Mercury
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MERCURY CLASS 2022.2023
AUTUMN TERM 2022
Week 1 Creative Week - 5th September 2022
Wow! What a busy first week we have had. The children have all been brave and majorly resilient in getting used to the new school routine and classroom. This week, the whole school took part in 'Creative Week' and read the story 'The Barnabus Project.' Mercury class were very intrigued by the story and asked to read it several times! The children all took on the challenge to create their own hybrid animal using oil pastels and reasoned their ideas. We have magic imaginations in Mercury Class!
Week 2 Elmer and Tea Party for the Queen- 12th September 2022
This week, we started our termly topic 'All about me' and talked in depths about what makes us all unique and special. The children all came up with some lovely ideas! In line with this, we read the story Elmer by David McKee. We all had a go at painting Elmer the patchwork Elephant whilst experimenting with colour.
Our Tea Party for the Queen
After hearing the news about the Queen, we thought it was important that we discussed this in school and celebrated the wonderful job she did for us. In Mercury Class, we used Paddington as a learning tool and held our own Tea Party. We read the story 'Paddington at the Palace' and researched about Buckingham Palace. This led on to marmalade sandwich and biscuit making! We were very fortunate to have Saturn Class join us and share their knowledge of the Queen with us. As one of the Mercury team said, it was "a sad, but happy" occasion.
Week 3 'On Every House on Every Street' - 19th September 2022
Another busy week in Mercury Class! This week, we read the story 'On Every House on Every Street' by Jess Hitchman and discussed the similarities and differences of where we live. The children particularly enjoyed the rhyming aspect of the story and were fabulous at finishing the rhyming string!
It was a particularly magical week in Mercury class, we started our 'Storytime Phonics' scheme and learnt the sounds 's, a, t, p.' The sneaky Phonics Fairy has been hiding new stories in our classroom with the new sounds inside! We have completed lots of challenges- such as chalking snakes for 's,' tap dancing for 't' and popping bubbles for 'p!' We cannot wait to see what she leaves for us next week!
Week 4 'The Colour Monster'- 26th September 2022
To continue our topic 'All About Me,' our key text this week has been 'The Colour Monster' by Anna Llenas. The children have practised using emotional literacy and worked collaboratively to paint and colour mix a huge monster!
We have also read 'A handful of buttons' a book about family diversity by Carmen Parets Luque. This inspired us to make our own family portraits, in which the children accurately counted their family members, discussed their shapes and sizes and also understood that all our families look different. The children were rightly very proud of their creations, which are now hanging up happily in our classroom!
Phonics
In phonics this week, we have learnt the sounds i, n, m, d. The sneaky phonics fairy has been up to her magical moves again and has left us more wonderful stories and challenges! Such as, finding the incy spiders around the classroom and making a class fire engine nnnnnnn!
Mathematics
In maths, we have been learning about matching. The children know that "When we match they are the same!" They have been busy matching objects, such as socks , as well as different representations of number!
Week 5- 'On Sudden Hill' - 3rd of October 2022
This week, we have talked lots about being a kind friend. We read the story 'On Sudden Hill' by Linda Sarah and Benji Davies. This book inspired lots of fantastic discussion about teamwork and how we can influence the feelings of others around us. Like in the story, the children were set the challenge to work collaboratively to see what magic they could create from a plain old cardboard box. Their discussion was magic indeed! The team decided to build a Ferrari!
Phonics
The children have found this week's Phonics Fairy stories particularly funny! We have learnt the sounds g, o, c, k. They especially enjoyed the 'Octopus Socktopus' and 'Ketchup on your cornflakes!' We even wrote the 'k' sound with ketchup and tried it on the cornflakes! We have made lots of fun memories to help us learn our new sounds!
Maths
This week in mathematics, we have been sorting! The children have worked both collaboratively and independently to sort the random objects! We built on last week's previous learning of matching and challenged ourselves to sort the objects in lots of different ways.
Week 6- 'The Lion Inside' - 10th of October 2022
This week, we read the story 'The Lion Inside' by Rachel Bright and Jim Field. The children loved exploring animals in the continuous provision, so much so we are going to continue this adventure next week!
As part of our colour mixing art project, Miss Kelly set us the challenge to make Pablo Picasso style portraits! The little heroes mastered this, using the powder paints we learnt how to change the shade of each colour. They also chose their 2D shape faces and explained their choices- so much lovely learning!
Phonics
Mercury have had another fun filled week of phonics! We learnt our first digraph 'ck,' as well as the phonemes 'e,' 'u' and 'r.' The clear class favourite of the week was 'e,' the children loved the egg and spoon races and chanted the sound as they completed the track! We also decorated underpants for 'u,' clicked on a keyboard for 'ck,' and painted dinosaur tracks to cvc words for 'r.' For little people, Mercury have an excellently loud "ROAR!"
