This month the Juniors were busy learning all about ‘Autumn’ and ‘Halloween’. In S.E.S.E. they discussed the signs of autumn and they went on nature trail for signs autumn around our school. They found lots of varieties of leaves, berries and acorns. They learned about hedgehogs and how they prepare for hibernation. They also learned about the tradition of Halloween and how it began. They completed a science experiment, where we used a chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar to make a ghost! We had so much fun doing this!
The children explored the themes of ‘Autumn’ and ‘Halloween’ through lots of play. In Construction, they designed homes for squirrels, foxes and hedgehogs. They used large wooden blocks, Mag-snaps and coloured blocks to created their homes. The children were busy creating in Playdough, from pumpkins, to hedgehogs, spiders, witch hats and pinecones. They explored autumnal items in the tuff tray and created a Small World woodland scene for the fox, squirrel and spiders. One of the children made the connection to one of our story books ‘The Golden Acorn’, and created pretend play around the squirrel looking for a golden acorn. The children even had a go at some pumpkin carving, where they scooped out all the insides of the pumpkins and then they had some fun playing with the slime and seeds. There was Construction of some spooky castles, haunted houses and vampire caves as they neared Halloween. Lots of building materials were used. The children played in a Small World of a haunted house, filled with autumn leaves, creepy crawlies, ghosts, eyeballs and gourds. The children then began to fill the furniture with creepy crawlies and scare each other. They enjoyed some sensory play in green rice, and they pretended to make spooky potions in their cauldrons using the various materials from the tuff tray. The Juniors had so much fun in Role Play as scientists, witches and wizards making potions. There was quite a smell brewing in the Junior Room to say the least, as potions were mixed, boiled and exploded!
The Juniors spent the month focusing on Halloween music, listening and responding to Ghostbusters, Thriller, Monster Mash, This Is Halloween, The Addams Family, The Time Warp and many more. They designed some fantastic CD covers in response to the music they listened to too.
They created some autumnal Art, and focused on the colours, shapes and sizes of the leaves. They gathered leaves from our school environment and created an autumn tree by sticking their chosen leaves onto contact. The Juniors also made some prints, using autumn coloured paint and sponge painting around the outside of a selection of leaves. The Juniors spent some time observing characters designed by Tim Burton and they took inspiration from his work to create their own portraits. They sketched their portraits first, and later experimented with chalk and charcoal to create light and shade.
In our final week before midterm break, we were lucky to have Hayley Anderson, one of our past pupils, come to our school for work experience. Hayley was a great help in the Junior Room, and she even organised a really nice Art activity for us to do. We used cardboard tubes to create vampires, pumpkins and mummies! Thank you, Hayley, for all your help, we really enjoyed having you with us.
