This week we have continued to learn about pirates - what they look like and what they do. On Wednesday, the children baked heart biscuits as a celebration of Valentine's day; I wonder if they gave their heart away??????? 
Have a fabulous half-term everyone - let's hope for some sunnier skies!

Last week, our new focus story 'The treasure of Pirate Frank' focused on pirates and treasure maps. We loved talking about treasure and drawing maps with volcanoes, swamps and forests! There was some creative building going on in the construction and small world areas - pirate ships and pirate places to live.
We made rocky road; it was filled with lots of treasure for us - marshmallows, jellybeans, crunchy bits, maltesers, sprinkles... 
​In Maths, we were learning to record number in different ways and learnt that 6 and 7 are made from 5 and a bit more.

We have been learning more about space! We learnt that although people can't live in space, astronauts can travel to space and live on the International Space Station. We watched a video to see what it's like there - it was funny to watch the astronaut floating around with wavy hair. She even showed us the toilet and we didn't think it looked very comfortable! 
We also made space collages - learning, again, how to rub a crayon to wash colour across the paper. 
In Maths, Bear Cubs were learning about 5 currant buns and we baked some too. In Big Bears, we were learning about the composition of numbers.

Last week, we read 'Whatever Next' as our focus story. It's about a bear who flies to the moon so we have been thinking about rockets! We learnt how to manipulate card into cylinder and cone shapes and how to join them together. We learnt about these shapes in Maths and talked about their curved and flat faces. We also learnt that a ball shape is called a sphere and the moon is a sphere.
Big Bears learnt about the word 'roaring' and when we watched a shuttle launch we understood that not only lions roar. We know a poem about giants that roar so we did HUGE roars when we recited it.
We made honey cake because when bear went to the moon he took a jar of honey with him. It was sweet and sticky!

This week we have been learning about things that are old and things that are new. On Tuesday we brought our teddies in and spoke to everyone in the class to tell them about our teddies. Quite a few children brought older teddies in because they were given when they were born. Other teddies were new because they had been given at Christmas. It was lovely to meet everyone's special teddies!
On Wednesday, we had a visitor in FS2 who came in to talk to us about road safety. He showed us, that just like Mr Potato Head we need to have our eyes open, our listening ears and walking feet to be able to cross the road safely. The children coloured their Mr Potato Heads brightly so if it was at night time he could be seen in the dark.
Bear Cubs made us delicious, chewy and stick flapjack on Wednesday.

Christmas activities have started in EYFS and we are all in the Christmas spirit except the elf seems to causing some mischief...

We have been reading more stories about sly foxes this week, one of them being 'The Gingerbread Man.' This morning we baked gingerbread men but just when we weren't looking one jumped off the counter top and ran outside!!!!!! We chased across the field to see if we could him but there was no sign and we thought he'd probably got gobbled up by the fox but then, as we were walking to dinner, we noticed him upside down at the top of the corridor with a leg missing and his face smudged!!!!! What had happened???? This generated lots of talk:
"It must be the fox that ate the leg."
"I bet he was running to the kitchen to eat our dinner."
"Maybe the sly fox got him!"
"I'm glad another one didn't escape otherwise we wouldn't have enough."
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This week we have been reading stories about sly foxes - they always seem to be sneaking around hens!!!! In construction, we have been making traps for the fox and a safe place for the hen. Bear Cubs have been painting foxes and Big Bears have been making WANTED posters to put up around the class, just in case anyone sees a fox lurking around... We are putting our phonics knowledge to good use by writing 'fox.' Big Bears have been drawing maps to show where Rosie the hen went for her walk and Bear Cubs have been talking about the journey using words like around, past, through.
The Big Bears have been subitising again (learning to see how many without counting) so they have been using domino spots to match up.
​In baking, we made apple and caramel cake!

We have been reading 'The smartest giant in town' and in the story the animals make the giant a crown as a thank-you so last week we made crowns. The Bear Cubs practised snipping on lines to make their crowns and the Big Bears cut without lines to make theirs.
Big Bears learnt about the word 'squelchy' and they did lots of squelching in raspberry jelly! Everyone loved it!!!!
Bear Cubs were learning words too - words about how things feel. They were using words such as soft, hard, bumpy, spiky, smooth. In Maths they were learning about height; they compared objects to say which was taller. Big Bears were learning about size too and used vocabulary such as gigantic, enormous and huge to talk about really big things.
In baking, the children made raisin cookies.

Last week we enjoyed making chocolate sparklers and firework prints to celebrate Bonfire Night. We read a story about the celebration and learnt how to keep safe.
​Big Bears learnt a poem about a giant and we did actions too! It's our favourite poem so far. We also did actions in Maths for counting, learning that not just things can be counted. We were doing a lot of subitising - this is when we can say how many without having to count.