Wow, what busy bees the Unicorn Class have been this week.

We have been learning lots of interesting facts about bees, such as honey bees collect nectar from flowers and then take it back to the hive, passing it to other bees to make it thicker honey. This is used to feed the baby bees, we found out a baby bee is called larva. We also watched on the interactive white board how bees make honey. We learnt that pollen from flowers sticks to bees, and then they take it to other flowers, which then helps to form new seeds. Outside we played a game where we pretended we were bees, the hoops were flowers and the balls were nectar and pollen. We ran around pretending we were flying bees, collecting nectar from the flowers and bringing them back to our bee hive. We also took pollen from flower to flower. We enjoyed playing ‘Bee Hide and Seek', using the scoops and balls, climbing, riding the bikes, scooters and cars.

During Forest School time we used the bee pipettes to suck up nectar (yellow food colouring water) from flower pots and take it to the hive in the middle of the water tray. We threaded Honey Loops, made petal bracelets, built dens, used chalks to draw pictures and made pinecone bees using black and yellow paint. We have enjoyed doing mini beast hunts and ticking off what we found. Some of the mini beasts we found were worms, slugs, spiders, flies, bees flying, a wasp, a daddy long legs, ladybirds, beetles and woodlice, climbing and mud kitchen. Children enjoyed the set up activities and there was lots of great vocabulary, comparing and counting being used during their exploring.

This week we made delicious honey biscuits and had the opportunity to have honey sandwiches.

We have been making flowers, bees and other insects using drawing, foam paint and collage materials.

We used the brio track, trains and blocks to make Didcot, a place Alfie had been to on a train. We have been doing good problem solving to work out how to make bridges, share trains and some of us wanted to make go and stop signs.

At the beginning of the week we noticed that some of the beans that were in the compost tray had started to split and a root had started to grow on them. We are continuing to water our beans and sunflowers seeds in pots but can still only see compost, we wondered whether any of our seeds have grown roots that we cannot see.

We have loved seeing and discussing each other's baby photographs, what we were like as a baby, what has changed and stayed the same. Some of us wanted to draw pictures of us when we were a baby and things that we did. If you have not had the opportunity to send in baby pictures of your child/children yet you are welcome to do so for this coming week.

We have continued to enjoy playing ‘Families’ in the home corner, which has also enjoyed having birthday celebrations where children have made birthday cakes, sang Happy Birthday, made and given birthday cards.

During phonics we have continued to get better at saying the words and doing the actions to the Alphabet Chant, enjoyed playing Georgie's Gym, learning the e and u sound, spotting rhyming and continuing rhyming strings e.g. bug, rug, mug.

During maths we have been doing number games involving reciting numbers in the correct order, recognising numbers, counting and comparing quantities. The ladybird game and the vehicle games were our favourites.

The Unicorn Class have worked together to fill their class marble jar, as a reward the children have chosen to have a ‘Bring a Cuddly to School Day. Therefore, on Tuesday 7th May each child in the Unicorn class is welcome to bring in a cuddly toy to school with them. Please do not worry if your child has not got one they can borrow from school.

Next week we are going to be exploring different habitats as part of this we will be finding out what living things need in their habitat. Compare sea animals, plants, mammals and insects and building habitats for animals.

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