adding frames and base 10 and how to solve missing number questions.

The children have continued to learn about habitats and have found lots of minibeast and bird habitats at Forest School.  They have also learnt about food chains and food webs.  They have found out about how animals adapt to their environment.

 

The catering company, Caterlink, carried out some excellent sessions for the children to find out about how they use their senses when eating and to try and recognise the different tastes in some foods.  All children were enthused about the session and learnt lots.

 

 

 

Well done to Year 2 for achieving their 20 Blue Smileys.  Their reward was to watch a film and eat popcorn.

Rehearsals are going well.  Please continue to help your children learn the songs - all music/lyrics have already been emailed out to you.

 

17 November 2023

In English we have been writing our non-chronological reports this week – all about owls.  The children have enjoyed sharing their knowledge of these birds and remembering how to organise the sections clearly.

In computing, the children have been learning about digital art.  They have found out about some Impressionist artists and been creating their own Impressionist pictures in the same style as Piet Mondrian.

We have been continuing with our unit on addition and subtraction during Maths.  The children have been using equipment (base 10) to add 2x 2-digit numbers using an adding frame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Children in Need, the children enjoyed making masks and joining in with Joe Wicks’ Bearpees challenge as part of our PE lesson on Friday.

This week, we went on a visit to Soham Village College to take part in a Sports Stacking Festival with other schools.  There were different activities led by some trained sports leaders.  We all had lots of fun!

 

3 November 2023

In English, the children have been learning about and reading non-fiction texts.  They have then included some of these features in a fact sheet about an unusual pet.

In RE, the children have continued to learn about harvest festivals in different religions.  Last week, the children learnt about a Hindu festival to celebrate the rice harvest: Pongal.  They enjoyed making rangoli patterns with rice.  The children enjoyed our visit to the church in Chatteris to see the Food Bank and to take part in a Harvest service.

We continued our work on colour in Art.  This week, the children were blending in white and black paint to create different hues of a secondary colour.

In Science, as part of our unit about Human Survival, the children have been learning the importance of exercise.  We have chosen one type of exercise to work on and the children have been trying to improve their performance each day, whether it be doing a plank or how many knee highs they can do in 1 minute! 

The children have been learning about the importance of sharing and taking turns when working with others.  To demonstrate this, they acted out the story of The Enormous Turnip in small groups.

At Forest School this week, the children enjoyed playing in the forest and then they were continuing with team building activities to complete tasks together.  

 

13 October 2023

In English, the children have been learning about and reading non-fiction texts.  They have then included some of these features in a fact sheet about an unusual pet.

In RE, the children have continued to learn about harvest festivals in different religions.  Last week, the children learnt about a Hindu festival to celebrate the rice harvest: Pongal.  They enjoyed making rangoli patterns with rice.  The children enjoyed our visit to the church in Chatteris to see the Food Bank and to take part in a Harvest service. 

We continued our work on colour during Art.  This week, the children were blending in white and black paint to create different hues of a secondary colour.

As part of our unit about Human Survival in Science, the children have been learning the importance of exercise.  We have chosen one type of exercise to work on and the children have been trying to improve their performance each day, whether it be doing a plank or how many knee highs they can do in 1 minute!

In PSCHE the children have been learning about the importance of sharing and taking turns when working with others.  To demonstrate this, they acted out the story of The Enormous Turnip in small groups.

This week the children enjoyed playing in the forest and then they were continuing with team building activities to complete tasks together.  

29 September 2023

This week we have completed our book: Troll Swap and the children have written their own versions of these stories, swapping the characters of Tabitha and Timothy and thinking of their own.  We have now moved onto look at Dogs by Emily Gravett.

In Maths, we have continued to work on Place Value.  This week we were estimating where numbers need to go on a number line.  Initially, the children found this tricky but they persevered and now have a much better understanding.

In Religious Education we have been continuing to learn about different celebrations relating to Harvest festivals around the world.  This week we learnt about some of the things Christians do as part of Harvest celebrations.  The children were excited to learn that in October, we will go to the local church in Chatteris for our own Harvest service.

Recently in Outdoor Learning, the children have been carrying out some work with the Commando Joe’s programme around teamwork, listening skills and following instructions.

The children have continued to love our work in the Colour Mix project during Art.  This week, we have been finding out about the artist, Piet Mondrian and the children have painted some excellent versions of their own, copying his style.

15 September 2023

The first two weeks of the term have been very busy but the children have settled in well and have an excellent attitude to their learning.

In English we have started reading the book, Troll Swap by Leah Hodgkinson.  The children have been describing the character of Timothy Limpet and writing complaint letters about Tabitha Lumpit.  They have loved listening to the story and joining in.

 

In Maths we have started the Place Value unit and the children are identifying how many tens and ones are in a number.  To help support their learning, they have used the Base 10 equipment.

We have started our work on colour in Art by reminding ourselves about the Primary colours and how to blend these together to make the Secondary colours.  

At Forest School, the children played games and then started to work together to build shelters. 

This week in History, the children have enjoyed learning about Neil Armstrong and his journey to walk on the moon.  They have thought about why he is a significant person in History.

