'I wonder who we all are?' 

So far during the autumn term we have learnt all about ourselves and our class. We have explored our senses, friendships and emotions. The children have explored the similarities and differences between each other by comparing preferences, physical features and our families. 

They have learnt to sort and group by identifying things that are the same and different in a range of contexts. Maths activities have involved looking carefully at shape, colour, size, number and position.  We have also watched and commented on the changes in our natural world during autumn.  

In literacy, we have immersed ourselves in stories through our Drawing Club.  First, children are taken on an imaginative journey exploring characters and settings.  Then they adapt the story with an adventure of their own.  Children use magic codes to bring their drawings to life – which is often a little mischievous!

Children have been taught the correct letter formation for each grapheme, using an anticlockwise direction and the appropriate writing direction on the page. To support children develop the fine motor and gross motor skills needed whilst pre-writing, we have been enjoying our Squiggle whilst you Wiggle time.  Squiggle uses neurological and physiological movements to create marks. Children have loved transferring their dance moves to paper. 

In phonics, children have started phase 2 of the Little Wandle phonics program.  This has involved developing skills in blending to read and segmenting to spell short words. Children have been introduced to all the alphabet sounds as well as some common digraphs (two letters that make one sound). 

In numbers and numerical patterns, children have been introduced to the Numberblocks 0-5.  They have been subitising (using their heads and eyes) and finding out the rules for effective counting.  Looking ahead, children will begin to decompose these numbers to identify which smaller numbers they are made from.

I wonder where we all are?

An Alien has crash-landed at Mrs Hipkins' house.  Our Alien friend sent us on a quest to find out what sort of place Kidderminster is?  

We compared it to other places on the planet such as jungles, mountain ranges, deserts, grasslands, cities, countryside, villages and coastal towns.  Do we share any similarities with these places?

We have used Drawing Club texts to inspire our explorations of places and have used maps, routes and globes.