Beauty and the beast

We walked through our town to Mansfield Palace theatre. We watched ‘Beauty and the beast.’ On Thursday, we shared our photographs from our visit and retold our experiences.

• What was your favourite part?
• What did you see on the walk to the Palace theatre? 

We looked at aerial views of our route and the things we noticed on our journey. We recognised buildings, shops, a church, a tunnel, a bridge and other simple features. 

Understanding the world

We looked at a nativity scene.

• Have you seen this scene before?
• Do you know who the people are?

We talked about Christmas being a day celebrated by Christians because it marks the birthday of Jesus. Jesus’ birthday is described in a special book called The Bible. We read ‘The Christmas Story’ and spoke about our special role in telling this story during our Nativity performance. 

Our Nativity performance 

Throughout the half term the children have been supported to learn and perform a Christmas Nativity. They have taken on roles and practised singing songs. The children know they all have an important part to play in the performance and have been working together to put on an amazing show for family and friends.

Shape, space and measure

As a class, we looked at different photographs of shapes in the environment. We discussed: what shapes can children see? How many circles can they see? How many triangles can they see? Where can they see large/small shapes? We walked around the classroom to find shapes around the room. We discussed which shapes they found in the environment. We also used straws to create triangles.

Our birthday celebrations

We bought in a memento of a birthday. We shared how we celebrate birthdays in our family.

• How did you feel when it was your birthday?
• Did you sing any special songs?
• Did you have any cards/presents?
• Did you have a party? Did you see friends or family and if so who? etc.
• What did you do? Where do you go?

Forest learning

We read the book ‘Wide awake hedgehog.’ We looked at pictures of different animals that we see during autumn. We talked about hibernation, their habitat, what they eat and how we can look after them.

During the week we made a clay hedgehog. We build a home using a range of resources, such as leaves twigs and grass, for our hedgehog.

Exploring leaves

We focused on leaves during this time of the year. We read the story ‘We’re going on a leaf hunt’ and used the photo pack to support our talk. We headed outside to explore and play with Autumn leaves. We watched them fall from trees, turning and twirling and landing on the ground. We used a parachute to watch how the leaves fall and tumble to the ground.

Exploring Autumn 

We explored Autumn using our senses. We explored a range of Autumn objects and looked, smelt and touched the items. We used language to describe our findings e.g. shiny, spiky, rough, smooth, fuzzy etc.

Forest learning

We collected natural materials and created our own Rangoli patterns.

Diwali 

Throughout the week we shared books and video clips to discover how people prepare and celebrate Diwali. We explored items/ photographs that are associated with Diwali e.g. Diva lamp, candle, patterned fabric, saris, mehndi pattern, rangoli pattern.

Rama and Sita

We shared the story of Rama and Sita. We discussed the emotions that the characters must of felt at different points in the retelling. We showed pictures/puppets of the main characters in the story and thought together about whether each was ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ We discussed why Rama/Hanuman were good characters and why Ravana was a bad character.

Food tasting

We had the opportunity to taste some traditional Diwali snacks e.g. samosas. We described how the food looks, tastes, smells and feels.

Remembrance day

We celebrated remembrance day. We shared the story 'Where the poppies now grow' and watched the Poppies video on CBeebies. We know that we wear poppies in November for Remembrance. We learnt that Remembrance Day is when people take time to remember the soldiers who fought in the war.
Our activities involved:
- Creating fingerprint poppies
- Drawing pictures of soldiers, poppies and poppy fields

- Designing medals 

- Creating loose part poppies
- Counting counters onto numbered poppies
- Exploring red and black foam in the shape of a Poppy
 

Forest learning

We practised getting ready for a bonfire night event. We practised zipping up our coats, putting on scarves/gloves and our wellies. We worked together to build a pretend bonfire in the outdoor area using a range of materials, such as sticks, leaves etc. We discussed the noises that fireworks make. 

Bonfire night

We shared bonfire night pictures and video clips. We talked about what we could hear and see (colours and shapes). We shared our own experiences of Bonfire Night and talked about the ways our families celebrated. We talked about our likes and dislikes of Bonfire Night celebrations.

Music

We played some video/sound recordings of fireworks exploding in the night sky. We used words to describe each sound, such as crackle, whoosh, pop, whizz, and bang. We imagined the sounds they would make and used musical instruments to combine different sounds to express the sounds of the fireworks. We used dancing scarves to pretend we were fireworks in the sky, we moved to firework sounds or music to practice our large-muscle movements.

