Thursday 22nd May 2014

Walk to school week

Most children have walked to school or used their bike or scooter this week. Thank you to the parents who have to drive to school, but who have made a big effort to park a little walk away from school so that the children can experience walking part of the journey.

We have been completing a survey each morning to find out how children have come to school. So we have used it as an opportunity to practise keeping tally charts and creating block graphs.

We added walking, cycling and scooting together for one column and the other column is coming by car.

Harry's block graph

Jamal's block graph

The children have learnt how to cross the road safely. The children have had fun making a road and pretending to be cars, while other children give instructions about how to cross the road safely.

Today we shared what we had learnt with Year 4. We gave them a demonstration and then talked in small groups about how to cross the road safely.

 

 

 

 

15th May 2014

Science
Do plants need water and light to grow?
Last week we set up an investigation to see if plants need water and light to grow. We decided to use cress. Pot 1 had light and water. Pot 2 had light but no water and Pot 3 had water but no light.
The children used their observational skills to make a conclusion.

 

Darcy's conclusion

                                                                 Jakes's conclusion

The children were surprised that the cress in Pot 3 did grow, but it was brown. They wouldn't like to eat it!

They all agreed that healthy plants need water and light.

13th May 2014

We had a great time at Paradise Wildlife Park. The children really enjoyed themselves. We are very thankful to our parent helpers who came along and made our day such a success.

When we first arrived we went on a woodland walk and saw a few animals. They particulalry liked seeing the deer.

 

Then we went for a talk about camouflage. Some of the children were asked to help with the talk. The children asked the lady some questions to find out more about the animals.

 

 

 

The boys found the snakes that were camouflaged as well as the ones that weren't!

Don't worry the snakes weren't real!

 

 

We walked around the park and saw a number of different animals. One of our favourites was the Cheetah feeding on a big piece of meat.

 

Some of the children learnt that the male lions have manes but the female lions don't.

 

The children had lots of fun! Here are a few photos for you to see.

 

 

 

 

10th May 2014

The owl visit

The children enjoyed the visit from Peanut the barn owl. The children discovered that Peanut was a female barn owl because she had a black spotty chest and male barn owls have a plain white chest.

The children asked some very interesting questions.

                                 All the children were very gently when they stroked the owl.

                                          They felt how soft she was.

On Friday the children wrote about the owl visit in their extended writing session. They have written some interesting pieces of work which was obviously inspired by the visit.

We are looking forward to finding out about some other animals when we go on our trip next week.

5th May 2014

                                                                  Toys
We began the term finding out about the children's favourite toys. Many of the children brought in a number of different toys for us to see.
It has been interesting to see some old toys and to see how toys have changed over time. A number of children brought in old toys that their parents played with when they were young.

                                            These dominos are about 150 years old.

This is an old computer game, around 35 years old, that mum played with!

                                            An old teddy that belongs to their mum!

Old toy soldiers belonging to dad!

                                               An old rag doll belonging to mum!

Children were very proud to show us the toys their parents played with when they were young. Thank you parents for letting the children bring them in to show us.

                                                                          PE
In PE we used the theme of toys and old games to have a go at hoop rolling which was a game that was played in Victorian times. We tried to create our own hoop rolling. Traditionally the hoop would be rolled with a stick.  The children managed to roll hoops with their hands but when we introduced a stick they found it much more difficult.

 

Science

In Science we are looking at growing plants. We started off our science topic by becoming plant explorers. The children were asked to see what plants they could find in the school grounds. They had clip boards to keep a note of all the plants they found.

 

Using a house plant, the children had a look at the different parts of a plant, including the roots. We discussed what the different parts of the plant do.

 

 

 

The children have planted a bean each. Over the next few weeks we are going to watch them grow.