Autumn 2 - Let's Celebrate! 

Fledglings Week 9

Week 9: We've really enjoyed our first week of the new half term and we kicked off our 'Let's Celebrate' topic with a bang when exploring Bonfire Night. We learnt about the history of Bonfire Night, how people might celebrate Bonfire Night and how to stay safe around fire and fireworks. We have also really enjoyed exploring weighing and balancing in Maths and meeting our Reading Buddies from Year 6 who came to read with us for the first time this week. A reminder that we have our World Nursery Rhyme celebration day next Wednesday. Children can come to school in their costumes.  

Fledglings Week 10

 Week 10: We have had so much fun celebrating World Nursery Rhyme this week, including our special celebration day on Wednesday. The children all looked so brilliant and had so much fun decorating biscuits, painting Humpty Dumpty, making Incy Wincy's web and completing our Nursery Rhyme obstacle course. Thank you for your support with this! The children are absolutely flying socially, emotionally and academically and we are all so proud of them! Fledglings you amaze us every day. Keep up the great work! 

Fledglings Week 11

Week 11: I cannot believe it is Week 11 already! This week we have been continuing our learning about celebrations by looking at the festival of Diwali which is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains all around the world. We focused mainly on the Hindu traditions in class. It was very interesting to explore this festival as many of the children assumed that the Hindu people we watched in videos lived in different countries and were interested to know that there are people of all different faiths and colours in England too. This was a really important conversation. In class we have explored lots of Hindu artefacts, acted out the story of Rama and Sita, made our own Diwali cards and Diva lamps and role-played a Diwali party in the home corner - making Rangoli patterns, giving gifts, cooking treats and lighting candles. 

We also had so much fun in the snow! We worked together to make a snowman and his snow friend and we were so impressed by the children's determination, team work and problem-solving, especially when the head kept falling off! Rehearsals are under way for our Christmas Play 'The Greatest Journey' and Fledglings Class have been cast as the animals in the stable. They have been practising their moos, their baas and their oinks already! 

Fledglings Week 12

Week 12: Happy St. Andrew's Day everybody! We have really enjoyed learning about this Scottish celebration and learning about the country of Scotland. We looked at Scotland on a map, explored the different types of places in Scotland on Google Earth (cities, towns, beaches, islands, mountains) and explored the history of Scotland which used to be broken into different kingdoms with castles! We had a lovely visit from Rev Jen on Monday who is Scottish and she answered our questions about Scotland, showed us Scottish clothes and taught us to sword dance. Across the week we have also been cooking up haggis in the home corner, building castles, making piers for Katie Morag, making St. Andrew's Day cards and exploring books and stories set in Scotland. We have learnt so much and the children have particularly enjoyed this week and asked such wonderful questions! 

This week Miss Hill joined us in class. She is a trainee teacher from the University of Worcester who came to meet the class in preparation for her teaching placement with us after Christmas. She will be with us for 8 weeks after the Christmas holidays, completing her final teaching placement before qualifying as a teacher! Good luck Miss Hill. We can't wait for you to get started with us in the new year.

Next week we will be exploring birthdays around the world. As luck would have it, it is Concept Cat's 5th birthday next Thursday and we will be having a birthday party for him in class on that day. Children are welcome to wear their own clothes on this day. 

Fledglings Week 14

 Week 13: Well, Concept Cat has had the best birthday ever! We have really enjoyed learning about birthdays and celebrating with Concept Cat on his special day. The cards they children made were lovely and we had a great time at his party, celebrating in the style of different countries. Did you know that in China people have long noodles to wish each other a long life? Or that in Mexico, children hit pinatas? In Canada, people rub butter on the nose of the person who's birthday it is and in Ireland they give each other birthday bumps! In Brazil, they give their first slice of cake to someone who is very special to them. We also played lots of traditional party games like pass the parcel and musical statues and enjoyed some cake too. What a treat! 

We have been doing our Phonics assessments this week too and the progress the children have made is astounding. Fledglings, you rock! 

We look forward to seeing you for our Christmas Play next week - we have been very busy practising.