Maths
This week in mathematics, we have been using the vocabulary "most, more, fewer, fewest" to compare numbers. We used a GIANT five/ten frame to explore the numbers, which the children of all ages independently explored with. We got a bit competitive with our grabbing game... the little heroes loved seeing who could beat the teacher to pick up the most or the fewest conkers.
Week 7- Pumpkin Parties! - 17th October 2022
This week, we have been focusing on using exciting vocabulary and introduced the children to adjectives. Just in time for Halloween, we explored pumpkins using our senses! The children created some beautiful observational drawing and drew the detail of the "bumpy" and "rough" skin. We then enjoyed cutting them open and getting a bit messy! The children said this was "disgusting" and "slimey!"
Phonics
This week in phonics, we have been on amazing adventures to learn our new sounds- h, b, f and l. As always with our fantastic phonics, our stories put these new sounds into exciting context. We ventured outside to find my lost hat for 'h,' sang to little Baby Brains for 'b,' walked through the foggy forest for 'f' and made our own lady birds for 'l.' As the weeks go on, it is never less than remarkable to see these little super stars so excited to get reading.
Maths
This week in mathematics, we have been comparing numbers, size and weight. The children have been spectacular using the language "more, most, few, fewest, heavy, light, tall and short." We worked as a class team to do this, as well as exploring independently in our outdoor and indoor environment.
Autumn 2
Week 1 'The Little Red Hen'- 1st November 2022
What a busy, buzzing week welcoming Mercury back to school! This half term, we started our new topic 'Celebrations', and we began with Harvest.
This week, we referred back to our experience of the Harvest Festival and paired this with the story 'The Little Red Hen.' We read the story together and made up our own actions for the repeated phrases. The children then used the provision to enhance their learning further. Nursey especially enjoyed using the messy small world play (noodles and oats!) to retell the story. Reception did some digging in the hay in a literacy game, as well as writing lists for the Little Red Hen! We also made some hand painted hens!
Phonics
As we return back to school, we excitedly jump straight back into phonics - and the Phonics Fairy did not disappoint! This week, we learnt the sounds ss, j, v and w. The children found it especially hilarious that my lipstick had been snuck in the phonics bag to support us writing the 'ss' sound with the story 'The kiss that missed!' We also enjoyed transforming the carpet into a race car for the 'vvvvvv' phoneme. We got very into our role play 
It has been especially wonderful to see the children start to write purposefully both inside and outside the classroom! The little heroes in the garden drew and labelled a plan to transport the water in the pipes, as well as label their shop!
Maths
This week in mathematics, we have been diving deep into our number knowledge and focusing on the numbers 1,2,3. We have been representing, comparing and building. We have played lots of number games and built our very own Number Blocks.
We also turned the play dough area into our very own bakery (with a little help from Greggs!), which the children adored! This naturally challenged the heroes to purposefully have a go at writing numerals on the price tag and count out the corresponding coins accurately.
Week 2 'Bonfire week' - 7th November 2022
A wonderful week in Mercury Class. This week, we have been reflecting and delving into our own experiences of Bonfire Night in AND outside the classroom. We have had some wonderful photo contributions from our class team parents which has enhanced our provision this week and has hugely encouraged excellent communication from the children, through retelling their special memories and questioning their peers (thank you!).
It has been a very powerful week for us exploring this celebration and further understanding our world. I am sure Mercury class would tell you that a special and memorable highlight was spending the afternoon outside with our role play bonfire. The children worked exceptionally well as a team to carry our 'logs' and stack them into a bonfire. We spoke about bonfire safety and how to 'light it' and 'put it out.' We drew our firework display on the logs and explored the sounds they would make with our voices! (Yes, we were very loud!) The children loved listening to the story of Guy Fawkes whilst eating their marshmallow sparklers!
It was a memorable and magic afternoon!
Phonics
As we continue this half term, we progress further into our phase 3 phonics! This week, we have learnt the sounds 'x,' 'y,' 'z' and our first digraph of the phase 'ch.' We have enjoyed various adventures such as looking in my famous 'Mystery Box' for 'x' and venturing into the Yeti cave for 'y.' The children have amazed me with their independence in their reading this week, particular with the phonics bingo game... we do have some competitive little heroes in Mercury!
Maths
We endeavor to become math masters and have continued our journey diving into the numbers 1,2 and 3. We have practiced subitising, comparing and composition. We regularly form these numbers in different variations with our fingers and expose the children to opportunities where they can subitise e.g., rolling a dice and recognising the number without counting the dots. These are great to do at home... see if your little one (or ones) can tell you what subitise means! They are rightly very proud of their big brains!
