Tuesday was a very exciting day, as we were back in school after a long break. Mrs Nelson, Mrs Parmenter and I thought everyone looked very smart and grown-up in their summer uniforms. We started the week with Circle time, listening to everyone’s Easter news. We have loved hearing all about the children’s holidays; it sounds like everyone has been very busy getting up to some wonderful activities and adventures.

We also had an adventure in Transition this week as we set off to explore the school grounds, listening to all the different sounds we could hear as part of our phonics lesson. When we arrived at school on Tuesday, a postcard was waiting for us in the classroom from one of the teachers on their sunny holiday over the break. The children loved making their own postcards and letters in our Post Office home corner this week and were fascinated as we watched the long journey of the letter through the postal system.

I was very impressed with the children’s perseverance as they began to sound out the sounds in words to write their letters. The postal workers will certainly be very busy! In literacy this week, we read The 3 Little Pigs. The children were experts at this story and joined in with words as we read, taking it in turns to be the Little Pigs or the Big Bad Wolf. The children had some fantastic voices, really getting into character, and it has been lovely to see them roleplay the story during their play. I wasn’t sure why the houses kept falling down in the story, and the children explained to me that it was because they weren't strong enough. We then had a go at building our own houses for the 3 Little Pigs during our play. The children got very creative using lots of different materials to build their houses and experimented with lots of different ways to join them, including elastic bands, paper clips and masking tape.

We also had a think as a class about the expectations at different times of the day in Transition such as circle times, play times and tidy-up times. The children had lots of fantastic ideas about how we can work as a team to make sure that everyone feels happy and can learn in the best way in Transition.

We made sure we also had lots of time to play in Transition this week which has been a lovely way to get to know the new children and their interests. The children really enjoyed creating in the mud kitchen, making lots of different delicious treats including chocolate milk, hot chocolate and cookies. We worked together to build a train station in the outdoor construction using planks, poles and stones. The children were fantastic at drawing on their own experience to develop our building as we went. I was very proud of the way they listened to each other and shared their ideas.

We have also loved creating cities with the train track, building homes for the toy animals using the magnatiles and mixing our own playdough! We are looking forward to doing many more outdoor activities as (hopefully) the brighter and warmer summer weather rolls in!

I have been blown away by how well all the children have settled back into the routines of school this week and it has been wonderful to see the existing Transition children helping the new children settle in. I look forward to a very exciting Summer Term together!