Blogs from Year 1

23 June 2023

Year 1 had an amazing time on their trip to Hamerton Zoo this week. We loved seeing the range of different animals and linking it to our science learning around classifying and describing animals. We discussed why zoos are important for the conservation of endangered animals, and why some animals are now extinct and what that means. The children were amazingly behaved and were great representatives of Cromwell. 

At forest school we used natural dye to create some bunting. We had to hammer the leaves or flowers to get the dye out. 

 

9 June 2023

In reading this week, one group had lots of fun following the instructions in their book to draw cats, dog and trees. They read each step carefully to ensure they completed the drawings correctly.

At forest school, Mrs Jackson was really impressed with our understanding of what a habitat was. We enjoyed looking in different habitats to see what minibeasts we may find.   

 

26 May 2023

This week we completed our DT unit ‘chop, slice and mash’ by designing and making supermarket sandwiches. We thought about what ingredients would be healthy or unhealthy and then used the preparation skills we have been developing this term to prepare the ingredients and put the sandwiches together. We hope you thought they were delicious!

Thank-you for your ongoing support, providing ingredients for your child. 

 

19 May 2023

Year 1 have had a very busy week this week! Our English work this week has been focused on writing instructions. We received an exciting letter from the lost toys, inviting us to a party. We made bread sticks to eat at the party at forest school, and then wrote instructions so that others can make them too. 

On Friday, we continued our DT unit ‘chop, slice and mash’ by preparing healthy salads. We have been developing our food preparation skills including cutting and peeling. Thank-you for all your kind donations of fruit and veg.

At forest school this week we were very surprised to find a kitten! We made sure it was safe in the box, and then called the vets so it would be well looked after and hopefully be reunited with its mummy.

 

12 May 2023

We loved taking part in the art workshop organised by Chatteris museum. We made art deco tiles, using different materials. We enjoyed thinking about the different colours and how to make them bright and interesting.

We had so much fun at our coronation party. We loved dressing up and admiring each others costumes. We ate tasty treats and danced like kings and queens! We also wrote about what we would do if we were kings and queens for the day. 

We have been thinking about personal hygiene and keeping our bodies clean and healthy. We designed posters to show others what to do. 

We have come to the end of our unit of writing based around the story Toys In Space by Mini Grey. We wrote our own stories using a similar plot to the book, using our own characters.

 

 

28 April 2023

Year 1 loved taking part in a Speed Stacking workshop this week!

 

In science we have been learning about the parts of a plant. We dissected a plant and then had a go at labelling our own pictures. 

 

21 April 2023

Year 1 have been enjoying playing maths games to develop their maths skills. They particularly enjoyed playing ‘guess my number’ where they asked and answered mathematical questions such as ‘how many tens does it have?’ And ‘is your number odd or even?’.

At forest school, we enjoyed identifying different plants and creating beautiful still life drawings of plants using pastels. 

On Friday, we had a great time painting our recycled plastic bottle flowers, ready for the festival at Ferry Meadows in May. We would love to know if you go and spot our field of flowers! 

 

31 March 2023

We have been working hard to create weather collagraphs as part of our art learning this term. We learnt the term ‘motif’ and designed our own weather motif which we then printed using a range of textured materials. 

At forest school we enjoyed finishing the term by cooking bread on the fire to eat for our snack. We also had a fun Easter hunt!

 

24 March 2023

Year 1 have been learning about the weather as part of our science unit this term. At forest school we made wind socks. We thought about the strength and direction of the wind. 

10 March 2023

We have been developing our research skills in year one as part of our English learning. We researched different endangered and extinct animals, which we will use to write our own stories inspired by The Curious Case of the Missing Mammoth.

At forest school we have been building shelters and making hot chocolate to help us stay warm due to the cold weather! 

In art we have been using different materials to print with and comparing textures. 

 

24 February 2023

We have been cooking with Mrs Attwood over the past couple of weeks. We made pear crumble, developing our peeling, chopping and mixing skills. It was delicious!

At forest school we have been investigating seasonal changes as we move from winter to spring. We were looking for signs of spring in our forest school area.

In art, we have been using loose parts to create weather motifs.

 

10 February 2023

This week Year 1 have been working hard to build our own taxis as part of our Design and Technology learning. We learnt about axles, wheels and chassis and how they work together to create a vehicle. We compared different vehicles and thought about how they were similar and different. We then designed our own taxis and used a range of materials to build them.

 

We had to saw the axles to the right length and then work hard to join the different components together.

  

 

3 February 2023

Year 1 enjoyed making bird feeders by cutting and threading toast and hanging them in trees at forest school this week.

 

We also enjoyed using binoculars to look for different types of birds and mud painting!

 

27 January 2023

We have been enjoying making soup with Mrs Attwood. We have been developing our peeling, cutting and chopping skills while we prepared the vegetables.

In science, we have been investigating our senses. We thought about what body part we associated with each sense and then put our own senses to the test by listening to unknown sounds, describing the taste of different fruits and feeling unknown materials. 

 

At forest school we enjoyed roasting marshmallows and investigating owl pellets. 

We have also loved sharing some of our home learning with our friends. Lots of super science and exciting games!

 

13 January 2023

Year 1 have really enjoyed learning about maps this week. We have looked at globes, atlases and digital maps. We labelled maps which show the continents of the world and the countries of the United Kingdom, including capital cities. We also identified the equator and learnt that countries close to the equator are hotter than countries far away from the equator. 

