Unicorn Class Blog                     Term 3 Week 1                         Week Commencing 8th January 2024

All the children sound like they have had a wonderful Christmas. Children are settling back into school routines and we are lucky to have new starters who are settling in, building relationships and learning new routines quickly.

 We have been discussing what foods keep us healthy. We had great responses from children such as; eating fruit and vegetables keeps us healthy, potatoes are a vegetable and they are healthy, apples, do not eat lots of sweets and chocolate. We had a selection of foods, some that are healthy, that we should eat more of and some that are less healthy and eat less of. We worked together to organise them into hoops. The healthy food went into the green hoop and the less healthy went into the red hoop. 

Some children chose to explore and look for food in the home corner that they could sort into the hoops. Some of us chose to play being a family, making up healthy packed lunches and feeding babies milk whilst others chose to cut out different foods from a sheet, sort them into healthy and less healthy and stick them on the red or green rectangle.

We made our own sandwich for snack, we used a knife to spread and cut with. Some of us found spreading and cutting with a knife challenging but kept trying and with support was then able to do it. We have also been very carefully pouring our own drinks at snack time.

During Forest school we enjoyed doing more exploring this week. We were fascinated by the water that had turned into ice in the bun tins, the top of the saucepans and big buckets. We were amazed that we were able to tip the saucepan upside down and the frozen water stopped the water underneath spilling out. We enjoyed working out how to get a potato out from under the ice, we were able to use a strong stick to make a hole. We enjoyed cracking the ice using strong sticks. 

We were interested to go and see the big squelchy muddy puddle that we had enjoyed exploring before the Christmas holidays. We noticed that the water had gone and it had left very hard dark brown bumpy mud. 

Libby, our Forest School lead, had made a fire. We were interested in watching the fire and good at following the safety instructions around the fire. The fire kept us warm and cosy during our snack time and we enjoyed fresh bread that had been cooked on the fire. When some of our gloves got wet because of the melting ice and the water underneath the ice we were able to put them on the bench in front of the fire and they soon dried. 

We enjoyed using playdough, using the hammock and swings, making dens and playing hide and seek.

We enjoyed exploring water that had been put into balloons and then the freezer. We noticed that once they came out of the freezer, the rubber from the balloons had been removed, the water had turned to ice and it was very hard. Inside we discovered some cracks, bubbles and spikes in some of the ice that were making patterns. We used the pipettes to collect and squeeze coloured water over the ice, some of the coloured water made patterns in the ice. We were keen to use tools to crack the ice. We noticed that the ice was getting smaller and was also melting because it was warm inside the classroom. When we sprayed hot water over them they melted even quicker.

We have loved using the car mats with different vehicles. We have been doing good problem solving, turn taking, sharing and visiting different places. We enjoyed taking turns rolling cars down the ramp which was made from a Duplo board and blocks.

Whilst playing with the sand we enjoyed using the vehicles to move sand, pretending that the sand was food and drink for the ponies and giving the small teddies sand baths in shells. The teddies also got a bath in the water tray, we noticed that they floated even when they were dropped in and water was poured over them. 

Benjamin Bear was feeling cold over the winter so we had a look at a selection of materials to see what one we thought would be best to keep Benjamin Bear warm. We enjoyed taking turns to look and feel a range of materials and say what one we thought would be best to make a coat, some children choose a material and other items to keep teddy warm such as boots and gloves.

We have enjoyed using the blocks and bricks to make buildings from the photographs.

Outside we have enjoyed trying to throw soft fluffy and smooth hard fake snowballs into hoops on the grounds, in the air and into other targets. Riding the bikes, playing hide and seek, hopscotch, using chalks to draw pictures, climbing on the climbing frame, balancing, jumping forwards, backwards and off small heights such as the construction blocks, stepping stones and climbing frame.

We have shared and discussed a range of wintery books this week. After listening to ‘The Snow King’, there was great excitement when we noticed it was snowing outside. Very small flakes of snow were floating down like in the story. We wondered whether we would be able to make a snowman out of snow but we were unable to because it melted very quickly once it touched the ground. Outside we made a cosy den using pegs and material and then enjoyed snuggling up inside to share looking at and discussing different books with each other. 

On Monday we were discussing what weather we may see in winter. The recent storms and floods they had seen were on their minds and discussed. We also discussed that when we had our winter in England and it was colder some other countries were warm. We enjoyed looking at a variety of winter pictures, one of them reminded Nolan of a sunrise he had seen in his car. We used collage materials and paint to make wintery scenes. Some of us made snowmen and snowball pictures.

There was great excitement this week when a robin came into our classroom whilst the children were outside. Although the children were excited they were very kind, caring and respectful to the robin, as they came back  inside quietly and stood back so that they could see the bird but did not scare it. 

There was also a robin that came to see what we were doing at Forest School. We recognised that it was a robin again because of the bright orange feathers on its breast and light brown feathers on its back.

During maths we played ‘Snowball subitising’ where they had to say quickly how many scattered snowballs up to 3 they could see without counting. We played ‘Snowball drop’ Snow balls are dropped and children need to say what they see and we have been singing different number songs.

During phonics we have continued to share a range of rhyming books, children have been encouraged to point out rhyming words, finish the rhyming word, find rhyming pairs and continue rhyming strings. In Hen’s Pens, the hen loved making patterns with her felt tips, we have also had some children loving making patterns using felt tips. We also looked at winter pictures and were encouraged to clap out the syllables and hear initial sounds. We have also been continuing to practise writing our names in fake snow and on our pictures.

This coming week we will be continuing with our winter topic, we will be making bird feeders, binoculars and looking at what birds we can spot. I wonder if we get to see the robin again and whether they like our bird food.

If you have any kitchen tubes or empty yoghurt pots please can you bring them in.  

Please can you also remember to bring hats and gloves to school.

Have a lovely weekend and I look forward to seeing you all next week for more exploring.

Best wishes

Mrs Fenwick