Unicorn Class Blog                    Term 1 Week 7               Week Commencing 13th October 2025

This week we have had another fantastic week of fun, creative learning and exploring.

We have enjoyed listening to the ‘Pumpkin Soup’ story by Helen Cooper. We had the opportunity to have discussions about how the animals in the story were feeling, whether their actions were kind and about working together. They learnt what bagpipes were and some of us thought the banjo looked like a guitar because they both had strings and a similar shape. They have also enjoyed using the tough tray to act out their own story using the cat, duck and squirrel puppets and have made some very interesting soups working together.

Some of us enjoyed going into the cosy area, sharing stories with each other and listening to stories. There were discussions around how the characters may be feeling, why and what the characters could have done differently. The home corner has again been popular this week with children pretending to be families in their home and it has also been a café serving delicious food and drink. 

Outside we have enjoyed making different obstacle courses, climbing on the climbing frame, rolling the hoops to each other, using the chalks to draw pictures and the bats and ball. We did sweeping and collecting autumn leaves. We used some of the leaves to make some autumn soup.

During Forest School we enjoyed building dens, digging for rocks, climbing trees, laying down listening and looking to see what we could see and looking for mini beasts. 

During maths this week we have been singing number songs such as 5 Little Duck, 5 Currant buns and 5 Green speckled frogs. We have been focusing on counting, saying one number for each item, showing ‘finger’ numbers up to 5 and solving real number problems. We were learning ‘One elephant went out to play’ which we really enjoyed. We have also enjoyed using pictures in books to count objects, playing the ladybird game and animal dominoes.

We have enjoyed using the magnetic shape tiles to make animal homes, garages and castles. They were also used to make a large container that the little blocks could go in. The large blocks have been used to make tall towers like the Eiffel Tower and roads, rivers and bridges. Barney and Rupert worked together to make a road go over a river like in Henley.

During phonics this week we have had a focus on Rhythm and rhyme, alliteration and oral blending and segmenting. As part of this we have been reciting the rhyme Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. We played our Stand up, Sits down game with rhyming words from the rhyme. We listened carefully, if there were words beginning with the same sound we had to clap our hands e.g. star and sky. We have been orally segmenting e.g. up (u-p) and orally blending e.g. u…p, u..p, up. We have also enjoyed spotting rhyming words in books and discussing the beginning sounds of children’s names and other objects

This week we listened to ‘The Family Book’ by Todd Parr. We discussed who was in our family, similarities and differences between each other. We drew pictures of family members, discussed our special people and why they were special.

Next week we will be continuing with our ‘All about me topic’. Please can your child bring in a picture/pictures of their family or you can send it to the Unicorn Class email address on unicornclass@nettlebed.oxon.sch.uk .  We will also be having a focus around Diwali and Halloween. 

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, look forward to seeing you next week for more exploring.

Best wishes

Mrs Fenwick