 

 

 

In maths we have been exploring 2d and 3d shapes. We have enjoyed investigating whether 3d shapes can roll or stack and building our own 3d shapes using polydron.

 

16 December 2022

Year 1 enjoyed the winters weather at forest school this week! We spoke about staying safe when it is cold and observed how things look different when it is very frosty. Thank-you for your support in sending children with appropriate clothing during this cold spell! 

 

Mrs Jennings is so proud of everyone in year 1 for their amazing performance of Ralph the Reindeer on Tuesday. Thank-you for sending your children with their fantastic costumes and being such a wonderful, supportive audience!

 

9 December 2022

We have had another really busy week in year 1! We have been working extremely hard perfecting our Christmas performance ready to show you when you come to visit next week. We had our dress rehearsal, with some special visitors coming to watch.

We enjoyed taking part in a Santa Dash on Friday, where we spent time chatting with our friends and enjoying the sunny winter weather!

We also decorated our Christmas tree in our classroom this week. You might notice some special decorations hanging on there that we have worked very hard to create!

We have also been working hard in all of our lessons. In English, we have been writing some monster poetry and in maths we have been learning about subtraction.

 

25 November 2022

Year 1 have been so busy this week, we haven’t managed to take many photos at all!

We have been doing lots of writing, as we have come to the end of our unit on ‘Nibbles the Book Monster.’ Mrs Jennings and Mrs Jackson have been so impressed with our hard work and resilience.

We have also been working extremely hard perfecting our Christmas performance ready for when you can come to watch. We have loved singing our songs and have been working hard to follow instructions and work as part of a whole key stage team.

At forest school we enjoyed using our new outdoor loom to do some weaving using natural materials.

 

18 November 2022

This week was maths week! We enjoyed doing lots of fun maths activities including using our rekenreks, playing maths games with our friends and doing some counting for Pudsey Bear.

 

 

 

On Tuesday we were so excited to have a special visitor! We walked and talked with our friends and Pudsey Bear to celebrate Children In Need Day. 

At forest school we were very excited to whittle sticks and to toast marshmallows on the fire! It was trickier than usual to light the fire because of the damp weather.

On Friday we took part in the live mood booster for Children in Need. We loved this and wanted to do more!

 

11 November 2022

What an exciting time we had at forest school! Finn the dog came to visit, we enjoyed showing him what we get up to at forest school. We also enjoyed mud face painting and creating autumn crowns by collecting leaves and sticks. 

We also worked hard to use the hand drill to drill holes into confers and create conker necklaces! 

We had a ballet lesson with Miss Burgess. We enjoyed using the scarfs and moving and stretching our bodies in different ways to the music.

 

4 November 2022

This week in maths year 1 have been looking at addition. We have been writing fact families of addition number sentences for different combinations of numbers. 

We have been using oil pastels to create colourful firework drawings, using photos of real fireworks as inspiration. 

We enjoyed a very wet and muddy forest school!

 

We have loved learning independently and supporting our friends during our continuous provision time. 

 

21 October 2022

This week we have written letters to Oliver Jeffers as we enjoyed reading his story ‘Lost and Found’ this term. On the way we spotted signs of autumn and saw leaves changing colour, crunchy leaves and acorns. We also spoke lots about road safety and how we can keep safe when we are walking around Chatteris.

We have enjoyed exploring the new resources we have in our outdoor area. We have been working as a team, problem solving and enjoyed making up stories to act out.

 

 

 

 

 

On Friday we took part in a ‘friendship run’ and were great at encouraging and supporting our friends.

14 October 2022

This week in PSHE we have been talking about safety circles. We have been thinking about who the people are around us who are there to keep us safe at home, at school and in other places too. We then drew our safety circles, putting ourselves in the middle. 

 

In maths we have been learning about the part-whole model. We have been identifying parts and wholes and using counters to help us solve problems. 

Can you use the blank part-whole model to find different ways to make 8?

 

7 October 2022

We had a great time at forest school this week challenging ourselves with climbing the rope ladder and developing our fine motor skills by threading leaves to make leaf bunting. We have also been looking at seasonal changes and how things are changing as we begin to enter Autumn.

 

We enjoyed taking part in our first ‘Now Press Play’ experience of year 1. This experience focused on using capital letters and full stops.

We have been impressing the adults with our super colour mixing. We have been challenging ourselves to mix secondary colours to create pieces of art.

 

 

30 September 2022

Year one enjoyed using the glockenspiels in music this week. We learnt the notes C and D and practiced playing them in time with our music. 

 

In PE we have been transporting balls in different ways. We have been rolling, bouncing, throwing and kicking both on our own and with a partner.

We have been thinking about using our bodies with control so we throw or kick the ball the correct distance or height.  

 

23 September 2022

Another really busy week in year 1! Mrs Jennings and Mrs Jackson have been incredibly proud of how hard everyone has worked, particularly with their reading and phonics.

In Music, we have been thinking about how different pieces of music make us feel and we have been moving to the beat to try and find the pulse. We have also been warming up our faces ready to sing by stretching them and scrunching them up.

In PSHE we have been talking about how we can make others feel welcome in our school. We thought about what we like doing at school and how a new person in our class might feel on their first day.

