Autumn 1 

25.09.2023

Welcome to our children and their families! 

This is a huge time of change and the children are learning about themselves, each other and working together. They are busy exploring areas and learning new skills!

We have begun to learn about things that God has made in our wonderful world focusing on fruit and plants. The children have looked at, discussed and tasted different fruits; created flowers and leaves using hand prints; and they have been on a walk to see if they can spot plants and trees using identification cards to see what they are.

The children have taken an interest in the story- ‘Shark in the Park’. We have talked about our own experiences of going to the park and what we might find. We have looked at Conkers (Horse Chestnuts) and we have extended by introducing Mint seeds- these are tiny in comparison!

The children have each planted a conker and sown some Mint seeds. The children were really good at listening to and following instructions to plant and sow! Together we will look after them and watch them grow.

We have marked the date on our calendar- I wonder how long this will take…?

We have introduced music time. This will help support phonic development through listening to and identifying sounds that are the same; quiet and loud sounds; recreate patterns of sounds; and learn about our voices and how we make sounds including mouth movements.

9.10.2023

To celebrate Black History Month, this week we have been reading the story of ‘Coming to England’ by Floella Benjamin. 

In RE we have continued our learning about all the wonderful things God has made. This week we have learnt that God made us. We are all different and special and there is only one of us!! We have thought about what makes us, us and the children have had a go at making a representation of themselves.

The children have discovered that the Horse Chestnuts that we planted have been disturbed and all of the ones in our large tub are missing! Mrs McMorland had seen a squirrel carrying one off!!

Together we have thought about why this happened...”They are hungry???”

We then remembered that God had asked us to look after his wonderful world and decided that we could leave some food out for the wildlife.

The children have enjoyed our outdoor sandpit and have regularly used it to create an Ice-cream shop. Today we extended this using a till and real money. The children explored the money and began to talk about the differences in colour and size and we introduced value. The children helped to devise a menu and price list- writing this for everyone to see. We set up a till and modelled what to do- the children were delighted when they saw we had real ice-cream! They concentrated well and when they needed to pay they had a go at linking the numeral to quantity- 3p = 3 coins. The children also demonstrated great listening and amicable turn taking.

16.10.23

Over the past couple of weeks we have been recognising the change in Seasons. The children are becoming superstars at putting their own coats on and Wellington boots to splash in the cold water puddles.
We also noticed that the world around us is looking different. The leaves are falling. We went on a short walk to the school grounds and found some leaves that had fallen and took them back to nursery for our investigation station.

We learnt that some leaves change colour and fall in autumn as they are getting ready to “sleep” for the winter storing their energy for spring. We also learnt that not much food grows now and the last harvests are being made. Most of which are squashes and pumpkins!

Children experimented with colour mixing, identifying the autumnal colours and how to make them before designing their own autumn trees!

In RE we continue to learn about God and all he made for us, this week particular focus on how much God loved us and always will. We celebrated this by making love hearts to fill our altar with and linking our learning in RE with a story called guess how much I love you.

We have begun early number work and the children have been introduced to the concept of subitising and recognising arrangements of objects.

Children are beginning to work on early phonics skills in the form of listening games and music.

We have begun learning about black history Month by focusing on Floella Benjamin and her journey to Britain through a story book. We also celebrated other famous black people. Recognising how important it is to treat everyone we meet with respect and kindness.

Well done everyone!!