Our topic this half-term is called Hot and Cold and we will begin our learning by exploring Winter.

Our core text this half term is: Here Comes Jack Frost by Kazuno Kohara.

In phonics the sounds we will be learning in the first half term are:

j v w x y z zz qu ch sh th ng 

Please help your child consolidate these at home by reading the words in your red phonics book.
Thank you :)

Exploring Winter

We have started our new topic by exploring exploring Winter. We were very lucky to experience real snow and ice at the start of our new term as our first day back was a snow day! We had lots of snowy adventures to share in class and it was a great way to activate our prior knowledge of the season! We have been exploring Winter this week through art work and stories and also in our outdoor classroom and forest school area. 

Winter Art Work

Look at our beautiful winter art work! We enjoyed drawing and painting the main character from our core text 'Jack Frost' and describing the story events. We explored colour mixing using cold winter colours and created winter images using wax crayons then colour washed over them in water colour paints. We even added cling film and salt to our paintings to explore the artistic effects! Mrs Harries showed us a lovely photo she had taken of snowflakes that had formed on her car wing mirror one morning and this inspired us to recreate our own snowflakes in class.

Creating a Polar Environment

This week in our topic learning we  had a special letter from Polly the Polar Bear. She wanted to visit our classroom but explained that she could only live in a cold habitat. She asked if we could make her a cold habitat for her to stay in our classroom. The children used a selection of reggio materials and creative resources to create a small world polar environment for Polly the Polar Bear. They described their environments.

Making Bird Feeders

In our topic learning we have been talking about winter again and how we keep ourselves warm but also how animals that live outdoors might keep warm. We read a lovely story called ‘Penguin’s Big Adventure’ and discussed what characteristics the penguin and the polar bear in the story have to keep themselves warm; e.g. thick fur, layers of fat etc. This led onto discussing how birds keep warm in winter and where they might get their food from as the trees in winter are bare. The children wanted to make some bird feeders to hang up in our forest school.

Chinese New Year

This week we have been learning about Chinese New Year. We have been learning about how the Chinese people celebrate the New Year in their country and noticing similarities between our own culture. We have created art work linked to the Chinese New Year and have lots of fun exploring the celebration in our indoor and outdoor classroom.

Comparing Hot and Cold

In our topic learning we have been having a discussion about hot and cold climates. We talked about the things that we would wear when it is hot and when it is cold. We then talked about what animals like to live in cold habitats and which like to live in hot habitats. All children used their newly acquired ICT skills to sort animals into their correct habitat using the ‘Seesaw’ program on the ipads. We carried out observational drawings of animals that live in hot or cold places in the world.

Forest School

We have had so much fun this half term at forest school! We have been busy bird watching, looking for minibeasts, exploring the mud kitchen, investigating natural treasures and splashing in muddy puddles! We have had such a good time exploring the great outdoors!