This half term we have explored the autumn leaves and trees through sensory, painting and learning. Lots of different colours and textures. The children have colour matched, picked their own leaves and made beautiful art work.
Learning about Autumn
Category : Understanding the world
Milkshake, Yummy!
Last week, we planted some strawberry seeds, we learned how the seeds will eventually grow into strawberries. Today, we used some store-bought strawberries to make a delicious strawberry milkshake by chopping them into small pieces and adding them to the blender with milk. We spoke about how we can hopefully use our plants in the future too!
Think we did a great job!
Plant Progress.
After a week the beans started to sprout! Look how excited we are 🙂
This was them after 2 weeks! Look how tall they are! Notice the difference with 4 days? WOW! We measure each day and write it on our chart. We’re excited to see how much they grow over the weekend.
The seeds we harvested from our tomatoes have even started to grow! Amazing!
Flower Power.
Over the past week, the children have sequenced the stages of plant growth and made and labelled their own flowers, all doing a fantastic job! Not only did they love creating the flowers, but they were also enthusiastic when talking through how plants grow. They are showing great interest and knowledge within the Growth and Change topic.
Building up our stories
During our expedition “When the Sea Meets the Shore,” we have been exploring the story The Singing Mermaid. The children began by sharing their ideas and predictions, thinking carefully about where the mermaid might travel next and what adventures she might have along the way. This gave them the opportunity to express their own thoughts and build on each other’s ideas.
We then used these suggestions to create visual prompts, which were taken to the water tray to enhance our play. The children used these prompts to guide their storytelling, developing their vocabulary and deepening their understanding of “who,” “what,” and “where.” Through this, they created imaginative and detailed narratives, bringing the mermaid’s journey to life in their own unique ways.
This activity supported their communication and language development, as well as encouraging creativity and collaboration. It was also a lovely way to engage in meaningful, hands-on learning, especially in the warm weather.
Well done for working so hard, Crew Frost!
Coral Reef
During our expedition “When the Sea Meets the Shore,” the children have been learning all about coral reefs and how this environment differs from their own. They explored the wide range of colours and textures found in coral reef habitats and then applied this knowledge in our playdough area, where they created their own reef-inspired models.
This activity provided a great opportunity to develop fine motor skills, while also supporting language development as the children described their creations and shared ideas. It also helped build their understanding of boundaries, particularly when using food-based resources for creative purposes rather than for eating.
Well done, Crew Frost!
Building our own pier
During our expedition “When the Sea Meets the Shore,” the children thoroughly enjoyed learning about lighthouses and understanding the important role they play in keeping boats safe.
Inspired by this, Crew Frost used their imagination during provision time to create their own seaside scene. They built a pier using wooden blocks, added large diamond bricks as rocks, and carefully chose the perfect spot for their lighthouse. Their creativity didn’t stop there—The Snail and the Whale even made an appearance, swimming alongside mermaids in their imaginative world!
This was a wonderful opportunity for the children to develop their communication and understanding, as well as build on their storytelling skills. They worked collaboratively, sharing ideas and bringing their stories to life, supporting their next steps in developing rich and meaningful language.
Well done, Crew Frost!
Tomato time!
Last week, we extracted seeds from a tomato and carefully laid them out to dry over the weekend, getting them ready for planting. Learning the life cycle of the food we eat, with this were planting more edible plants each week. We also watched a video about how tomatoes grow, and the children were fascinated by a time-lapse showing the plants growing taller and taller. They loved seeing how tomatoes start off green and gradually turn red, and were excited to learn that tomatoes can come in many different colours too. We’re all looking forward to watch how tall our tomato plants will grow!
Storm Dragon
This week, Crew McGlone have been focusing on the story of ‘Storm Dragon’ by Dianne Hofmeyr. We have really enjoyed taking part in a sensory story to help support us with the structure and sequencing of events in the story.
Our writing this week saw us create ‘I can see’ sentences using a stimulus of a depiction of the storm dragon. We talked about the different parts of the storm dragon we could see, some of us even challenged ourselves by adding in some detail to our sentences to give a clearer description. We even used our sentence building knowledge in provision when drawing our own pictures.
We have also absolutely LOVED using our imagination and leading our own learning when accessing provision – we have created shelters to protect us from the storm, large scale models of the storm dragon, small world scenes of the story, created our own role play sensory story, made a collaborative collage dragon, made models out of playdough, made our own spyglasses to search for storm dragons, and lots of things in between!
Hook Week
Crew McGlone have hooked into their new expedition by creating a mini beach in their outdoor area. We enjoyed playing together, digging in the sand, and paddling in the water talking about all things ‘seaside’. We are really looking forward to our final expedition in Reception!
Planting our first seeds!
During the summer term, the children began by planting their first batch of plants, learning specifically about what happens when we plant broad beans and how to care for them as they grow. They listened carefully to instructions and worked thoughtfully throughout the activity. The session also linked to maths, as the children counted how many plant pots they used and measured out scoops of compost for each one. After planting, they watered the pots, counting how many squirts each plant received. This hands-on experience not only introduced them to basic gardening skills but also supported their understanding of counting and following instructions. We look forward to planting more, including edible plants, as the term continues.
