Autumn 1

Week 1

We have had the best first week back in our new and exciting Atlas provision! We have welcomed new children into our setting and it has been wonderful getting to know all about them. 

This week, our theme was 'us' where we sang songs, created self-portraits, played in the home corner, listened to stories and joined in with circle time to recognise ourselves and the others in our room.

Our bucket time has been short and sweet this week, but we got to experience some new engaging toys which we received over the summer.

In phonics bucket this week, we revisited our first initial sound 'm' which we write saying the phrase 'Maisy mountain, mountain'.

Week 2

This week, we have begun embedding our routines and structure. We are so pleased that Bucket Time is a hit and have even managed to extend our attention to stages 2 & 3 where children are able to participate in the activities. We are still all getting to know each other and this has been wonderful to be a part of as the children are beginning to cement new friends. 

In bucket this week, we have practiced washing a baby (it was very dirty after doing some painting), painted some crazy hair styles, drawn around our friends and then decorated their faces and even got to make some sandwiches!

In phonics bucket this week we revisited 'm' and introduced 'a' - around the apple and down the leaf. We have identified pictures beginning with our sounds, used scarves to draw our sounds in the air and even had a go at writing.

In maths learning this week, we have been studying 'same' and 'different'. We have matched socks, built towers, sorted counters into coloured pots and matched items from a feely bag. 

In life skills this week, we made jam sandwiches. Jenny modelled this process first during bucket and then we all got a turn after. They were very yummy and we all enjoyed getting sticky from the strawberry jam.

Week 3 

This week, our focus was family and friends. We enjoyed spending time playing alongside eachother and building friendships and showing kindness to everyone. We explored our different families through songs, crafts and role play. 

In bucket time this week, we made family trees using brown paint on our feet to make the tree trunk and green paint on our hands to create the leaves, made a floating family using whiteboard pens, foil and water and we all made friendship bracelets by threading our favourite beads onto pipe cleaners.

In phonics bucket this week, we revisited 'a' and introduced 's' - slither down the snake. We read a book which had lots of 's' pictures within. We enjoyed this and then had a go at identifying different pictures ourselves. We have begun using scarves to air trace our sounds each week and then we use this to support our overwriting of our sounds.

In maths this week, we have been exploring 'big' and 'small' through constructing towers and using our vocabulary.

In life skills this week, we made pitta breads with cream cheese and ham. We first watched Jenny follow the recipe and then we got to have a go ourselves. We toasted the pittas, spread the cream cheese and placed the ham inside before cutting them in half and then eating them. Yum!

Week 4

Our theme this week was 'people who help us'. We had a fantastic week learning all about the roles of vital services through songs, stories, activities, engaging bucket time stages and we even had a special visit from the Sleaford Fire Department who showed us the fire engine and let us sit inside 🔥🚒.

In bucket time this week, we were firefighters putting out multiple fires, first with special water guns and then with blue scarves which we used to splash the fire out. We sang Miss Polly had a Dolly and helped all of our dollies who had injuries and illnesses and we enjoyed glitter reveal which showed a big toothy smile.

In phonics bucket this week, we revisited 's' and introduced our new sound 'd' which goes around the dinosaurs bottom, up his tall neck and down to his feet. We identified pictures with the 'd' sound, used scarves to air draw the sound and had a go at overwriting our sounds.

In maths this week, we have been exploring weight using the vocabulary 'heavy' and 'light'. We enjoyed using the scales and experimenting with different objects to see which object was the 'heaviest' or the 'lightest'. We were very surprised to find out that a big balloon was a lot lighter than a small wooden brick and we spoke about how some objects, even though they are small can be a lot heavier than large objects.

In life skills this week, we made cheese toasties. First, we watched Jenny follow the recipe and then we had a go ourselves. We had to butter the bread, add lots of cheese and ham and then placed our sandwiches in the machine. The worst part was waiting for the light to go green which meant our toasties were ready. This seemed to take forever! We waited for the toasties to cool before we could eat them, but they were very very yummy!

