Maple class - Autumn 2, week 2
Date: 14th Nov 2025 @ 1:32pm
This week our focus has been superheros in stories and the book focus has been Supertato. We have enjoyed reading lots of stories about Supertato and his adventures. We discussed what made Supertato a superhero. We created our own super potato characters using real potatoes, deciding what colour mask, belt and cape they had. We used beetroot juice and soft fruit to dye material, we loved using the masher to mash the fruit up to release the fruit - it was lots of fun, and also a bit messy!
We also thought our heros from the 1st and 2nd World Wars this week and of course the 11th November marked Remembrance Day. We talked about what it was and how it is important for us to remember this day by taking part in the 2 minute silence. We have painted and drawn some fantastic poppies and talked about the significance of a poppy to represent Remembrance Day.
We investigated lots of different types of vegetables; we looked closely at veggies using a magnifying glass, noticing how smooth or bumpy they were as well as where they were cut from the plant they grew on. We also had veggies in our mud kitchen which we used to make soups and other dishes to serve our friends. We really enjoyed pulling the layers off the leeks!
In Forest School on Tuesday the children looked at what has changed in the forest area and explored the area, some of us chose to make traps to capture Evil Pea in Supertato. Some of the children used the large den sticks to make their den, placing them against the bushes in such a way that evil pea could not escape. Some of us using bricks and stones to create a den. We continued our trap making back in the classroom with some children using the junk to create a trap.
We loved using the mashers with green playdough to make our own evil peas! We also rolled the dough to make larger peas
We have continued to flourish in phonics this week iand we have finished learning our Level 2 sounds and we are continuing to work hard on our blending and segmenting for reading and writing. We learnt the diagraphs (1 sound containing 2 letters) ff, ll, ss this week. We have continued to work on our letter formations and writing words and short captions, remembering to sound out the words we want to spell. Lots of Maple are choosing to apply what we have been learning in phonics to do some fantastic independent writing during Explore and Learn time, labelling cvc pictures (such as hat, mat, sun, fan) using the letters we have learnt. Some of us chose to write our own Supertato stories. The children really are developing a love of writing and reading and we hope they are demonstrating this at home with you too.
In maths this week we have been learning about number 8 and reinforced our counting, finding 8 on a number line and looking at the 10’s frame and representing 8 on there. We also worked on our fine motor skills by making an octopus or spider with 8 legs. We had to cut the body out and then the correct number of legs without using a template. We have also explored length and on Friday after our Dough Disco session we were set a number of challenges to enable us to explore length and use language to explain how long things are. We also used the playdough to make spiders with 8 legs, thinking about the length! We also stamped 8 spots onto Pudsey's bandana. Super maths Maple, well done.
To further our understanding of the world we have been investigating sources of light this week. We recognised that the sun is a source of light, and that when it's dark we can use a torch or turn on a light. We thought about how people long ago saw in the dark without electricity or batteries, and learnt that fire was used as a source of light and continues to be today. We then learnt about shadows, understanding that shadows are created when an object blocks the path of sunlight. We used our hands and shadow puppets in our theatre to cast our own shadows.
In RE we continued thinking about the nativity story, focusing this week on the main characters in the story and the order they appear. We looked at Christmas cards depicting the nativity scene and decided if they were a true reflection of the story. We learnt that those which show the shepherds and kings together at the stable are not true as the kings arrived much later than the shepherds.
In PE we continued to explore the parachute and play a variety of games.
During Explore and Learn we have had fun splashing in puddles, digging up the garden patch, exploring the mud kitchen, looking at and exploring a range of vegetables, writing, making up stories in the role play areas, being doctors and nurses and writing notes, making octopuses’ with 8 tentacles, getting creative and making bug boxes for ladybirds ... to name a few activities.
Well done to Eddie, Rogan Lili and Ruby who all received certificates in our Celebration Assembly this afternoon.
Have a lovely weekend and we hope you haven't got too soggy with all the rain today. See you on Monday.