Week 3- 'We're going on a leaf hunt' - 14th November 2022
A lovely leafy week! Over the next couple of weeks, Mercury class are exploring seasonal changes and Autumn. We introduced this topic using the story 'We're going on a leaf hunt' by Steve Metzger. This got us naturally chatting about Autumn and inspired us to go on our very own leaf hunt! As well as engaging in some Autumn based activities inside, we were exceptionally lucky to have Mrs Tickle lead us on an Autumn Walk. We observed and compared lots of different types of leaves and trees, as well as collected some beautiful autumnal natural objects. We are all ready to paint these on Monday!
Phonics
The Phonics Fairy and Tricky Troll never rest in Mercury Class! This week we learnt the new digraphs th, sh and qu. We jumped right into on a pirate treasure hunt and searched 'this way and that way!.' we made speech bubbles with "shhhhhh" and had a visit from the Queen (with some acting on my part 
) We learnt that the Queen always carries her umbrella for our sound 'qu' and that you never see her without it in a word (q). The children listened to 'her majesty' like super soldiers and read their word on the flags when they heard "halt!"
In theme with our Autumn walk, I set the children the contextual writing challenge to write a list of the things we would need to bring. These heroes are certainly growing in confidence with their segmenting skills, we even had a go at their first supported sentence too! Super stars!
Maths
To pursue our journey into number mastery, this week we have continued to focus on the composition of numbers 1,2 and 3. We have used different concrete and pictorial resources to build our numbers, such as paint, giant counters and pigs in a field! Mercury have become particularly interested in marking these numbers and have enjoyed challenging themselves with this in the provision. Some of the little heroes even took a trip to Mrs Whiting's office to get a head teacher sticker after independently applying their enthusiasm. I am very proud of the curious mathematicians these children are becoming :)
Week 4 - 'Fletcher and the Falling leaf' - 21st November 2022
Another vibrant autumnal week for Mercury Class! This week, we have been reading 'Fletcher and the Falling Leaves' by Julia Rawlinson, a beautifully written text about seasonal changes. We continued to be inspired by our adventurous autumn walk! The children had their first go with water colours and all painted something from last week's treasured collection. We have been outdoor detectives and monitored the changes in outside area, we spotted ice and discussed the freezing and melting process. The children know Miss Maxwell freezes in the cold too!
In our class team, we have been promoting writing for a purpose and the never-ending potential that can be achieved with a good bank of phonic skills. This week, we looked at post cards and their purpose. The children all created a post card using photos from our autumn walk and had a go at writing a sentence to tell Mrs Whiting what we got up to! We got into role as a team of post people and delivered them. They loved sharing their work :)
Phonics
A full week of phonics fun! This week we learnt the digraphs 'th, ai, ee, oa' and our first trigraph 'igh.' The class team favorite this week was 'oa' for "oa, oa, go for goal!" The children got football fever challenge and dribbled the ball to the cones reading the 'oa' words. They all cheered each other on fantastically! We have also role-played trains for 'ee,' had a look at GIANT snailes for 'ai' and played a game with the Billy goats gruff for 'igh.'
Maths
This week in Maths, we have been looking at 2D shapes and zoomed in on circles and triangles. We introduced the ideas that "2D shapes are flat and we can't pick them up!" Their little brains were ticking as they tried to pick up the circles I drew on my board in their hands, they were gasping! 
We used the mathematical vocabulary 'corners, sides and flat.'
We painted Kandinsky circles and went on a shape hunt! See what 2D shape faces you can spot at home!
Week 5- 'The Scarecrows' Wedding' by Julia Donaldson- 28th November 2022
This week our celebration topic has been weddings! The children have been truly fascinated by this topic and have had lots of questions. We have been very lucky to learn about weddings from different members of staff in school as they shared their own experiences (thank you!) The children adored role playing weddings and really got submerged with the story. We made junk model scarecrows and wrote our own wedding invitations and lists. A lovely week celebrating love!
Phonics
Wow! Where do I start! The children have really taken ownership over their phonics this week and have chosen to continue acting out the stories during busy learning time. This week, we have learnt the digraphs 'oo' (and the two sounds it makes), we 'oo' zoomed to the moon and went to look at the 'oo' books in the library. We also learnt 'or' with Cinderella and her 'worn and torn' clothes and 'ar' with the little boy who found a 'shark in the park!' The children's curiosity has really led their discussions and empowered their learning this week. They were so totally fascinated by the idea of zooming to the moon; one of the heroes brought the idea of gravity to the classroom! This led to sharing a video of astronauts making a sandwich in space with no gravity! Wow! What conversations we have!
