We wrapped up warm and made our way outside to spot signs of winter with our eagle eyes. I was so impressed with how observant all the children were. They noticed most trees had lost their leaves, ice on the ground, red berries on prickly stems and rainbow colours in the sky. On our walk, we noticed that some trees did still have their leaves and spoke about the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees. We took photos of the trees on the class iPad, which inspired some observational paintings of winter landscapes. 

We were very excited to receive an email from Miss Keeling, who told us that it’s very hot in Australia and that she is having to wear a sun hat and apply sun cream every day! We had an interesting discussion about whether it is winter in all parts of the world and found it fascinating to think that Australia is currently having its summer. We also discussed that some countries don’t have seasons, but decided that we like it best the way it is here, so we can enjoy all the different times of year. 

The cold weather meant there was plenty of ice to observe, and we spoke about how it is made and what happens to it when it gets warm. We thought carefully about ways we could speed up the melting process and the children came up with some great suggestions. This came in very handy when they needed to rescue Elsa and her friends, as they’d become trapped in the ice!  

We have been playing a maths game this week, where the children were challenged to recognise a number between 1 and 5 without counting the dots. I have been so impressed with how well the children are getting on with this game. They are getting quicker and quicker each day!

Our letter sound focus for this week has been f. We thought of lots of words for the f sound including fish, fork, feather and fire! We had fun making the letter sound as we took in a deep breath of air, then pretended we were deflating balloons as we blew out. We have also been exploring rhyming words by making silly soup. The children had to decide which words should be added to our soup and which ones should be left out. Everyone did so well at putting in the correct ingredients. 

The children have also been enjoying our outdoor area this week, exploring the frozen mud, planting forests in the snow dough and building an obstacle course to test their balancing skills. What a lot of fun we have had this week!