Autumn 1

Our First Days at Westwood

What a fantastic first week the children have had in Birch class. We have been absolutely amazed by how well the children have settled into their new class, exploring all the areas and making new friends. The children have spent lots of time in the outdoor classrooms, mud kitchen and on the climbing equipment this week. We have investigated bubbles and painted on our outdoor painting tents. Lots of children have enjoyed the new water wall and mud kitchen making mud pies and writing menus for 'extra chocolate mud pies'. The children have enjoyed circle time with Miss Lindsay and Miss Daniels and have talked about different feelings and how to show an adult how they feel.

Below are some of the collages we put together for the children's first days.

Our Favourite Foods

As part of snack time the children have talked all about healthy foods and snacks. Birch class drew their favourite foods for Miss Daniels and Miss Lindsay and we all talked about why we like them.

It was very interesting to see what the children picked.

Tyllan and Aubrees Journey

Tyllan decided that he needed to find a way to escape from the jungle and get home. 'Do you want to escape with me?' Said Tyllan to Aubree. Aubree and Tyllan went to the mark making area and drew a map to find their way home. They had to 'follow the trail' and took Miss Daniels along with them winding round the tyres and the climbing equipment and following their maps.

Week 2

In week 2 we have had the very exciting addition of more children to our class. We have been getting to know each other and making new friends. The children investigated the book 'one family' a lovely story about how one can be many things or just one thing. Lots of children have really enjoyed going in the reading area to choose a book to read with their friends. We also celebrated 'Going Gold for Cancer Research' and made lots of gold pictures using glitter.

The children have really enjoyed making dishes in the mud kitchen this week use scissors to cut ingredients off the bushes and writing menus on clipboards

Aubree has been building rockets using the magnetic shapes in the Maths area. She told me she had a 'square and a triangle'.

Week 3

This week the children found that baby bear had wandered off the wall. HE left the children a letter saying he was lonely and he really wanted to know more about them. The children painted their faces for baby bear and had a go at labelling them. The children also made honey sandwiches and measured bear footprints to check whether the foot prints in the classroom belonged to baby bear. We also sorted and counted bears into colour groups and with 1:1 correspondence. The children read the story bear hunt and went played in the sensory tray outdoors, linking initial sounds to mud, snow, sticks, water.

Week 4

This week the bear made his way off the wall and went in search of a new home ... Most of the children thought he went back to the woods. He left some muddy footprints in our class and we measured them using blocks of three. The children wanted to find out if they were daddy bears, baby bears or mummy bears footprints. The children also painted their faces to show baby bear what they looked like.

We looked at shape and size - the children enjoyed making patterns with shape cut outs and floor tiles and even arranged them in the design of a house. We categorised and named 2D shapes. The children had lots of fun this week. Have a look at our learning below.

Week 5

This week baby bear found a mummy owl with an empty nest. We have been exploring the story of owl babies and looking at the characteristics of owls and where they live. The children have been learning to label using initial sounds and finding out what nests are built from. In number we have been looking into the concept of 1 and learning how 1 can be represented in many different ways. Mummy owl wanted to put one of each toy in the nest for baby owl and the children added toys from around the room to the nest exploring the concept of one nest made of many pieces of straw, one egg made of two halves etc..

We have also been collecting natural materials outdoors and making repeating patterns with them. Children looked at the lists to see if they could find and hear the initial sounds of the items they had to look for.

The children have been matching numerals to amounts of acorns that were hidden in the golden eggs the Owls left.

Celebrating Mental Health Awareness Day

The children celebrated mental health awareness day by dressing in yellow and doing a number of activities to encourage them to be aware of their own and other feelings.

Owl babies

Week 6

This week all the children have been investigating 2 as a quantity and in the environment. We also looked at signs in the environment linking these to shape and sounding out the letters s-t-o-p which the children have been learning in phonics. The children drew their own signs and enjoyed spotting them in the outdoor area.

Investigating 2

Week 7

This week we celebrated the bear finding his way home to the woods. Using the story of 'We'r going on a bear hunt' by Michael Rosen, we re-told the story in our own words and used natural materials to make a collage of the story.

As part of our end of term celebrations of music we sang 'We'r going on a bear hunt and used musical instruments to learn about pulse and rhythm. We also went on a number hunt outdoors to the number 3 in a variety of different ways.