Bees

Hello everyone,

Well it's the last week of our minibeast topic and we have been learning all about bees.  We've decided that they must be the cleverest of all the minibeasts we have looked at because they are the only insect that makes food for humans !  Also they don't only make honey - they make wax as well and royal jelly and they are able to make perfect hexagons for their honeycomb !!

We have learnt that bees have 6 legs, 5 eyes (2 massive ones and 3 little ones), 2 feelers and 2 pairs of wings (so that's four altogether).  They also have 2 stomachs - one for eating and one for processing the nectar into honey.  We learnt that the bees suck up the sweet nectar from the flowers with their tongue (which is like a straw) and then they 'sick it up' and it's turned into honey !!  We felt this did tend to put us off honey !  We all had a taste of honey and lots of us really liked it.

Daniel spreads his honey

Alfie liked his honey on bread

Lexi gets sticky with the honey !

In maths we have been making sure that we know how to write all the numbers from 1-9 correctly.  It's sometimes so difficult to remember which way the numbers go - especially numbers 3 and 7!  We have also been looking at 3D shapes (solid shapes rather than 2D which are flat).  We went on a great 3D shape hunt around school and we found loads of cylinders and cuboids (fire extinguishers, plant pots, bricks etc).  We didn't find many spheres or triangular prisms though - why not try spotting 3D shapes in your house?  We then went on to talk about 2D shapes and we looked at shapes that can tessellate (fit together without any gaps) - Lennon loved the word 'tessellate' and can't wait to impress his mum and dad with it !

 

Daniel on his 3D shape hunt

Reece spotted lots of 3D shapes

Jessica-May found a cylinder

Lennon and Daniel made great models with 3D shapes

Noah joins in the fun !

Miss Ball has been busy again helping us to make a huge bee and then she helped us to make a giant honeycomb by tessellating the hexagons.  Have a look for it in our classroom.  We also painted some great bee pictures and made some fantastic bees using loads of different resources.

In phonics we have been looking at really difficult words together (eg crunch, splash, drench).  We have had to listen really carefully to hear every sound.  We've also been trying to remember all our phase 3 and 4 tricky words.  We are having a tricky word challenge at the moment and every day we give someone else the chance to see if they know all their tricky words.  So far Lennon, Noah and Chloe are on our special tricky word champion list - well done !  Why not have a go at your tricky words over the holiday!  Or why not have a go at some phonics games on the phonicsplay.com website?

Phonics Games


It has been Families Week this week and lots of the mums, dads, nans, grandads, sisters and brothers have been coming to have lunch with us.  It was lovely to see so many of you joining in - thank you.

Oniaka and her mummy queue up for lunch

Lexi, her brother Dalton and her daddy queue up for lunch

 

Pizza - yummy !

Lexi's family have lunch together

 

On Tuesday we had our Disco - I don't know who enjoyed it more - Mrs Ball and Miss Cannell or the children?

Dancing at the disco

 

 

 

 

The boys joined in !

Noah and Jordan had fun

Miss Cannell and Miss Ball !!

On Thursday we had our Summer Fayre.  The rain held off thankfully and we raised an amazing £500 for Cystic Fibrosis with our Balloons.  I wonder who will win?

The excitement is building .........

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, .......

Blast off !  Good luck everyone !

This week Diggory is going home with Mrs Ball and Miss Ball - have fun Diggory.

Well we have a week off now so see you all after the holiday.

Grasshopper Class

Caterpillars and Butterflies

Hello there,

This week we have been learning all about caterpillars and butterflies.  We have found out all about the life cycle of a caterpillar and a butterfly.  Do you know that a caterpillar eats so many leaves that he has to change his skin three times because he has grown out of it?  We also found out that when a caterpillar goes into her cocoon she doesn't go to sleep - she is in fact really busy turning himself into a butterfly.  We found out from non fiction books that a butterfly's wings are very 'delicate' and that they use their tongue to drink up the nectar from flowers.  We have learnt some good words this week too - we learnt 'hatch' which means to break out, 'symmetrical' which means the same on both sides and 'chrysalis' which is another word for cocoon.

In maths we have been continuing to talk about time and we have been timing ourselves to see how many beads we can thread in a minute.  Lennon and Sophie timed themselves when they were collecting beans with tweezers.  They had the good idea to turn the timer over 3 times so that they got 3 whole minutes to collect beans!  We have also been thinking of all the things we do during the day eg we start school at 9 O'clock, we have lunch at 12 O'clock etc.  We have also been looking at symmetry and trying to make our own symmetrical patterns and pictures.

We have made lots of our own caterpillars and butterflies this week and just look at these fantastic butterflies that Miss Ball helped us with !  We used coffee filter papers, felt tips and water to make the wings and used a pipe cleaner for the body.  We have also made our own number caterpillars using our skills in counting in 2's, 5's and 10's.

 

Rosanna making her butterfly wings

 

 

The girls loved using lots of different colours

 

Lexi paints a fantastic caterpillar

 

Ebony paints her caterpillar

 

 

 

Indianna squirts the water onto her wings to make the ink run

 

In phonics we have been looking at capital letters and pollysyllabic words (a word that is made up from more than one syllable like sandpit, windmill etc).  The children have loved this and are very eager to have a go at writing these long words.  Why not have a go at home with these words:

children
lunchbox
melting
shelter
floating
singing
sandwich

We have been busy learning lots of new rhymes this week.  I think our favourite one is The Fly - it's really easy because it's only got 2 words in it.  It goes like this:

Buzz, buzz, buzz,
Buzz, buzz, buzz,
Buzz, buzz, buzz,
Buzz, buzz, SPLAT !

