What a fun half term we have had together in Acorns class. The children have settled happily into the routine of the week and are showing such great enthusiasm for learning through play. Our continuous provision encourages children to develop their skills and understanding through exploring their environment and making their own decisions to develop as a learner. Regular adult led challenges ensure the children are making steps forward in their learning, encouraging the children to think critically by solving problems and finding new ways to do things. We spend most of our time outdoors and use our wonderful conservation area regularly, so muddy footprints can always be seen! 
Characteristics of Effective Learning
This term we have been supporting the transition into Nursery and Reception. We have been focusing on 'The Characteristics of Effective Learning' which enables the children to think of themselves as learners and identify the type of learner they are. We link this thinking to types of animals: Proud Peacocks are proud of their learning and personal successes; Go For It Gorillas take a chance and have a go; I know Rhinos play with what they know; Exploring Elephants love to explore the resources in their learning environment, and many more. Come along to the classroom to have a look at the learning journey board to see how the children are thinking about their own characteristics for learning.
Topic: You and Me
We have had a great time learning about families, ourselves and our bodies. We have talked about the similarities and differences in our own families and where we live. The children enjoyed learning about the skeleton and were fascinated with x-rays of different parts of the body. 
They celebrated the Christian festival of Harvest investigating foods and growing. They also had a great time learning about the Hindu festival of Diwali, dressing up in traditional Asian costumes, creating divas and dancing to Indian music. 
We work hard to improve our fine motor skills through 'funky finger' activities such as threading beads, manipulating dough and finger painting. We are lucky to have a large play area and use this to develop gross motor skills through running, jumping, balancing and riding on scooters and balance bikes.

As the weather becomes colder, don't forget to bring extra socks, jumpers and jogging bottoms to school. A warm waterproof coat is essential too.

Sports day is on the Tuesday we return to school:
​The nursery children who attend on a Tuesday will be taken around to join in with the morning team activities and will have the opportunity to take part in a running race in the afternoon. (Parents are welcome to watch the whole school races in the afternoon. Please bring a picnic blanket) 
Each child has been allocated a house team with children from the older years wearing a t-shirt of their house colour. Please can you ensure your child wears an appropriate outfit for sports and, if possible, a t-shirt with their house colour.
Blue- Holywell House: Jaxon, Toby S 
Red- Manor House: Darcy, Poppy, Layla, Ben 
Green- Woodpond House: Martella, Ayla 
Yellow- Barley Hill House: Mollie, Ethan

Just in case you have not seen the posts on Tapestry:
​We have sports day on the day we return to school. The children are in the following houses and we request they wear a t-shirt with their team colour. If it is impossible to find one, then their regular white shirt with a badge or ribbon will be fine. 
Blue - Holywell house: Lilly, Kaiden and Sophia 
Red - Manor House: Ellie, Maame and Alice 
Green- Wood pond house: Rory, Will, Isaac and Nathan 
yellow - Barleyhill house: Harvey, Cody, Toby and Amy

Hello, I do hope you have enjoyed your holidays.
This term is themed 'Once upon a world of stories...'
As creative storytellers, the children will be learning traditional tales from around the world and making up their own by following the plots and developing the characters and settings. We are looking forward to a fun term and will hopefully see lots of sunshine too!

School trip to Bekonscot Model Village. This will be taking place on Friday 28th April. Please ensure you have paid and your child is ready for the trip. Share some time looking at the website and talk about how they will have a fun day and have their own packed lunch on the day.
Please note: Nursery Children: Please inform Miss Thornton if your child is attending, accompanied with a paying adult.

Chinese New year is a great time for celebration. We have learned about how families spring clean their homes, decorate with lanterns and cook good food. The dragon dance is a particularly flamboyant performance and one that we are working ourselves up to. Having watched some film clips showing the dance, we are busy creating a dragon costume for us to perform our dragon dance on Friday. Look out for this on Tapestry.
Chinese New Year started with a story about 12 animals who wanted a year named after them. Through learning this story we have looked at the year we were born and studied the different animals and talked about their characteristics.
The children have also been creating their own chinese restaurant, which should be up and running any day now. We have all been trying to master using chopsticks to pick things up.... this has been fun and really challenged us!
  "Gung Hei Fat Choy!" (Happy New Year!)

What a lovely start to the new term. Everyone has settled well back to school and enjoying their learning. The children had fun investigating the ice on our frosty mornings and we are hoping that we might get some more icy days and even some snow! As we get outdoors so much, please remember to ensure your child has a spare pair of warm jogging bottoms in school.
Remember to add to Tapestry your own photos and videos of surprise and delight moments that happen out of school. Feel free to comment on any of the observations you see on Tapestry (online journal) as this is a great way of sharing between home and school.

Wishing you all a very happy new year. The classroom is all ready for the new term. Looking forward to seeing you all on Thursday.
​Miss Thornton and Mrs Lumsdaine

Well done to all Acorns and Conkers children for a magnificent performance of The Angel Express. This nativity had us singing and dancing and having lots of fun. Thank you to all the teachers and parents for all your continued support.....it was worth it! 
This week has seen us really getting into the spirit of Advent and Christmas. The 'Mischievous Mice' have been getting into all sorts of naughtiness around the classroom: swinging from the washing line; getting stuck on the door with sticky tape; making their own road and racing cars; making a mess with glitter; hiding  so well we didn't notice them peeking out at us. Everyday we have found a gift of a book which we have thoroughly enjoyed reading.
Our learning is coming along in leaps and bounds. You can see evidence of our learning around the classroom areas and our online journals are a great way for parents to share the surprise and delight moments in and out of school.

Well December has arrived and with it the brilliantly chilly weather. The children have really enjoyed exploring our outdoor space, investigating the ice and frost that has spread itself across the play equipment and ground area. The children have asked lots of 'how' and 'why' questions and have become scientists, searching for the answers. The sheer amazements in their faces when they found the washing up bowl had become solid overnight, the excited screams when they realized they could chip away at the ice in the truck area by smashing the big stones onto it, the team work that occured when they went searching for ice and collected it enthusastically making an ice mountain. All of this created a great start to the week.
The children have written their letters to father Christmas and we will be taking a walk into the village, along with Conkers Class, to post them in the post box.
We also had a fun time on 'Creating Christmas' day when we designed and made colourful decorations using our skills that included colouring, cutting, sticking and sewing. Of course we sang lots of Christmas carols and songs too. We joined in with the whole school for the 'dressing of the tree' service. We were very proud of Acorns who sang along and sat very nicely with the older children and visitors.

​On the 1st of December something strange but very exciting happened....... We had a surprise visit from our 'Mischievous Mice'!!!! Milly and Monty Mice had covered the front door in gold ribbon and made it tricky to enter the classroom. The gasps and smiles from the children made it a really precious moment for us all. These pesky mice left a letter explaining that they were sent by Father Christmas, to check that we are being good. They also explained that they were a little bit mischievous too! They kindly left us a present, a book called 'The Night Before Christmas'. They are proving to be quite naughty as the next day they had covered our beautiful Christmas tree in toilet paper!!! I wonder what they'll get up to next week...........