Unicorn Class Blog                    Term 1 Week 8              Week Commencing 21st October 2024

Wow, what an amazing busy term with lots of fun, creative learning and exploring. All the children have settled beautifully.  

This week children have enjoyed doing a range of autumn and Halloween activities.

We have enjoyed exploring the inside of pumpkins. We noticed that the seeds in pumpkins were a lot bigger than cress seeds, a different colour and when we took the seeds out of the pumpkin they felt very slimy and sticky. We used cauldrons to make slimy, bubbly potions. We design our own pumpkins using a range of collage materials. We had our own straw so we could bubble paint, we loved observing the bubbles grow and pop. Some of us made cauldron pictures. There was lots of excitement and talk about the Halloween disco and  in the home corner this week we enjoyed dressing up as witches, wizards, skeletons and princesses. We worked out how to put the clothes on and some of us wanted to make sparkling wands which we used in our imaginative play. We have loved listening to Winnie the witch stories, funny bones and looking at and discussing pictures and information in a nonfiction book about our bodies. We particularly liked looking at a picture of the human skeleton, we were fascinated by how many bones were in our bodies.

We used our fine motor skills to collect up spiders in a big web using tweezers. We have been using the small world and construction to make stables, castles and vehicles.

Our maths focus this week has been practising saying one number for each item in order. We have been playing games and songs with counting opportunities. This has included games using dice and number songs. ‘One elephant came out to play’ has been a popular number counting song we have been learning. 

During phonics we have been using rhythm, rhyme and using general sound discrimination. There have been lots of noticing rhyming words and children using real and made up rhyming words.

We loved going to the hall and playing parachute games such as ‘Cat and Mouse’ and ‘Sharks’, we listened very carefully to and followed the instructions for each game.

During Forest School we loved having a real fire and using very long sticks to cook marshmallows on it. We listened very carefully to the instructions to keep ourselves safe. We loved watching the flames flicker, dance and see what colours we noticed. We also enjoyed using the swings and hammocks, using sticks and water to draw pictures, play musical instruments and some of us enjoyed playing hide and seek.

In the garden we have enjoyed collecting autumn leaves to make pretend fires, nests and big piles of leaves to jump into. Outside we also enjoyed using the chalks to make pictures. Using the bikes and scooters, Mrs Fenwick and Zoe have been very impressed with how we have been trying to put our own helmets on, off and able to ask for help if needed. 

After half term our topic is ‘What is a Celebration? On the first week back we will be having a focus on Diwali and fireworks. If you have any empty kitchen roll tubes please can you bring these in.

I hope you all have a lovely, restful half term and look forward to seeing you after half term for more exciting exploring.

Best wishes

Mrs Fenwick