Home learning Friday 25th September

Well that's another week done and dusted!  We seem to have had glorious summer days and cold, damp autumn days all in the space of the week!
 
We began to think about the changing season this week as we looked around us in our school environment and saw the plant life changing in front of us.  Beautiful and colourful blooms are starting to fade and browns and yellows seem to be taking their place.  We looked closely at these changing plants and discovered that they contain seeds of all shapes and sizes.  We talked about the process of seed dispersal - through animals and the wind that is happening right now.  We also talked about these seeds lying dormant throughout the winter until they burst into life next spring.  Eric Carle's book The Tiny Seed is a great read to explain this process. 
 
Later in the week, Mrs Hammond had a great idea to paint some sunflowers.  We looked at the sunflowers in our garden and noticed that they were changing.  Mrs Hammond encouraged us to 'look a lot' as we observed our sunflowers and painted what we saw.  The results are fabulous and I look forward to sharing a picture of the gallery that we'll create.  Claire worked with us in small groups on Wednesday to use a range of loose parts to create wonderful sunflowers together.  I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures. 
 
Later in the week, we took part in the school celebrations for European Day of Languages.  We chose Scotland as our focus country and we enjoyed a little Gaelic celebration.  The children listened to bagpipe music and even had a go at making their own.  They listened to tales of the Loch Ness Monster and made some delicious shortbread with Claire on Friday afternoon.  We've looked at tartan patterns and made our own too. 
 
In our mathematical work, we've been learning to make sets of 3 and 4, we've ensured that we can read these numbers and we're all trying hard to form them accurately. We began to explore 1 more as we played a game of Give The Dog a Bone.  You could explore 1 more than this week at home.  Encourage your child to say "If I get 1 more then there will be X" as they make sets of different numbers.  You could do this with fruit, building blocks, shells - anything really!
 
In our sound work we've learnt d, i and t this week.  Serephina came in on Friday to share our learning so that you can see what we've been up to.  It would be great if you could reinforce recognition of these sounds and the formation at home over the weekend. 
 
On Thursdays when Mrs G goes outside with half the class at a time, Mrs Hammond stays inside and focuses upon fine motor development.  The children give their fingers a really good work out with lots of 'fiddly' jobs.  They also write their name and ensure that the formation of each letter is perfect!  I've added some photos of our fine motor session. 
 
I do hope that everyone has a great weekend. Fingers crossed for a bit of sunshine. 
 
See you on Monday,
 
Mrs G