We are continuing our Growing and Changing topic by learning about snails this week, by searching on the internet, using books and watching information videos and powerpoints.  We learned many facts about snails (please ask your children to tell you what they know!).

We also have our own snails in the classroom which we collected from our forest area.  They enjoy crawling around on the leaves and branches in the tank and drink the water in the bowl.  We know that snails like wet environments and do not like to go out in the sun so we have been careful to keep them cool and moist.

We were so excited to see that our caterpillars have all hatched from their cocoons and are now beautiful butterflies!  We set them free on the school field and they didn’t want to go!  Some flew off, whilst others landed on us!  We held quite a few on our finger tips and spoke gently to them and they all eventually spread their wings and flew away.  It was wonderful.

We learned about the painter ‘Henri Matisse’ this week and enjoyed looking at his paintings, one of which was called The Snail. We looked at the spiral pattern and made our own spiral pictures in his style, using torn pieces of paper.  They look great!

In English we wrote up our stories of The Very Hungry Caterpillar using our own innovated plan.  We had Very Hungry Spider, Grasshopper, Ladybirds and Bees to name but a few! 

In maths we explored the concept of sharing.  We gave teddy bears fruits on a plate and tried hard to make sure that they had the same amount each so that it was fair and equal.  We discovered that some numbers can be shared equally while others cannot.  It was interesting to hear the children’s ideas on why some amounts could not be shared equally and what we would have to do to make it fair.  For example, ‘there are 5 so 1 apple is the odd one out’ or ‘to make it fair we would have to get one more or one less’.  This is a great way for the children to explore odd and even numbers, division and multiplication in a practical sense to build on later.

In Monster Phonics this week, we have been practising reading and writing ccvcc words and polysyllabic words (words with more than one syllable).  We also continued to write and use our 3 new tricky words – made, make came.  Please continue to read with your child regularly.  It really makes a difference to their confidence and fluency. Please also continue to use spelling shed.  Again, this really helps the children to develop confidence and fluency with their segmenting and spelling skills. 

Have a lovely weekend in the sun!