The children are enjoying learning rhymes and poems, but also seem to love non fiction and fiction books.  If you are stuck for ideas for which books to choose in the library why not go on the link below which should provide you with lots of ideas.

Bookstart

 

Taloola knows nearly all her tricky words this really helps with her reading

Diggory is going home with Alexus this week because she has tried hard to listen carefully on the carpet.  Have fun Diggory!

Well that's all for this week.

Grasshopper Class

Spiders

Hello Everyone,

This week we have been learning about spiders (Mrs Ball hasn't enjoyed this week at all).  We have read lots of non-fiction books and we've found out some amazing facts.  Did you know that if a spider loses a leg they can grow another one?  However, it does take up to 7 years to grow another leg so they'd have to be very patient!  Spiders can have up to 8 eyes too - we didn't know that either.  We found out that spiders are not insects because they do not have 6 legs. 

We have spent the week doing lots of writing about the facts we have found out and also writing spider stories.  Some of us are very good at remembering all the information so that we can write it down later and we're getting really good at using our phase 4 phonics to help us.  Sophie also did an amazing job using her phonics to find the sounds for lots of words !

We have made lots of spiders this week.  We used our own ideas on Tuesday to make spiders from lots of different resources.  Mrs Young was amazed at how many different ideas we had- what a creative lot you are!  Have a look at some of our pictures.  Mrs Ball has also made a fantastic Ladybird display from our work last week - do come in and have a look.

Our fantastic ladybird dislay

Jona decided to use tissue paper to make her spider

Jessica-May used lots of resources for her spider

We have been learning lots of rhymes and poems this week.  We made up some of our own music to go with Incey Wincey Spider.  We tried hard to keep a steady beat.  We are also learning lots of other rhymes and actions - We especially like 'There was an old man from Peru' - it's on the sheet we brought home so do take a look if you can.  We have also learnt a great one about our heads falling off!!

 

In maths we have been learning to find one more and one less to 30.  We need to remember to jump forwards to find one  more and backwards to find one less.  It's hard because you have to listen really carefully to whether it's a 'more' or a 'less' question.  We have also been looking at clocks.  We have learnt that a clock has a face and two hands - a long hand for minutes and a short hand for hours.  We are learning to tell the time on the hour (in other words - O'clock).  You could try practising this at home or why not have a go at some maths games on this link?

Maths games

We have done lots of other things this week - take a look at our pictures:

 

Lennon and Reece working together

 

Alexus does some threading

Lennon loves this non fiction book about spiders

The girls doing some bouncing !!

On Friday we went to Swindell on a coach for a fantastic Sports Morning with other infant schools - we did lots of races and most of us were really good sports. Well done Grasshoppers.

We're off .......

How exciting!

The sack race

 

 

Playing on the tyres

On the climbing frame

The obstacle race

 

Austeja dribbling the ball

 

Diggory is going home with Jona this week because she has been joining in really well this week.  Have fun Diggory and Jona.

See you next week for a week on Butterflies!

Grasshopper Class

Ladybirds

Hello Everyone,

This week we have been learning all about ladybirds.  We have started the week by putting everything we know about ladybirds onto a mind map.  We also thought of a few questions - we really wanted to know what the yellow stuff was that they sometimes leave on your hand? We found out that it is called reflex blood and it is to warn off creatures who may want to eat it!

We have labelled all the parts of a ladybird and we've written sentences about them. We have even had a go at writing our own ladybird stories.  Mrs Young is really impressed with our fantastic writing - well done everyone!

In maths we have been learning about doubles to 6 and we have been practising finding the answer to lots of addition sentences eg 4+4=8.  Some of us have been learning to count on in our head - this helps us to add bigger numbers together without having to count everything again.  Remember to put the bigger number in your head first! Why not ask us to show you?

Abigail writes some number sentences for her ladybirds

 

Chloe adding up two groups and writing her number sentence

 

We have made loads of fantastic ladybirds this week - we've made split pin ladybirds, painted ladybirds, printed ladybirds, collaged ladybirds and a gigantic joint ladybird that Miss Ball helped us with on Thursday.  Look out for all our minibeast displays!

Noah uses his own ideas to make his ladybird

Look at this amazing ladybird - but who made it??

Oh it's you Courtney !

Rosanna is making a ladybird

Austeja cuts out carefully

Working on our gigantic ladybird

Miss Ball helps us to work together

 

We've also been busy talking this week - we have spent a long time learning how to have a good conversation and now we can really listen carefully to each other.

Sophie and Courtney have a chat

Jamie-Lea chats to Sophie

It's good to talk!

 

Abigail is taking Diggory home for the long weekend because she has been a superstar with her writing all week.  Do you know she even wrote a story on Thursday?

 

 

And guess what?  We won On Time Turtle this week because everyone was on time all week - Well done Grasshoppers !

 

Well that's all for this week.  Remember there is no school on Bank Holiday Monday so we'll see you on Tuesday for a week on spiders - don't tell Mrs Ball !

 

Grasshopper Class