Clitheroe Pendle Primary School
Autumn 1
Welcome to Cherry Class!
As we begin the new school year, we will focus on helping all the children settle happily into Cherry Class and supporting them as they become familiar with their new classroom, routines and expectations. This is an important time for building confidence, forming friendships and developing a strong sense of belonging within our class.
Our topic this term is ‘Houses and Homes’.
The children will have lots of opportunities to talk about themselves, their families and what makes them special. We will think about special people and memories, explore different types of homes and find out more about our local area of Clitheroe and the wider world around us.
We’ll also be sharing the traditional tale The Three Little Pigs, using this much-loved story to inspire storytelling, role play, creativity and discussion.
Alongside our topic, the children will enjoy a wide range of learning experiences. We will explore plants and trees in Science. In Geography, we will begin to use maps to explore places. There will also be plenty of opportunities to get creative! In Art, we will experiment with colour, shape, line, pattern and texture, while our DT work will challenge us to design and create our own freestanding playground structures.
It promises to be a busy and exciting start to the year, and we are looking forward to seeing the children grow in confidence, independence and curiosity as they learn, play and explore together in Cherry Class.
We have been working hard on developing our gross and fine motor skills in preparation for our handwriting sessions! Today, the children used their magic wands to trace different patterns on the board. Activities like these help strengthen the muscles and develop the coordination needed for early writing, all while learning through play.
In Art, Year 1 experimented with mixing secondary colours. They drew around their hands and then painted them using the colours they created.
This week, we introduced our Rainbow Challenges, encouraging children to explore different areas of provision. We will celebrate our Rainbow Challenge Champion at the end of the week! The children used magnifying glasses to find phonemes, write them down and practise their letter formation.
During Forest School, Reception listened to the story Leaf Man before heading off to collect some beautiful autumnal treasures. The children then used their creativity and imagination to make their very own leaf pictures.
In Art, we have been exploring colour mixing, learning about primary and secondary colours. Year 1 have been busy creating colour wheels and today enjoyed experimenting with colour through printing!
Our Reception children loved welcoming their grown-ups for lunch! They showed how independent, polite and well-mannered they are, making everyone so proud.
PC Clarke came to visit with an important mission – Mummy Pig was missing! The children were excited to describe what she looks like and create their own missing posters to help find her.
We were surprised to find our construction area had been destroyed with straw, sticks and bricks! The children decided the Three Little Pigs must have been visiting! We have been busy building houses, making stick puppets and retelling the story. Year 1 have also been doing some fantastic writing, thinking about what the characters might be saying.
We are so proud of our wonderful Stars of the Week! As a special reward for their fantastic efforts, our stars get to wear the very special Cherry Class cape and take home our special class teddy, Eddie!
Reception had a fantastic time during their first Forest School session!
We have been using conkers to help us practise our counting skills. We counted carefully, matched quantities to numerals and explored different ways of making numbers using our conkers.
We have been learning about different types of houses. We talked about what houses need to help us live safely and comfortably and how homes can be different. We designed and made our own houses and had a go at writing about them too!
In Art, Year 1 explored primary colours and practised using and washing paintbrushes carefully. We then investigated how primary colours can be mixed together to create secondary colours.
This week, we have been talking about our families and learning that families can look different for everyone. We read The Big Book of Families and created our own family portraits!
In Geography, we have been learning to use directional language. Reception created an obstacle course, using words such as over and under. Year 1 used directional language to describe the countries of the UK. For example, “England is below Scotland.”
In Geography, we have been exploring the features of our school. We discussed how features are large objects or places on a map that cannot be easily moved. We went outside and took photographs of different features around the school grounds, helping us to identify and talk about what we could see. We also revisited our learning from last week by identifying the countries that make up the United Kingdom. We used actions to help us remember the names!
Reception have started their phonics journey, learning the sounds s, a and t. They have been enjoying exploring these new phonemes and beginning to blend sounds together. Year 1 have been recapping their Phase 3 phonemes and building fluency in their reading. We have also been practising our letter formation, focusing on using “lead-ins” (pre-cursive).
This week, we have been strengthening our fingers through lots of fun fine-motor activities.
We have been reading stories such as Elmer to talk about our differences and what makes each of us special. We painted self-portraits using mirrors and our Year 1 children wrote speech bubbles using the pronoun ‘I’. We can’t wait to see our wonderful work on display! 🎨✨
We enjoyed lots of fun parachute games during our PE lesson! We worked together, listened carefully and had lots of fun. 🌈
We have loved exploring our classroom areas, making new friends and settling into our new routines. It is wonderful to see so many happy, confident children enjoying their time in Cherry Class! 🍒
This week, we have been talking lots about our special friends – Respectful Ruby, Ready Raffy and Safe Sammy!
Our Reception children had a wonderful time going on a tour of our school! We visited lots of important places, including where we will eat our lunch, the library and even Miss Nunn’s office! We also had some very special extra tour guides who were more than happy to help show us around – our lovely Year 1 children!
What a wonderful week we have had getting to know our classroom, settling into new routines and most importantly, making lots of new friends! We haven’t managed to take many pictures this week – we have been far too busy having fun! We promise to capture lots more special moments next week, so keep your eyes peeled! It has been lovely to see so many happy, smiley children enjoying their first week together. What a fantastic start!
