Hello and welcome back to our class blog. We continue to use the fabulous Julia Donaldson as our inspiration for learning and this week we have been exploring the text Monkey Puzzle. Let's start the week off by looking at our invitations to learn

We started the week off by thinking about the animals in the story and how each of them are different. We talked about the way we can use language to provide a clue as to what attributes the animals from the story had. Firstly, to develop our oracy, we pictured an animal, shared clues and our friends had to guess which one we were describing. We then took this into our writing, drew pictures and provided written clues to find out the mystery animal. Take a look at our fabulous and very independent writing 

We then took what we already knew about these animals and created symmetrical sketches in the creative area. We used real artist's pencils to create different lines and shading. We then used these to create our own mini pop-up gallery in the classroom. We looked at each other's work and talked about about it.

As we near the end of the year, we are developing and focusing on the children's independence when writing. We are encouraging them to say the words aloud they are writing to help them hear the sounds and write them down. It's a tricky process but the children are really enjoying the thrill of working independently and we are so very proud of their efforts. Take a look at our sentences about what we can see in the jungle 

We have also been developing our storytelling skills this week. We have had the opportunity to sit on the teachers' chair and tell the class a favourite story. We have challenged the children to choose their favourite Julia Donaldson story and use the pictures to orally retell the story to their friends. What a fabulous effort from everyone. The use of openers, remembering of key events and the support from their classmates was amazing. Very proud grown-ups in the classroom

In other news, we have been busy in the other areas of our classroom. Our Funky Finger and Phonic area has seen a lot of learning action this week. We have been threading, pinning, matching letters, making letter sounds using playdough and a whole host of other exciting activities all linked to our lovely text of the week. Take a look at us in action!

We finished our week off with the Rainforest Challenge. We asked the children to think about the animals on the list and to write as many of them as they could using their sound knowledge. The children talked with confidence about the rainforest animals, named them and wrote their names using their Read Write Inc skills. Amazing work!

Next weeks text of the week is the lovely story What the Ladybird Heard Next. A story about how the animals down on the farm changed the sounds they made to trick the characters Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len. Lot's of great learning experiences to be had. Remember to visit our class page every week for an update on what we have been learning about.

Have a wonderful weekend

Staff and children in RW