Maths
This week, we have been practicing our application and understanding of positional language. Not just exploring this in the classroom, the children were set the challenge in PE to find how many ways they could use their bodies to travel using the apparatus. This was a fabulous connection to our mathematics vocabulary as the children labelled under, over, next to, between... it was a dream! Very happy and brave children!
Week 6- The Nativity - WB 5th December 2022
A week full of sparkles, tinsel and tea towels! This week Mercury class took part in their first Nativity show and smashed it! We are so proud of them and their huge achievement. Well done!
In the classroom, we decided to delve further into the glitz and glamor of our strictly Nativity and look at the traditional story. The children enjoyed listening and made their own tickets for our show. They also made puppets and role played.
Phonics
This week in Phonics, we have been revising all the phase 3 digraphs we have learnt so far. We have played some grapheme recognition games and enjoyed some reading challenges, including two of my favourites - phonics splat and bingo! As always the children were super engaged and cheered each other on. They especially enjoyed shouting 'Bingo!' We also took advantage of the fantastic frost outside and had a go mark making on natures whiteboard. Super cool!
Maths
This week in maths, we have been focusing on finding one more and one fewer using concrete resources. The children had a go at using cars in the five frame car park to contextually find out the answer. We will continue this objective next week and practice our recall for one number fewer in particular.
Week 7- 'The Grinch'- WB 12th December
A grinchy week in Mercury Class! We have had a truly fantastic week sharing this much loved tale and discussing the true meaning of Christmas... in rhyming fashion! The children all made their own Grinches using oil pastels and wrote a speech bubble for what they thought the Grinch would say!
In Forest school this week, we used the Christmassy ice for some merry paint magic! The children explored making and painting ice with powder paints ... it was certainly cold enough for it to freeze! They loved their icey investigation! We came back the following day to see what had happened to the liquids we left.
Phonics
This week in Phonics we have been revising our phase 3 digraphs, particularly 'or' and 'ar' as the little heroes have found these a challenge to distinguish between. We have played bingo, splat and Christmas pass the blending present! Look out for these sounds when you are reading at home - we love a challenge in Mercury! 
Maths
In mathematics this week, we have been sticking to our Grinch theme to focus on finding one fewer. The cheeky Grinch took a bauble away from the tree and the children had to figure out what one fewer of the amount would be. Some of the little Who's even had a go at marking the number sentence!
SPRING TERM 2023
Week 1 - 'Tough Guys have feelings too' - WB 4th January
Wow! In only three days, the little heroes have have suitably submerged themselves in our spring term topic 'Superheroes Assemble!' This term our key texts will be focused on superhero stories and real life heroes. We started our mission this week with the story 'Tough Guys have feelings too' by Keith Negley. It is super important for the children to know that even tough guys, heroes and grown ups have feelings too and it is even brave to show emotions. We have explored some wonderful emotional literacy and talked about what we can do if we feel unhappy. The heroes helped our new friend Eddie manage his emotions positively and all wrote a sentence about when they felt an emotion of their choosing.
These heroes certainly assembled to explore our new provision in the classroom. What an awesome start!
Phonics
This week I wanted to ensure that the children remembered all our sounds taught after a busy Christmas break. The children were fabulous and immediately settled into back into our phonics routine. This week we played recap games such as pass the box, phonics pictionary and had a visit from the Tricky Troll! We are very excited to see what new sounds and adventures the phonics fairy will have in store for us this week!
The children in Nursery enjoyed a fantastic rhyming story called 'Shoo!' and played rhyming games alongside this. Keep singing nursery rhymes where you can, they do wonders!
Maths
This week in Maths, we explored composition of numbers. The children amazed me with their fluency and their determination to challenge themselves. We used the pegs to manipulate numbers and explore the many ways they can be made. All reception had a fantastic try at writing the number sentences to show what they had discovered.
In Nursery, the children practiced recognising numbers and counting out the corresponding amounts accurately. Next week, we will start our mission delving into one number a week.
Week 2- 'Supertato!' - WB 9th January 2023
This week, we had a very exciting story to jump into - 'Supertato' by Sue Hendra. This is one of my favourite stories and the enthusiasm for this adventure was absolutely shared in the class team. Not only is the story super cool and funny, it is a wonderful text for contextual emotional literacy. This week, Mercury have come across words such as livid, frustrated, distressed and ecstatic! The children all painted their own Supertato with the SUPER messy powder paints, created wanted posters for the 'Evil Pea,' shopped at the vegetable market and written speech bubbles for the character they chose. Both Nursery and Reception enjoyed this story and were very inspired to be heroes in the classroom!
