This week in Cherry Class we had a special delivery- a lost penguin called Flipper, with a letter and the story "Lost and Found" by Oliver Jeffers. The children were very worried about the little lost penguin which had turned up in our classroom. They have done a fantastic job at looking after him. Some children have made it a bed, others have wanted to find out information about the penguin, such as what penguins eat and where they live. We went on to read the story and the children have been using role play to retell the story through small world characters. Some children have written a description about the penguin, including adjectives about how he felt in the story. 

We have also been learning about cold places, including Antarctica, where penguins are from. As if by magic, it also snowed! We were very excited to play in the snow during our lunch break on Tuesday. Cherry Class were a bit disappointed that the snow didn't last long but we learnt a lot about how snow melts into water. We have also been freezing toys in our outdoor areas for children to explore ice. 

In Maths, we have been learning about the number and place value of numbers 0-10. The children have been ordering, making using resources and drawing amounts to represent the numbers. 

In phonics, Cherry Class have learnt the sounds "oa, oo, oo, ar, or". 

See if the children can read words containing these sounds. 

They have also learnt the tricky words "you, they, was".

We were very excited to have the author Christine Chambers visit us and read to us her book, "Red fox does what? Surely Not!". Cherry Class's favourite part of the story was when the fox made chocolate cake and shared it with his friends. 

We have had a magical two weeks of Christmas fun in Cherry Class. We learnt all about the Christmas story and performed this to our grown ups at our Christmas worship. I was so proud of each and every one of the children for their fantastic performance. 

We have baked Christmas biscuits, written letters to Father Christmas, ordered Christmas numbers 1-10, created Christmas cards and decorations. We have been very busy! 

In phonics, we revisited the sounds previously taught, with a focus on the digraphs (ch, sh, th, nk, ng, qu). Please read with your children over the Christmas break and practise the sounds using the phonics mats which we have sent home. 

This week when we went into the Woodland area, the children noticed the Hedgehog box. We then explored what hibernation is and which animals hibernate. This linked well to the learning we have been doing about different animals. Ask your child which animals they remember that hibernate and where they chose to hibernate. We found out that hedgehogs like to hibernate in piles of leaves, the queen bee digs a hole in the ground to hibernate and that toads like to hibernate in log piles. 

We learnt the sounds, ch, sh, th, ng and nk this week in phonics. See if you can spot any of these sounds in your reading books. 

In Maths we have been learning about more and less and noticing this in our environment. We have found groups of more and less in concrete, pictorial and numeric representations. 

What a busy week it has been in Cherry Class this week! 

We kick started our week off with our first 'Muddy Monday' trip to the Woodland area. We enjoyed exploring our environment and we did mud painting, collected Autumn findings and matched the colours and we made woodland fairies! 

We have learnt all about the Hindu celebration of Diwali this week and we made Diva lamps and Rangoli patterns. We loved looking at the colourful pictures and trying on some of the clothes that Hindu's wear for this celebration. Ask your child if they can tell you about the story of Rama and Sita which we read together this week. 

In phonics this week we learnt the sounds 'y,v,w,x'. Ask your child if they can recognise these words and have a go at writing them. We have also been practising reading the tricky words 'has,his and her'. 

In maths we have learnt all about repeating patterns this week. We have also been counting daily and have been recognising and writing digits and counting out amounts within 5. 

To finish our week we learnt about Remembrance Day. We all created our own poppy and took part in a minute silence with the whole school. 

In Cherry Class this week we have been learning all about the changes in the season into Autumn. We have been to our woodland area to explore and we have been on Autumn walks. We have discovered that the leaves are changing colours and that the weather feels cooler. Why not ask us about this at home and see if you can find some signs of Autumn when you are outside.

Can you find?
-Leaves (browns, orange,red, yellow)
-Conkers
-Acorns
- Helicopter seeds 
-Weather changes
-Seeds
-Chestnuts
-Berries 
-Squirrels