This week we've been learning about Diwali-a festival of lights. We've been listening to very exciting stories that are special to the Hindu religion. We've made cards, rangoli patterns, firework paintings and lanterns. There has been a lot of cutting, sticking, designing and problem solving. We all need to practise these skills and the activities are fun ways to do that.

Some of us learnt to play Hop-Scotch this week. It was difficult balancing and hopping and counting- but we did it!

We've been exploring our Jungle Gym, finding lots of different ways to travel over, under and through the different bits.

We have been investigating different coins and notes used as money in the UK. Ms Jones had all sorts in her purse, not just money: store cards, library cards, receipts and stamps. We've set up a little shopping area in class- and we accept all relevant bank cards! ( Not really- we're just pretending). Ms Jones gave us some receipts to play with and we can read what she bought from the shop. We didn't realise that you got a little list of your shopping to take home. We've been counting, sorting and matching coins and asking why there is no 3p or 4p coin....or 6p or 7p or 8p.....We were told you can make any number with the coins and notes we have -or pay by bank card.

We get to choose where we would like to work/play during bits of every day. We often like to try out things our teachers have shown us when we play- so this week there has been a lot of bubble blowing, some obstacle course building, counting, reading favourite books, singing favourite songs on the stage ( a pallet) and mini beast hunting. The teachers seem to like it when they see us doing something again...Also we love playing with loose parts or 'bits and bobs' because we can pretend they are ANYTHING - it is brilliant.

One of our favourite books is 'Where's my Teddy?' by Jez Alborough and we used lots of cuddly toys to work in groups and re-tell the story. If we used words from the book, the teachers went wild with excitement and kept telling us how well we'd listened.  We all did a good job. One group went on to tell stories to one of the teachers, using the small world toys. The stories were brilliant!

Our phonic knowledge is building nicely with lots of regular practise, and everyone in Reception is trying to make sure they hold their pencil well and write their letters correctly. It is quite tricky.

We're also getting really good at using our Welsh phrases and our singing in Welsh is fantastic/ bendigedig!

With Miss Vicci, the gardening group made an autumn scene with things we found in our school garden. The pictures smelt amazing because we used a lot of the herbs we found.

One of the most wonderful things we did this week was make little mini-movies with Mrs Harvey. The school has a green screen and Mrs Harvey made it look like we were in the woods. We even did a bit of acting when bears and a giant squirrel chased us! We loved it and will be green screen experts by the time we're eleven. Watch out Mr Spielberg- Ysgol Y Faenol is coming!