This week we learned all about frogs.  We asked the question, “how do frogs start out?’.  We learned about the life cycle of a frog; changing from frog spawn to tadpole to froglet, then frog.  We found out information on the internet about what frogs look like, what the like to eat and where they live.  We also read information books and Rupert shared lots of interesting facts from his book from home.  We watched tree frogs flying in slow-motion on a video.  The children are loving learning about them.  We have also enjoyed making ponds outside in a tuff-tray, adding grass, leaves and flowers. 

We enjoyed making our own frogs from paper!  We drew around our hands and cut them out, turned them upside down and added eyes and a curly tongue.  They look great!  We also made a fantastic pond in the forest and went on a frog hunt to add frogs to it.  See the Forest Learning section on our class page.

In English we recapped the story of The Enormous Turnip and thought about the steps that the farmer took to make the turnip grow.  We ordered pictures of the steps, and wrote the instructions using time vocabulary and imperative verbs, eg “First, dig a hole.  Next, plant a seed.  Then water it.  Give it water and sun.  Finally pull it out.”

In maths we read the story of Jasper’s Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen.  We then used our own ‘beans’ to represent addition and subtraction stories on 10 frames.  For example, Jasper had 3 beans, he took 4 more, how many does he have now?  The children used counters and 10 frames to work out the answers.  Next week we will write the sums to represent the steps.

We had a really interesting investigation into floating and sinking where we hypothesised which objects float or sank in a tank of water.  The children came up with ideas about why some objects floated and others sank, even when they were made from the same material and were different weights.  For example, the metal spoon sank, yet the heavier metal bowl floated.  We realised that the shape of the object was what determined whether it floated or sank, as much as the material it was made from.  We recorded our results in a table.

Our Monster Phonics this week, we have continued to read and write cvcc words.  We also learned 3 new tricky words – ‘your, here, saw’.  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.  Attached at the bottom of this page is a cvcc Buried Treasure game that the children may like to play at home.

In PE we enjoyed ‘Spy School’ again, where we practised balancing on different parts of our bodies, on apparatus.  We moved by slithering on our tummies and backs along the floor, mats and apparatus.

Have a lovely weekend!