Autumn Term 2025
Week Beginning 1st December 2025
The children have been very excited this week, starting all our festive activities and introducing our class Advent calendars. Each day a child has been chosen to add the correct numbered decoration to our class trees, counting the days until Christmas.
Writing this week has been a wonderful experience for everyone. The children have impressed us with their phonological knowledge to enable them to write beautiful letters to Santa. As classes, we have been reinforcing all our letter sounds so far and embedding our understanding of each tricky word. Next week we will focus on the digraphs sh, ch, th and ng
Maths has been centred around all our prior knowledge and the children have shown us how confidently they can count, continue patterns, use positional language and recognise numbers. Next week we will be thinking about shapes and their properties.
During our creative lessons, the children enjoyed exploring the festive role-play corners, creating festive gifts for our families and making treats to see at our Enterprise stall on Monday.
The children have practised their Nativity and are really looking forward to showing all their families on Monday at 2.15 pm.
Next week the children will be continuing their festive activities.
Week beginning 24th November 2025
In reading this week, our focus has been more on non-fiction books, particularly on floating and sinking. Our daily phonics sessions have involved revising our sounds so far and using this knowledge for reading and writing simple words, as well as our tricky words: 'I,' 'to,' 'and,' 'me' and 'be.' We have also been doing regular handwriting practise to help form letters correctly.
Maths sessions have been based around one more and one less, as well as the composition of the numbers four and five.
Linked to our learning about floating and sinking, after reading 'Floating and Sinking' by Amy Hansen, we used a large water tray and a selection of objects to test if they would float or sink. Before testing the objects, the children all predicted what they thought would happen. We then sorted the objects into those that would float and those that would sink. Children also had the chance to make their own boat from stickle bricks. We tested these boats too, in the water tray, to see if they would float. Many of the designs had lots of parts, which made them heavy. We decided that the boats that floated were the lightest, less complicated boats. Great investigating everyone!
On Tuesday, it was our final lesson of forest school for this term. What a fantastic lesson it was! Reception classes listened beautifully to Mrs Lovell and had a great time toasting marshmallows! Even the adults got to have a go!
Our week has also started to take on a festive theme with practises for our approaching Christmas concert well underway and a sprinkling of Christmas crafts for our enterprise and for decorating the hall. We also took part in Crazy Hair day on Friday, with the children coming up with amazing ideas for decorating their hair.
Week beginning 17th November 2025
The children have been wonderful scientists and engineers this week! Exploring magnetic and non-magnetic materials within the classroom, discussing what a magnet is used for and how they use forces to attract and repel and move objects around.
During our creative lessons, the children loved being engineers, using a range of materials to create moving vehicles. The children listened carefully to their instructions and enjoyed problem-solving to decide how to attach their wheels and what size their vehicle could be. Finally, the children have the opportunity to decorate their vehicle. Lots of fun was had!
Wow! What brilliant writers and readers we are becoming this week. We have focused on the caption 'a big robot' using our understanding of phonics to build words as the children write. As a whole class, we focused on the letter sounds 'x, y, z and the digraph zz' During our whole class reading lessons, we explored the interactive story 'Ruby the Robot'. The children loved acting out the story, drawing a rainbow Robot and creating their own shiny Robots using coloured foil.
During our daily maths lessons, the children have explored and used their positional language 'on-top, next to, behind, under and inside.' The children have also explored the composition of the numbers 4 and 5.
Next week we will be continuing our Nativity practise and creating wonderful decorations in preparation for the festive season.
Week beginning 10th November 2025
This week, we have been sharing autumn stories and learning the sounds 'ff,' 'ss,' 'll,' j,' 'v' and 'w.' Children have become more confident in using their phonics for writing and have been making great progress in their letter formation too.
As well as sharing Autumn stories in reading, we have been studying seasonal changes and creating autumn and winter trees. Linked to our learning on Remembrance Day, children made whole class poppy displays, using observational drawings.
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It was also our week for Forest School. We read the book ‘Stick Man’. Afterwards, the children made their own stick men to take home. They had to find a stick big enough to turn into a stick man. Once they found a suitable stick, the children put on safety gloves and used a peeler to whittle the stick down enough to draw a face on. Amazing!
In maths, classes have focused on one more and one less, as well as finding and sorting circular and triangular shapes.
P.E. sessions have been focused on ball skills the last couple of weeks and this week there was a snow theme. In our warm up, children moved in different ways, linked to this theme, for example, trudging through the snow with heavy feet, creating snow angels, becoming snowmen and snowballs. Our beanbags then became snowballs, as we practised both underarm and overarm throws at various targets of hoops, cones and wall targets too, increasing the difficulty as we became more confident.
