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2025/26

A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story - RE KO

A Christmas Story by Brian Wildsmith | Waterstones

Our last book of 2025 is 'A Christmas Story'. We will talk about religious stories using new vocabulary, recognise some religious words and recognise that people have different beliefs and celebrate special times in different ways. We will be creating our own scenes from the story using model-making, puppets and role-play. We will also discuss the benefits and responsibilities of friendship and the ways that people care for others.  

               

 

12 Days of Christmas 

The 12 days of Christmas has continued with a Panto performed by Valley Park, our Christmas performance, Christmas shop, Christmas crafts and Santa dash. 

               

               

               

               

               

     Phonics

In phonics this week we have continued to recap all sounds from Chapter 2 sets 5-7 using letters to Santa to form CVC words, creating a list and using baubles to find sounds. 

               

                                                          

Whiterose Maths

 This week in maths we have consolidated all of our maths knowledge linked to circle and triangles and it's me 1,2,3.

               

               

How to catch a star

How to catch a star - DT KO

How to Catch a Star Book Review

This week we have planned our dream catchers, built our dream catchers and completed our dream catchers with feathers and beads. We have also been getting into the Christmas spirit by decorating the Christmas tree and starting the 12 days of Christmas count down. 

               

                

                 

                

                

                

               

               

12 Days of Christmas 

The count-down to the end of term has begun. Over the final 12 days of the term we have Christmas events on every day for children to take part in. 

               

                  

Phonics 

In phonics this week we have recapped all sounds from Chapter 2 sets 5-7. 

               

               

Whiterose Maths 

This week in maths we have consolidated all of our maths knowledge linked to matching and sorting, patterns and measure. 

               

         This week we have started to develop our ideas and decide what materials we need to create dream catchers. We had discussions about different materials and what changes they notice. 

               

              

               

               

Phonics 

During the week we looked at sounds 'y,z'and our second diagraph 'qu'. We also looked at the voiced 's' and 'a' as in 'ar' for lava.  

               

               

Whiterose Maths

This week we looked at 4-sided shapes and how we could sort them into groups and create a shape using paper.

               

              

Sycamore Trees came to visit 

To help sycamore with their guided reading and fluency. Sycamore children came to read our story of the week to apple children.

               

               

Good Little Wolf

Good Little Wolf: A playful and amusing illustrated picture book:  Amazon.co.uk: Shireen, Nadia: 9781780080017: Books

This week we looked at book 'Good Little Wolf' which is linked to music by listening to different types of music identifying beats and rhythms.

             

             

We also created a tea party and explored different smells. Within the construction area we built different houses the pigs. 

               

     Phonics 

During phonics this week continued to develop our knowledge creating jewels, maps for jungle jack and looking at blending sounds together. 

                

                

  Whiterose Maths 

In maths this week we looked at numbers 1,2,3,4,5 and how we subitise, 1 more and 1 less.

              

               

               

We're going on a bear hunt (Computing & Geography) 

We're going on a bear hunt - Computing KO

We're Going on a Bear Hunt: The bestselling classic family favourite  picture book perfect for reading aloud to kids age 3-6 (We're Going on a  Bear ...

This week we focused on looking at maps, programming beebots and being able to follow simple instructions as a group. 

              

              

              

              

We went on our second trip to Cobtree to going on a bear hunt. We had our own maps of Cobtree, we created our own maps and we use compresses to see which direction we were travelling in. 

              

              

                                       

               

               

               

               

               

                                                                                                                                                                             

   Remembrance Day

Tuesday 11th November at 11am we gathered in the hall to think about our fallen soldiers and who have been affected by any conflict in present day and past. 

               

                                                       

Phonics 

This week we continue our phonics with Chapter 2 set 5 with meeting new characters, new sounds and new songs. Our new sounds this week our h,b,f and l. 

               

               

Whiterose Maths 

This week we looked at 1,2,3,4,5. We looked 4 and 5, seeing if we can subitise it and to find it. 

                 

                

The Best Diwali Ever (RE)

The Best Diwali Ever - RE KO

The Best Diwali Ever (PB): Amazon.co.uk: Shah, Sonali, Prabhat, Chaaya:  9780702303302: Books

This week we looked at Diwali the celebration of light. After reading the story, we created fireworks, Diya lamps and Rangoli patterns using rice. During our learning time we had Diwali themed music with colourful material to express celebration. We also created sweets in the mud kitchen. 

               

               

                                                                            

               

               

We have continued to explore 'The best Diwali ever' with creating Mehndi patterns, role played with puppets and we celebrated Diwali with dancing with materials as a phase. 

              

              

                                                                         

            

                                                   

             

             

              

Apple trees also did a science experiment to explore fireworks and how ink reacts with milk. 

              

               

                                                     

Phonics

We continue to recap all of our phonics and build on blending CVC words.

