On Monday, the children enjoyed an autumn story called The Leaf Thief and we started to think about the changes we have noticed in the last few days. The children knew the leaves on trees were changing colour, it was getting cooler and the animals might be gathering food ready for winter or to hibernate. 

 We enjoyed our swimming lesson later that day but something unexpected happened as we arrived at the changing rooms. We found a mysterious box tied up with a ribbon and a book titled Naughty Bus. We unwrapped the box and found a toy bus inside with a message addressed to Form 1! The note explained that the bus was lost and asked us to return it to Russell House. The children were very excited to do this and we brought Naughty Bus back to the classroom on the minibus. 

In maths this week, we have been focusing on our teen number recognition. We have been noticing that all the teen numbers have 2 digits and the first digit is always a 1. The children have started to use great mathematical language to explain what they notice. We made our own track game on the carpet and the children took it in turns to fill in the numbers. Later in the week, we had a race along it and the children practised counting along the track.

The children then made their own track games and worked hard to fill in the numbers needed, making sure to always put the digits in the correct order. We decided to laminate our games, so made a visit to Mrs Tickner's office to use the laminator. We had fun playing these games later in the week and used a range of dice. Some had larger numbers on them, which made the games go really quickly!

We have looked at the artist Andy Goldsworthy this week, as he uses lots of natural materials to create his art. The children were wonderful at describing what they could see and what they thought the sculptures might be about. We talked about the art being transient and not staying the same forever, just like nature. We also discussed shapes, patterns, colours and materials. Using natural materials, the children made their own sculptures and then enjoyed using the iPad to take photographs of their work. We now have our little gallery on the window in form 1.

Later in the week, the children discovered that Naughty Bus had vanished from the classroom! The day before, we found him covered in mud but this time he had disappeared! The children discovered some tracks on the classroom floor which led to outside. We reread the story Naughty Bus to give us some clues as to where he might have gone. The children then shared their ideas with their talking partner. The children were given some words on pieces of paper and challenged to build the sentence The bus is in the… and we then wrote our ideas to finish the sentence. We focused on capital letters and blending to read the simple words. The children had a go on their own in their literacy books and built the sentences and added their own idea to complete it, along with a picture. 

During free play, the children were excited about trying to find Naughty Bus. Some children made posters and others made signs, all ideas that were initiated by them. They wanted to check the pond and the kitchen so we visited these places to have a look. Some children made traps and set them outside to try and catch Naughty Bus - it's all been very exciting!

On Thursday, the children discovered some photographs of Naughty Bus in different locations around Russell House. The children looked at a map of the school and tried to work out the places he had been. Some of the children had a go at drawing their own maps of the school and then plotting on the places that Naughty Bus had visited in the photographs. Later in the morning, the children checked their traps and found that Naughty Bus was inside! Everyone was very relieved to have him back in Form 1, safe and sound. 

The children explored colour mixing later in the week, looking at how many different autumnal colours they could make. We read the book Autumn and discussed the colours we could see in the story. We looked at natural materials such as leaves, twigs, branches and seed pods. The children mixed colours and created their own new colours and had fun naming them.

What a super busy week we have had!