Next week, our new sounds will be 'x,' 'y,' 'z' and 'zz' and we will be looking at the tricky words 'the,' 'I,' 'to,' 'and,' 'me' and ' 'be.' In maths, we will be using positional language and subitizing.
Week Beginning 3rd November 2025
Welcome back everyone. We hope you all had a restful half-term. The children loved being introduced to our new topic: Investigators. They are thriving in the role-play corner, asking questions and investigating, finding metal objects using metal detectors and magnetic and non-magnetic objects using magnets.
In Literacy this week we have written about how we travel to school using our phonics sound mat to help us build words and write initial sounds. During our twice-daily phonics lesson, we explored the sounds h, b,l and f while working on our letter formation and reading skills.
As budding mathematicians, we have explored the numbers 1,2 and 3 closely thinking about what the number looks like and how we can represent this in different ways.
Finally, in our creative and Understanding the world lessons, the children learnt about Remembrance Day, Bonfire Night and recalled information about the artist Kandinsky to create beautiful seasonal trees.
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Next week we will be learning about the digraphs ss, ff and ll and exploring the letter sounds j, v and w. In maths, we will be exploring shapes and introducing the concept of 1 more and one less.
Week beginning 20th October 2025
The final week to our half-term got off to a banging start with our African drum workshop. Children each had their own djembe drum and we learnt to play different parts of the drum with different parts of our hands. We did call and response songs and leant to represent different animals in a story. It was a lot of fun!
In our forest school session, the children loved exploring the grounds! They had a great time playing in all the wonderful areas created by the older children for OPAL play, such as the mud kitchen and the climbing zone.
In English, we have been reading Autumn stories. Each class has also reinforced previous sounds and practised reading and blending cvc words, as well as writing them. We have also used non fiction texts to learn about the festival of Diwali. Classes looked at pictures and photographs that showed us how families celebrate Diwali. We also looked at diya lamps and rangoli patterns. Children each made their own diya out of clay and used a paper plate as a base to stick shapes to make a rangoli pattern. We had a really fun afternoon!
In maths, we have continued to learn about capacity, creating fabulous potions!
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Linked to Autumn, we have also created pumpkin pictures and used our senses to explore real pumpkins.
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We now look forward to a little rest after what has been a very long and busy first half-term to the children's school education. We are so proud of them and have seen such progress already in their social, emotional and academic learning. We wish you all a happy and safe half-term and look forward to seeing children back after half-term.
Week Beginning 13th October 2025
Pets have been the main focus to all our learning this week. The children have enjoyed reading the story The Great Pet Sale and talking about pets they have at home or pets they might like to own. During our creative lessons the children have used their understanding of shapes and colours to create beautiful paintings of different pets including dogs, cats, mice and birds!
The children then chose an autumnal leaf and created their own special leaf person. They were so sweet!
Our maths focus this week has been all about capacity and patterns. The children problem solved in small groups to work out which animals would fit best in each different sized box, thinking about the appropriate size for each animal.
The children were then excited to look at different pattens, first patterns in the environment for example stripy, spotty and checkered. Then they used a range of different materials to explore creating their own repeating patterns using natural objects and coloured cubes.
Throughout the week, the children have continued to impress us all with their writing skills. Our writing focus this week has been captions and the children have enjoyed using their phonological skills to write the caption 'a cat' thinking about letter formation and spacing when writing in their literacy books. Finally, in our daily phonics lessons, the children have been introduced to the digraph ck and the letter sounds e,u and r.
Next week, we are looking forward to our African drumming lesson on Tuesday and consolidating all our learning from our first full half term in school.
Week beginning 6th October '25
A lot of our learning this week has centred around the story 'Owl Babies' by Martin Waddell. Classes have read and acted out the story, using the story sack and taken part in lots of linked activities, including retelling the story, creating owls out of play dough and painting owls using forks. In phonics, we have revised previous sounds and looked at the tricky words 'I,' 'and' and 'to.'
In maths, children have been comparing different sizes and using the balance pans to compare different masses. We have been using lots of different vocabulary, including heavy and light.
At the beginning of the week, reception classes had a great time taking part in a drama workshop about castles and dragons by Perform Drama School. Children all listened really well and joined in with the acting and dancing.