In Art, we have been looking at pieces of artwork and responding to them by answering questions such as ‘How does it make you feel?’ and ‘What primary and secondary colours have been used?’

16 September 2022

What a great start we have made to Year 1! We have been enjoying our new class book, Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. The children have done some excellent writing and really impressed Mrs Jennings and Mrs Jackson with their independent working and super ideas.

We have started working on our independent learning challenge, which are exciting challenges that we can access when we’re not working with a grown up. These have included things such as colour mixing, sorting and investigating things that are magnetic so far.

At forest school, we enjoyed working with Mrs Jackson and Mrs Keel. We were able to use our upper body strength to swing and climb trees and were super at making friendship bracelets.

Blogs from Reception

15 July 2022

What an exciting week it has been in Reception!

On Wednesday, we went on our school trip to South Angle Farm. We had a fantastic time. We loved seeing and feeding some of the large animals such as sheep, llamas, alpacas, goats and pigs. 

 

We also got to hold and stroke some of the farms smaller animals; the rabbit was our favourite, its fur felt so soft.

 

We were very excited to meet some baby animals on the farm, piglets, kids and ducklings. We even took one of the kids for a walk! 

 

To finish our day at the farm we were introduced to some more exotic animals. We met Amber the bearded dragon, Princess Fluffy Boots the tarantula, the corn snake and Comet the tortoise.

 

On Friday, we spent the whole day in Forest School. We had a fantastic day playing and learning. We used tools to whittle sticks ready to toast marshmallows. Which were delicious!

 

We worked as a team to walk across the strap line, collected mini beasts to observe, cooked meatballs in the mud kitchen, made little log people friends for the fairies and just thoroughly enjoyed being out on a sunny day in the shade of the trees.

  

8 July 2022

We have been working hard this term to collect 20 blue smileys. Blue smileys are awarded when we go above and beyond what is expected. Mrs Macdonald was so proud of us during our sports day afternoon for showing good sportsmanship, team work, resilience and having fun together, she rewarded us with a super smiley and a trip to the local park.

We had so much fun,

Hanging

Balancing

Swinging

Spinning 

Zipping

Climbing

See Sawing!

 

1 July 2022

This week we have read Handa’s Surprise by Eileen Browne. The story is set in Kenya in Africa.

We found out about some of the animals that live in the wild in Kenya and which fruits are grown there.

We brought into school the different fruits from the story to try for ourselves in a fruit salad. We brought in mango, pineapple, guava, passion fruit, avocado, banana, orange and tangerines. First, we prepared the fruits by peeling and chopping and then put them together to make a fruit salad.

We then tasted the fruit for out mid-morning snack.

“I love pineapple, it’s so juicy”.

“I’ve never had guava, I think it’s nice”

“Delicious and yummy, I love it all but not the mango”.

“It’s too slimy, Yuk! I do not like avocado”.

“Banana is still my favourite”. 

We put some of the fruits into a basket like Handa and observed them closely to make observational drawings of the fruit. Mrs Riches was very impressed with our artistic skills 

 

 

 

 

 

24 June 2022

This week we have read All Are Welcome and have been learning that children live all around the world in every country, and some parts of their lives might be different to ours but others are similar. We have explored how everyone is unique and special, just like us.

 

We have also talked about animals around the world and identified features they have in common, where they might live and why. We found out about animals that live in Africa, the Arctic, Australasia, Asia, South America, North America, Antarctica and Europe.  

We held our sports afternoon this week. We worked together in our colour teams to win points. We had to take on all sorts of challenges to demonstrate our skills of running, jumping, throwing, kicking, striking and coordination. It was a lot of fun, well done to Blue Team who were this year’s winners. Mrs Riches was very proud that we worked together as a team by supporting each other, encouraging each other and praising each other for our efforts.

17 June 2022

This week has been all about ducks. We have patiently waited for 28 days for our eggs to hatch.

Our first duckling hatched on Sunday evening.

It is a very lively duckling, it likes to climb and sit on top of the heat lamp to see what’s going on and loves boiled eggs! We named it Dave.

The second duckling arrived on Tuesday morning. This duckling was exhausted after hatching and needed a long rest but was soon ready for lots of cuddles. This is Lily. 

Duckling number three had made a hole in its shell early on Tuesday morning. We watched it pecking and pushing its way out and it then it arrived while we were busy having our phonics lesson. This is Billy.

The fourth duckling hatched on Wednesday evening. It was a lovely surprise when we got to school on Thursday. This is Jerry,

The ducklings enjoyed a paddle to cool down in the heat this week. They splashed around and preened themselves.

While the ducklings enjoyed the sunshine, we painted portraits of them.  

We even took the ducklings to Forest School with us on Friday. They loved exploring a new environment with room to run around in.

 

10 June 2022

This half term our topic is The Big Wide World. We will find out about the global community to which we belong and explore how living things, communities and climates differ around the world.

This week we have shared the two stories We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and We’re Going on a Lion Hunt.

We looked the similarities and differences between the two stories including the characters and setting. It was a lot of fun re telling the story using the small world toys.

“Oh no! A river, a deep cold river. We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. We have to go through it. Splish, splash, splish splash”

We worked as a team to produce a map of the story We’re Going on a Lion Hunt.

