Spring 2, Week 5, w/c 18th March 2024

It has been another busy week in Duckling class. The children have enjoyed the bit of sunshine we have been having this week and have particularly enjoyed not having to wear their coats as much during our outside exploring!

This week we have enjoyed reading the story Dear Dinosaur. The children enjoyed reading all the letters between the dinosaur and the little boy, Max. Our Ducklings enjoyed writing to the T-Rex too. Some of the things in our letter included reminding the Dinosaur that the Ducklings care about him, that he shouldnt eat anything, and he should do good sitting on the carpet. It has been great to see the Ducklings more engaged during their carpet times. We are very proud with how far they have all come, and the progress they have made throughout the term. We also ended off our week by singing a range of weather-themed nursery rhymes. It was great to see how many songs the children already knew, and they were brilliant at learning some new ones that they will hopefully be able to sing to you over the weekend!

In maths this week, the children have been exploring the capacity. The children were introduced to capacity during their inside exploring time on Monday and Tuesday, so by the time we did our group time, they were familiar with the new terms. They were introduced to key words, such as nearly full and nearly empty, empty and full and half-empty and half-full. The children were able to identify if glasses were empty/full and we also explored the capacity of different bottles. The children did exceptionally well at identifying bottles which would hold more/less water. 

In our Jigsaw lesson this week, we focused on why it is so important to wash our hands before we eat and after they go to the toilet. The children were able to share why it is so important to wash our hands often during the day and could share why they thought it was important to wash their hands before they eat. We also shared ways in which we can make sure that we don't get germs, like washing our hands after blowing our noses or couching into our hands and by not putting our fingers in our mouths. 

Our makaton sign this week was ‘hello’, see if your child can show you this sign at home over the weekend. 

Next week we look forward toa short week and an EGG-citing Easter Egg Hunt! 

 Spring 2, Week 4, w/c 11th March 2024

It has been another busy week in Duckling class, the children have particularly enjoyed exploring our outside area searching for signs of spring. Although children are encouraged and supported to wear their wellies boots, aprons or puddle suits, please do ensure that your child always has a spare change of clothes in school each day. 

This week we have enjoyed reading the story Cave Baby by Julia Donaldson. Each time we read the story the children were encouraged to join in with the repeated phrases and were challenged to look out for ‘the big brown bear’ throughout the story. We explored pictures of cave paintings and prehistoric animals, discussing their features and comparing them with animals that live today. The children then used black paper and chalk to create their own cave paintings. It was fantastic to observe so many of the children drawing the prehistoric animals and including their features with such detail. 

In maths this week the children have been exploring the mass of different objects. During our group time the children were introduced to balance scales. We collected a range of different objects from around the classroom and discussed which object we thought would be heavier or lighter. The children then experimented with the scales, investigating which object was heavier or lighter and discovering that the heavier objects mkae the balance scales go down. The children continued to explore this during their exploring time this week using a range of different objects such as, building blocks, playdough, animals, cubes and pebbles. 

On Friday it was World Sleep Day, this linked perfectly with this week’s Jigsaw session ‘sweet dreams’. The children found a comfy place to lie and listen to a calming lullaby before discussing the importance of a good night's sleep, as that is when we grow and our bodies repair themselves. The children enjoyed sharing their bedtime routines and discussing our favorite bedtime stories. 

Our makaton sign this week was ‘happy’, see if your child can show you this sign at home over the weekend. 

Next week we look forward to exploring capacity with a range of exciting activities.

 Spring 2, Week 3, w/c 4th March 2024

We have had an exciting and super busy week in Duckling class this week! We have especially enjoyed not having to wear out coats as much during our outside exploring! Thank you to all the parents who were able to join us on Thursday morning for a bit of reading with the Ducklings! We loved having you in our classroom and I know the children did too! 

We started off the week by sharing our knowledge on the type of weather we see in the Springtime, since the weather is starting to warm up! We also made our own weather chart, discussing what the weather has been like in the mornings and in the afternoons, and also the changes in the weather.  

In maths this week, we have been learning about length and height. The children have enjoyed exploring how short, tall and how long certain objects were in the classroom, and especially enjoyed measuring how long, and short the dinosaurs were! During our group time, the children also explored seeing who was taller and shorter between the children. 

In our Jigsaw session this week, we continued discussing what being healthy means and the children loved having a delicious fruit and vegetable spread to have for snack! The children enjoyed being able to dish their own fruits and vegetables and enjoyed chatting about the tastes, textures and how yummy they were! They also shared which foods they thought were healthy, unhealthy and why they think we should eat more healthy food! 

On Thursday, we enjoyed our World Book Day activities. The children looked wonderful in all their costumes and did loads of reading today! We also enjoyed a special visit from Didcot Library who used a big story sack to read the children a story. The children also enjoyed reading different books on the carpet from the library. 

