This week we have been reading the book Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell. We have been learning about describing words and have had lots of practise at using description to talk about our friends and lots of different animals. We then wrote to our local zoo to see if they could send us a pet just like in Rod Campbell's book.
Well the first day they sent us a SPIDER - we obviously couldn't keep that because Mrs Ball is terrified of spiders ! So we had to send him back and ask for a pet with fewer legs. You will never guess what they sent us on Tuesday - an OCTOPUS (I don't think the zoo can count because we counted 8 legs again). We couldn't keep him because he needs lots of water to live in so we had to send him back too. On Wednesday they sent us a SNAKE - now I know that Jamie-Lea knows a lot about snakes so we thought we might be able to keep him. But he did look a bit fierce and had huge fangs so we sent him back too.
A Spider ? We sent him back !
An octopus ? We sent him back !
A snake ? We sent him back !
On Friday we were feeling a bit fed up but when we went to the office for our delivery we had a lovely surprise. Inside the pet carrier was a cuddly puppy - we've decided to call him Diggory (Jessica-May thought up the name) and we are definately going to keep him.
Diggory the Puppy arrives in Grasshopper Class !
Once he's settled down he will come home with a different child every week to spend the weekend with you. He has a special diary so that you can record what he has been up to and when he comes back each Monday we will look at the diary altogether. I wonder where he will go first?
In phonics we have almost finished all of our phase 3 sounds - our reading is getting much better but remember the more practise you get the better reader you will be - so do keep reading at home please.
Chase completed the alphabet jigsaw
So did Lenon !
In maths we have been learning about flat (2D) shapes and solid (3D) shapes. We have learnt the names of lots of shapes and we have talked about the properties (eg a square has 4 straight sides, a cube has 6 flat square faces etc). We have made shape pictures and completed shape puzzles. There is a lot to remember - why not go on a shape hunt at home?
Jessica and her shape picture
Alexus has fun with shapes
Geoffrey, our giraffe, got in a terrible muddle when he had a go at naming the shapes but Grasshopper Class are good teachers - and he's getting much better at remembering all the names now.
Abigail, Lexi and Chloe help Geoffrey to learn his shapes
We have been learning about zoos this week and why we have them. We have looked at lots of non fiction books to find information. We learnt about people killing elephants to get their tusks (ivory) to sell for lots of money. We know that zoos can keep animals safe and try hard to stop animals from becoming extinct. We have made lots of different zoo animals this week - have a look at our brilliant photos.
Mackenzie making an animal enclosure
Lexi and her fabulous lion's head !
Indianna finding out about pandas
Jami-Lea even brought in a real snake skin on Thursday ! It was from her nanny's snake and we all really enjoyed looking at it. Thank you Jamie-Lea !
You can't see the skin - but I can promise you Jamie-Lea and Mrs Ball are holding it. Just look at Noah's face !
Well that's all for this week - see you next week !
Grasshopper Class