Maple Class 26-27, Autumn 1, week 4
Date: 22nd Sep 2026 @ 4:03pm
This week has been a bit topsy turvy with Mrs Duffey being in Monday and Tuesday! We swapped around the week so what we normally do at the end of the week was done at the beginning of the week! The children didn’t seem to notice or mind one bit!
This week saw us start our level 2 phonics. We have learnt the sounds s, a, t, p. We have practiced regonising the graphemes (what the letter looks like) and saying the phonemes (how we say the letter sound). We have also been practicing lots of blending and segmenting words. Can you play I Spy by sounding out objects and seeing if the children can blend the sounds together such as ‘I spy a l/a/m/p … lamp, I spy a d/o/g … dog’? Remember to not put a ‘u’ sound at the end. If you want to see how we pronounce the sounds please watch this video to hear someone demonstrating the correct pronunciation for Level 2 sounds. The children have been really engaged and then have loved going into Explore and Learn, finding objects with the sounds in, practicing writing their sounds in various ways – in the writing shed, with chalk, with water and paintbrushes, in shaving foam, and lots more! We were also brilliant at sorting objects beginning with s,a,t and p. In phonics we have also read our very first book together using the sounds we have learnt so far! We helped each other to blend each word and felt really proud of ourselves at the end. Practicing this at home will really help the children to improve their skills and understanding.
In Maths we have been counting things we can’t touch and also thinking about keeping track of what we have counted when we can no longer see them. We have looked at number lines and learnt how to use a number line to help us count accurately by ensuring the numbers are in the correct order and placing one object on each number. We played games to count sounds we could hear and actions we could see and were really good at using our fingers to help us count. In Explore and Learn we have been thinking about position and have used the dolls house to position the furniture and our ‘mini me’s’ (blocks with our own photos on), following instructions or describing the position of things.
Again, the classroom smelt wonderful on Monday afternoon when another group of children made flapjacks. All children listened, followed instructions, followed good hygiene practices and could weigh, mix, observe and made delicious flapjacks, we hope you enjoyed them!
IN PSED this week we thought about Self-Awareness and read the story Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson. We talked about what we are good at and what we might find tricky. The children were amazing at coming up with things. We talked about having a ‘Can Do’ attitude and when we say we can’t do something, we add he word “yet” to the end, as with lots of practice we can achieve anything. We have observed children being incredibly kind and polite with one another helping each other, such as putting on their all in one suits to play in the sand, passing things to each other at home time and hearing incredible manners. Keep it up Maple. We have been remembering our 4 zones of regulation and have been referring to them when reading stories and talking about situations. We did some mindful colouring, which the children were all keen to bring home!
In PE we have been aiming at targets. We used the hoops and tyres to practice throwing bean bags into, it was such fun on such a warm afternoon. We also introduced the children to the ‘bean’ game, we were jumping, runner, chilly, French and baked beans!
Before we went to Forest School, we coloured and cut out our own ‘Bears’ and took them with us to practice our positional language. We hid them in front, underneath, on top of, behind, next to and in between bushes, logs, trees and pans. We also explored the apples that were starting to decompose, we enjoyed squishing them with our feet, picking them up with sticks and making food with them for the 3 Bears. We had lots of fun using the pots and pans and sticks as musical instruments to sing songs we knew.
In Understanding of the World, we looked at a map of the school and identified where Maple Class was as well as Willow, Chestnut and Oak classes, the playground, Forest School, the hall and the front of the school where our parents wait. We looked at the shapes we could see and then made a map using 2D shapes.
We have loved being in the library again this week, it’s so lovely to have time to explore different stories with each other and pick a different one to take home each week. We hope you’re enjoying sharing the books with your child too.
Well done to Freya, Jude and Luna who received certificated in assembly this week.
We look forward to lots more learning fun next week!
