This week we thought about how climate change is affecting Antarctica and the world.  We learned that the glaciers are melting because of the way humans mistreat the world.  We talked about how energy is made in power stations and that harmful gases are sent into the air which leads to ‘global warning’.  We also thought about the effect the fumes from cars have too.  The children understood that this makes the seas rise and we have more storms, rain and hot or cold weather.  We then thought how we can help to stop global warming and talked about ‘clean energy’.  We looked at pictures of wind turbines and solar panels and the children knew a little about these already!  We understood that using these clean ways to produce energy meant the planet isn’t harmed.  The world is now working hard to make energy in a clean way.  The children also knew that electric cars were better for the planet than cars that ran on petrol or diesel.

Can you tell your grown up why the glaciers are melting?  How can we make energy to power our homes in a cleaner way?

As part of our topic learning, we made ice-cream! It was fun to combine the different ingredients and predict what changes would take place after it was put into the freezer.  We saw that the liquid had frozen into a solid and become thicker.  We also loved eating it of course!

We also provided the children with a variety of materials (boxes, plastic tubs, card, paper, lolly sticks, paper etc) for the children to select materials to make a boat; maybe to take them to Antarctica!

In English we read the story 'Lost and Found' by Oliver Jeffers, about a little boy who found a penguin who was lost.  We wrote about ways in which we could look after the penguin, such as 'Put him in the bath', 'give him a fish'.

In Monster Phonics this week, we have learned the phoneme 'or’.  It also features in our Hansel and Gretel story which we have read this week. We wrote and read many words with this sound in.

This week was Children Mental Health Week.  We took the time to enjoy lots of activities to acknowledge this.  The theme this year is 'This is my Place'. We discussed the different groups we belong to, such as Rainbows, swimming, football, etc and that belonging to a group helps us to feel good and happy.  We drew pictures of ourselves in a place where we feel happy and belong.

Have a lovely half term break and we will see you on Monday 23rd February.😊