We have absolutely loved this term’s topic – Out of the Egg – which has inspired many of our spotlight stories, invitations to play and independent ideas for learning through play. This week, we had the chance to meet some of the actual animals that hatch out of eggs!

Tom from https://www.tomstalkingreptiles.co.uk/ came to visit and he brought with him some very special visitors; two Giant Millipedes, an African Land Snail, a tortoise, a Crested Gecko and a Taiwanese Beauty Snake.

Tom introduced us to all of these amazing creatures and shared his wealth of knowledge with us. He helped us to understand just how important it is to have a positive attitude towards all of the animals in the world (not just the fluffy ones).

We all listened very carefully and even had a chance to touch and hold them. A huge thank you to Tom for such an amazing morning and to all of our families for making this morning possible. Well done to all the children for their bravery and positive attitude. We even had a mention on Tom’s Facebook page for this!

This really was the highlight of our week but, in other news, we also found time to learn two new red words:

To think about all the different ways in which the number five can be made, using the song ‘Five Little Speckled Frogs’ to help us:

And, on Wednesday afternoon, when it happened to be raining heavily, we found out about a beautiful instrument called a rainstick, which is thought to originate from Chile in South America. We listened carefully to some audio clips of rain falling onto different surfaces and, with the help of Google, we discovered how to play a rainstick.

After that, we watched a video of a famous actor and dancer called Gene Kelly from an old film called ‘Singing in the Rain’ which was released in 1952. This video really made us smile (we thought he must have been very wet!) and we were amazed to hear how Gene Kelly used his shoes to tap out different rhythms. We also thought his tap dancing sounded very much like the rain!

We even had a go at making some of our own rainsticks:

Finally, we made a startling discovery in the outdoor classroom this week; three eggs appear to have been laid in a nest. We have no idea what sort of animals might be inside, waiting to hatch. We don’t think they are robin eggs, as they are too big, or chicken eggs, as they are too colourful. We think they might be dinosaur eggs! Watch this space for updates!