On Friday, we read the story ‘Tyrannosaurus Drip’ and explored the different behaviors in the book, and how we all are different and all unique! As part of our snack on Friday afternoon, the children made their own Goldilocks porridge and were able to choose from a variety of different healthy and yummy toppings.   

During our inside exploring this week, we have been continuing our learning of Dinosaurs. The children have been exploring different dinosaur fossils by digging them up and challenging themselves to identify what dinosaur it is. See if they can remember the tricky word you call someone who digs up fossils! At the end of the week, the children enjoyed cleaning and washing the dinosaurs! The children also enjoyed making their own Spring flowers perfume using flowers and some water. 

Our Makaton sign this week was ‘sad’, see if your child can show you this sign over the weekend. 

Next week we look forward to continuing our Dangerous Dinosaurs topic, as well as exploring mass. 

Happy Mother’s Day to all the special women in our Sires Hill children’s lives. We hope you are all celebrated this weekend! 

 Spring 2, Week 2, w/c 26th February 2024

We have had an exciting week in Duckling class starting our new topic Dangerous Dinosaurs!

We started off the week by sharing our dinosaur knowledge and then discussing dinosaur fats during our group time on Monday. The children were challenged to create and build their own dinosaurs using a range of resources such as play dough, pasta, feathers, buttons, cardboard, tubes, pots, glue and scissors. They made some wonderful dinosaurs and enjoyed explaining the different features of their creations to friends and adults within the class. 

Continuing our dinosaur theme of the week, we have been using our handprints to create our own dinosaurs and walking dinosaurs through paint to explore the different footprints. We have also been thinking about what a dinosaur habitat would include, and the children have created their own dinosaur habitat using dinosaurs, logs, trees and grass.

In maths this week we have been learning about the number 6. We enjoyed reading the story ‘Six Dinner Sid’. Throughout the story the children enjoyed counting the different houses Sid visited and the 6 meals that he ate. We have also been practicing our counting skills during our exploring time this week, counting 6 peg spikes onto the dinosaurs. It was fantastic to see the children being careful and touching each object as they said the number to ensure they were counting accurately. 

In our Jigsaw sessions this term we are discussing what we need to do to be healthy. This week the children enjoyed dancing to some music and discussing how moving our bodies makes us feel. Next week we look forward to exploring foods that are healthy and trying some new fruits and vegetables. 

We have also been learning a new song called ‘move like a dinosaur’ . The children had lots of fun moving like a dinosaur by swishing 

Our Makaton sign this week was ‘good’, see if your child can show you this sign over the weekend. 

Next week we look forward to exploring the different types of weather and celebrating world book day!

 Spring 2, Week 1, w/c 19th February 2024

We were so thrilled welcoming the Ducklings back this week after a restful half term. Our first week has been busy and colorful! 

Our story this week was The Color Monster. On Monday, we introduced the story in class and encouraged the children to use facial expressions to show the emotions we read throughout the book. The children thoroughly enjoyed reading the story and all week we have been talking about how we are feeling, and what color each feeling is linked to. We also encouraged the children to talk about why they are feeling a certain emotion and they all did really well in being able to explain how and why they are feeling that way! 

During exploring time this week, as you can imagine, we were all about color and feelings in Duckling Class! This week we have explored feelings using different color resources. The children loved exploring paint mixing this week, and just having a go at creating different colors using just paint and their fingers! The children also created their own feelings jar, which they did based on how they were feeling that morning. This was such a great opportunity for children to explore their emotions and why they might be feeling a certain way and just allowed the children to talk to an adult about things on their minds. The children also loved creating their own weird and wonderful Color Monsters using playdough, some googly eyes and some pipe cleaners. We focused on some threading this week too! 

During Maths this week, we continued our focus on the number 5 by using Numicon during our group time. The children were challenged to find different ways they could make the number 5! The children enjoyed doing this and it was wonderful to see the children being challenged to not just find the number 5 Numicon, but other pieces that could also make the number 5! Next week, we will start our focus on the number 6!

In our Jigsaw group time on Wednesday, our focus was understanding why we need to keep our bodies healthy. We encouraged the children to do some movements and then we spoke about what happens to our heart when we do a lot of running around, just like they do outside. We also played a game to see how many body parts the children knew. An extra challenge was given to the children to name some of the more tricker body parts!

On Thursday, we started our new Letters and Sounds journey with a sound walk around the school. The children really had to use their excellent listening skills for this task, which is exactly what they did! Their task was to listen out for all the sounds they could hear and then once we had come back to class, we challenged them to talk about the sounds they remember and what they could have been. The children enjoyed this and we look forward to another letters and sounds challenge next week!

On Friday during group time, using the Rainbow rhyme picture cards, we encouraged the children to pick one of the color cards and then find a word or words that rhymes with it.  

We hope the you have a lovely and restful weekend after a busy first week back. We look forward to our new topic Dangerous Dinosaurs next week!