Two weeks ago, ten eggs arrived in an incubator. We learnt that the incubator keeps the eggs warm when the mummy hen cannot sit on them. A few days later, the eggs started to crack and seven chicks hatched! We were lucky enough to see one chick hatch out of its egg.

When they were a few days old, they came to visit us in Class 1 and 2. We were all so excited because we were able to hold them or stroke them. We had to sit very still and by very quiet so we didn't frighten them. The chicks enjoyed walking around and flapping their wings.

 

We have been learning about the Polar lands. We had great fun finding out facts about penguins and polar bears. We learnt that Penguins live in Antarctica and Polar Bears live in the Arctic. They are never together and this only happens in stories.

We worked in groups to create some stories based around this picture and finding some footprints in the snow.

We created a story map to help us learn our stories.

   

  

                                           

 

We wrote our stories out and practised reading these to perform to Year 6 in our readers theatre.

 

 

During our art lesson we drew a polar bear step by step. We had to think about the size of the polar bear and the shapes that we needed to use. Once we had drawn the polar bears, we used different materials to collage them.

   

   

 

Chinese New Year 

We started our topic by boarding a plane and flying to a mystery country. After lots of thinking and discussion we agreed we were in China. We learnt about lots of the traditions followed when celebrating New Year in China and talked about what was the same and what was different to how we had celebrated New Year.

Then we wrote to Mrs Wyeth to ask if we could have our own Chinese New Year celebration … and she said yes! So we got busy preparing. First, we cleaned and tidied the classroom to get rid of any bad luck. Then we decorated the classroom with red lanterns and bunting that we had made. Red is a very lucky colour in China. We also made red envelopes and wrote ‘Happy New Year’ in Chinese writing. On New Year’s Day, children wake up to find red envelopes filled with shiny coins and sweets. We were very lucky that Mrs Bond came in and helped us to make dumplings for our New Year feast. After our feast, we performed a dragon dance under an enormous dragon. It was such a great way to end our topic!

 

 

 

Space – The Way Back Home

We have been reading a story called ‘The Way Back Home’ and learning all about space. In our story, a boy gets stuck on the moon when his aeroplane runs out of petrol. We used our Monkey learning power (creativity) to think of lots of different ways to help him solve his problem.

When we read the next few pages, we discovered the boy met a martian who was also stuck on the moon. We role-played what they might say to each other when they shook hands. Here are some of our ideas …

We also did some observational drawings of the martian. We had to look closely at the shapes and colours we needed.

We have also been learning about the moon. We started by wondering and generating questions. Then we used books and the internet to try to find the answers to our questions. Next week we are going to make factsheets to share with a grown up at home.

Finally, we have been doing lots of space-themed art work:

Eggs and Chicks

We have all really enjoyed watching the chicks hatch from their eggs. The children would like to share their learning with you …

“The eggs were in an incubator to keep them warm.”

“When the chicks hatched, we noticed they were wet and not very fluffy.”

“The next day they could go into the blue box.”

“They had food and water in the blue box.”

“They go under the light to keep warm.”

“It was funny when the chicks were standing in the food!”

“The boys are the yellow ones and the girls are brown.”

“They talk to each other by cheeping.”

 

 

All the children had a chance to hold the chicks. They were all very gentle and careful to make sure they didn’t hurt them.

   

  

When it was time for the chicks to go to their new homes, some of the children wrote messages of advice for the new owners or ‘good luck ’messages to the chicks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn

We looked at this picture from the story of Percy the Park keeper and discussed what we could see.

We discussed what season we thought it might be and decided that it was Autumn because the leaves were falling and changing colour.  

So, we went on our own Autumn walk to look for any changes in the season.

We found lots of the trees and bushes had different kinds of berries.

 

The colours that we noticed were red, brown, orange, yellow, green and purple.

We noticed that lots of the leaves were beginning to fall and that they were changing colours.

 

We collected lots of items and took them back to the classroom.

We did some descriptive writing about the autumn items and had a go at writing and drawing what we saw.

 

The Little Red Hen

It all began with the arrival of a mystery bag … the children worked together as detectives to work out that all the things in the bag belonged to the story of the Little Red Hen.

We listened to the story lots of times and drew our own story map. Then the children enjoyed using the puppets to retell the story with their friends.

A few days later, we received a very important letter …

But we had a problem – we wanted to help the Little Red Hen but we didn’t know how to make bread. Again, the children did some great detective work and found out the ingredients we needed and how to use them to make bread.

Before making our own bread, we tasted different types of bread and shared our opinions. We discovered that not everybody likes the same things and agreed that this is ok.

Finally, we were ready to let the Little Red Hen know that we were able to help her. We wrote letters to her to tell her the good news …

Then we wrote a shopping list for Mrs Parry so she could remember what ingredients she needed to buy when she went to the shop. We used our robot arms to help us listen to all the sounds in each word.

Finally, we were ready to work together to make bread. We made a roll for each of us and some extra rolls to send to the Little Red Hen. It was delicious!

We also wrote instructions for the Little Red Hen so that she could try and make her own bread next time. Hopefully, the other animals will help her too.