Phonics
Speaking of ecstatic... Mercury were thrilled to see the Phonics Fairy had returned from her Christmas break with some new digraphs AND a trigraph to teach us. This week we learnt, ur, ow, oi and ear. The children got messy with 'ur' and 'churned the curd' reading the words they could find in the powdery oats! For 'ow' we practised our emotional literacy again and acted confused for a 'cow saying ow!' The class favourite this week was undoubtedly 'oi' for "oi! Get off the train!" We played the train game and read the words the children had on their tickets, if they had oi they had to get off the train! ... Don't worry we spoke about how this would be rude outside of our phonics game! Lastly, for 'ear- oh dear!' we read the words splatted on the broken eggs around the classroom. As always, the children have been totally involved and enthusiastic towards their phonics learning and have made us proud :)
The children in Nursery this week have been involved in a outdoor listening walk and focused on environmental sounds. We have also sang lots of nursery rhymes and read rhyming stories as part of our daily routine 
Maths
To continue our journey mastering number, this week in maths we compared numbers up to 5. We explored this through lots of interactive games such as 'Who can grab the most?,' 'roll and count' and as part of our usual Friday routine, we accurately counted and compared the team points results of the week using the language more and fewer! Reception were set the challenge this week to reason their answers and tell us how many more, this was very practical (and of course potato themed!) the children all rose to the challenge! Even some super little ones.
In Nursery, we are exploring one number a week and delving into this as the children embark on their early Maths journey. Of course, we started with one. We used the familiar number blocks and sung lots of number songs emphasising the one all alone. We also looked at the various objects representing one inside my mystery box.
Week 3- 'Supertato'- WB 16th January 2023
This week we continued our 'Supertato' adventures and used the story to develop our 'Understanding of the World.' Within our 'Superheroes' topic we incorporate learning about the real people in the world who help us and others everyday. This week, we talked about the hero in school who makes sure we are all fed everyday ... Diane! Diane showed the mercury heroes how to become Evil Pea by demonstrating how a potato changes when it is boiled from soft to hard. We did our own exploring back in the classroom and had a go at mashing Supertato ourselves! They certainly used their muscles! We also observed how the frozen peas changed state in the day (and not just the way they seemed to jump out of the tray and run around Mercury Classroom! 
) The children are becoming so fabulous at using a range of adjectives to enhance their vocabulary! They used wonderful describing words such as 'melted, softer, solid, hard, observe and icy.'The mashing did not stop inside... they also mashed the ice outside!
Phonics
This week in our phonics learning, the Phonics Fairy set us some super challenges! We learnt the trigraphs 'air, ure' and the digraph 'er.' We read a twisted tale of the classic story Rupunzel, in which she cuts off her 'fair hair' GASP! The children drew wonderful pictures of her tower and had a go at writing some words with the 'air' trigraph in. For 'ure' we read 'The Farmers rat' a story where a rat saves the crops with his manure! We went outside and played with the 'manure' and read the words on the rats cheese outside. Finally for 'er' we read 'Six Dinner Sid,' the children had a go role playing Sid the cat and read the words hidden inside Sid's six dinners! Great fun! We are going to play more games with these new sounds next week to consolidate these challenge phonemes!
Maths
In maths this week we put our 'mastery' caps on and continued to delve into the composition of number. The children played games to see how five can be made in different ways, and with more than 2 groups of numbers! Have a go putting 5 small objects in a cup, giving it a SUPER shake, and seeing how the objects fall/land to construct the number.
Nursery
In Nursery this week, we moved on one more to make our number of the week 2! The children played lots of games to match the digit to the amount, as well as practising using our finger to count accurately. There are so many wonderful ways to incorporate mathematics into play; we had a veggie picnic, assembled the superheroes in number teams, and of course, sang plenty of number rhymes!
Week 4- 'Super Worm' - WB 23rd January 2023
Hip hip hooray for Superworm! Another week of one of my favourites! - Superworm is a wonderful rhyming story by Julia Donaldson. We paired it with lots of non fiction texts about mini beasts, which the children were fascinated over. They have adored learning facts and have tuned into their intrinsically curious nature to ask lots of questions to find things out. We made some superworm paper chains, playdough and junk model bugs! We love a super rhyme too 
Phonics
This week the heroes were set a mission to recap those challenge trigraphs 'ure,' 'air,' and 'ear.' They have been super resilient and have risen to the challenge - one that we will continue to recap as the year goes on! We searched in Superworm's soil to find and read the words as well as played pass the box (a Mercury special) and of course revisited the Phonics Fairy stories.
Maths
A very busy week for these mathematicians! This week we explored number bonds to 5 and practised our fluency manipulating numbers. We did this using 'Superworm' themed lady birds! The heroes split the spots on the wings to show different variations of making 5. Some of the children even worked out how to split the spots into more than two groups and wrote down their number sentences. We did not stop there! We also looked at capacity! The children were very quick to pick up on the vocabulary 'full, empty, nearly full, nearly empty, half full, capacity and over capacity!' They were very excited to see the water overflow... especially if they were in the splash zone!!
