Week 8

What a wonderful final week we had together before our first half term break! We had a visit from Ken and Ian at Open Box. They helped us to use our imaginations, play make believe and even re-tell The Gigantic Turnip with our friends.

Our salt dough leaves finally dried! So we painted them using different autumn colours. We used green (for evergreen leaves), red, orange and yellow paint. They look beautiful.

In RE this week we thought about different things that make us special. We thought about our own likes and dislikes as well as what makes us unique. We learned the work ‘Christian’ and found out that Christians believe that God made the world. We learned about churches and thought about why the church is a special place for Christians. We also learned lots about harvest time. Our favourite activity was drawing a self portrait!

Week 7

We learned the last graphemes and tricky word for this half term this week. They were h, b, f, l and ‘the’. We have learned 20 graphemes and 3 tricky words so far, and we’re getting more and more confident with our phonics routines every day. Our favourite part of each phonics lesson is when we get to have a go at writing a new grapheme. We always try our best at this, even when it’s hard!

We’re beginning to have fun with phonics more and more during discovery time, too. This week some of us played a game with the grapheme mats. We picked a grapheme and then challenged each other to find things beginning with that sound. Some of us had a go at reading words and matching them to pictures as well.

In Outdoor Explorers this week we learned all about squirrels and found out that they live in nests in trees. These nests are called dreys and look very similar to birds nests. We really enjoyed going onto the field to see if we could spot any dreys in the trees.

We’ve also been learning a lot about litter and recycling. We watched a video that showed us where our rubbish goes after we’ve thrown it away and talked about how important it is to make sure that all of our rubbish goes into bins and not on the floor. We also thought about what materials we can recycle. We made special labels for our bins to help us remember which items go where. We explored what different things we can make with junk, too.

In maths we have been practising matching numerals to amounts. We used a five-frame for the first time and realised that it helped us to see how many counters we had really easily. We worked with our friends to pick a numeral card and then put that many counters into our five-frame.

Later on in the week we really enjoyed mixing our new PE skills with our number knowledge! We read numerals and then had a go at throwing that many bean bags into hoops. 

Week 6

In phonics this week we learned ck, e, u and r. We learned that ck is called a digraph and that it is two letters that make one sound. By the end of the week we were getting really good at remembering this.

We started Drawing Club this week, too. In Drawing Club we read a book, listen to a story or watch an animation and then draw and write in response. This week’s book was Not Now Bernard. We had lots of fun drawing monsters, houses, rocket ships, vacuum cleaners and disgusting ice creams! Some of us even managed to draw magic symbols, letters or words to make our pictures come to life.

In maths we have been learning about the composition of numbers. It’s really important that we develop a deep understanding of smaller numbers and how they can be made and represented before we move on to bigger ones. This week we focussed on the number 4. We positioned spots in different ways and noticed that the number never changed, even when the spots were in different positions. We subitised (found the amount without counting) amounts of objects up to 4 and thought about how many ways we could show these numbers on our fingers. We also consolidated our learning from last week by making more collections of 2 and 3.

In Outdoor Explorers we learned about an artist called Andy Goldsworthy. He looks at different shapes that can be found in nature and then creates artwork using natural materials, such as stones, leaves, grass and sticks. After enjoying some of his artwork we went outside to try and collect our own natural materials to make pictures with.

We have been learning about different types of trees in Dolphins Class, so this week we made salt dough together and cut the dough into the shapes of different leaves. We used oak, beech and sycamore leaf-shaped cutters and then decorated them with tools. We can’t wait to paint them next week.

We are so lucky to have been gifted a brand new mud kitchen and sand pit by some very generous parents! The children have loved using these new resources as well as our usual favourites during discovery time. We’re really starting to get the hang of playing creatively during this time, working together, problem solving and forming positive relationships with new friends. It’s wonderful to see some of our adult-led learning creeping in, too!

Week 5

We’ve had another busy week in Dolphins Class. In phonics we learned four new graphemes and practised reading our first tricky word ‘is’. We started guided reading lessons this week, too. Every day we took it in turns to read with an adult in a small group. We will do this every week from now on.

In maths we learned about repeating patterns and had a go at making our own patterns in different ways. We used blocks, connecting shapes, paint and fruit. By the end of the week we were all experts!

In music we read Rosie’s Walk and matched different instruments to the accidents the fox has in the story. In PSHE we read a story about Harold the Giraffe and talked about how we are all similar in some ways and different in others. It’s good to be different!

In PE on Monday we continued to experiment with ways of using and controlling bean bags. We had another go at balancing them on different parts of our bodies and then tried to throw them into a hoop target. After that, we played a game of ‘sharks’!

