This week, we have been enjoying the wonderfully interactive book What’s in the Witch’s Kitchen? by Nick Sharratt. The children have loved joining in with the repeated phrase “Open it left or open it right!” This has linked beautifully with our learning about writing from left to right. We have been practising this in our patterning activities and created some fantastic witches’ cauldrons, taking care to follow our patterns from left to right. We are becoming such confident little mark makers!

In phonics, we have been learning our first three sounds: s, a and t. We have been finding out that a grapheme is the letter or letters we see written down, while a phoneme is the sound we hear. The children have had lots of fun listening for these sounds in words and thinking of things that begin with them. We even helped a witch make her dinner, adding lots of spooky ingredients beginning with ‘s’, including snakes, spiders, snails and salt!

In maths, we have been comparing quantities using the language more and fewer. We started by comparing groups of similar objects, making it easier to see which group had more. Then we made things trickier by comparing one large pumpkin with two small pumpkins! The children had to look carefully and think about the quantities rather than simply the size of the objects. We also learnt a new mathematical word, equal, which we can use when two amounts are the same.

Next week is half term, and we hope you all enjoy a lovely, relaxing break together. Try to keep bedtime routines consistent where possible, as this will help the children feel refreshed and ready for learning when they return. Most importantly, enjoy lots of special family time, stories and autumn adventures!

We look forward to welcoming everyone back on Tuesday 3rd November for another half term full of fun, exploration and learning.

Have a wonderful half term, Shell Class!

‍