Unicorn Class Blog                    Term 1 Week 8              Week Commencing 20th October 2025

Wow, what an amazing busy term with lots of fun, creative learning and exploring. All the children have settled beautifully. 

We have enjoyed doing a range of Diwali and Halloween activities. We have enjoyed learning about Diwali, an Indian festival sometimes referred to as the festival of light. We enjoyed listening to and discussing nonfiction and fiction books about Diwali. Some of the books included, ‘The Best Diwali Ever’ by Sonali Shah and Chaaya Prabhat and ‘Binny’s Diwali’ by Thrity Umrigar and Nidhi Chanani. We watched the Diwali story, how Sita was taken away by Ravana and Rama rescued Sita and brought her back. Everyone lit diva lamps to light the way back for them. We have been learning a Diwali song with actions. Lily shared her experiences of celebrating Diwali with her family, which included telling us about the special clothes and very big bangles, her bracelet, bright lights, sparklers, family gathering, about her mehndi patterns and the Rangoli patterns she had seen. We experienced making Rangoli patterns using colourful translucent shapes, paint and felt tips. We looked at pictures of mehndi patterns and then carefully designed our own. We tasted some Indian food, naan, poppadoms and onion bhajis. All of us enjoyed the poppadums and thought they tasted like crisps and were described as crunchy, crispy, tasty and white. Most of us liked the naan bread which was described as tasting delicious, like bread, yummy and like banana bread. We watched and listened to some Diwali dancing and then we enjoyed joining in with the dancing too.

We have loved listening to ‘Funny Bones’ and ‘Winnie the witch stories. We used our fine motor skills to collect spiders in a big web using tweezers. Used pumpkin playdough to make cupcakes, pumpkins, sausages, Halloween biscuits, balls, eggs and lots of food for a hungry little dinosaur. We have also enjoyed making potions using the pumpkins and seeds. 

We have continued to help make poorly and injured animals better and there was great excitement when a real toad came to see us in the Unicorn outside area. Outside we have also enjoyed sweeping up leaves, catching ducks, using stepping stones, going on adventures with rucksacks, looking for dinosaurs, spotting squirrels, red kites and aeroplanes, running and climbing, using the balance bikes, scoops, balls and big balls to see how high and far we could kick it. We have also enjoyed making pumpkins using apple printing and going on pumpkin hunts.

Our maths focus this week has been saying one number for each item in order. We have been using objects such as small teddies, pieces of fruit, spiders, candles and cars. We have also enjoyed number songs with counting opportunities.

During phonics we have been Singing the Wheels on the bus, saying and discussing Onomatopoeia (a word that is spelled and pronounced the way it sounds) swish and bang. We played a game where we had to listen to the onomatopoeia word to work out what object made that sound (e.g., ‘beep’-horn). We have also been orally blending and segmenting words from the rhyme.

We have loved using the magnetic shapes, Lego, Duplo and Mobillo to make amazing models that we have enjoyed working independently and together to work out what to build, how to build it and talking about what they had made. We have also enjoyed using the brio trains and making a train using chairs to go on journeys.

This week the children in the Unicorn Class joined in with an activity that the whole school has been involved with using materials such as cardboard, magazines and paint pens to each produce a self portrait. 

After half term our topic will be, “What is a celebration?” Which will include activities such as using clay to make diva lamps, making a range of fireworks, cooking activities and preparing for Christmas. The Unicorns Festive singing is on the 10th December at 9.15am

I hope you all have a lovely relaxing week next week and look forward to seeing you all after half term.

Best wishes

Mrs Fenwick