Unicorn Class Blog                     Term 5 Week 1                         Week Commencing 15th March 2024

This week we have settled beautifully, been excited and enjoyed starting our new topic of ‘Living things and nature’ with a focus on animal life cycles. 

We enjoyed going on a Spring walk to the meadow looking for signs of spring and then playing in the meadow. We noticed that the leaves on the trees are now starting to grow and there was some blossom on some of the trees. We discovered there were some spring flowers growing such as dandelions, daisies and tulips in the meadow. We spotted some rhubarb plants that were taller than some of us. Some of us enjoyed looking for caterpillar eggs and caterpillars on leaves like in the books that we have been sharing about butterflies. We saw leaves that had been nibbled by an insect. We wondered whether a caterpillar had eaten them or other insects. We also enjoyed climbing trees, playing hide and seek and some of us enjoyed playing with balls.

We have been learning about the lifecycle of butterflies, frogs, hens and humans (us). We have shared non-fiction books that we were fascinated by and have enjoyed acting out the life cycles. We were good at curling up like an egg, pretending to hatch from our egg, crawling and wriggling like a caterpillar, keeping still like a chrysalis and fluttering, pretending to fly like a butterfly and jumping like a frog. We have shared the hungry caterpillar story and have enjoyed acting out, using the puppets and discs from the story. 

Some of us enjoyed making frogs using green paper, glue and springy front and back legs. 

Outside we have enjoyed making butterfly kites to fly in the wind, using the colourful scarves to pretend we were butterflies, using the chalk to draw pictures of butterflies, drawing around each other and drawing pictures from the life cycle of a frog. Some of us helped to make a butterfly life cycle hopscotch, which we were then delighted to use. We have also enjoyed making music, playing with the balls and scoops. We also loved hanging upside down from the climbing frame like a caterpillar getting ready to turn itself into a chrysalis. Climbing on the climbing frame and using the bikes and scooters.

We made playdough. We noticed it was too sticky once we had mixed in all of the ingredients, some of us suggested adding some more flour to make it less sticky. There was lots of making such as birthday cakes,  ice creams, food from the hungry caterpillar story, caterpillars, cocoons and butterflies like in the story.

We have been making symmetrical butterflies using folded butterflies and paint, we liked seeing the patterns when the colours mixed. 

We have enjoyed exploring using different items with holes in the water tray such as sieves, tea strainers, watering cans, soap dispensers, sponges and pipettes. We were curious as to why the watering can had lots of holes at the end of the spout and what happened when you took the device off and poured water. There were lots of comments and discussions about what was happening such as, “The holes make the water come out slower.”, “It’s like the water coming out of my shower at home.” and “The water comes out faster when there is only one big hole” and the possible reasons for that. We discussed that when watering delicate plants and seeds in compost the cap with the holes in the end would be better. The tadpoles and frogs made an appearance in the water tray too.

During maths we have been singing number songs such as five little speckled frogs, sequencing life cycles using the words, first, then and next and also comparing the size for each stage of the life cycles.

During phonics this week we have been recapping rhyming, alliteration and the sounds we have learnt so far.

This week using the Duplo, trains, making roads, playing with the babies, sand and puzzles have also been popular too.

Next week we will be exploring life cycles of plants, we will be planting sunflower seeds, beans and sharing stories of Jack and the Beanstalk, Billy’s sunflower and other related books. If you have a version of the ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ story or other related book your child/children are welcome to bring it in to share.

Please can you remember to bring your child/children’s wellies into school and a change of clothes.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you all next week.

Best wishes

Mrs Fenwick