After sharing various stories about autumn, the children loved putting on their wellies and warm coats and venturing outside in search of signs of autumn.

During our walk, the children noticed the leaves changing colour, sycamore seeds fluttering down from the trees and beech nuts on the ground. Lots of fun was had trying to catch the sycamore seeds as they blew in the wind! The children collected all these treasures throughout our walk and, once back in the classroom, sorted them into colours and types. Later that day, they created lovely autumn wreaths by glueing the leaves, berries and twigs to some card and then adding a piece of wool to enable them to be hung up.

Transition class invited Form 1 along to harvest their pumpkins that have been growing all year in the beds at the Farm. Some of the children in Form 1 had planted the seeds during their time with Miss Mitchem so it was lovely for them to see what had happened. The children examined the vines and chatted about the different sizes and colours of the pumpkins that had grown. We couldn't resist visiting the sheep to see how they had grown and how their thick fleeces were keeping them warm in this colder weather. The children learnt about different berries and how these are important sources of food for animals throughout the winter.

It was finally time for the children to see the results from their experiment from the previous weeks which used toothpaste and eggs. The children noticed that the eggs that had been in the coffee and cola without the protection of toothpaste were much, much darker than the ones that had been covered in a layer of toothpaste. All the children agreed that it was very important to use toothpaste to protect their teeth and to brush them twice a day to keep them healthy.

In maths, the children have been securing their recognition of numbers to 20 and started to look for number patterns beyond 20. They enjoyed playing games to identify different numbers and started to consider how the order of the digit determined its place on a 100 square. The children noticed that all the teen numbers had a 1 at the start and that numbers within 20 all have a 2. They have also been really working hard on their number formation and applying this to their written maths work.

The children have been working well in phonics and have been enjoying playing reading games using our CTouch board. The children have started to write independently in their play and it is lovely to see how their confidence has grown throughout the term.

We have also been practising for our Pre-Prep Coffee Morning and the children are very much looking forward to sharing their amazing phonics skills with you all!