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 they like to eat and where they live.  We also read information books.  We watched tree frogs flying in slow-motion on a video.  The children are loving learning about them. 
 

We also learned about the artist Monet and his water lilies. We made our own paintings by using a water colour wash to create a watery background for the pond. Next week we will add our water lilies!
 

We have also enjoyed making ponds outside in a tuff-tray, adding grass, leaves and flowers, during Forest Time. (Please see the Forest Time section on our web page).

In English we wrote instructions for the farmer to grow a turnip. We used picture clues to remind us of the steps that the farmer needs to follow. We also used time conjunctions at the start of our sentences too, eg “First, dig a hole in the soil.  Next, plant the seed.  Then water it.  Give it water and sun.  Finally pull it out.”

In maths we explored shape and the composition of shape – (shapes within shapes).  We use the shapes from a tangram to create our own shape pictures.  We then challenged ourselves to put the tangram shapes back into a square!  We also talked about the position of shapes, after we dropped flat 2d on the table, using language such as ‘The blue square is next to the red triangle and underneath the yellow rectangle’.  We looked for 2D shapes within 3D shapes and talked about the odd one out.

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.

In 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.  

Have a lovely weekend!