The nursery children also enjoyed these activities and made magic potions using that amazing vocabulary. They also used the lady birds to practise their number recognition and accurate counting skills - Super!
Week 5- 'Superworm' - WB 30th January 2023
This week in Mercury Class the 'Superworm' adventures continued! The children got wriggling like worms and engaged in the new classroom provision. They painted with spaghetti worms collaboratively, wrote captions for their favourite 'Superworm' superpower and painted beautiful observational pictures of different insects using water colours.
Phonics
This week in phonics, we started our next chapter into phase 4! The children applied their phonic skills to hear and blend all the phonemes in cvcc words such as 'dent, tent and mend.' We sorted the words into real and pretend, placing the real words in the treasure and the pretend in the bin- dunn, dunn, dunnnn! They applied these skills to write some simple sentences, such as 'I can jump.' We also wrote some 'Superworm' simple sentences.
Maths
This week in maths, we continued our journey into mastering numbers and manipulated 6 and 7 - with the help of our friend from one of our favourite stories 'Six Dinner Sid.' The children had to help 'Sid the cat' make sure he had six dinners, by proving their amount in different ways. "We like to prove it prove it, we like to prove it!" They worked on their reasoning skills using the stem sentence "Well, Miss Maxwell, I know it is 6 because..." we then used a variety of resources to show our ideas, such as tens frames and numberblocks. The children also LOVED using the number fans for the first time and were spectacular at subitising the quantities I showed them.
In Nursery, the children engaged with multiple addition number rhymes, and showed the amounts using their fingers and stamping with paint! They also made their own number blocks to show the digits.
Spring 2 - 'Once Upon a Time'
Week 1 - Goldilocks and The Three Bears - with pancakes and porridge! WB 20th February 2023
Another exciting term starts in Mercury Class, along with our new topic 'Once upon a time,' another one of my favourites! This weeks story was 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears,' however... porridge soon turned to pancakes! The children in Reception wrote, whilst the Nursery children drew their dream pancake - there were some tall orders! We then all built our pancake and had a pancake party on pancake day! We also made some fairy tale wands, junk model bear houses and painted and sequenced scenes from the story. We will continue with cheeky Goldilocks next week and plan to make some porridge!
Phonics
This week in Phonics we have continued to consolidate our digraphs and trigraphs in phase 4 words. The children have totally loved playing the PhonicsPlay sorting games and have as always, amazed me with their commitment and resilience facing the new challenges. In guided reading this week, the children all had a go with their new books and played the pancake flip and read game. We are really honing in on quickly spotting tricky words in sentences to build our fluency.
Maths
This week in maths, we used the Numberblocks and familiar number rhymes to zoom in on the numbers 8, 9 and 10. We have been working very hard in Reception to practise using resources independently and prove our number knowledge. This week we used number fans, multi link and even numberlines! These heroes rose to the challenge.
In Nursery, the children also used the Numberblocks, familiar number rhymes and number puzzles to practise their number recognition and accurate counting skills.
Week 3- The Gingerbread Man- WB 6th March 2023
This week, we have continued our 'Once Upon a Time' topic with 'The Gingerbread man.' What a success it has been! The children loved listening, sequencing and retelling the story. We made our own story maps and used actions to enhance our story telling. The children all painted a character from the story using powder paints and the reception children wrote a sentence to narrate what was happening in their picture. What fabulous story tellers they all are!
Phonics
This week in Phonics we continued our journey into phase 4! We have been learning how to read and write words with more than one syllable. The children have loved the PhonicsPlay sorting games and have applied their reading skills wonderfully to work out if the words are real or pretend. We have also been writing a silly sentence every day and not letting that tricky troll trick us!
Maths
This week in maths we have been securing our skills in combining/adding numbers and proving our answers in different ways. I have been totally blown away by the independence all the children have shown, to use numberlines and tens frames. Their reasoning skills have totally taken the room and the confidence is flying!
In Nursery, the children have continued practising their counting, ordering and number recognition skills through number rhymes and the use of concrete objects.
Week 6 - British Science Week - WB 13th March 2023
We took a mini pause in our 'Once Upon a Time' topic to celebrate and explore 'British Science Week' and wow what a busy week we have had! Each day Mercury team have delved into a different idea based on the theme 'Connections.'
Seasons
We revisited and extended our knowledge of the 4 seasons. We painted, created and sorted the elements of the 4 different seasons and talked about how we have seen the world around us change, even since joining Mercury Class! The children all argued what their favourite seasons are and why! It sounds like we are all looking forward to Summer starting soon
Senses
This was a particularly messy day in Mercury! The children explored all 5 senses in the provision and adult let activities. We felt and explored lots of different textures, we made instruments and listened to music in our class band, and even made popcorn using all 5 senses. The children took it home to use the last sense of the day - taste!
