Chestnut Class Summer 1

Claire Howatson (chowatson) on: Chestnut Class

We have had another very busy half term in Chestnut class beginning our topic on Transport, with a class focus on ‘World Wide Travel’. We have enjoyed listening to a range of motivating stories where our favourite characters have travelled around the world, such as Maisie Mouse and Peppa Pig. We have also been busy creating our own passports and making marks on postcards.

In Maths we have been very busy learning about capacity, weight, money and number activities. We have been exploring all these concepts through play and enjoyed filling, emptying, playing ‘shop’, as well as exploring weight and using a balance scale.

As part of the topic, we have also been listening to sounds and music related to transport as well as going on sensory trips to different countries. We have also been moving toy cars in paint and observing the marks that we make. Lots of messy fun!

As well as learning in our curriculum topic the staff in Chestnut class are all so impressed with how well the pupils are working towards their own personalised targets. Pupils have been developing their choice making skills, mobility skills, independence skills and working hard with their literacy skills. We don’t know how they fit it all in!

Next half term we will continue our topic on Transport but focus on our local area and how we can keep safe. We look forward to exploring our environment and can’t wait to share with you what we get up to. We also look forward to our upcoming Coppice Fest and some very exciting activities related to the World Cup. Go England!

The pupils and staff in Chestnut Class wish everyone a wonderful half term! 

Chestnut Spring 2 2026

Claire Howatson (chowatson) on: Chestnut Class

We have continued to be very busy bees in Chestnut class this half term, which is very appropriate as our topic has been ‘Minibeasts’.

We have all enjoyed learning within our topic through a range of play activities and stories. Our favourite stories this term have been ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and ‘Superworm’. We have also used these stories to focus on Maths topics such as colour sorting and Length.

We have also been very lucky to get some new play resources in our class this half term and have all enjoyed exploring them. Our favourites have been the new water tray and the new messy play tray where we have been able to develop our social skills and fine motor skills.

We have also enjoyed World Book Day in class with lots of fun stories and some amazing costumes. We have also been working hard to develop our gross motor skills through our engagement in our CE sessions or our Tots on Tyres sessions which have been amazing!

Finally, we have recently visited Blackpool Zoo as a class, in relation to last half terms topic of ‘Zoo Animals’. All the pupils engaged so well and the staff were all so proud of them all! Huge well done to our amazing Chestnut pupils.

Chestnut Spring Term

Claire Howatson (chowatson) on: Chestnut Class

During the Spring Term Acorn Class will be learning about Animals. Our topic focus for the first half term will be ‘Pets’ and then we will be learning about ‘Animals Under the Sea’ after February half term.

We have started our learning by setting up a Vet/ Pet Shop in our role play area. Each week we have been finding out about a different type of animal and what things are needed to look after that animal. It’s been great fun, using the syringes and bandages in the Vets to make the animals better and looking at pictures of different animals, and even some x-rays.

We will be creating a display about all of the animals and the work we will be doing, so we will be painting, colouring or using collage to make create each animal. We will also be having sensory stories about each of the different of pets starting with Hoppy, the rabbit and Mog and the VET.

We have several birthdays in class this term which we look forward to celebrating. Some of the other celebrations this term will be Chinese New Year, Shrove Tuesday, St David’s day, Mother’s day and of course Easter.

Chestnut Autumn Term

Claire Howatson (chowatson) on: Chestnut Class

Wow, what another incredibly busy half term in Chestnut class. As well as continuing our topic work we have also celebrated special events such as St Andrew’s day and Children in Need.

We had a special attention time for St Andrew’s day with bagpipe sounds on a BIGmack and we all moved to some traditional Scottish music. We also made some delicious Scottish shortbread biscuits which didn’t last long with the pupils! Yummy!

For Children in Need the pupils came to school in some amazing outfits and we all got physical with our challenge, as well as decorating spotty biscuits. In class and in their Conductive Education sessions, we all tried very hard to complete 25 rolls. The pupils were amazing, showing such stamina and perseverance! We even had super walking and standing to add to the challenge, all the staff were so proud!

Finally, we have all been working extremely hard getting ready for Christmas in school. We have been busy making cards and other crafts as well as sparkly tree decorations to sell at the Christmas markets. Not forgetting the Nativity, which we are all very excited to perform in!

A huge Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from everyone in Chestnut class, we can’t wait to see everyone in January for more exciting learning!

Chestnut class Autumn

Claire Howatson (chowatson) on: Chestnut Class

What a very busy start to our new school year we have had in Chestnut class – lots of new staff and pupils to get to know! As the new school year began, we adjusted back to life in school and the routines within it. We have already made big improvements in our attention and listening skills and all particularly enjoy our attention time sessions where fun and exciting things are taken out of the bucket – the flying balloon and jack in a box are by far the favourites!

We have also been working on our Numeracy skills during our 1-1 target sessions and everyone is doing extremely well and working hard. In the next half term, we will focus on 2D shape, position, direction and sorting – keep your eyes peeled for photos of our exciting learning! We have already begun our topic learning of ‘Me and my Family’ by looking at photographs of how we have all grown since we were babies – what a class of cuties we are! We have also been creating self portraits in art, looking at all our facial features and also creating art related to the season of Autumn. We have also learnt about the Hindu festival of Diwali and made some lovely diva lamps.

We look forward to continuing our topic after half term focusing on our families and how everyone’s is different but equally special. We will be looking at the stories of ‘Monkey Puzzle’ and ‘Stick Man’ as well as getting ourselves ready for Christmas in school. We cannot wait to take part in our annual nativity and look forward to sharing it with you all in our photographs. We will keep you posted very soon!