During this half term, we have welcome a few new faces. The class is buzzing more than ever. Children are developing amazing social skills. They are bonding with each others, becoming more independent and collaborative in their play, and most of all learning having full.

We have started to do Show and Tell every Fridays and children really enjoy it. They take particular pride when they show their friends what they are into and are learning to listen with more care as well as asking questions.

Celebrating Chinese New Year has also been a highlight of this term. We turned our home-corner into the finest and busiest Chinese Restaurant in town. We learnt about their culture, writing, language, the way they eat and celebrated the year of the Tiger with a parade and dance in the school hall.

In February, we also celebrated Valentines Day and wrote a card to our loved ones decorated with a oil marble painted heart.

This month, it was World Book Day and we dressed up as book characters or specific words (like constellation) .

The last two weeks, we looked at the different animals around the world. We talked about climate and habitats, continents and seas. We also learnt more specifically about African animals and culture by studying the colourful story of "Handa's Surprise". We engaged in role-play re-enacting the story using puppets, dancing on drum beats, eating exotic fruits and learnt about African patterns. We made a collage of different African patterns in preparation for an art activity inspired by a brilliant Nigerian Artist called Kehinde Wiley. A new webpage of pictures will soon be dedicated to this fantastic art activity.

Finally, we have now finished our phonics phase 2 (which are most of the single letter sounds) and will review these, introducing blending to start reading (short words such as c-a-t blends into cat). We will also briefly looked at the other single letter sounds from phase 3 (j,v,w,x,y,z,q). We have been practising our writing skills and are trying hard, especially if we start Reception next September.