Lots of fun was had learning all about doubling numbers. We found out that a double means two of the same amount added together. 

We had a lot of fun at Forest School going on a bear hunt. We went through the long grass, the squelchy mud, the deep dark forest, the tall pointy mountain and across the rickety bridge to the bear cave. We could not believe there was really a bear! Luckily, he was not scary and we made friends with him. He name is Barney. 

 

27 May 2022

This week we have been learning all about Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee.

We have found out lots of information about the Queen and how the jubilee is going to be celebrated in our local area and further afield.

In school, we painted portraits of Queen Elizabeth, which we are very proud of,

 

We have enjoyed lots of play outdoors including making afternoon tea and driving our London buses to visit the Queen at Buckingham Palace. 

 

We have been busy preparing for our school Jubilee party. We made cupcakes by reading the recipe, weighing out the ingredients, mixing them together and baking them. Once the cakes were cool, we mixed up some icing and decorated them. Union Jack flags and bunting were also painted. 

On Friday, we had our Jubilee party with Year 1. We came to school wearing red, white and blue and enjoyed dancing, singing and eating our Jubilee treats. 

 

To end our exciting week we were delighted that all our butterflies had emerged from their cocoons and released outside to fly free although some of them were reluctant to fly straight away. Many of our tadpoles have become frogs so were released back to a pond. 

 

20 May 2022

This week has been very exciting, as many awesome changes have occurred. Our caterpillars have now built their cocoons and we are eagerly awaiting for the butterflies to emerge.

Our tadpoles continue to grow and change. We have noticed their bodies have grown and changed colour and shape. We have observed them eating and can clearly see their eyes but most exciting of all some have grown back legs!

Outside in our garden the sunflower seeds are growing nicely and our beanstalks are beginning to grow taller. We are making sure they get plenty of water during the hot sunny weather.

We also have some new additions to our class to look after. We have six duck eggs, which we are hoping will hatch ducklings. The eggs are in an incubator to keep warm where they will stay until their hatching day in about four weeks’ time.

13 May 2022

This week has been all about snails. We have found out lots of interesting facts about snails.

We have explored where snails can be found in our environment and observed them closely to find out what they look like and how they move. 

 

We found out about an artist called Henri Matisse. He was a French artist known for his use of colour and shape. He made collages, which are pictures made using cut up bits of paper. He created apiece called ‘The Snail’. This inspired us to create our own Snail collages.

 

 

 

After learning how to use watercolours, we also created these beautiful snail paintings.

 

6 May 2022

This week we have been finding out how to make things grow. We know that plants need food from the earth, rain to drink, air to breathe and sun for light and warmth.

We followed some simple instructions to plant some giant sunflower seeds. First, we filled a pot with soil, then we put a seed in and covered it over and then we watered it.

 

Our apple seeds planted in the autumn are growing nicely and the bean seeds planted in March are beginning to grow stronger and taller. However, we have been most excited to see the conkers we planted in the autumn have also started to grow.

We noticed the horse chestnut tree at school has blossom on it now, so we observed it closely and then painted pictures of it.

 

We invited our parents and carers in to spend an afternoon with us to find out how we are learning to read and write using our phonics. It was a lot of fun enjoyed by all.

 

It was very exciting at Forest School this week. We found a bottle with a message in it. The message was from some fairies! They set us a challenge to create a garden outside their front door and to write back to them.

 

29 April 2022

This week Reception have been learning all about butterflies. We were very excited to receive some caterpillars that we can watch grow and change into butterflies. To help us learn all about the life cycle of a butterfly we have enjoyed reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

We found out that butterflies have symmetrical wings and explored making our own symmetrical butterflies using a variety of resources such as paints and loose parts.

 

 

We have continued this week focussing on numbers up to 20. Ordering the numbers, matching the correct number of items and understanding that the teen numbers are made up of 10 and some more.

At forest School, we continued our learning about the life cycle of a butterfly and used the natural resources to create symmetrical butterflies.

 

22 April 2022

This week Reception have been learning all about frogs. We have loved the story of Tadpoles Promise. Tadpole loves his rainbow friend, the caterpillar, and she tells him she loves everything about him. "Promise that you will never change," she says. But can tadpole keep his promise?

We have set up a ‘pond’ in our classroom with live tadpoles in it. We are going to look after the tadpoles and observe how they grow and change into frogs. We are very excited about this.

We wrote about the life cycle of a frog explaining how tadpoles grow and change in to frogs.

Our maths focus this week is numbers up to 20. We are focussing on building, identifying and ordering numbers to 20 using a range of resources.

We explored making shades of green using blue and yellow. We are very proud of our frog paintings.

At forest School, we observed many shades of green and created some frogs using natural resources found in the forest.

1 April 2022

Reception have been learning all about the season of spring. At Forest School, we found many signs spring. Primroses, daffodils and tulips were spotted as well as new buds on the plants and trees.

We picked some of the daffodils and brought them into the classroom to observe. We then used paint, pastels and pencils to create still life picture of them. Mrs Riches was very proud of our work.

We found out about Easter and made our own Easter cards and chocolate Easter nests. We melted chocolate and mixed in shredded wheat, we then put some of the mixture in a cup case, added some chocolate eggs and waited for it to set.