Classes have continued to enjoy our "Happy Minds' sessions. This week, we have met 'our brain' and introduced linked language. Children have sorted pictures into emotions, talking about the different parts of the brain. They have also made a brain hat.
We were also lucky to have another Forest School this week. Classes started by discussing the visible signs of autumn, such as the leaves changing colour and falling off the trees. Next, the children teamed up with a partner to search for minibeasts in the forest school area, lifting up tree stumps and logs to discover them.
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Next week, the main story will be 'The Great Pet Sale.' In phonics, the new sounds will be 'ck,' 'e,' 'u' and 'r.' Maths will include capacity and repeated patterns.
Week beginning 29th September 2025
What an amazing week we have had. The children have completed lots of fantastic learning opportunities linked to their homes and families. Making links and learning more about their new friends.
In maths this week, the children have created shaped homes using a selection of 2d shapes including squares, circles, triangles and rectangles to create beautiful homes, whilst reinforcing key mathematical vocabulary. The children have also been practising their cutting skills to stick pictures in size order from the smallest to the biggest.
In Literacy, the children have really impressed us with their literacy skills by drawing pictures of their families and writing the initial sounds to represent their family members. The children have developed their fine motor skills to create homes and develop their pencil control.
In phonics this week, the children have been learning all about the letter sounds g,o,c and k and the tricky word and.
During our year group music lessons, the children loved learning all about tempo and syllables, clapping and moving together to a range of music genres.
Next week we will be looking closely at the story of Owl Babies and reinforcing all our letter sounds learnt so far this half-term.
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Week beginning 22nd September 2025
It is hard to believe that children have been at school for almost a month! Classes have settled well into routines and are actively immersing themselves into their learning.
In phonics, we have looked at the sounds 'i,' 'n,' 'm,' and 'd.' Children are getting quick to recognise the sounds and also have done some amazing letter formation this week.
Our main theme this week has been birthdays. Classes read the story 'Kipper's birthday,' as well as several other birthday-linked stories. We have looked at our birthday walls and thought about how old we are now and how old we will be on our next birthday. Children have written about how old they are, as well as drawing and painting birthday cakes. On Thursday, they were even able to make icing and use sprinkles to design their own cake or biscuit, which obviously needed eating! Children have been inspired to follow this theme into many different areas of learning, and we have been amazed at their creativity, for example, producing amazing birthday cakes out of stickle bricks.
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In maths, we have been matching and sorting objects, including thinking about if particular objects match a set. There have been plenty of other activities throughout the week to build on children's number recognition and understanding.
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Classes have also participated in Forest School this week. They were encouraged to build a house for a fairy or pixie using all the natural resources available in forest school. Children demonstrated fantastic team work.
Next week, in phonics, we will be looking at the phonemes 'g,' 'o,' 'c' and 'k,' as well as the tricky word 'and.' In maths, we will be continuing to match, sort and compare.
Week Beginning 15th September 2025
This week the children in reception have been very busy. Both classes have been learning the letter sounds s,a,t and p and the tricky word I. The children have also enjoyed the interactive story A Wet Walk.
In maths this week the children have practised the days of the week and learning about the four seasons. The children are showing a good understanding of how many days there are in a week and which season we are in.
During our PE lessons, the children have been following instructions and negotiating spaces showing a good understanding of the rules of the hall.
The children have also been thinking about and recording special things to them, including their favourite colours, their favourite animals and their families.
Next week we will be learning all about our birthdays and introducing the letter sounds i,n,m and d.
Week Beginning 8th September 2025
Wow! The children have all completed their first week in Reception. They have enjoyed making lots of new friends, learning their new routines and finding out all about their new teachers. We could not be prouder of how they have all settled. To support their learning, we have introduced our new topic all about me and the children have enjoyed creating self-portraits which are proudly displayed in each classroom.
The children have also created lovely abstract pieces of artwork inspired by the artist Kandinsky using square paper and colourful circles. This has developed their fine motor control to paint a series of circles and developed their understanding of colours.
During our practical maths lessons, the children have shown enthusiasm for singing number songs and impressing us all with their counting skills.
The children loved completing the new play trail in the Reception garden.
Next week we are looking forward to learning all about our favourite things and starting our phonics lessons.
Week beginning 1st September 2025
A warm welcome to Reception at Thomas Willingale. Children have been settling in nicely and have enjoyed exploring the reception environment. Every child has painted a self-portrait and also drawn a picture of themselves and written their name. They have enjoyed making new friends and learning new routines.
Next week, they will get the opportunity to meet all the rest of their friends in the class and take part in more topic-based learning opportunitie