Hello and a warm welcome back to this weeks class blog. This week we have been using the text This Zoo is not for you as the focus for our learning and what a lot of learning we have accomplished this week. As always, let's take a little look at this weeks invitations to come and learn 

In the story the Platypus wanted to invite the friends in the zoo to his party. We used this as a reason to come and write at our writing area. We created party invitations, addressed envelopes and posted them. This was great for helping us to identify days of the week, times and so on when writing  Here we are in action 

We used the animals from the story to help us learn more about their habitat and to learn some more fun facts. We used books and the Internet to find out information. For example, did you know that flamingos sleep standing upright on one leg? Nor did we but we now know lots more facts 

We also got creative in the creative area drawing our symmetrical animals. The children have really developed their observational drawing skills over this half term - they have explored using pencils in different ways to create different marks. Here we are applying our newly acquired skills 

We also explored the work of different artists who use animals as the focus for their work. We discovered that so many artists use pastels and so we decided to recreate a rather famous image. Here we are using pastels to create our own interpretation of the famous Highland Cow. Amazing work everyone!

We also used this week to look at and review all of the animals we have been learning  about this half term - we have looked at farm animals, animals from the ocean, Arctic, Zoo and Jungle to name but a few. We gathered these animals together and then sorted them according to their habitat. Great work everyone and the language we used was amazing. I am so very proud of you!

Here's a little round up of other achievements and proud moments from this week. Enjoy!

However, without a doubt our highlight this week has been our Festive Singalong. The children were truly amazing. They sang, they smiled and enjoyed themselves and this makes it all truly worthwhile. The courage it takes to stand up in front of an audience at this point of the year makes me so very proud of each and everyone of them. 

Next week we will be using the theme of Christmas and Winter to explore our learning. Have an amazing and restful weekend

Staff and Children in Reception W