They were all full of confidence and energy, ready to start their Form 1 adventure! The children have been excellent at organising their belongings in the morning, hanging coats and blazers up carefully on pegs, putting snacks in trays and contact books in the correct place. 

This week the children have enjoyed playing games together and exploring the classroom and outside space. They have loved playing in the roleplay house, making dens, colouring and drawing and their love of dinosaurs is clear to see! Plenty of time has been given to free play, allowing the children to explore their new environment and find out where things are kept, developing their own ideas and interests.

We read the story The Colour Monster and identified all the different feelings that the Colour Monster felt throughout the book. The Colour Monster is a bit mixed up initially and he needs help to identify his feelings and sort them out so he can better understand them. The children were able to talk about what made them feel happy, sad, frightened and calm. They then sorted their feelings into colours and chatted about these with us. 

Later, we read the book The Colour Monster goes to School and the children found it very funny that he was doing all the wrong things! We shared how we felt about starting school and how we all have different feelings about different things. Some children said they are afraid of the dark and others really do not like spiders! 

We have also been finding out who is in each other's families this week and the children drew some lovely pictures of the special people who live with them. The children were very keen to include their pets in their pictures as well! We have made a little display in the classroom accompanied by speech bubbles to record the children's explanations and ideas.  

Lunchtime play has been a new experience for the children this week as they are now playing with the main school children out on the paddock, rather than in the Nursery garden. The children have enjoyed having lots of space to run and play and loved seeing their older brothers and sisters. They met their Form 7 buddies this week when they joined them on the front court for morning play. Everyone got to know one another and at lunchtime they all ran onto the paddock, excited to play with their buddies.

On Friday the children enjoyed their music, gymnastics and French lessons and everyone joined in with enthusiasm! 

It has been a fantastic start to Form 1 and I hope the children are all looking forward to a full week next week. I am sure they will especially love the start of their clubs and swimming on Monday.