St Anne's Catholic Primary School

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Autumn Topic Activities

To kick start our Autumn topic we went on a 'Beginning of Autumn Walk' to observe and discuss the seasonal changes we could see happening around us. We went out onto the school field with Mrs Astley, Mrs Allum and Ms Bateson to collect some crunchy and colourful leaves and do some bark rubbings using wax crayons. Mrs Astley showed us how to do a rubbing before we had a go at doing our very own to add to our topic floorbook.

Beginning of Autumn Walk - 22.09.14

This is our Autumn display which can be found in the school hall. We have enjoyed learning a new rhyme called 'Autumn Leaves' and made Autumn leaf print pictures in response to this. We used our manipulative skills to print with small leaves in pairs and produced some really colourful pictures. Please go and take a look!

Autumn Leaves are Falling Down - Rhyme

'Autumn Leaves are Falling Down' - Display.

Here are just a few pictures of us producing our leaf print pictures for the hall display!

Leaf Printing Activity

Part of the insiration for our above display (which you can find in the school hall)came from this rhyme which we have performed for you to cap off what has been a busy and truly enjoyable first half term studying the season of Autumn. We have had a great time practicing and singing this short rhyme and developing different versions of it in the process. Here is the original version...enjoy!!!

We have been sorting Autumnal objects such as conkers, leaves, sticks, twigs, bark, acorns and conker shells into different groups. We used our Mathematical knowledge to sort the objects into various different groups including things that are; prickly, round, smooth, fall off trees, crunchy, sharp, long and brown, red and golden.

Autumn Sorting Activity

As part of our focus on the Harvest festival we had a great time listening to the story of 'Oliver's Vegetables' and developing a good understanding of the story structure. Oliver himself kindly brought in some vegetables from Grandpa's garden for us to explore such as peas, beetroot, carrots and cabbage. This was the first time some of us had the opportunity of coming into contact with a real beetroot and found it very interesting. We went on taste the vegetables which provided us with some interesting flavours. We particularly enjoyed tasting the 'sweet' 'salty' beetroot but understandably it wasn't to everyones liking. All in all we had great day tasting and exploring the vegetables and we know it is important we eat them regularly!

Tasting Vegetables from 'Grandpa's Garden'

A few days after tasting the vegetables we recieved a letter from Oliver asking us kindly to make a delicious soup using lots of different vegetables. He had recently enjoyed eating Grandma's pea soup but set us the challenge to make a more interesting and flavoursome soup for him to try. As soon as we had receieved and read the letter we were all determined not to let Oliver down! On Wednesday afternoon (7th October) we selected the vegetables to go into the soup and each had the experience of chopping some carrots up. We then went on to dissolve a vegetable stock cube in boiling water before adding it to the pan of vegetables. It was time to get cooking the vegetables, but we knew that we had to be very careful around the hot cooker,so we let Ms Bateson oversee this.

Preparing and Cooking Vegetable Soup

The day after cooking the vegetables for our soup, the next stage of the process was to mix the vegetables. In groups of 5 we discussed the smell and the look of the vegetables after they had been cooked. We were all particularly excited to see how it would turn out from here and went on to the mix the vegetables in the blender. Mr Jones showed us how to use the blender before we took turns blending the vegetables ourselves. At different points in the activity we observed and discussed the changes we could see happening. We discovered the soup was orange in colour because of the carrots we had used and that the bubbles on the surface of the 'juicy' soup were from the heat generated by the blender. We tasted the soup and thought it was delicious most importantly so did our friend Oliver. We also took some soup home to share with our families and friends.

Blending cooked vegetables to make our soup!

There were 2 key objectives to our end of Autumn topic walk...

1) To not get blown away by the gale force winds

2) To observe and talk about the season changes we could see had happened around us and to compare this to our 'beginning of autumn topic walk'.

It just so happened the windiest Autumn day for some time when we went on our end of Autumn topic walk around the field. We could straight away compare what the weather was like during an unusually warm September to how it was one month on. The other comparsions we could make and the changes we observed were the way in which the leaves had changed coloured/ were changng colour and we spoke about why we thought this happened. We also noticed how the ground beneath our feet was much softer and squelchier! There was also a noticeable increase in the amount of leaves and twigs on the ground and the trees were looking distinctly bare now that we found ourselves in the thick of a windy, cold and wet Autumn season. Despite the bitterly cold wind we still had fun and managed to arrive back safe and sound...with our wind swept hair, numb toes and rosy red cheeks!

End of Autumn Topic Walk - 22.10.14

Our Focus on Nocturnal Animals 13.10.14 - 23.10.14

Follow this link to enjoy reading along together to an interactive version of the 'Owl Babies' story! http://www.bookstart.org.uk/static/bookstart/have-some-fun/activities/owl_babies

We had the most wonderful time designing and making habitats for some the nocturnal animals we have been learning about such as Hedgehogs, Badgers, Fox' and Owls. We were split up into teams according to the animal we were given to build a new habitat for. Ms Bateson took care of the 2 Owl teams, Mr Dandy our visitor for the afternoon took care of the Badger group, Mr Jones led the Fox' group whilst Mrs Astley worked with a group to make a nest for our very own class hedgehog 'Harry' in the small world area using wooden construction blocks (he will remain their for the Autumn/winter months to hibernate). To make our habitats we used a variety of large junk modelling materials available to us along with lots of different natural resources such as a twigs and leaves. We used the natural resources for decoration but also to use as bedding for our nocturnal animals to make sure they will be comfy. We are learning more and more about the importance of working as a team when given special challenges and we were all very proud of the work we produced.

Making Nocturnal Animal Habitats

From accessing the books about Owls and Hedgehogs in our reading area to drawing our favourite nocuturnal animals on the floor.... we had a great time engaging in a range of activities!

Learning about nocturnal animals during self-select play!

On the final day of our first half-term in school we had the exciting opportunity to make some pumpkn shaped biscuits. It just so happened to be the school Haloween disco later that day so this activity linked in nicely with what was to come. We all actively participated in helping to make our biscuits. It firstly involved using our Maths skills to work out much of each ingrediant we needed by reading the wieghing scales. Next we all had a go at stirring and kneading the butter, flour and sugar, it felt very 'crumby' at first but soon turned into a nice 'smooth' dough after some really good teamwork and cooperation. It was time to roll out the dough using the rolling pin and we used flour to make sure the surface was nice and dry. We each used the pumpkin cutter to make our biscuit and placed it on the baking tray ready to be cooked over lunchtime!

Making Pumpkin Biscuits - 23.10.14

Once the biscuits had been baked over lunchtime it was then time to ice and decorate our biscuits with colourful sprinkles in readiness to take them home. We thoroughly enjoyed doing this with the help of our visitor for the afternoon, Miss Moran. We applied our fine motor skills in using plastic spoons and knifes to spread the icing carefully over the surface of our biscuits. We were all very pleased with what we had made over the course of the day and couldn't wait to eat them...Yum!!!