In English we read “The Snail and the Whale” - our words of the week were “heroic” and “helpful”. We talked about how the snail was heroic for saving the whale, and through trying something new, achieved success. We discussed things we have done which we couldn’t do to start with, but persisted and then succeeded. Jaxon said “walking down stairs”, Sophie added that “tiny wheels put on my bike and I could ride” and Robyn said “putting shoes on and off”. Later in the week, we listened to some whale songs and created our own poster to help save the whales; we drew some super whales! Jaxon said "We could make a big hole and put him and water in it so he goes into the ocean", Hayden added we could "help it talk to the whales underwater" and Robyn said "we could make him cold and push him in the water". This week we shared books about a tired teddy, counting zebras and bouncing bunnies - we really enjoyed acting out this book together!

In Phonics we learnt the phoneme ‘o’ for otters and orange! Our nursery rhyme was The Grand Old Duke of York. We particularly enjoyed marching on the spot; the children can now blend action instructions in their heads, such as “m-ar-ch” and “c-l-a-p”. On this week’s visit with Bertha the Bus, we saw an octopus!

We started learning about the number four in Maths. We went on a number four number hunt, created four using counters, as well as exploring four-sided shapes - rectangles and squares. We even had a visit from the number four Numberblock who is made up of four squares!

In RE we continued learning about Salvation and discussing what salvation means to Christians. We sang Hosanna and discussed why the Palm Cross is a special symbol in Christianity. Theo said "Jesus was a very important man" and our class understood that "Hosanna" meant "help to save us".

This week’s Learning Means the World was all about sharks and whales. In our tuff tray we recalled our matching skills, matching different sharks and whales to their shadows. We had orcas, a great white shark and a basking shark! In our making area we made little egg box whales, exploring our understanding of different shades of blue and using different materials to create our finished mini-whales. In our Curiosity Cube we had a magical mermaid’s purse! We took turns to feel it, look at its features, and think who it might belong to. Noah noticed that “three buttons are missing”, Rudi said it was “fluffy” and Emily added that “my mummy has buttons like this at home”. We then went on a hunt to see if we could find the missing buttons and reunite the purse with the mermaid! Spa Bear and I were very impressed with the descriptive language which everyone used when explaining what they could feel.