Sadly, this was Mrs Groves’ last week with us before she moves to Wales so we had a farewell party at Forest School to say goodbye. We had an Easter egg hunt, which was lots of fun and cooked chocolate filled roasted bananas on the fire, which tasted delicious. We will miss Mrs Groves very much but wish her all the best.

  

25 March 2022

The Gingerbread Man story has inspired our learning this week. 

We read many different versions of the story and talked about the similarities and differences, which led us to making up our own stories about the Gingerbread Man.

Making our own gingerbread people was a highlight. We followed the recipe to make a firm pastry mix and then used a rolling pin to roll it out. We then used a person shaped cutter to cut out the shapes and baked the gingerbread people biscuits. Once the biscuits were cool, we decorated them with icing and then enjoyed eating them, yummy! 

Even though we kept an eye on our Gingerbread men, it seems some ran away. We made ‘lost’ posters to try to find them before any of them were eaten.

 

As a special gift for Mother’s Day we gave our Mummy’s a gingerbread man with a card we made by bubble printing flowers.

  

18 March 2022

This week is British Science week, the theme this year is ‘Growth’. We have been reading Jack and the Beanstalk, which led us to wonder how beans grow. We planted our own bean seeds to try to grow our own beanstalk.

We put cotton wool inside a cup. Then slipped the bean seeds between the cotton wool and the cup and added a little water to the cotton wool. Now we have to wait.

 

 

We have also been learning about how we change, as we grow older. We cut and sorted out a range of people and sorted into groups of baby, toddler, child, teenager, adult and the elderly. We looked at photographs of ourselves when we were babies and talked about things that we can do now that we could not do as a toddler or a baby.

We visited the Secondary Science department this week. We did an experiment to find out about ink chromatography. Even though a felt tip pen will only write in one colour, the ink is actually made from a mixture of different coloured pigments. We put some paper with coloured felt tip dots in water and watched as the different coloured pigments separated.

On Friday it was Red Nose Day, we donated money to wear red and found out how our money can help children in Great Britain and in Africa who are not as fortunate as we are.

 

11 March 2022

Our Traditional story this week has been Goldilocks and the Three Bears. As well as focussing on the characters and the setting we have been retelling the story in our own words using the story basket.

We thought Goldilocks was very naughty and needed to apologise to the three bears for going into their house, eating Baby Bears porridge, breaking Baby Bears chair and sleeping in Baby Bears bed so we wrote letters to say sorry.

We wanted to try some porridge so like Mummy Bear we made our own porridge and made sure it was not too hot, not too cold but just right, yummy! 

In the creative area we have used the junk modelling materials to make beds for Goldilocks. We thought about our own beds to inspire us. We had to decide what type of bed we would make such as a cabin bed, bunk bed or a single bed, whether we would have a bed head and legs and what we would use for a pillow and covers.

 

 

4 March 2022

We have been very busy this week learning all about the traditional story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff, finding out about Shrove Tuesday and celebrating world book day.

 We have enjoyed listening to different versions of The Three Billy Goats Gruff and have been learning about the characters and the setting. We have been retelling the story, drawing our own trolls and writing a description of them.

 

Designing and making our own bridges has been a challenge this week. We had to make sure the bridge reached from one side of the river to the other and that it was tall enough for the troll to fit under.

 

We learnt that Shrove Tuesday is the last day before the period which Christians call Lent. It is the last chance to indulge yourself and use up all the foods that aren’t allowed in Lent. Pancakes are eaten because they contain fat, butter and eggs which are forbidden during lent. We made pancakes and enjoyed eating them with sugar, lemon and syrup, Yummy! 

In 2022, World Book Day is celebrating its 25th anniversary. World book day is to celebrate books and authors and promote reading for pleasure on World Book Day, and all-year round.

We came to school dressed as animal characters from a range of stories including The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Giraffe’s Can’t Dance and The Tiger Who Came to Tea. We enjoyed reading lots of stories, visited the school library and became authors and illustrators.

25 February 2022

We started our new topic this week ‘Once Upon a Time’. Our focus book this week is The Three Little Pigs.

We have enjoyed listening to different versions of the story and were very surprised to hear that in some versions the wolf actually eats the first and second little pigs! We have been developing our story telling skills by retelling the story in sequence in our own words using a variety of resources.  

 

 

In maths we have been focussing on the numbers up to 10. We have practised counting forwards and backwards and representing these numbers in different ways including using the ten frame to represent these numbers.

Outside we have been developing our team work. We used the blocks and other large loose parts to build a strong house to keep us safe from the big bad wolf. Mrs Riches was impressed with our design features to keep the wolf away, which included a telescope to keep a look out, a large pot of boiling water in the fire place, a drawbridge and shutters on the windows.

 

We have also been developing our fine motor skills using scissors to cut out shapes to create pigs, a straw house a stick house and a brick house. We then used these to retell the story of The Three Little Pigs. 

 

11 February 2022

Space has been an interest in Reception this week. We read the story How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers which generated lots of ideas of how we would catch our own star. 

We watched a video clip of the first moon landing and became engineers using our imagination to make and build our own rocket ships using the junk modelling materials. We also observed photographs of the moon and then painted pictures of it. 

 

 

In maths this week we have focussed on number six and enjoyed the challenge to find as many way as we could to make six. 

