This week we read the story of Rama and Sita and learnt about the festival of Diwali. Diwali is celebrated by Hindus as well as some Sikhs and Buddhists. People light candles and lanterns to show that light overcomes darkness just like good overcame evil in the story. 

 

We made our own diva lamps from clay and decorated them using the clay tools.  We had to push the clay much harder than playdough to make the shape. We made a ball and then pushed our thumbs into the middle to make space for the candle. We had to be careful not to squeeze the sides too thin as the clay will break when it dries.

 

Some of us created a story tray so that we could retell the story of Rama and Sita. We used the pebbles to make the bridge across the water.

 

We used the duplo to make bridges across to Ravanna's island. We had to make sure that they didn't touch the floor. 

 

We learnt about Rangoli patterns and made our own patterns using the hammers and nails set. We had to make sure they were symmetrical.

 

We also learnt about Mehndi patterns that are drawn onto people's hands. We drew around our hand and had a go at creating our own patterns.

 

In phonics we have learnt more new sounds - ck, e, u, r and have worked really hard with our segmenting and blending to read and write simple words. Some of us did some amazing independent writing to write 'It is a sun' and '... sat on the mat' and some rhyming words too - WOW!  We have also learnt out first two tricky words - 'the' and 'to', 

 

This term, we have been focusing on writing our name and ensuring the letters are all formed correctly. This week, we have been set a challenge to see how many times we can write our name in 5 minutes and we have really excelled and shown how much progress we have made!

 

In maths, we have been learning about number 7. We practised counting out 7 objects from a larger group and have shown how brilliant we are at 1-1 counting!  We have also continued to look at 2d and 3d shapes and looking at these in our environment. 

 

We only managed to get outside for Forest School for a really short time because a storm came in. Before we came inside, we used our senses to think about our environment. We thought about what we could hear, what we could see, what we could smell and what we could feel. We could hear the wind rustling in the trees and bushes, feel the breeze on our cheeks, see our forest school area but found it tricky to smell anything!

 

It was our last cricket session with Charlie this week, and he was so impressed with how well the children have come on with their cricket skills this term - well done Maple. 

 

This week we have also read 'Room on the Broom' by Julia Donaldson and thought about how the characters showed great team work to scare the dragon away and to make a new broomstick. We talked about how important it is to show respect when working as a team and to make sure that we listen to the ideas of everyone. 

 

Well done to Eddie, Olivia, BeaBea and Joey who all recieved certificates in our celebration assembly today.

 

Thanks for all your continued support and it was so lovely to meet with you and be able to talk about your wonderful children at parents evening on Wedensday. 

 

Have a wonderful half term - we have popped some 'WOW' sheets in your child's folder today.  We would love to hear about any WOW things they have been doing at home.  We look forward to welcoming you back on Monday 3rd Novemeber for an exciting term leading up to Christmas.

 

We spoke about what we have really enjoyed during our first term at school:

Ollie - I enjoyed playing with Lili in the home corner

Ruby - I have enjoyed playing with Ottilie and Olivia playing mums and dads

Elsie - I enjoy forest school and playing on the swing

Ottilie - I love writing my name and playing with Ruby and Olivia

Olivia - I love reading books anddoing my writing

Lili - loves playing in the home corner with Ollie

Eddie - I love playing with BeaBea and Rogan playing princes

BeaBea - I enjoy school and the learning 

Myles - I enjoy sitting on the logs in forest school

Arlo - I like playing with Ollie and Elsie and playing in the big playground

Joey - I enjoy doing yoga 

Rogan - I like playing at school and I love school