When the children arrived in the morning, they discovered a HUGE pumpkin patch had appeared on the carpet! The children discussed how it might have gotten there - was it fairies, magic or Mr Phil!? Alongside the pumpkins the children, found the book Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper. We read the story together and discussed friendship, compromise, and feelings. The children then had a go at building sentences linked to the characters' actions in the book. Using their developing reading knowledge, the children read tricky words, decoded simple three letter words and then sequenced them to create a sentence. We did this as a class and then the children had a go in their literacy books. They also added their own word at the end to complete the sentence.  

In maths this week we have been learning how to add two amounts together. The children have used their knowledge of tens and fives frames to find the totals without the need to count. They were challenged to explain how they knew the total by using language such as I can see a 2 and a 3 and I know that makes 5. The children knew that the number gets bigger as we add and looked at this on a number line. We have also been looking at teen numbers to ensure children are confident in recognising them. 

The children looked at the life-cycle of a pumpkin and learnt about the various stages. We watched a time-lapse video to see this unfold and the children noticed the roots, sprout, vine, flowers and pumpkins as they grew. Some children then chose to represent the life-cycle of a pumpkin on a paper plate, whilst some children made little clay pumpkins and others added flowers to our plastic vine using yellow tissue paper.  Lots of creativity and thinking skills were put into action!

We have had lots of fun exploring real pumpkins, looking at their outer skin as well as the gooey, stringy inside! The children made predictions about how many seeds would be inside the pumpkin and then explored this by placing the seeds on our 100s frame. They have been developing their fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination by hammering golf tees into the pumpkins using little plastic hammers. Once they had explored this, elastic bands were added later in the week for the children to stretch over the golf tees. This supported the development of children's dexterity further.  

The children have been creating observational drawings and paintings of pumpkins, using either paint, oil pastels or chalk pastels. They selected the size of the paper they would like to use and some children created huge pictures! Some added the vines and flowers or focused on the seeds inside and lines they noticed on the outside. They approached this activity in their own way and the work they created is both individual and creative. 

The children have also had fun sequencing the story of Pumpkin Soup and focused on retelling the story by thinking about the events and the feelings of each of the characters. We retold the story using props and puppets and then sequenced pictures on our washing line on the carpet. The children then retold the story themselves using smaller pictures in their literacy book. They all then wrote the caption The cat is mad to complete their work and segmented the words beautifully. It is wonderful that they are already able to write a sentence so early on in the term.

We have explored emotions this week, considering how our faces and body language can indicate how someone is feeling. We had fun passing around a mirror and trying to make faces that matched various feelings. The children shared times they had felt worried or excited and we matched these feelings to the characters in the story and how these changed throughout the book. 

Of course, we could not miss the opportunity to make some pumpkin soup, so on Thursday the children set to work to chop and prepare the pumpkins and other vegetables. Just like the characters in the story, the children worked as a team to do this and the soup was delicious! It was very much enjoyed on Friday during snack time.