This week in phonics we are spelling longer, more challenging words. The children truly blew me away with their attempts today. They used their segmenting fingers and wrote down all the phonemes they could hear in the word. Keep up the great work Class 1!
This week Nursery and EYFS had the most exciting expert visitors arrive at school in their shells! The children have been hooked into our latest text “How does an egg hatch?” By Eric Carle by watching real chicken eggs hatch courtesy of The Happy Chick Company. The children were so excited and completely in awe of seeing the eggs and observing the daily changes of how the eggs have changed and chicks have grown and hatched. A truly magnificent experience met with care, concern and compassion for the chicks from our youngest children.
On the first day the children observed the eggs and made predictions of what would happen and who might come out of the eggs if they were left inside the incubator. Some of the children’s ideas included; “a penguin”, “a caterpillar”, “a dinosaur”, “a chicken”, “a duck” and “a baby chick”. They drew the eggs inside the incubator in our message centre (below).
On the second day the chicks had began to hatch and the children were amazed to witness the hatchlings make their journey out of the eggs using their “Egg Tooth” one of the new words we learnt from our key vocabulary. To consolidate their understanding of the hatching process the children took part in a chick life cycle hunt in our outdoor area. When the children found photos of the key points of development, they brought them to our crew circle and we examined them and ordered them in the correct sequence using key words from our Maths learning; “First, next and then”.
As we investigated the life cycle further Nursery thought about the most important stage of the cycle. Our text explained that the hen makes a nest that is “warm and dry” (more of our key vocabulary) using sticks and straw. The children explored that the eggs we had in school didn’t have a nest or a mummy hen to sit on them to keep them warm, instead they had an incubator to replace those things. However in the wild or on the farm, there probably wouldn’t be any electricity for an incubator, so the children learnt that building the nest as a “warm and cosy” home for the eggs to be sat on, is the most important part of the process that allows the fertilised eggs to grow. The children had lots of fun making their own chocolate coated shredded wheat nests and filling them with chocolate eggs to show the nests significance.
The children observed the changes in the state of the chocolate as it was melted and then again as it was mixed with the shredded wheat and cooled in the fridge to harden again. They thought carefully of the order in which they were constructing the nests, again using our sequencing vocabulary; “First, then and next”.
In provision this week the children have learnt the song “Chick, Chick, Chick, Chick, Chicken”, painted chicks using yellow paint and a fork to mark on their fluffy feathers. They have sculpted eggs, nests and chickens from play dough, taken part in a cut and stick version of the life cycle of a chick practising their cutting skills. The children have also examined and matched mummy and baby animals together in pairs, learning the new vocabulary of the infant animals names eg; Horse and foal, Cow and calf, Duck and duckling and noticing the differences between the young and older animal as they grow and change.
Finally Nursery were super excited and eager to prepare their own chick box in preparation for us to host our own chicks in Nursery, now that they are all hatched and getting stronger and ready to be handled with care.
Truly beautiful work – well done everyone!
This week Nursery have become Scientists by observing the changes that happen in animals as part of our first case study, through our key text The Very Hungry Caterpillar for a second week. The children have closely examined the pictures within our story to work out what the physical changes in the caterpillar are. An egg, a tiny caterpillar, a cocoon or chrysalis and then a butterfly. Some of the words used to describe the above were as follows;
Egg – “Circle”, “Tiny”, “Bubble”, “White”, “Spot” and “Dot”.
Caterpillar – “Tiny”, “Big, fat caterpillar”, “Wriggly”, “Green” and “Bumpy”.
Cocoon – “Like a sleeping bag”, “shell”, “like a stick”, “Wood” and “egg”.
Butterfly – “Rainbow”, “Beautiful”, “Wings” and “Flappy”.
Nursery read another text which focused more on the life cycle and explained how the changes take place called Little Caterpillar by Autumn Publishing. I then modelled to the children how to draw a life cycle to help embed the cycle in their minds and demonstrate it was a loop (cycle) that started over and over again.
