In the first week of November we found ourselves in the forest where we made some new friends. Incy Wincy the spider taught us a new song, Incy Wincy spider which we sang while drawing the story on each others' backs. Most of us agreed that it felt nice! Then Incy Wincy introduced us to more forest friends, Elk, Fox, Snail, Ant, Bear, and Mouse. We did actions for each animal to help us remember the words, and then we played a fun pantomine game.

What animal are you? Are you a bear? Yes, I am! Are you an elk? No, I'm a spider! Are you an ant? No? A snail? Yes! Snails are slow!

The following week we found ourselves in the jungle. We had to find 6 animals that had hidden - frog, gorilla, elephant, lion, monkey and ladybug/ ladybird. We learnt to say them through repetition and actions, and then we sang a new song Five green and speckled frogs. In the song we were the frogs that jumped and splashed about in the pool - this was great fun! 
We also sang Incy Wincy spider again and the children remembered it well. Finally we played a memory game with the animal cards. In games we can practice lots of familiar phrases; 'It's your turn', 'Well done!' 'What animal is it?' 'How many are there?' 'Please give me the elephant' 'Thank you!' Memory games are great for learning vocabulary  - everytime you turn a picture card, say the words out loud too.

The following week we played 'find your pack'. The children had to find their animal pair by asking each other 'Are you a lion? Yes, I am'  ’Are you a monkey? No, I'm not.' When the children found their pairs, their next task was to build them a home. We had a wonderful range of animal houses, made from all kinds of different materials.

Where do the elephants live? Here! The elephants have food to eat and water to drink.

Where do the monkeys live? Here! How many monkeys live there? 2!

Where do the gorillas live? Here! What colour are gorillas? Black! Gorillas like to play, they have a playground!

We also sang and played five green and speckled frogs again which we all enjoyed.

Five green and speckled frogs,

Sat on a speckled log,

Eating the most delicious bugs, yum, yum!

One jumped into the pool,

Where it was nice and cool,

Then there were four green speckled frogs…

In the last week of November we looked at shapes. We learnt to recognise and say square, circle and triangle. We had to make the different shapes using our bodies, and we collected items that were the same shape. Look at all the different things we found!