Autumn 2

Week 1 and 2

A warm welcome back to our children and families as we enter our second half term. This half term will be a busy one as we are learning all about different celebrations and festivals!

These past couple of weeks we have begun reading books- some children have books with words in them and others have wordless stories. We have been reading 3 times every week and learning to read three letter words! We are also practicing reading with expression and working on our comprehension skills too.

We have also learnt about two different festivals. First, we spent time learning about Bonfire Night! We read a story called ‘Sparks in the Sky’. We learnt lots of new vocabulary and applied this in our speaking skills. We made firework pictures using oil pastels and at the end of the week we built our own pretend bonfire and toasted some marshmallows with some videos of fireworks on the board!

Our second festival to learn about was Diwali! We read the story ‘Dipal’s Diwali’ and learnt lots of Diwali vocabulary, which the children are implementing during the day as they complete activities. The children have enjoyed making diya lamps from paper plates and reading Diwali books in the reading area. We chalked rangoli patterns outside on the floor and we also made our own diya lamps using air dry clay! It has been a very busy couple of weeks and we are looking forward to finding out more about different festivals!

Week 3 and 4

The past couple of weeks we have continued learning about different festivals. We learnt about Hanukkah which we found very interesting! We made some menorahs using different media and materials.  We are also learning lots in phonics- our writing is getting much stronger and we are writing both CVC words and even some simple captions! The weather turned really cold and we enjoyed exploring the changes around us and the ice that we found in the outdoor area. This created lots of lovely science vocabulary such as melting, freezing and tons of “I wonder” questions! We also learnt about Advent and created two Advent wreaths which we took to church to be blessed by Father G! We enjoyed lighting our first Advent candle and decorating the Christmas tree together!