In our provision the children had the opportunity to explore and examine toys representing the life cycle.
We consolidated the events that helped make the life cycle process possible by playing the fruit game. The caterpillar ate lots of fruit to be able to make him grow. The children had to listen and run to a fruit called out by their grown up as part of activating our brains, it was lots of fun!
The children also revisited their previous learning from the week before when they painted beautiful pictures of the fruit. They each looked closely at their pictures and chose at least one piece of fruit and (with support and modelling) began to write the first letter sound for that item using their phonetic knowledge. Eg; Banana – b, Apple – a or Strawberry – s.
In provision the children independently used collage to create beautiful pictures of fruit and the caterpillar at various stages. They also created beautiful butterflies in the play dough and on the painting easel.
As the week progressed the children each worked with an adult and explained the process of the butterfly life cycle using the toys as physical props to help organise and consolidate their understanding of the life cycle. They were each recorded and were able to recall key vocabulary and other significant events within the story. Such beautiful work!
Class 3 have been on a fact finding mission this afternoon, finding and reading interesting facts about carrots to add to our anchor charts. It was lovely to see how confidently they applied their phonics skills to the challenge.
They also learnt a new skill and got to grips with a new piece of equipment whilst peeling the carrots.
In art we looked carefully at the detail on the carrots when completing our line drawings. We critiqued our first drafts thinking about how we could improve them.
We’re looking forward to completing our carrotfact files
This week Nursery have been storytellers, learning to retell the classic story of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. The children became active learners by using physical literacy actions to embed key vocabulary and events from the story. They used the prompts to help them recall and retell the story.
The children have examined the key character, the Very Hungry Caterpillar and have looked at how he develops and changes throughout the story. The children have used models to paint and sculpt their own caterpillars. They have used loose parts to represent the variations of the character as both a caterpillar and a butterfly.
During their Tranquil Tuesday Crew, Nursery sequenced the story events and talked about the kinds and amounts of food the caterpillar was eating. They thought about the emotions the caterpillar experienced in the story looking a picture cues and their own experiences. They modelled these faces to each other.
After gaining a good understanding of the key character the children followed an online tutorial to help them draw the Very Hungry Caterpillar.
In provision we have also painted fruits from the story using toy fruits as inspiration.
During our Maths inputs the children have been learning to count using “careful counting”. This is touching and using number names for each object they are counting. The children became problem solvers as they began to investigate how they could find out; “How many of each fruit were in a basket?”
First it was demonstrated to the children how to carefully count using touch and number names for each piece of fruit and then they modelled to their peers, leading their own learning.
In our Thoughtful Thursday Crew the children thought about the cocoon that the caterpillar wrapped himself in and we likened it to being inside a sleeping bag or wrapping ourselves in our coats. The children practised the life skill of zipping their own coats using their fine motor skills.
Finally the children finished the week by thinking about the Very Hungry Caterpillar at the beginning of the story and comparing him to the end of the story. They used some of the physical literacy prompts to help them recall the stages of the caterpillar and key sentences from the text. They drew the caterpillar at the start of the story as either an “egg on a leaf” or a “Teeny, tiny caterpillar” and then as he appeared at the end of the story as “A big, fat caterpillar” or a “Beautiful, colourful butterfly” as they began to further understand the changes which the caterpillar goes through in preparation for when they become Scientists next week.
One of our favourite times of the day in class 1 is story time. At choosing time I often find the children hooked in a book in our reading areas both inside and out! It’s wonderful to see…
Class five were showing amazing collaboration skills this morning when talking a reading comprehension. It was great seeing everyone succeed.
Mrs Parsons xx
Class 6 have been enjoying our brand new fluency books in reading groups this week. We’ve been wowed by new facts we’ve learned, shared our opinions in group discussions and explored new vocabulary that will make our writing more interesting in the future. ‘Talk to the Tail’ has been a real page turner!
