We have focused specifically on the colours of autumn and discussed if there was only one type of each colour. The children initially said there was only one type and then changed their minds and agreed there were two types of each colour, dark and light. Our investigation into autumn colours took us outside for an autumn walk which everyone loved. The children were great at noticing the colour of the leaves on the trees, finding seeds that had fallen to the ground and feeling the strong wind blowing, rustling the branches.

The children collected lots of natural items whilst on our walk and we compared them to some paint colour swatches. We wanted to see if we could find as many shades of autumn as possible! We took our items back to the classroom and looked at what we had found, sorting them by colour. The children were then challenged to explore colour mixing to create their very own autumn colours. The children loved naming their colour creations and we had some fantastic ideas such as yellow fire and herbivore brown. Once asked again if there was only one type of each colour, the children all responded that there are many, many types of red, oranges, greens and browns!  

In literacy this week, we read the story The Gigantic Turnip and the children had great fun acting out the story in our story circle. Each child was invited to become a character and act out what was happening in the circle. I held on tightly to a piece of rope (taking on the role of the turnip!) and the children really loved pretending to try and pull and tug and heave to free it from the ground. Once we had finished telling the story, the children sequenced pictures to retell the story in the correct order. The children noticed that the amount of animals increased by one each time, which helped them remember the sequence. This also fitted in perfectly with our maths focus this week. The children repeated this activity individually in their literacy books and they even drew the ending of the story themselves. 

In maths, the children have been learning all about one more and one less. We built a number line together and noticed the pattern in the numbers beyond 10 matched the pattern in the numbers from 1-10. We matched the numicon to the number and looked at how they are one bit bigger than the piece before it. We then built a tower of Duplo and looked at how it got taller each time that we added one more and smaller when we took one away. The children enjoyed jumping our Duplo elephant one more and one less along the number line and talking about what was happening to the number. The children then worked in their maths books to find one more and one less than the given number, using number lines and counters to support their understanding.  

On Wednesday it was Form 1’s turn to lead the Pre-Prep assembly. This was a lovely opportunity for the children to practise our coffee morning activity, which is retelling the story The Smartest Giant in Town.  They did a wonderful job and remembered some of the phrases within the story confidently. 

We have started our phonics lessons this week and it has been lovely to welcome the older Transition children into our class to join the lesson. They really enjoy listening for the initial sound in the clues from the sound bag and identifying the initial sound of the day. We have also been playing listening games using our Little Owl puppet who can only speak in sounds - the children are all keen to be fluent in owl! 

Form 1 have also loved their swimming, gymnastics, and French lessons this week.