The starting point for our learning this week was this beautiful illustration by the French artist and entomologist Adolphe Philippe Millot (1857-1921):

image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg

We found out that eggs come in all sorts of different colours, sizes and shapes and there are even some animals that lay eggs under the sea!

One of these creatures is especially incredible; it has 3 hearts, 9 brains, 8 legs and over 2000 fingers!  Can you guess which sea animal this might be?  That’s right, it’s the highly intelligent octopus.  We read the story of Inky the Octopus by Erin Guendelsberger and David Leonard which you can revisit here:

We were amazed to discover that the story is actually based on the real-life escape of an octopus called Inky from an aquarium in New Zealand in 2016.  We watched a newsround clip from the time to find out more.

We discovered that octopi are molluscs, which means they are cousins of snails and slugs.  Their bodies are very squishy which explains why they can fit themselves through very small gaps.  We read a (sort of) non-fiction book (Could an Octopus Climb a Skyscraper) to help us find out even more about these fascinating animals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59_chy3bpLI

We discovered that octopi can change the colour and texture of their bodies to blend into the background behind them!  We learnt that this is called camouflage.

We looked at some amazing photos of animals camouflaged in the wild and then we headed out onto our field to create some of our own!  We chose a (toy) animal from our ‘out of the egg’ basket and looked carefully at the colours on its body.  We then looked very carefully at the colours in nature to find something similar to help camouflage our animal.  Next, we took our own photos on the Ipad – aren’t they amazing?  It looks like we might have some budding National Geographic photographers:

In our phonics lessons, we learnt the final set 1 sound, ‘nk’.  This sound is another special friends sound and the saying that goes with it is ‘I think I stink’.

In our maths lessons this week, we have been starting to think about composition and we have been learning to use the words ‘part’ and ‘whole’.  First, we played the hidden object game where we had to guess what the whole object hidden behind the rectangle might be, when we could only see a part of it.

Then, we made our own hidden object game and found a friend to guess what our whole hidden animal might be when they looked at just a small part of it:

After that, we sang an old favourite; Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes which you might like to sing again at home:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p06r1xvv/sing-with-cbeebies-series-1-5-heads-shoulders-knees-toes

We then used the sentence “My (something) is a part of me and the whole of me is (my name)” to help us think about the different parts of our body making up the whole of us.

Next, we watched this Numberblocks clip to help us connect this concept with numbers:

Next, we read the story of The Crocodile Who Didn’t Like Water by Gemma Merino which also has a surprising ending:

And finally, we read the story of Alan’s Big, Scary Teeth by Jarvis:

Because Alan’s name starts with an ‘a’, we wondered if Alan might be an alligator, rather than a crocodile.  We decided to find out a bit more about the difference between crocodiles and alligators and, after some quick Googling by Mrs Mooney, we discovered several interesting facts about these reptiles.  We were especially amazed to discover that they have 60 and 80 teeth, far more than our 20!  We thought it must take Alan a very long time to brush his teeth!

In our R.E. lesson, we learnt that Christians believe God created our world and all of the amazing things we find in it.  We watched a video about God creating the earth which you can revisit here:

Afterwards, we took a walk in the winter sunshine to have a look at our wonderful world.  We spotted so many things that we had not noticed before…a jet plane stream, ivy growing up and around the bark of a tree, tiny pine cones which had fallen from a pine tree, daisies growing in the grass, squelchy mud puddles and the moon in the sky!

We also noticed that we each had a very tall shadow which followed us all around the field!  It only fell on one side of us and we learnt this is because shadows are formed when we stand in front of the sun and block the rays of light.

Back inside, Mrs Warner invited us into the big hall for another Assembly and we learnt more about what life was like in Jesus’ time.  We found out about the sort of house that Jesus would have lived in, the sort of clothes he would have worn and the sort of food he would have eaten.  We were amazed to discover that only some boys (not girls) went to school and only until the age of 12.

In our maths lessons this week, we have been focusing on comparing quantity and we have been thinking about the ideas of ‘too many’, ‘not enough’ and ‘equal’.  Stanley, Gruffy and Fred each wanted to eat some sweets but they needed the children’s help to make sure everyone had an equal amount.  Luckily, the children were able to say who had too many, who had not enough and how to make things equal!

Finally, we learnt three new sounds in our phonics lessons this week.  These sounds are  ‘special friends’, just like the ones we learnt last week, where two letters sit together to make one sound.

The special friends we learnt are ‘ch’, ‘qu’ and ‘ng’ – (‘ng’ has a saying that goes with it: ‘thing on a string’):

Have a lovely weekend everyone, see you on Monday!

A very happy new year to everyone and a very warm welcome back to a new term at school.  The children have returned full of smiles, enthusiasm and news of their Christmas holidays and we have very much enjoyed catching up with them all.  They all look a little bit taller too! This term, our topic will be ‘Out of the Egg’ and our learning will be inspired by reading lots of stories about creatures that come out of eggs.

This week, we read a firm favourite; the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, which you can revisit here:

We also spent some time thinking about why the Very Hungry Caterpillar had such an awful stomachache.  We decided it was because he had eaten too much.  But we also wondered if he may have eaten the wrong sorts of foods.  We all agreed that if you eat lots and lots of unhealthy food, like sweets and cakes, it is not good for you and can make you poorly.  The children told me that you can eat sweets but only “sometimes” and “you need to put them away for later”.  We played a sorting game where we fed the Very Hungry Caterpillar the healthy foods and put the unhealthy foods in the sweet box.

We are also working on a Very Hungry Caterpillar display which is coming along nicely…and we explored colour mixing of yellow and blue paint to create the green for the caterpillar’s body:

Outside, we were delighted to discover that, over the holidays, some new playground markings had been painted in our garden!  You can see our new number rocket and our alphabet caterpillar in the background below.  We also have a fantastic new track for our bikes!  Our car tyres had been moved around, to make way for the new markings and, while moving them back, we were amazed to discover long pieces of ice had formed inside them!

Mrs Warner invited us into the big hall for an Assembly today and we learnt about the visit of the three wise men to baby Jesus in the stable.  She told us about a mean and nasty person called King Herod and explained that Mary & Joseph took baby Jesus to a country called Egypt to keep him safe from Herod.

Finally, we learnt two new sounds in our phonics lessons this week.  These sounds are different to the sounds we have learnt so far as they are digraphs or, as we call them, ‘special friends’.  Sometimes, two letters sit together to make one sound.  This is known as a digraph.

The special friends we learnt are ‘sh’ and ‘th’.

You might like to rewatch this video to check how we say these sounds:

Have a lovely weekend everyone!