Autumn Term 2 2023
Hello and welcome back! We are all very excited to begin the new half term, starting with a topic on Goldilocks and the three bears and leading up to finding out all about the First Christmas. Please have a look at all of our learning below and continue to share your adventures at home with us too!
Collective Worship
Our Candle
This week we have been talking about our candle that we keep on the Worship Table. We know that Jesus the light of the world is with us.
RE
God’s Family
We had a fantastic RE session this week learning all about God’s family. The children started by talking about their own families and who they live with. Then they talked about their extended family. We discussed how special our surnames are and the children told one other what theirs was. The children found out that we are all special and different and belong not only to our own family but to our school family, Church family and God’s family too.
During our second RE session we looked at a PowerPoint which showed even more people who are in God’s family. We found out that people show their love of God in different ways, such as by caring for others (nurses) or feeding others (cooks and chefs). The children then talked about some of the people that are in God’s family.
Sadie “Jesus is in God’s family.”
Libby “Mary is in God’s family.”
William “Us!”
Alfie “Finbar.”
Leah “The sheep.”
Florence “Josie.”
Jack “Me.”
Oscar “Daddy.”
Freddie “Mummy and Daddy.”
During our next session, we discussed some of the things that we can do to show our love to God and then created our own prayer.
God I love you, yes it’s true.
Let me show you, here’s what I will do.
I will hold the door open for my friends and put the books away.
I will share my toys and hug my family.
I will put my rubbish in the bin.
Amen
Elizabeth of Hungary
We read a story today all about Elizabeth of Hungary. Princess Elizabeth was very kind and showed her love of God by helping poorer people. When the crops did not grow, she gave some of the Prince’s food to the poorer people, even though this caused other people to become angry with her.
Libby “She was called Princess Elizabeth.”
What is a Princess?
Oscar “They have crowns.”
Alexander “They have dresses.”
Leah “A cloak.”
Freddie “A Princess can be a Queen.”
Why were there lots of hungry children?
Oscar “They were hungry and had no food because they had run out.”
What did Elizabeth give to them?
Aidan “Bread.”
What happened to the basket of bread when the Princess saw the Prince?
Sadie “They turned into roses.”
Who turned it into roses?
Adam “God.”
Freddie “God turned it into flowers because he didn’t want the Princess to get told off.”
Do you know anybody who helps poor children?
Oscar “God.”
Live Simply
On Monday 27th November we had a blackout day in FS1. There was no interactive whiteboard and we only had a few lights on to save electricity. We looked through our Live Simply board and reminded ourselves of some of the things that we can do to look after God’s World. The children made sure the lids were on all of the glue and pens so that they didnt go to waste, they read stories instead of doing a dough disco and enjoyed exploring the classroom in the shade.
Literacy
Our class reading area
We have lots of lovely books in our reading area that we change every two weeks to match our topic. We also have books across our provision areas to inspire our imagination and creativity.
Today during circle time, we asked the children what their favourite book is and why.
Freddie “I like ‘Ringo the Flamingo’ because he is a baby flamingo.”
Libby “I like ‘Guess how much I love you’ because we got it from the library and the little one said guess how I much I love you.”
Sophie “I like ‘Goldilocks and the three bears’ because they eat the porridge.”
Alexander “I got two dinosaur books from the library and I like the one with lots of pictures because it has asteroids in it.”
Adam “I like Paw Patrol because the pups might sleep when it is bedtime and there is an emergency in the night.”
Sam “I love Blippi because I like to watch.”
Oscar “I like the three goats because they go across the bridge.”
Jack “My favourite book is ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ because Jack climbs up the beanstalk.”
George “I like trolls when they are under the bridge.
Words of the week
During every topic, we choose two words from our key texts to explore even further. The children learn about the meaning of the word, count the syllables and talk about the initial sound. Staff and children try to say these words in different contexts across the week. These are our words of the week this half term.
Retelling the story
We are so proud of the children for their determination and skill whilst cutting out scenes from Goldilocks and the three bears. They then placed them in the correct order and told their friends the story, using well known phrases and fantastic story language.
During our topic on woodland animals, we asked the children what their favourite animal is. We loved how the children were able to tell us why they liked that animal so much and what made it special.
Libby “I like a hedgehog because it has lots of spikes.”
William “I like a badger because they live underground and are so fluffy and they like food.”
Freddie “I like a hedgehog because it’s really little.”
Adam “I like the fox because I like that Percy says to the fox, behave!”
Leah “I like the badger because they dig underground.”
George “Badger because he likes Percy.”
Oscar “I like the badger because it has fierce claws.”
Sophie “A bird, they fly.”
Alexander “My favourite one is the hedgehog because they have spikes.”
Jack “A fox because he has snow on him.”
Sadie “I like the two rabbits, because they jump.”
Phonics
Exploring the interactive whiteboard
The children have enjoyed exploring a variety of phonics games on the interactive whiteboard. They have listened to the noise and matched it to the correct animal, found their names and have attempted to read some simple words.
Initial Sounds and Alliteration
The children have been identifying the initial sounds in their names and the initial sounds in objects. Today we met a fox who needed a new name, we thought of lots of different words that all started with an ‘F’ and created a long, crazy name for him.