Connections around the world!
We discussed and explored how we can connect to people in different parts of the world. It was lovely to learn that in Mercury Class alone we have eleven different countries that connect us. The children wrote their own emails, letters, postcard and messages. They asked thoughtful questions and enjoyed using the Google Earth tool to find out where the different countries are and where some of our Mercury family members live.
Habitats
We learnt about the different characteristics of animals and how they are suited to different types of habitats. Mars Class joined us for a wonderful Forest School Session in which we drew a plan for an animal habitat and then went outside and built them! The animals were very happy with their new homes
The Three Billy Goats Gruff - WB 27th March 2023
We have had such a lovely week in Mercury Class, it has been so enjoyable. Our story this week has been 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff.' A very popular story with these heroes, as it is one we often share with our friend 'Tricky Troll!' The children dived into this classic tale and have all created some totally wonderful things. We have made troll bridges with our new 'pop up' skills and with the junk model materials, both individually on a small scale and collaboratively as a class on a larger (messier) one! Thank you for all the materials! We also created our own trolls and rewrote the story. This was a special challenge for Reception as it was the first time they have had a go at writing multiple sentences in one sitting. They are flying!
Phonics
This week in Phonics we continued our journey through phase 4! We played lots of games and completed lots of challenged to consolidate and expand our skills. We also continued our reading practice and have been testing our word wall knowledge! Keep going we are starting to award Word Wall One badges!
In Nursery the children played listening games to practice their skills, rhyme time singing and story reading. They took part in the bridge challenges and retold our story of the week.
Maths
These heroes have blown me away with their number bond recall and proving this week. We played various number bond games, such as bean bag toss and numicon number buddies! I was especially impressed with the children's independent and collaborative approach to the numicon.
In Nursery, we continue to build our number recognition and understanding. The children sing daily number songs and complete number challenges tailored on a 1-1 approach. They have made lots of progress this term, which we are very proud of 
.
Summer Term
Week 1 - Creative Week 'The wacky world of Dr Suess!' WB 17th April 2023
This week in the true spirit of creative week, we chose a uniquely creative author - Dr Suess! Each day we introduced a new Dr Suess tale, and used different creative skills to make some wonderful creations! We read lots of wonderful stories, but particularly focused on 'Green Eggs and Ham,' 'Horton Hears a Who,' 'The Lorax' and 'Oh the thinks you can think!' We painted, cut, stuck, wrote and joked! (an attempt to rhyme
).
All the children created their very own plate of Green Eggs and Ham, and the reception children wrote a rhyming sentence about whether they would be brave enough to try them! You may have guessed.. the cheeky cheekers all wanted to! When reading 'Horton hears a Who,' the children created an elephant trunk and their own little worlds on their own little flowers using different materials. They also hand painted elephants! Next up was 'The Lorax,' which proved to be the class favourite! All the children created 'truffula trees' using different painting techniques, followed by an outdoor learning session where we talked about how we can look after our world, and then chalked our own 'Truffula tree' forest on the playground. The last story focused more on our imaginative mind creativity, 'Oh the thinks you can think!' The children all had a go writing their own Dr Suess story, focusing on including a rhyme and a bit of magic- just like Suess himself!
Week 2 and 3 - 'Dear Dinosaur' and 'The Girl and the Dinosaur'
What a fantastic start to Summer Term we have had! The children (and adults!) have really enjoyed starting our 'Dinosaur' topic adventures with lots more Jurassic joys to come! So far, we have read 'Dear Dinosaur' by Chae Strathie and 'The Girl and the Dinosaur' by Hollie Hughes. Both have been brilliant texts to dig right into our topic! The children have been inspired and wanted to find out more from the experts so we decided to write/draw some letters to the 'Natural History Museum' and are excited to get some answers to our curious questions. This week we had a fossil focus and so we have enjoyed looking at non fiction texts and using the internet to find out more! The team are now expert Palentologists and painted their own fossils using printing techniques. Next week, we will be getting messy moulding even more fossils!
Phonics
The phonics fairy has returned with her cheeky challenges! We have been using the phonics fairy to recap all of our phase 3 digraphs and incorporate them into daily reading and writing practise. We have particularly been focusing on longer poly-syllabic words and writing sentences.
Nursery
In Nursery, the children have continued listening to stories, singing songs and playing listening games to prepare them for phonics when they get to Reception!
