The Butterflies have started the school year exploring the theme, ‘Ourselves’. This has supported us all, staff and children, in getting to know each other through discovering our similarities and differences, likes and dislikes. 
We have continued our journey to become readers and writers, and have been working hard to develop our marking making skills using a range of different materials. This is supporting the children in developing their fine motor skills – our ‘crocodile snap’ pen grips are coming along very nicely and writing our names during self-registration is firmly part of our morning routine now. 
In Spanish we have welcomed Mrs. Oldfield, and her magic Spanish speaking box never fails to delight. We have been learning how to greet one another, share our names, and are beginning to share our likes and dislikes in Spanish, which connects wonderfully with our main theme for the term. 
Out in Forest School, the Butterflies have built their confidence in moving around the space, reviewing the ways we can keep ourselves and our friends safe, as well as caring for the natural world. We have a group of very keen artists this year in Butterflies so the children have been provided with lots of opportunities to transfer those creative skills to our outdoor provision, including practising our phonics sound of the week using autumn treasures.  
Another key part of the children’s first term in Butterflies is working on their independence and self-care skills. On Fridays, the children have been making their own snacks to support this process, including making their own sandwiches and baking bread rolls. We have made the best of the glorious autumn weather by enjoying a little picnic on the meadow each week. 

This term’s focus for the Caterpillar children has been ‘Ourselves.’  The first few weeks were spent settling in our new children, ensuring they are all secure and happy in their new enironment. Moving on, we then explored different parts of our body week by week. Beginning with our ears… we engaged in listening activities, identifying environmental sounds outdoors, playing sound lotto and reading ‘What the Ladybird Heard’. The children have remained engaged with this, regularly telling us when they hear the Red Arrows and certain teachers around school!Throughout the term, we have looked at our hands, eyes, feet, nose and mouth, identifying what they are used for whilst enjoying various activities such as hand painting, measuring out feet incorporating the vocabulary of big and little, developing scissor skills, making our own binoculars and using magnifying glasses and spectacles to help us see clearly.We particularly enjoyed  learning about our senses in which we explored lots of different fruits and vegetables, tasting all sorts of sweet and sour foods, some of which were new to us. This was also a perfect oppourtunity to learn how to use our special knives independently. We have also been working together to learn to share and make new friends through mark making, ‘cooking’ in our kitchen and taking care of the babies…just to name a few! A busy, busy term with happy settled smiling children!