In Outdoor Explorers on Tuesday we thought about the four seasons and learned about the signs of Autumn. We talked about different types of trees and learned the words ‘evergreen’ and ‘deciduous’. We looked at pictures of animals and found out that some hibernate or migrate in the colder months and then wake up or return when the weather starts to warm up again. Then we went onto the field and did an Autumn hunt - we found lots of brown, yellow and red leaves and even some spider webs!

On Thursday we visited the church for the first time and enjoyed singing songs at our Harvest service. It was so exciting to walk there with the rest of the school and celebrate with our grown ups. Thank you so much to everyone who was able to join us and for your generous donations for the food bank.

Week 4

This week we continued to learn new phonemes in our daily phonics lessons. We practised the phonemes from last week as well as learning i, n, m and d. It’s been really fun for us to start to see how these sounds go together to make words. Some of us used our new knowledge to draw treasure maps and write magical words to make the grown-ups fall asleep!

In maths we have been teaching our friend Leo the Lion how to count. We reminded him of the three rules of counting: 1. Touch each object only once, 2. Say the numbers in order, and 3. The last number you say is how many you have.

We used these rules throughout the week to count objects (big and small) and sounds. We also thought about the words bigger & smaller, more & fewer. We made towers of 3 and then made towers bigger and smaller than 3. We read A Squash and A Squeeze and talked about how the numbers were getting bigger as the lady was adding more animals to her house, and smaller as she took them out again.

On Wednesday we had our first music lesson! We learned some of the routines we follow in music: the welcome song, the choosing an instrument song, and when to play and stop. We loved listening to the different sounds the instruments make and having a go at playing some of them.

On Monday we did PE for the first time. We enjoyed moving around the hall in different directions, being careful not to bump into each other. Then we experimented with bean bags by balancing them on our bodies in different ways. We even had a go at throwing them upwards and forwards.

In Well-being time we met Drew and Doodle! We read the story ‘Drew Feels Good’ and talked about how we can read body language and facial expressions to understand how someone is feeling. We learned that we can make ourselves feel confident by saying kind things whilst looking in a mirror. This is called the ‘Mirror, Mirror’ trick. We had a go at complimenting ourselves and felt amazing afterwards!

Week 3

This was our first full week together all day, every day! We have started to understand the routine of a school day really well.

We had our first maths lessons this week. We have been focussing on counting objects, making sure that we touch or move each object once to make sure that we don’t make any mistakes. We read a story called The Button Box and enjoyed counting out our own buttons and sorting them in different ways. On Wednesday we read ‘Simon Sock’ and counted out and sorted socks into pairs. We’ve also met the Numberblocks and helped them with their spotty patterns!

We also started to learn phonemes and graphemes in phonics. We have learned s, a, t and p and really enjoyed having a go at writing these on whiteboards each day. It’s very tricky, but all of us have been trying our best.

In Circle Time we thought about how we can keep our classroom a happy and safe environment for everyone. We talked about words and actions that might make us feel sad and then decided what the opposite would look like. Everyone then stuck a special star onto our list to help us remember what we all need to do each day to help each other stay happy in school. 
Afterwards, we read a story called ‘Have you filled a bucket today?’ and learned how we can fill each others buckets up by being kind, loving and thoughtful.

This half term, we will be learning all about our surroundings. We have already learned a lot about the different places inside our classroom and school. This week we learned about the different places immediately surrounding our school. We talked about Catherington being a village and then went outside to see what lies outside our school gates. We saw the Catherington Wheel, the pond and the cemetery, and talked about the church just beyond. Then we waved at the Pre-school adults just over the hedge! On the field, we noticed a field with horses and sheep in it and the car park and pub down at the bottom.

After all of that learning we needed a snack and a play with our friends.

In Discovery Time, we have been finding out more about each other and making new friends by sharing our summer scrapbooks and finding out how we are similar and different to each other. We read The Family Book and talked about the different people in our own families. We have been playing pretend families in our home corner and with our dolls house and drawing pictures of people who are special to us. We’ve made family meals in the mud kitchen, too.

It’s been an exciting and busy week - no wonder we’re all ready for a rest!

Weeks 1 & 2

What an exciting two weeks we’ve had in Dolphins Class! During week 1 myself and Miss Willet visited all of the children at home to get to know them better. The children then came to school in the afternoons so that they could start to experience what it’s like to be at school. Thank you to all of the children and parents for welcoming us so kindly into your homes - we hope you enjoyed spending this quality time with us as much as we did!

This week we spent even more time at school and ended the week with a full day together. Our focus this week has been on learning our daily routines, getting to know each other and building meaningful relationships with the grown-ups in our classroom. We’ve had such a lovely time together, I can’t wait to do it all again next week!