Mathematics
We are so proud of these little mathematicians! This week in Maths, we have been focused on 'adding more' and proving this in different ways. For example, the number line, bead string and tens frame! They are mastering their skills by applying their understanding in different ways and acing it! We have also been working on 'spatial awareness' and have been applying the vocabulary 'flip' and 'turn' to complete the Numicon puzzles. The team have also been applying their reasoning skills to this and telling me how they know which number will fit e.g. "Well Miss Maxwell, I know it is 3 because 2 and 1 more will fit in!"
Nursery
This week, the children have enjoyed singing lots of number songs and playing games to practise their number recognition. This week they enjoyed a new number bingo game with Mrs Nash
Week 4 - The Girl and the Dinosaur - WB 8th May 2023
A fantastic fossil week! This week our Mercury Palenotologists got busy drawing, molding, baking, hiding and finding fossils! Inspired by our story of the week, 'The Girl and the Dinosaur' these heroes totally delved into the fossil theme. We got messy creating salt dough and molding our own fossils. The children decided whether they wanted to make a body or trace fossil and drew wonderful maps with instructions on how to find them. The team then hid them in Forest schools and followed their maps on how to find them... some we may have hid a little too well! (oops!)
Phonics
Continuing our recaps, this week we looked at or, ur and qu. The children applied their knowledge to read and write longer words and sentences! We have loved revisiting the wonderful Phonics Fairy stories.
Maths
This week in Maths, these mathematicians levelled up and had their first go at subtraction! We told subtraction stories and used the bead strings and number lines to help support our answers. We will continue practising this skill next week!
Week 5 - 'Tyrannosauras Drip' by Julia Donaldson - WB 15th May 2023
Mercury Class know by now that I love a story that rhymes! So naturally, Tyrannosauras Drip had to be one of our Dino Key Texts. This week we have largely focused on exploring dinosaur eating habits and their characteristics, using the interesting vocabulary - carnivore, herbivore and omnivore. The children played a sorting and matching game, matching the diet to the dinosaur and explaining their reasons. We used this to inspire our writing this week. The children also painted leafy green habitats for Tyrannosauras Drip using water colour paints.
We really have loved the Dinosaur Topic in Mercury and next week we will be saying goodbye to it with a BANG, as we move onto space, asteroids and what really happened to those Dinosaurs... Watch this Space 
Phonics
This week in Phonics, the Phonics Fairy took us back through the sounds ow, oo and oo. As mentioned, we are working on consolidating and developing the children's reading and writing skills through polysyllabic and phase 4 cvcc and ccvc words. We have gotten ourselves into a lovely recapping routine which the children and I have really enjoyed. It really is wonderful seeing how much they have progressed each week and how every single one of the little heroes is applying their skills independently. Proud
In Nursery, the children have been enjoying carefully selected stories and playing their favourite listening games. This week the little ones have particularly enjoyed the phase 1 animal sounds game - lots of them almost ready to start their phase 2 journey next year!
Maths
This week in Maths the children have had the most keen and admirable attitude towards their next challenge - subtraction! With funky actions (and of course a song) the children have shown to understand and apply the knowledge that "Subtractions means we take away and we get less/fewer!" We have continued our journey into Mastery by proving our skills in various ways for example tens frame buses, subtraction stories and bead strings!
WB 22nd May - And then the Dinosaurs became extinct...
I would really like to celebrate the incredible term we have had in Mercury; this week we totally ended on a high (unfortunately not for the dinosaurs 
). We concluded our topic discovering how they became extinct, learning about all things Space and Asteroids! We introduced this next chapter using the story 'The Dinosaur that pooped a planet' by Tom Fletcher, which was a lot of fun and laughs. The children came up with plans for how they would stop the hungry carnivore floating through space and eating the planets! (A well recommended story) We then read lots of Non-Fiction books about Space and the Extinction of the Dinosaurs. The children created some beautiful pieces of art and some informative news reports for the end of the Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Today we finished with balloon planet paintings and an asteroid crashing experiment (sorry for any coco powder on tops!) What fun we have had!
Phonics
This week we have continued our Phonics Fairy Recap and zoomed in on ure, igh and er. We even played a party round of Phonics Bingo!
All children have been benchmarked with their reading this week, with every single child making fabulous progress. We could not be more proud, as we know you are. Thank you for all your support with reading and practise at home - it really does make a huge difference
Maths
To round off our term, this week the Mathematicians have recapped all our learning from this term. Including subtraction, addition, manipulating shapes and numberbonds to ten. We got into teams to "prove it, prove it!" and the children showed off how independent they are with their reasoning skills.
Nursery
The children in Nursery this week have all been assessed on their number knowledge and played active games to encourage this. The children played 'hopscotch' and my listening game to practise accurate counting. Lots of lovely progress being made by our little ones and we are excited to see how far we can go next term!