Bonfire safety

We shared the story ‘Firefighter Fred’s Bonfire safety show. We discussed ways we need to stay safe on Bonfire night and thought about safety rules. We worked together to create a set of class rules.

Autumn 2 -Let's celebrate

World mental health day

We baked cakes to celebrate world mental health day. We combined different ingredients and then cooked (heated) them. We enjoyed eating them this afternoon -they were delicious!

Story sequencing 

Our story map was cut into sections. We had to work together to re-sequence them and use it to retell our story. The next day we were provided with a sequence of images from our story with a key section missing! We had to draw and tell the missing section.

Painting 

We choose colours for a purpose and painted the characters from out story. 

Story hook

When we returned to our classroom after lunch, we found big footprints and small footprints in the classroom. I wonder who they belong to?

R.E. Which people are special and why?

We commented on photographs of our family. We told our friends who were in our family photos and talked about why those people are special to us. We drew the family members who live in our house.

My senses

This week we explored our sense: smell. We smelt different pots with scents in and matched to the correct picture.

Shape, space and measure

We introduced the concept of matching and started by matching physical objects with other physical objects.

My senses -hear

This week we explored our sense: hear. We investigated a variety of objects (keys, bottle partly filled with water, click ball point pen, scrunched paper etc.) and discussed what makes a sound? We used junk model materials to create our own instruments. 

Children, children what do you hear?

This week our teacher led us through the process of changing the class map to create a new version. We went on a listening walk and listened attentively to the sounds arounds us. We heard an aeroplane zooming, a car brumming, leaves rustling, grass crunching, wind blowing, birds tweeting, big children shouting and a door banging. We made simple substitutions and changed our story to ‘children, children what do you hear?’

Feelings and emotions

We are enquiring into feelings and emotions. We are learning to understand our own feelings and those of others. We've focused on the emotion ‘happy’ and 'sad'. We discussed when we’ve experienced happiness and sadness. 

My senses -touch

This week we explored our sense: touch. We collected a variety of materials and created a senses station. We used our sense of touch to describe each object we could feel.

Mastering number -subitizing

The children were encouraged to quantify sets of objects by subitising, rather than counting. When subitising, children can say how many there are in a small group of objects by ‘just seeing’ and knowing straightaway without needing to count.

Polar bear, polar bear what do you hear

This week we drew a class story map to help everyone remember what happens in the story. Throughout the week we practised retelling the story several times. We used actions to support retelling and to reinforce the meaning of the story.

Drawing club

Our teacher modelled drawing a character from the story. She used the 3M’s (making conversation, mark-making, and mathematics) when modelling drawing. She invited us to join the drawing club – we shared our ideas for a short period of time!

Potato heads

We've been arranging the potato heads using different body parts. 

We love to share stories

We've enjoyed sharing and telling stories with our friends in the reading area. 

Loose part faces

We explored a selection of loose parts, such as stones, marbles and pasta. We created our own pictures of faces.  

Look at our amazing buildings 

We've been constructing with a purpose, using a variety of resources. We built a castle, house, chair and bike.

Clay faces 

We manipulated clay to create faces. We practised rolling, squashing, cutting and pinching. 

R.E. What makes me special

At home, our parents helped us to create an ‘all about me chatterbox.’ At school we shared our chatterboxes with our new class and talked about our special interests and previous experiences.

Polar bear, polar bear what do you hear?

We used a musical instrument to tune into ‘listening.’ We used a rain stick and listened for the final seed to fall. When we were silent and listening carefully our teacher read the story ‘polar bear, polar bear what do you hear?’ During the week, we dramatized the story to allow us to experience and process the tale in a physical way. We watched video clips of the animals in the story and moved around the carpet in character, making animal noises. We also played the game ‘change.’ We became an animal from the story and moved around in role. At a given signal, everyone froze. Our teacher called out another animal and we became a different character. 

My new class

This week we started school! Our teacher showed us around our new classroom and introduced the areas of provision. Throughout the week we have been trying a variety of new activities, resources and exploring our new environment inside and out. We have been getting to know each other, practicing our turn taking and listening skills. We are building our independence by putting our bags, coats, water bottles and lunch boxes away.

Autumn 1 -Marvellous me