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Autumn all around us

This week in Form 1 the children have enjoyed exploring the topic of autumn.

The children have been discussing all the changes that autumn brings and exploring the things they can see happening around them. An autumn walk was very much enjoyed by everyone and the children were great at noticing the colour of the leaves on the trees, mushrooms growing, the seeds that had fallen to the ground and they even spotted the potatoes peeking out from the soil in the planters at the farm. Armed with clipboards, paper and pencils, the children set about drawing the things they could see that indicated the change in season. We, of course, also ensured there was time to enjoy the paddock, play on the climbing equipment and make a big pile of leaves to jump and play in!

In literacy this week, we have read the story The Leaf Thief by Alice Hemming. The story is about a little squirrel who is very confused when the leaves on his tree start to go missing and he fears there is a leaf thief about. The children retold the events in the story by drawing some wonderfully colourful and detailed story maps. They were careful to include all the characters and were great at drawing each part of the story in the correct sequence. Of course, the leaf thief turned out to be the strong autumn wind, blowing the leaves off of the tree. The children loved the ending as the squirrel is then very worried when snow arrives and steals the grass!

In maths, the children have been learning all about subtraction. Using cubes, the children explored taking away amounts through stories and then moved onto how this is shown in written calculations. We have learnt what the subtraction and equals symbols represent and the children have been great at spotting them in calculations. During our practical carpet sessions, the children demonstrated that they understood that numbers will get smaller when we subtract and there was even a conversation about negative numbers. In small groups, the children went on to solve their own subtraction problems using counters, their fingers or by counting back mentally.

On Wednesday, it was Form 1’s turn to lead the Pre-Prep assembly. This was a lovely opportunity for the children to share all they had learnt during our trip to Bore Place. As we shared the photographs from our trip, the children confidently and clearly explained what we had done and the things they had learnt.