The staff have noticed that during our free flow choosing time...
The children have been excited to talk to us about their experiences over the holidays (including the Tapestry leaf challenge!) and many have been sharing their plans and experiences of Halloween. Thank you to all of the families who shared photos on Tapestry, these really help to promote great conversations. The children love to share the photos with their friends and ask one another some very inquisitive questions!
The children have come back happy and settled, ready to meet their friends and get on with the serious business of playing! It has been lovely to see so many smiling faces.
All areas of the classroom, both inside and out have been a hive of activity!

So the staff have...
Spent time listening and supporting the children to share their experiences.
Asked questions to encourage the children to expand their vocabulary when recalling experiences. Encouraged the children to answer one another’s questions and notice similarities and differences.
Made sure that the children are specifically praised for ‘being a great friend’ and continued to offer problem solving support in moments of sharing difficulties.
Provided pumpkins for the children to explore, following their lead on what to do with them!
Been busy working alongside all of the children in their individual and group pursuits. To name a few....making Halloween buckets, pumpkin drawing and carving, counting snack, building enclosures and walls, joining with tape, exploring conkers and ramps, pretending to be all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures, looking at and collecting leaves, exploring the growing garden, discussing webs and frost, experimenting with weight and force on the different sized bikes and trikes, looking at our name cards, jumping off platforms and landing safely and a lot of chatting!

Our story of the week was...
Meg and Mog
While sharing the story we have challenged the children to create all sorts of sound effects with their voices and to add them at the appropriate points. We have tried to change our voices to sound like a witches crackly speech, a cats purr and meow, a ticking clock and a bubbling cauldron. We’ve also explored words that describe sounds, such as whoosh and boom!
I wonder if any of the children can tell you the story at home?

During our group times...
We have been learning about the celebration of Diwali. We have talked about some of the ways that Diwali is celebrated and how this is similar to some other celebrations, such as Christmas and birthdays. We watched Cbeebies ‘Let’s Celebrate’ through which we met Jessica, who taught us about Mendhi, Rangoli patterns and Diva lamps. We’ve also listened to some traditional music and tried out some new dance moves. Some children showed a particular interest in Diva Lamps so we created our own using play dough.
We tried poppadoms and solved mathematical problems trying to figure out which size plate was best to hold them all on. And we’ve continued to work on strengthening our hand and wrist muscles by sifting and kneading flour dough to make Chapattis.
So many children asked to carve a pumpkin, following their Halloween experience, that we opened up a pumpkin and explored all of the slimy, slippery seeds inside. This provided a great opportunity to extend the children's descriptive vocabulary.

We also had our first sessions with Sophie, from Rattle and Roll.

Lastly, thank you to all of the families who attended parents evening and the lovely comments written on the feedback forms. If you were unable to attend, but would like to talk to one of team please don’t hesitate to ask.