Last week, we continued on with our worldwide travels, visiting different landscapes around the world, inspired by the story of ‘We’re Going On A Bear Hunt’. The next landscape on our list was a very snowy one! And many of us already knew (thanks to Santa!) where in the world we would have to go to find such a landscape – that’s right – the North Pole! We discovered that there are actually two poles – one on top of the world called The Arctic and one on the bottom of the world, called Antarctica. We also learnt that Antarctica is the only continent on earth without people living there (apart from the Scientists who travel there to learn more about our wonderful world). Although people don’t usually live there, Antarctica is famously home to eight species of penguins. You can find out more about the different penguins here: https://www.passportandpixels.com/types-of-penguins-in-antarctica-photos/
We decided to wave goodbye to the lush foliage of the Amazon rainforest and head south on our magic carpet. We remembered to put our hats, gloves, scarves and snowboots on before landing as we knew the landscape would be very different to the one we were leaving behind. There are no streets in Antarctica, but the visiting Scientists take lots of photos, so the little orange man was able to guide us safely into land using one of these. Isn’t it stunning!
Our visit to Antarctica inspired our next spotlight story – the delightful ‘Lost and Found’ by Oliver Jeffers which you can revisit here:
Next, we travelled north to the Arctic and learnt that, despite it being a similar landscape (at least at first glance), penguins do not live here. Instead, the Arctic is home to a much larger animal – the polar bear!
We learnt that, sadly, life is getting more and more difficult for polar bears because the ice in the Arctic is melting due to global warming. Our next spotlight story was called ‘The Journey Home’ by Frann Preston-Gannon. This is a beautiful, touching but thought-provoking story. It features a polar bear and three other animals that we have already met on our travels. Can you remember which animals they were? A black and white animal that lives in China, an orange animal that lives in the Amazon rainforest and a grey animal that lives in the savannah. We were also introduced to an animal that became extinct, because of humans, more than 300 years ago. You can revisit the story below to find out more:
As you can probably imagine, the story prompted lots of conversations about the importance of protecting all of the animals in the world and making sure we care for our wonderful world to keep it healthy and safe. We were visited by some members of the school’s Eco Warrior team who told us about the projects they work on in our school to promote eco-friendly behaviour and ideas. Mr Quinn would like to invite two children from our class to join the team – so please remember to send in your letters asap if you would like to be considered!
In our phonics lessons, we have been busy learning the final few special friends sounds within set 1: ll, ff, ss and ck. These sounds are often found at the end of words, for example, hill, puff, kiss and kick.
In our maths lessons, we have been learning how to use the terms ‘more than’ and ‘fewer than’ correctly; helping Stanley and Gruffy (our class pets) to sort out their squabbles!
Finally, this term, we have been enjoying some fantastic gymnastics lessons with Coach Riann. Here are some photos from the lessons:
I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend – and Happy Mother’s Day!