Term 5

We are looking forward to the Summer term and hopefully some better weather. We will be welcoming some new children to the class this term. Our topic will keep us busy outside looking at how our plants are growing and changing. There will be some new additions to the garden too! The tadpoles are currently in a tank in the classroom, but they will be enjoying their new home in the nursery garden as we watch them grow and change into frogs. This term we will be enjoying some visits to Forest school, as part of our topic and to allow the children who will be going up to the Robins class to experience  what will be a weekly session for them in Reception.

Frogs

This week we have been reading the story of Dudley's Garden, where we learnt how important a pond is for lots of different creatures. We have been using watercolour paints to create pictures of all the different creatures. They are on our class display. You will see dragonflies, a hedgehog, fish, frogs,  birds and plants.

We made our own frog masks and moved in different ways around the garden just like a frog, by hopping, jumping and diving!

There was great excitement when  we went pond dipping at Forest school on Thursday. We brought some of the pond water back to make our own small pond in the nursery garden for our tadpoles, so we can watch them grow and change.

On Friday we had a science afternoon with the Robins class. There were four different activities.  We planted sunflower seeds, made a worm hotel, created a rainbow and explored shadows!

The Very Busy Spider

This week we have been reading the story The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. We have been learning facts about spiders and pretending to be a spider by weaving our own webs and moving in and out of the giant web in our garden. A question we were thinking about this week is 'What moves on the ground in our garden?'  We can wriggle like a worm, prowl like a cat, run like a dog and scurry like a beetle, to name just a few! The Barn Owls have also been taking turns and sharing as we played games together.

Term 5 week 3

This week we have been reading the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

There are own hungry caterpillars in the tank in our classroom and we are very excited to see them wriggle and watch them change and grow.

We have made our caterpillar using potatoes to print. The Barn Owls have retold the story using puppets and props. As part of our topic ' What is at the Bottom of My Garden?' we have also been thinking about what different animals that we can see in our gardens that fly. We have made butterfly patterns using finger painting and counters.

In Early Years we are always outside whatever the weather and you can see from our photographs that we had lots of fun in the rain, jumping in puddles and making our soup recipes with ingredients from our garden kitchen! The tadpoles in our garden also seemed to enjoy the raindrops too.

Term 5 Week 4

This week we have been reading the story Eek, Squeak, Prickle, Peek! by Daniil Ross about a hedgehog and bat who become friends. We have been learning about the animals that might be in our garden during the night. In the Wendy House we had a black out tent which we could explore using torches to find the different nocturnal animals. There has been lots of fun and learning outside in the sunshine this week. We have been busy in the sandpit and enjoying making 'smoothies' in the new mud kitchen area. The water tray was very busy too!

During our group time this week we have been making clay hedgehogs and looking for different (plastic) insects in the sand tray. There was great excitement as our caterpillars have become pupas and are hanging from the lid of the jar in our tank. 

Term 5 Week 5

This week we have been learning about which animals might be flying in our garden and also about nocturnal animals that we might find in our garden. We have read the story The Owl Who is Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson. Plop the baby Barn Owl is afraid of the dark, but finds out why it needs to be dark at night. We have been exploring shadows and chalking patterns, using our shadows.

There has been lots of number practice this week as we moved into hoops with numbers, made hopscotch and counted the skittles we knocked down. 

We painted the clay hedgehogs that we made last week and are very proud of them! .

There was great excitement as our butterflies started to emerge and a tiny frog has been spotted in our tank in the garden! 

Term 5 Week 6

This week we have been learning about different animals that dig and live underground in our garden. We have been making worms of different lengths from playdough and have been wriggling around like a worm too! There was lots of fun when we tried to dig and burrow like a badger using the cardboard circuits, just like a hamster wheel. The butterflies were ready to fly away and it was very exciting to watch and count the five butterflies go.