Week 5

This week, we continued our topic of 'People who help us'. We really enjoyed learning about the emergency services and even had a special visitor to help us with our Bucket Time. Policeman Clay came to the rescue when someone stole our Bucket. He investigated the crime and found that Sophie was the perpetrator! She was brought back to Bucket and asked to apologise.

In other Bucket Times this week, we took our fingerprints in role play of being in a police station, we drove our police cars really quickly whilst singing our special song, we investigated the shadow of a police car and practised good hand washing using a pepper and soap experiment.

One of our favourite Bucket’s this week was when we sang the ‘family finger song’ but adapted it so we had a Doctor finger, Police Officer finger, Paramedic finger, Lifeguard finger and Firefighter finger. As we came to the end of each verse, we popped a coloured balloon with matching paint inside. This was very funny and we all got quite messy!

In phonics bucket this week, we focused on ‘d’ and enjoyed lots of activities around this sound. We used sand to draw our sound, scarves to make our sound in the air and we used highlighters to overwrite by going around the dinosaurs bottom, up his tall neck and down to his feet.

In maths this week, we investigated capacity by filling up different sized containers with water. We looked at more and less and were very surprised when one of the smaller jugs held the most water compared to the tall and thin container. We also enjoyed exploring patterns this week through playing Simon Says and using Nexus Pegs to make Emergency Service colour patterns.

In life skills this week, we have been practicing good hand washing routines. We have a special song to sing ‘wash, wash, wash your hands, make them nice and clean, bubbly scrubbly, scrubbly bubbly, make them nice and clean’. Our hands have never been cleaner!

Week 6

This week, we enjoyed learning about 'jobs'. We loved learning about roles we might find in our local area including butchers, bakers, postmen, cleaners, builders and shopkeepers.

In Bucket Time this week, we were bakers by making currant buns by rolling out coloured play doh and placing them in cupcake cases (not forgetting the essential cherry on the top!), we were butchers and sang 3 sizzling sausages and popped them to go ‘BANG!’, we cemented and built brick walls and then knocked them down and we used a hammer to tap pegs into a box to emulate being builders.

In phonics bucket this week we focused on ‘t’ and enjoyed lots of activities around this sound. We made a ‘t’ with nexus pegs and then finger traced down the tower, across the tower, we used our leap frog computer to trace over ‘t’, we identified objects beginning with our sound and we used highlighters to overwrite ‘t’ on big paper.

In maths this week, we have been looking at 1,2,3. We have been counting and recognising our first three numbers. We used a cleaning activity earlier in the week where we had to find 1, 2 or 3 objects to match our numerals.

In life skills this week, we made garlic bread which was very smelly but very delicious. We helped Jenny to make the garlic butter by mixing garlic, butter and parsley in a bowl until it was smooth. We then cut into the baguettes and spread the garlic butter inside. Lastly, Jenny put them into the oven to bake for a few minutes until they were crispy and delicious. We got to taste our garlic bread and this was very yummy!

Week 7

We made it to our last week and the children have been so fantastic. We are now well established in our new Atlas room and our learning is becoming more established week on week. This week we continued our 'jobs' topic as well as briefly looking into ‘stranger danger’. This lent itself well to Halloween at the end of the week and going trick or treating.

In Bucket Time this week, we continued to be bakers, post people, butchers and cleaners. We sang lots of songs to support our learning and we had some very fun activities to go alongside this. By the end of the week, we used our Bucket Time to celebrate Halloween and made our days full of spooky fun.

In phonics bucket this week we focused on ‘i’ and enjoyed lots of activities around this sound. We printed an ‘i’ using play doh, we rolled it out and then used a letter cutter to cut it out. We identified pictures starting with the letter ‘i’ and we used our fingers to trace the sound in sand.

In life skills this week, we made spooky wraps. We had two choices of spreads – cream cheese or red pepper hummus and then we had the choice to add salami or keep it plain. We watched Jenny first as she cut spooky faces into the wraps and then we had a go ourselves and this was a lot of fun!

We have had the best first term, with so much fun and amazing learning. We hope you have a great half term, with lots of spooky fun and we will see you all on the 4^th November.

Nia, Meggan & Jenny 😊