Lots of learning has taken place outside. We explored how we could make the cars drive as fast as they could down the slope. This involved lots of talking, planning, negotiating, thinking and laughing.

We created our own recipes in the mud kitchen and prepared a party. Lots of collaboration, creativity and fun was had. Cups of tea, cupcakes and a big birthday cake were on the menu, delicious!

 

4 February 2022

We have been celebrating the Chinese New Year this week. Chinese New Year festivities usher out the old year and is meant to bring luck and prosperity in the new one. Each year is named after an animal 2022 is the year of the tiger.

We made some Chinese lanterns that are seen as a wish for a bright future. They are usually red and gold as the Chinese believe red is a symbol of happiness and gold is a symbol of wealth.

 

28 January 2022

In Reception class this week we have been learning how important it is to clean our teeth. We know that cleaning our teeth twice a day will get rid of any food that is around our teeth and wash away any sugar and other things that will hurt our teeth.

We then practised brushing our teeth after Mrs Riches showed us how to do it properly.

We have been digging deeper this week finding different ways to make 5. We used five ducks and a pond and had to work out how many ducks went swimming.

Some of us took up the challenge to write down all the different ways to make 5. Mrs Riches was very impressed that we found them all. 

We had lots of fun with the blocks this week. We worked together to create some horses which we rode to the seaside and made sure they were fed plenty of grass.

 

 

21 January 2022

Snow and ice has been our focus this week.

As we haven’t had any snow or icy days this week we made our own ice by freezing water. We then explored the ice by using our senses.

“It’s freezing!” It’s melting away to water”, “The ice is getting smaller and my hands are wet and cold”, “It’s very hard, I can’t crack it”, “The warm on my hands is melting the ice”, “Look there’s water now”.

 

We then added warm water and salt to the ice to see what would happen.

We have been inspired to paint winter trees after observing the Grandmother tree at forest school. We noticed her branches were bare and glistening with frost.

During maths this week we have investigated ways to make 4 and 5. We played a target game to find the different ways which we then recorded.

  

14 January 2022

After finding out that penguins live in the Antarctic we wanted to find out more about them. We then recorded some of the facts we found out.

 

We have been measuring penguins using cubes to find out how tall they are. We then counted how many cubes tall the penguins were and recorded the numeral. 

We were also inspired to create our own penguin pictures by painting, collage and using our loose parts. 

 

 

17 December 2021

Another very busy week in Reception Class preparing for Christmas.

We have been learning all about Christingle which is a special church service often held during advent.

We have been making our own Christingles. You need an orange, four cocktail sticks, red ribbon, some sweets or raisins and a candle. 

Each part has a special meaning. The orange represents the world, the candle is the light of the world bringing hope, the red ribbon is God’s love for the world and the cocktail sticks and sweets represent God’s creations and the four seasons.

We held a special assembly for Christingle where we lit our candles and had time to think about how we can bring light to other people who might be feeling sad or lonely.

 

We have also been very proud of ourselves this week as we managed to collect 20 blue smileys. Throughout the autumn term we have been working together as a class to collect the blue Smileys. We have been awarded with blue smileys for going above and beyond what is expected. Smileys have been awarded for things such as showing kindness to others, using our initiative to tidy up, using good manners at all times and helping a friend. After much discussion we decided our reward would be to have a party.  

We made party hats to wear, planned party games and iced biscuits to eat as a party treat. It was a lot of fun!

 

We wish everyone a very happy, healthy Christmas and New Year.

10 December 2021

This week has been very exciting as we got to perform our Nativity show that we have been rehearsing for. We can’t wait for our family and friends to see the video of it. We feel very proud!

Other preparations for Christmas have also continued. We found out that people send Christmas cards to their family and friends to wish them a Merry Christmas so we made our own cards to give to our families.

We also found out that at Christmas people eat special food. So we made our own Christmas cakes. We weighed out all the ingredients, mixed them together and cooked them in the oven. We then decorated the cakes by adding icing and a sprig of holly. We can’t wait to taste them!

 

We have also made angels to decorate the top of a Christmas tree. These represent the angel Gabriel in the story of The First Christmas. We listened carefully to follow lots of instructions and practised our cutting skills to produce these beautiful angels.

Forest School was also Christmas themed this week. We used the saw and drill to make Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer tree decorations and Santa sticks.

 

 

 

3 December 2021

This week we have been finding out about the Festivals of Hanukkah and Christmas.

Hanukkah is the Jewish festival of light and lasts eight days which started on Sunday 28 November this year. Every year Jews remember the eight day festival and celebrate the miracle of oil by placing eight candles in a menorah and lighting one each evening.

One of the best known symbols of Hanukkah is the Dreidel. Spin the Dreidel is a popular game played during the Holiday. Players chocolate coins (gelt) as tokens. The player spins the dreidel. When the dreidel stops, the letter that is facing up decides the fate. It was lots of fun.

We have also started preparing for the celebration of Christmas. We read The First Christmas which tells the story of the birth of Jesus. We know that Christmas is celebrated on December 25^th every year and lots of people prepare for this celebration for example by putting up Christmas trees and decorating their homes.

During Maths this week we have focussed on one more and one less. We used Christmas baubles to add one more to the tree or take one away to find one less. 

