The first week back after half term was a roaring success and the children loved learning all about dinosaurs.  They really enjoyed using their fine motor skills to make dinosaur masks and then used them to role play stories with their friends. The children demonstrated great understanding of the different dinosaur diets when they discovered what herbivores, carnivores and omnivores eat. They did a great job at using their phonics to give dinosaurs real names and describe them in their books. They even posted letters to the Terrifying T-Rex from ‘Dear Dinosaur’. We also made our very own frozen dinosaur eggs and had so much fun making them hatch in the water tray. The children were amazed as they melted in front of their eyes.             

Next we embraced looking at different cultures and religions through the celebration of Diwali. The children enjoyed exploring the ways in which Hindus celebrate the festival of light. We read the story of ‘Rama and Sita’ and the children made their own clay Diya’s just like the ones that lined the streets to welcome Rama and Sita home. They enthusiastically got their hands messy and moulded their Diya’s perfectly, finishing them off with lovely patterns. They experimented with lots of different colours and materials to make Rangoli patterns inside and outside.

Then all of a sudden the classroom became a jungle and the children got out their binoculars to search for African animals. As they went on safari they discovered the natural habitats for lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes and many more.   They made lots of lovely animal finger puppets and used them to tell the story of ‘The Ugly Five’ in their very own puppet theatre. On the painting table the children produced some amazing pictures of their favourite animals too.

  The last two weeks we entered the magical world of Princesses, wizards, dragons and knights. The children really enjoyed reading ‘The Princess and The Wizard’ and this inspired them to write their own powerful potions. They came up with incredible invisible potions, ones that turned people into unicorns and dangerous fire potions. The children loved becoming wizards themselves and bringing these potions to life mixing snakes (grass), fairy dust (sand) and snails (rocks) in the tuff spots outside and bubbles, paints and glitter in the water tray inside to cast their spells. The Knights then arrived to restore order in the classroom and slay the dragons with the fantastic shields and armour they made in the junk modelling area. Although the children quickly learnt that Zog was not a dragon that needed to be slayed as he was the friendliest dragon of them all. The children loved becoming Zog in our hot seating game and wrote all about who they would give their gold stars. You will be pleased to hear mums and dads your names were mentioned a lot as you help them so much and they love your to pieces, their words!

 

We really can’t believe that autumn term is already over but cannot wait for all our spring adventures to start in January. We have enjoyed every minute of this term and loved getting to know your children and see their personalities shine as their confidence has grown every week. We could not be prouder of the progress they have made, all the fabulous work they have produced and know they will keep progressing as the year develops.

Have a wonderful Christmas everybody, stay safe and have lots of fun creating magical family memories together.

Mrs Hobley, Mrs Cole, Mrs Hillsdon, Mrs Potter, Mrs Shirran and Miss Wilmot