Autumn Term

We are very pleased with how well our new children have settled this term and adjusted to their new learning environment. We would like to say a big thankyou to all the group up's who have supported us in helping their children settling during this worrying period we all find ourselves in. It's been strange not having the close contact and communication with parents we are used to but I hope that you are finding the dojo app useful and informative?

 

We started off our learning this term by looking at the book 'The Colour Monster'. This really helped the children to understand different emotions and validate their feelings. Starting school can be both very exciting and very scary at the same time. The Colour Monster was a gentle way to introduce labeling our emotions and the children produced some fantastic artwork.

Our topic was 'If you go down to the woods' where we have been learning about all things Autumn.  We started off by exploring our community by taking a walk to Balker's Park. Here we went on a nature trail through the woods, collected conkers and used our listening ears to listen to the sounds of nature all around us.

This then led to the children producing some wonderful collages using the natural materials we found on our walk.

We also had a very special visitor in our outdoor play space. Harry the hedgehog came to visit us. We gently handled him to check he was ok before building him his own hedgehog house at the top of our garden near the hedges for him to keep safe.

To bring our topic to life our emersive learning area was set up as Goldilocks and the three bears cottage. This area helped the children learn the concept of big and little. We then moved on to naming the size of the pumkin's, not wanting to waste these we made bread and pumpkin soup. We talked about how the ingredients mix together and how the properties of the mixture changes when it goes into the hot oven.

 

As a school we all took part in 'The Flock' project. The children each painted their own wooden bird which was displayed on the east front lawn of Wentworth Woodhouse. Each small bird is a symbol of freedom and marks how people pulled together in the covid-19 crisis. 

Painting the birds inspired the children to look for birds in our school garden which sparked a discussion about what foods birds eat. We talked about how the weather affects birds and that they fly off to warmer countries at this time of year. As an activity we made a bird feeder for the children to take home to hang in their gardens so the birds do not go hungry and they have enough energy to make their long journey.

 

To encourage our children to be more independent we have been encouraging them to take off their own shoes and put their wellies on to go out to play, something that we will be doing lots over the next few months as we explore our outside area in all weathers.

 

We are really looking forward to our next topic 'sparkle and shine' as we take a look at the colours of the fireworks in the night sky and prepare for our Christmas festivities. The glitter is already out of the cupboard!