Lots of acting, singing and dancing has also been happening this week as we prepare for our Nativity show next week. We can’t wait to share this with you, it’s going to be fabulous!

19 November 2021

We have been busy this week preparing for Children in Need. We donated money to come to school in our pyjamas! We also wanted to raise more money to support Children in Need. We talked about how the money raised will be used to support children less fortunate than us such as poorly children and their families, helping children stay safe and warm and giving children a safe place to have fun.

To raise more money we planned a cake sale. First of all we made cupcakes using the balance scales to measure out the ingredients. We then stirred the mixture, put it into cupcake cases and baked them in the oven. Once the cupcakes were cooked and cooled we decorated them with icing and sprinkles.

 

We designed posters and made invitations to advertise our cake sale. We set up our cake stall and sold our delicious cakes to our friends and teachers.

 

We also had a lot of fun making Pudsey masks, measuring the height of Pudsey’s friends, painting and cutting out Pudsey bears and practising our counting by adding the correct number of pom poms to Pudsey’s band.

 

We raised an amazing £78.85 from our cake sale!

12 November 2021

This week we found out that Remembrance Day is a special day in November where people wear a special symbol called a poppy. On Remembrance Day we remember people who have suffered and died in wars.

We made our own poppies and observed poppy paintings and photos which inspired us to paint our own poppy pictures and create poppy pictures using paper. We also used the loose parts to represent poppies in different ways.

 

On November 11 at 11 o’clock we all observed a two minutes silence to show our respect.

 

5 November 2021

In Reception this week we have been learning about the Festival of Diwali and Bonfire night.

Diwali is celebrated by Hindus in India and all around the world in October or November. It is also known as the festival of lights. We have made our own Diva lamps, painted Rangoli patterns, made Indian sweets and enjoyed learning a Diwali dance. This year Diwali started on 4 November.

 

 

Bonfire night is celebrated on 5 November. We learnt all about Guy Fawkes and how he tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. We practised our writing skills by using our phonic knowledge to describe what we could see and hear at a firework display.

We also created our own firework pictures and made firework rockets.

 

 

At forest school we had a fire which we sang bonfire themed songs around while we waited for our chocolate orange cake to cook in the fire. It was delicious!

 

 

22 October 2021

Pumpkins have been a focus in Reception this week. Jacks Supermarket kindly donated them to us.

We have explored the pumpkins by cutting them open and scooping them out. The pumpkins were soggy, wet, cold, mushy, squishy and smelly!

In maths we used the pumpkin seeds to explore the different compositions of numbers 3 and 4. We found out that there were many ways to make 3 and 4 such as 2+1=3, 1+2=3, 2+2=4 and 3+1=4.

Mrs ‘Witches’ helped us to create our own spells. We put lots of ingredients in to the cauldron such as a frog, ghost, pumpkin and a bat. Then we wrote down our spells using our phonic knowledge.

In the art area we explored colour mixing orange to paint pumpkins and collaged our own pumpkins.

 

15 October 2021

Autumn has been our focus this week. We have been collecting lots of autumn treasures such as beautiful red, orange, yellow and brown leaves, conkers, acorns and sycamore seeds. We have used these treasures to enhance our learning.

We have used the autumn treasures to develop our maths skills by counting sorting and matching. We have also enjoyed story telling in our woodland tuff tray using the forest animal puppets.

We found out that acorns grow on oak trees and conkers grow on horse chestnut trees. We wondered how these trees grow so Mrs Riches suggested we plant some conkers and acorns. She also told us we need to be very patient!

We loved reading the Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert this week. It inspired us to create our own leaf people using our autumn treasures. 

To remind us of how beautiful autumn trees and leaves are we did some leaf printing, leaf threading, leaf rubbing, made leaf confetti and created our own autumn trees by painting and printing. We are very proud of our autumn display.

 

8 October 2021

This week has been all about apples. We have found out that during the autumn apples and blackberries grow.  We used these to make an apple and blackberry crumble. We prepared the apples by peeling off the skin and chopping the apples up. We then put the apples and blackberries into a dish added the crumble and cooked it. It was delicious!

 

 

While preparing the apples for cooking we found lots of apple seeds. We planted some of these hoping we can grow our own apple tree.

We had enough apples to experiment with apple printing, which proved to be lots of fun! 

We finished our week off at forest school with our first fire. We learnt how to whittle sticks to make skewers and then toasted marshmallows over the fire and enjoyed with a cup of hot chocolate, delicious!

1 October 2021

This week we have shared the story The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas. We have talked about expressing our feelings and what makes us feel happy, sad, angry, scared and calm. We created our own monsters in the art area and then talked about how our monsters feel and why.

This week we have started learning letter sounds with the Phonic Fairy. We have focussed on the phonemes s, a, t and p this week enjoying the stories of ‘My Pet Snake’, The Big Sneeze, Tip Tap Dancing Cat and Pirate Pete.

In maths, we have been making comparisons between objects, finding the odd one out and comparing amounts and identifying more and fewer.

We have been on many adventures this week through our story telling using small world toys, role play, Mighty Writer and acting out stories scribed for us.

Forest school was all about the mud this week. We made mud faces, painted with mud and rolled down the hill in it!

24 September 2021  -  Making Friends