Autumn 2
Once upon a time … there was a class of children called The Clever Kittens and they began exploring different traditional tales.
A troll was caught on camera inside the Clever Kittens classroom looking for the Three Billy Goats Gruff. What a commotion it caused! Children read The Three Billy Goats Gruff story and retold the story through Talk for Writing, small world and a puppet show, using intonation in their voices for the different characters.
They read an information book about Bonfire Night to discover why we celebrate the 5th November. Guy Fawkes and his friends tried to kill the King but the King’s soldiers stopped them just in time and put them in prison. We celebrated the festival by watching fireworks on screen, whilst sipping chocolate milkshake. The Clever Kittens created fireworks pictures, which are, displayed in the classroom.
We celebrated Anti-bullying Week 11th – 15th November 2024
MONDAY – RESPECT – Remembrance Day Activities
TUESDAY – ODD SOCKS DAY – Everyone is unique
WORRY-FREE WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY – TOP TEN ACTS OF KINDNESS
FRI-YAY – KINDNESS CAPE PARADE
Clever Kittens created their own ‘Kindness Cape’. We read books about being kind, The Hugasaurus, Kind, Be Kind and then had a circle time to talk about what we could do to be kind to someone, even a smile can be kind. Children’s ideas were written onto love-hearts to display on our Kindness Cape.
Children discovered why people wear poppies in an introduction to Remembrance Day. We had two minutes silence to remember and think about all service men and women including soldiers, past and present, for their bravery and commitment to save our country. We painted poppies in the style of the American modernist artist, Georgia O’Keeffe, who is famous for her paintings of flowers on a large scale.
The Clever Kittens quickly got into the festive spirit and made the home corner into a Christmas home corner. The dining table was set-up with the traditional turkey, Yorkshire puddings, carrots and the must-have sprouts.
Throughout the term, they have been learning about 2D shapes and using mathematical terms to describe them. It is brilliant to see all the home learning displayed in our classroom of 2D shape pictures.
We made our own Christmas tree decorations from salt dough. After they had baked in the oven the Clever Kittens painted and glittered them to sell at the Redscope Christmas Fayre. Did you see Santa and his reindeer?
On Christmas Jumper Day, it was very exciting we watched the pantomime Aladdin performed by a theatre company that visited Redscope. Oh yes we did!
After weeks of practise, the Clever Kittens performed their own nativity for their families, dressed up in various costumes – the children were tremendous. Finally, they celebrated together with a Christmas party and a visit from Father Christmas, so they must have been on his good list.
Happy New Year everyone!
Autumn 1
The Clever Kittens have now settled well into their exciting adventures of school life at Redscope.
Our first topic theme has been ‘This is Me’ and we explored all about our feelings through the book ‘The Colour Monster’. Every day as the children come into class they find their photograph and place it on a particular Colour Monster depending how they feel.
We learnt about the Artist, Andy Warhol and painted our face and hands in the Artist’s pop-art style using bright colours. Children were able to show different emotions in their paintings such as happiness and sadness.
We asked the Clever Kittens to bring a photograph of their family and pets into school to put into our floor book. We spent time with children encouraging them to talk about their photos and memories they have about their family.
We looked in the mirror and used our fine manipulative skills, tools and techniques to create our own portrait with clay. They are all mounted on display in our classroom, but don’t worry, they will be coming home.
To launch the beginning of our home school library and celebrate our first few weeks in Clever Kittens, we invited parents/carers to join us for a Booknic. Families brought a blanket and joined us either in the classroom or on the Clever Kittens field to share many wonderful stories and choose their first library book.
We went on an autumn walk to Barker’s Park. On our walk we had the opportunity to notice different aspects of the outdoor environment in our local area and changes in the season. We found brown, orange, red leaves, conkers, acorns and all natural materials we could use to create an autumn collage. We also had a ‘listening moment’ to listen for sounds around us whilst walking in the woods. We tried to name and describe the sounds we heard to help us in our phonics learning. We could hear the birds tweeting and the wind making the leaves on the trees rustle. We used our senses to notice different sights, sounds and smells.
We had Stay, Play and Learn sessions to welcome our parents/carers into our classroom environment and to show them what we have been learning. We used our beautiful autumn foliage and treasures we had gathered whilst we were out exploring on our walk to create an autumn collage. It was a terrific way for our young children to combine art and nature. For the background of our collages, we used a painting technique called – Smoosh painting! (Children blended and mixed colours together with their hands on top of the cling film). It is a wonderful way for children to observe what happens when certain colours blend and it is a lovely sensory experience. The most amazing part was having our parents/carers in the classroom and seeing everyone together!
This half term, we used ‘Talk for Writing’ to narrate a non-chronological report about ‘How to keep your teeth clean and healthy’. Vocabulary Cat helped us to learn new vocabulary and the meaning of new words singing our Word Rap and clapping the syllables in the words. This inspiration came from a special visit from the Dentist and Dental Nurses from Kimberworth Dental Practice to teach us how to look after our teeth. We now know that we should brush our teeth twice a day for two minutes, after breakfast and before going to bed. We also need to eat healthily to keep our teeth healthy and visit the Dentist regularly.
We celebrated TT Rockstars day by being ‘Super Subitisers’. Children began their learning journey of subitising (the ability to instantly recognise the number of objects in a small group without the need to count them). We were able to be super subitisers using conkers, pinecones and other resources. Through number rhymes, e.g. 5 Little Monkeys, we talked about simple addition and subtraction and how the number grew bigger when we added and smaller when we subtracted/took monkeys away.
As part of the preparations for the schools Pumpkin Patch event, we had a great time building our scarecrow. Clever Kittens used material felt tips to create green and yellow checks on the shirt. They made a paper mache head, stuck on two googly eyes and stuffed the scarecrow with straw. See if you can spot it on the school field.
What a busy half term! Please look at the photographs of our first adventures.
