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 breaktime. The children then went 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 they were cutting the vegetables safely, and kept going even when it was a bit tricky. 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. 

We practised our cutting skills as we made some super Harvest scarecrows and the children really persevered in cutting each of the different shapes they needed. We got our binoculars ready as we set off on a hunt around the Paddock for signs of autumn. We discovered the changes autumn brings, finding leaves in a rainbow of colours as well as pine cones, conkers and twigs. We had to look really hard, but we even spotted some white berries by the train track and some red berries high up in a tree! But the children were very quick to tell me that we shouldn’t touch them and that we definitely can’t eat them! We collected lots of autumn leaves on our walk and the children loved using them to create different prints and textures in the playdough. We also used our leaves to make some lovely hedgehog pictures for our wall. 

In phonics this week, we have been exploring blending sounds together. We made silly soup, using ingredients from around the classroom and the children were fantastic at helping me find the ingredients I needed. I used my robot voice to say each sound in the word and the children had to work together to blend the sounds together to find out which word I was trying to say. The older children have been continuing their phonics lessons with Mrs Cooper in Form 1. They are doing such a fantastic job and each time have been very excited to tell us the new sounds and words they've been practising. 

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. The children have also been very curious about length this week, finding lots of different ways to compare and measure during their play. We are becoming fantastic mathematicians in Transition!

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