We started off the week with our Harvest Assembly rehearsal, which was the first time the children had practised all of their songs in front of the Main School. They were a little bit nervous, but they did a fantastic job and earned an extra long, well-deserved break time. The children then came to the carpet to discuss what the harvest festival is. They had some fantastic ideas, telling me all about the different fruits and vegetables we can grow, and the different machines the farmers use. We then had a go at chopping vegetables to make our own harvest soup! The children really concentrated to make sure that they were cutting the vegetables safely, and kept going even when cutting the middle of the tricky parsnips. We cooked our soup on Tuesday and the children were very excited to give it a try, with some leaving clean bowls and a big thumbs up, and others, a big thumbs down.

We practised our cutting skills as we made some super harvest scarecrows, and the children loved using the dried autumn leaves to create different prints and textures in the playdough. We also discovered the changes autumn brings as we explored the paddock, finding leaves in a rainbow of colours, as well as pine cones, conkers, mushrooms, and even berries hidden inside a bush. 

In literacy this week, the children did a superb job at retelling the story of The Gruffalo. They used picture cards from the story to help us work out what happened, explaining how the different characters were feeling at each point. It was lovely to see their excitement as they described the Gruffalo to Mrs Nelson, telling her all about his terrible teeth and terrible claws. The children have loved exploring and roleplaying the story in their play, in our Gruffalo small world area, coming up with fantastic twists and turns to the plot and creating their own characters. In phonics this week, we have been exploring initial sounds. We made silly soup, using ingredients from around the classroom. The children were fantastic at finding objects that started with my sound, and were eager to find as many as they could. 

Our maths focus this week has been on patterns. During circle time, we practised recognising different 2D shapes and using them to make repeating patterns. We then explored using our actions to make patterns, such as stomp, clap, stomp, clap. I was impressed by how quickly the children could recognise and join in with my pattern, and some children even came to the front to make their own. We are becoming fantastic mathematicians in Transition!

Once again, I look forward to another fantastic week as we begin to explore hibernation.