By Joy Heels
Our topics for this term were ‘Homes’ and ‘Autumn’. As well as the sort of homes we live in, the children learned about animal homes and what they are called – for example a squirrel’s drey, a rabbit’s burrow and a badger’s set.
The crafts for the Homes topic were salt dough houses that were painted, a sewing card, a snail shell made from clay and a junk model home. As well as the normal leaf and bark rubbings and leaf painting, the children learned about migrating birds, hibernating hedgehogs, conkers, acorns and blackberries; we have even made blackberry and apple crumble.
We went for a nice walk in the woods all kitted out with coats and colourful wellies. What a lovely sound the dried leaves make as we walk through them.
We celebrated ‘Diwali’ by dressing up in Saris, eating Indian food at snack time and lighting Diva lights that we had made out of clay and decorated with jewels earlier in the week.
For our Christmas crafts we have made stained glass window candles, tree decorations, table decoration and a cracker card. We have also been busy doing handprint calendars to sell to pay for the entertainer for the Christmas party.
The children will be performing the ‘Nativity’ and Christmas songs for their parents so we are busy learning new songs.