We have really enjoyed getting to know your children over the last few weeks.  We all start full time next week.

This half term our new topic is about 'What makes me special'. We will be talking about how we look different, how we like different activities and different types of foods. We will be creating many different objects.   We will create mirrors and the children will talk about their facial features. We will discuss our own talents, our favourite books and stories. We will talk about who is in our family and draw simple representations. We will discuss if all families are the same. We will make a profile of a person and describe eye colour, hair colour, length of hair and include siblings. We hope to have a coffee morning to show you your children's work.

We have really enjoyed working with your children this term and they have all made such progress.   Lots of things have happened over the last few weeks and we have been very busy both inside and outside the classroom.

We have been visiting the forest every Tuesday morning as a start to our Forest School activities.   The children have been climbing trees, making dens, constructing swings and finding lots of interesting things.   We even saw a pair of robins last week and they were quite tame.   We would love you to come and have a look at their 'Forest' books where the  children have written and drawn about their adventures.  Forest visits will continue every half term, so we will return in February and again in the summer term to see how the forest changes over the seasons.   Maybe, if we are very lucky, we will be able to visit on a snowy day.

Our topic this half term has been 'Hibernation'.   We have learned about the different animals who hibernate and we met Whizzo, Mrs Nicholson's 50 year-old tortoise just before he went into hibernation.   We visited Jesmond Dene to find out about Autumn.   We found lots of different leaves and nuts and visited the animals in Pets Corner.  

In Expressive Art and Design we have used lots of different techniques to construct simple animals such as tortoises, bears and hedgehogs  using split pins to join card, and different materials to complete the designs.

In PE we have been learning and practising different rolls, balances and jumps and the children have been putting their skills together to make a gymnastic sequence.   They look very professional and we would like to perform them to you soon.

We have practised our letter sounds, cvc words and reading captions and sentences every day and will continue to do this next term.   The children have been learning to write their full names, simple words and short sentences.   It would be great if the children could continue to practise their reading and writing over the Christmas holidays so that they don't forget all the important things they have learned.  

In Numeracy the children have learned to write numbers to 20, order numbers and find the number that comes one after a given number.   We have planned lots of outdoor maths and the children have hunted for nuts, made magic forest potions and ordered number squirrels on the trees.

The end of term is as busy as ever, with Christmas pantomimes, parties and Santa to look forward.   We look forward to seeing you at our Christmas workshop in the last week of term.

Have a fantastic holiday and we will see you in January ready to start Term Two.

 A reminder for you : Research has shown that children who read to an adult everyday make better progress with reading. So please try to read a story to your child every day.

Mrs Watson        Mrs Nicholson             Mrs Mazzucchi