Maths
The number three!
It has been all about the number three in Nursery this week! The children have been working on recognising the numeral, forming it and counting three fingers. They have counted three objects, recognised three dots on dice and recognised the Numicon for three.
Show and Share
We would like to thank all of the parents and carers who came to join us for our show and share sessions. The children enjoyed sharing their learning with you as they recognised different numerals and touch counted to three and beyond. It was also lovely to have our visitors exploring the provision challenges with us too! Thank you all for coming.
Capacity
The children have been using different sized bowls to learn about capacity this week. They predicted which bowl would hold the most porridge oats and then used words such as full, empty, half full and overflowing to describe how much was in each bowl. The children explored this learning further in the home corner, setting the table for Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear and Baby Bear, ensuring that they all had enough porridge for breakfast!
2D Shapes
We have been learning about triangles in the FS1! We have described their properties, looked for them within the environment and created our own triangle pictures.
Physical Development
Gross motor skills
We provide our children with a variety of different gross motor activities, such as dance, PE, climbing and obstacle courses.
During our PE lessons the children have been working on their under arm throwing skills. They have aimed their beanbags towards the cone markers during a variety of different games.
Cosmic Yoga
The children have been working on their balancing skills this week with Cosmic Yoga. They have shown fantastic listening skills and have tried their best at copying the movements. Please see the clip below if you would like to join in at home. There are lots of different stories to enjoy.
Cosmic Yoga
Manipulating dough
The children take part in lots of different activities across the week that all involve dough. We start our morning sessions with 5 minutes of dough disco and then also have challenges in the dough provision area. This week the children have been making their own bears, starting with rolling the dough into a sphere and then adding the different facial features.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED)
Class Responsibilities
We are wanting to give the children more responsibilities in class and we have therefore given some of the children a little job to do everyday. These will be rotated regularly to allow every child in class the opportunity to be responsible for a specific job.
Anti-bullying week
We have had a great time celebrating anti-bullying week. We started by wearing odd socks on the Monday, showing that it is good to stand out. We talked about how God has made us all different and that we are proud of this. The children discussed the class and school rules and how we can be kind and caring to show our love to God and the people around us.
During Anti-bullying week, we looked at how we are all the same and we are all different. The children compared themselves to one another and then we looked at different dolls and compared them.
Oscar “They have long hair and they have short hair.”
Sadie “Coran has curly hair and Adam has short hair.”
Harper “William is smaller and Freddie is bigger.”
Frey “She has a yellow jumper. She has white skin. She has brown.”
Feeling Sad
This half term we are learning about how it feels to be sad. The children started by looking at photographs of children who were upset and they talked about how they knew that they were sad, such as through seeing tears.
The children then talked about some of the things that make them feel sad.
William “When my brother doesn’t play with me.”
Amari “When my Mummy takes long to pick me up.”
Sophia “When my Imogen is sad at school.”
Libby “I am sad when my Mummy doesn’t play with me.”
Adam “I am sad when I go to bed.”
Alexander “I am sad when I have nightmares.”
We then discussed what we can do if we feel sad.
Oscar “Tell a teacher and get Monty.”
Jack “Cuddle my teddy.”
Expressive Arts and Design
Making marks
The children have had lots of fun making marks on our interactive whiteboard. They have done some fantastic turn taking and created images that they are very proud of.
Colour mixing
The children in FS1 are really enjoying colour mixing at the moment. This week they have been making orange and then painting three mice.
Collage
Some of the children chose to draw their own woodland creatures and then decorate them with torn up tissue paper and felt tip pens.
Taking on a role
The children are often taking on a role and telling stories in FS1. During our Goldilocks topic, the children acted out the story using small world figures and also took on the role of some of the charcaters as they made some porridge for breakfast.
Construction
The children have been very busy in our construction area creating a variety of models. They have shown us some great ideas, team work and skill whilst creating beds, houses and boats.
Understanding the World
Exploring materials
The children have had a fantastic time exploring materials in FS1. We have introduced them to magnets and they have discovered that magnets will attach to other magnets and metal. They loved looking around the classroom for equipment and furniture with metal in it, as well as investigating a range of other materials to see if they were magnetic.
Water Safety
We have been learning all about water safety in FS1. We watched a presentation by Yorkshire water which explained some of the dangers of been too close to the water’s edge. The children discovered that they need to be SAFE (Stay Away From the Edge). We looked at what the different flags mean and then discussed different photographs and whether it was safe to swim there, such as in the sea when there are large waves. The children learned about the important role that lifeguards have and we discussed where we might see them.
The children loved looking at a scene with lots of dangers. Here are some of the dangers that they found-
Freddie “He will sink in the water.”
Frey “I can see people on the edge, sitting on the edge of the bridge.”
Oscar “They are playing on the rocks and they might fall. There’s a drop.”
Amari “If we swim, we must wear armbands.”
Adam “They are jumping in the water, it’s not safe.”
We talked about the river Wharfe in Wetherby and how areas of it have no barriers to stop you from falling in. The children talked about how they should stay away from the edge and never go in the water after a ball or to help somebody else. They should always tell a grown up if they see anyone in danger.
