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.

We went conkers mad last week! We practised our fine motor skills by pushing a conker around with a pen and used conkers to make patterns over squiggly lines and big patterns on the carpet. We also counted conkers and made soup with conkers, as well as dried oranges and pine cones.
We made delicious carrot cake too!!

Last week, we talked about animal patterns - we used describing words such as, scaly, patchy, stripy. The Bear Cubs painted tiger patterns using a downward painting stroke and the Big Bears continued giraffe and tiger patterns using the paintbrush in different ways.
The Bear Cubs sorted and matched colours indoors and outdoors and everyone enjoyed a delicious fresh fruit tart - still thinking about fruits and their benefits.
All children talked about Kexborough as a village and we said if it was similar or different to the village where Handa lived in the story.

Last week we read a book called 'Handa's Surprise' - about a girl who takes a basket of fruit for her friend. We tried some fruits, perhaps some more unusual: pomegranate, lemon, avocado, pineapple, mango, blueberries, melon. The melon and mango seemed popular! We talked about the seeds inside the fruits - some seeds are small and some fruits have one large seed called a stone.
The book is set in Africa so we practised some Art skills to make sunsets. The Bear Cubs practised using crayons on their side to rub across the paper then stick silhouettes on top. The Big Bears learnt how to use watercolour paints to make a sunset wash. The results were great!
We also read Little Red Riding Hood because in that story a little girl takes a basket of food too. We talked about what foods we would take to a friend - we remembered about being healthy but treats too.
In construction, the children made homes for the wild animals. I was really impressed how a group of children spent all afternoon building and adding more detail to their building.
Finally, one of our big bears had been to Cawthorne Park at the weekend and collected autumn treasures. She showed us how to do a leaf rubbing!
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This week the Bear Cubs and Big Bears have been learning more about healthy eating, particularly eating fruits and vegetables. They have been learning that fruits have seeds inside and vegetables don't. The Big Bears have also been learning that fruit grows on trees and plants and vegetables grow under or near the ground. We made pizzas using some healthy toppings like peppers, ham and olives. We used some of the fruit and vegetables to learn how to print pictures.
In Maths, the Bear Cubs have been learning to count 3 objects and to know that when one more is added or taken away there isn't 3 anymore. The Big Bears have been learning to compare two groups of objects by saying which has more and which has fewer.
Big Bears have also been learning how to mix powder paints this week; they've enjoyed making a variety of colours but it can be tricky making the paints just right; not too runny or too thick. We also wrote a letter from the lazy farmer (remember him!) to the duck apologising for not doing the work!
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