                 

Whiterose Maths 

We continue to look at numbers 1,2,3 and we ensured the correct amounts are put into the correct places.

        

We continued our maths knowledge with investigating, identifying and exploring circle and triangles.

               

               

    We also found circles and triangles in the environment during learning time. 

               

Another session we looked at positional language.

                

Pumpkin Soup (DT)

Pumpkin Soup - DT KO

Pumpkin Soup: Celebrate 25 years of this timeless classic: 1 (Pumpkin Soup,  1) : Cooper, Helen, Cooper, Helen: Amazon.co.uk: Grocery

This week we looked at what ingredient we need to make soup, what pumpkins look like and created our own pumpkins. We also went on our first school trip and looked at where pumpkins come from, what they need to grow and we purchased pumpkins for our classroom.     

                                                                                

                    

Our Trip

We went on our first school trip to Spadework pumpkin picking. We picked four pumpkins to bring back to the classroom.

               

               

              

               

Phonics

This week we recapped all the sounds we have learnt over the term. We did this with worksheets, group work and finding hidden words.. 

                 

Whiterose Maths 

We looked at numbers 1,2,3 and used dice to subitise. 

               

Funny Bones (Science & PSHE)

Funny Bone - Science KO 

Funny Bones - PSHE KO

                                                                    Funnybones: Amazon.co.uk: Ahlberg, Allan, Ahlberg, Janet, Ahlberg, Allan,  Ahlberg, Janet: 9780140565812: Books    

Over the past two weeks we have looked at 'Funny Bones'. We have created our own skeletons, looked at what things look like in the dark and we have also looked at other skeletons and how we are all different. We also looked at how we keep healthy looking at food, how we keep our bodies clean including our teeth. We had a visit from a dentist who supported our knowledge of looking after our teeth.

                    

                    

                   

                 

                  

Phonics Workshop 

We had our Phonics Workshop afternoon where we welcomed parents into the classroom to experience what activities we have available for children to access during our phonics lessons and how parents can support their children at home. 

                     

                                                      

Garry Parsons our illustrator visit

We had the lovely Garry Parson visit us to show us what an illustrator does and what books he has drawn for. We had the chance to draw our own monster from one of his books under his guidance. 

                     

                                                                                                 

Dentist Visit 

We had two dental nurses come to visit to extend our knowledge on keeping our teeth healthy and clean. We had the chance to look at teeth and experiment with toothbrushes to show us how we need the clean our teeth. 

                    

                     

Phonics 

Our phonics this week we looked at our first diagraph 'ck,k,e,u,r'. We continue to create CVC words using all of the letters we know. Also continued to blend sounds together to make CVC words using our phonics worksheets.

                  

                     

Whiterose Maths

Our Whiterose maths over the last two weeks we looked at big and small objects using boxes and objects to investigate what could fit in different size boxes. We also started to look at AB patterns and creating our own. 

                     

                                                                

Meesha Makes Friends (PSHE)

Meesha Makes Friends - PSHE KO

                                                                       Meesha Makes Friends: A Big Bright Feelings Book: Amazon.co.uk: Percival,  Tom, Percival, Tom: 9781526612953: Books

This week we looked at the book 'Meesha makes friends'. We looked at what a good friend is, how we can be a good friend and we created our own friends using leaves. We also took photos of our friends using iPads and created recycled friends with different materials. During this week we also started looking at how the season is starting to change.

                    

                    

                    

                                                                                  

Whiterose Maths 

Our Whiterose maths this week we sorted animals into coloured groups and we looked at more and fewer of different liquids.

                

                                                                              

Phonics

In Phonics we continued to meet new characters, new sounds and new actions. The new sounds we learn this week are 'g,o,c/k,k/k'. 

                    

                   

One Family (Art & History)

One Family - History KO

One Family - Art KO

220346 Book ONE FAMILY HB George Shannon Blanca Gomez EUC 9780374300036 |  eBay UK

Week two and three we have looked at the book 'One Family'. During these two weeks we have looked at family portraits, self-portraits and different types of families. While looking at self-portraits, we have explored different emotions while using mirrors.

                 

                   

                    

Whiterose Maths

 We have also started our Whiterose maths which involved creating matching sets, sorting and developing rules.

                   

                                                                     

Phonics

We have started our phonics following Phonics Shed scheme looking at chapters 1 and 2. Our sounds we have learnt are 's,a,t,p,i,n,m,d'. 

                    

                                                                                 

                                                                    

Each Peach Pear Plum

Each Peach Pear Plum: The classic 'I spy' board book : Ahlberg, Allan,  Ahlberg, Janet, Ahlberg, Janet: Amazon.co.uk: Books

The first week of reception has been about learning the routine, boundaries and expectations. We have settled in with our adult input sessions, child initiated learning time and our lunch time. We also explored the book with creating pies, making ingredient lists and talking about our favourite fruits. 

                  

                   

                                                                                               

                                                                 

Our New Garden