We have also been watching for changes in the Season. We had great fun on our Autumnal walks finding conkers and leaves of all different colours. We have finger painted trees and used our hand prints to make spiky hedgehogs.

We have been drawing around each other and measuring our bodies using ‘non standard measures.’

We have been using our problem solving skills to build houses for our animals using bricks.

We have been learning the names and properties of 2D shapes. The shapes were hiding in ‘goo!’

Communication, Language and Literacy.

We love to write in Hippo class.

Sometimes we write on white boards.

Or write down orders in our busy role play cafe!

We like to write in shaving foam too!

And on paper of course!

We have been learning to read. We learn a new phoneme (letter sound) every day.

We do guided activities every day to help us to apply the phonics we have learnt.

We use magnetic letters to help us segment words for spelling.

We work in small groups to play matching games, reading words and matching them to pictures.

We build our vocabularies and practise story telling using our ‘small world’ jungle.

We have been working on our speaking and listening skills too.

We tasted fruits and talked about our likes and dislikes.

We have been feeling objects and using describing words to talk about the texture.

And taking part in lots of role play activities.

Knowledge and Understanding of the World.

We are eager and excited to learn about the world around us.

We look after our garden by watering the plants and flowers.

We have been exploring movement and forces.

And discovering the signs of Autumn.

Personal, Social and Emotional development.

We wash our hands and eat our snack in our classroom. When we wash up our cups and plates for our friends.

We work together to complete a task and celebrate our achievements.

Physical development.

We gain balance, co-ordination and confidence by using the bikes and scooters outside.

We love to be active!

Creative Development

We make our ideas come to life!

Panther Class is in the cabin on the left. We have Panther as our class pet.

Miss Curtis is the class teacher.

Mrs Betts is the Teaching Assistant every morning.

Our topic in September was ‘My World’, where the children found out about themselves and how they fit into the great big world around them. The topic was chosen from the International Primary Curriculum and covered learning in Art, History, ICT, PE and Science.

Here are some photos taken during our WOW Day in September. The children took part in a range of art activities and parents were invited to join in the fun!

Our topic the first half of term was “My World”. We have been working very hard learning things about ourselves and others.

It was very exciting when we had a WOW! day to start off our topic. We did lots of art work like drawing and collaging our portraits and took portrait photos of each other. We also had an artist in to work with the whole school (Heather Prince) . We felt-tipped black and white photos of ourselves in the style of Andy Warhol then painted a background for two large boards to hang in our hall! Look at our photos:

This half term we are doing a topic called “Stories” where we will be looking at stories, story telling and will be making our very own story boxes. Watch this space for our work!

In Leopard Class it is very important to us that we are all happy and calm so that we are ready to learn.

To achieve this we do several things:

Sunshine Shower:

When we are feeling sad we pretend to wash away all our worries. We can also do this without the shower by brushing off bad feelings and throwing them in the bin – or throwing/kicking them away.

7/11 Breathing:

We breathe in for the count of 7 and out for the count of 11. This helps us to stay calm or clears our minds so that we are ready to learn! (It’s great for adults too!).

Tapping:

We tap on the fleshy part of our fist and say: “Even though…(eg. I am feeling angry)…I’m still a lovable boy/girl.” It sounds weird but it really helps us to feel calm!

Magic button:

When we are feeling happy we squeeze our finger and thumb together to “store” our happy feeling. Then when we have lots of good feelings stored we can use it when we are feeling a little sad by squeezing our finger and thumb together. This will remind us of the happy feeling. It’s like when you hear a piece of music or smell a certain smell and it reminds you of that time and you feel the way you felt then!

Feelings strip:

We give our feelings a number from 1-10. If we are feeling sad other children in the class or the adults can help us get further up the feelings strip. We also use it when people have made us feel happy – we tell them where we are!

We have a hairdressers role play area in our classroom and look who came to visit for a new hair do!

We have been reading The Owl Babies. We have made our own owl babies using lots of different materials. Look how fluffy they are!

We have two class Lions and they watch the children all day to see who has been working hard. They then choose someone to take them home. A diary tells us about their adventures.