This week as part of our learning about Autumn we have exposed the children to lots of different and exciting learning opportunities. Let's look at some of the invitations to play and learn we have explored this week 

We started the week off by thinking about Autumn and what it looks like and how it differs to other seasons. We talked about how the leaves change, how some animals begin together food for the long and cold winter and how we have to change what we wear to suit the weather conditions. We have been busy in the creative area exploring the colours associated with Autumn. We used watercolours to explore mixing and creating autumnal colours

We also used cotton buds to create leaves on trees. This was a great opportunity to develop our pincer grip and was a perfect challenge for us to show how our fine motor control is developing

We have spent time this week exploring the shapes and sounds of Autumn. We explored pumpkins and looked inside and talked about the seeds and which animals might eat them. We used magnifiers to look at the different colours, shapes and sizes and talked about the textures - we learnt words like rough, smooth, bumpy.

Our phonics area has been super busy this week. We have been focusing on initial sounds in words and matching them to objects associated with Autumn, Here we are in action

We used letters on autumn leaves to make words. This is an activity we do daily as part of our Read Write Inc lesson and the children are enjoying success when it comes to saying the sounds and reading the words.  Keep practising at home as it really does make a difference!

Our Maths learning has taken on an Autumn twist this week. We have been counting conkers, matching numbers and conkers and a whole host of other skills and activities. The children have been fascinated about the shapes of conkers and we found one that looked like a love heart - a great example of shapes in the environment 

We have also been using our hands as a balance to identify which objects are heavier and lighter. This is a great practical way of children learning all abut weight and the language we use to describe how heavy something is 

Our writing area has been very popular this week. It is so pleasing to see the children keen to put into practice the sounds we have taught in RWI. The children have been practising the letters and learning all about initial sounds in words. Take a look at some of our fantastic formation

And to finish the week off we set ourselves a Funky Finger challenge. Using clothes pegs we timed ourselves to see how quickly we could pass a leaf around the circle. It was super tricky to begin with but we didn't give up! We managed to do it in just over 2 minutes so next week we will try hard to b eat that time. Here we are in action. Look at the focus on our faces

Next week we will use the lovely text Owl Babies as the focus for our learning

Have a fabulous weekend

Staff and children in RW