This week in Duck class we have dived deeper into Autumn and focused on the animals that hibernate. The children showed a big interest in this area and have learnt so much about hibernation. Firstly, we know that hibernation is when the animals go into a deep sleep and the children have been creating homes for the animals that would suit them and the cold weather. When created homes we discussed shelter, food, warmth and how safe the houses were for the animals.

Our story this week has helped us to understand what animals hibernate and which animals do not hibernate. The children completed a cutting and sticking activity where they grouped the animals. This was a great opportunity to focus on taught vocabulary and ensuring the children are using new words when explaining their ideas and opinions. 

This week we have explored creating marks with different resources. We all enjoyed decorating Hettie the Hedgehog from our story and we used forks to create the spikes on her back. As they were decorating their hedgehogs the children expressed their knowledge of hibernation from focused question and general discussions with their peers. The discussed where their hedgehog was going to hibernate, what they liked and who would hibernate with them. 

In maths we have been focusing on one more and one less. I am super impressed with the children's counting ability and how most can automatically recall one more and one less within 6. We took our learning outside this week and played a variety of different games to support our recall. We threw the ball to our friends, shouted a number and they would have to shout one more/one less of the number. In addition to working as a team, taking turns, following instructions and listening the children were becoming fluent with their recall of one more/less. 

As always the children are working super hard on their letter formation, continuing curly caterpillars the children also worked on keeping all letters on the line. As you can see below the progress of the children's control with a pencil and presentation is always developing and I am so proud. We will continue to practise our letters and focus on applying this within our phonics/writing of words/captions. 

This week all children are beginning to write phase 2 CVC (3 letter word) words. They are using their newly taught sounds in phonics to apply within their writing. We will continue to work on our segmenting to write so that we are confident and consistent when spelling words. To challenge ourselves we have began to use phase 2 digraphs. 

After a busy week I hope you have a well deserved rest and I look forward to seeing you next week,

Miss Mayer