Unicorn Class Blog                                 Term 5 Week 3                  Week Commencing 5th May 2025

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 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 bean bags were nectar and the balls were 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.

Outside we have enjoyed using the pedal and balance bikes. We have continued to enjoy using the large sandpit. We have been good at taking turns, sharing and using our imagination. The sandpit has been a fantastic café serving delicious food and drink. Some of us made flower crowns using intertwined twigs and real flowers. We have enjoyed mini beast hunts and ticking off what we found on our lists once we spotted them. Some of the mini beasts we found were snails, butterflies, bees, slugs, spiders, ants and flies. We were particularly fascinated watching the busy honey bees collecting nectar and wondered whether pollen was sticking to their legs and they were passing it to other flowers like in the bee book. This week we made delicious honey biscuits and had the opportunity to make our own and have honey sandwiches. We have been making bees and beehives using paint, junk modelling, pinecones, glue, felt tips and bubble wrap.

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

We have loved observing the caterpillars, watching them grow bigger and discussing changes and similarities that we noticed. All the caterpillars by the end of the week had grown lots and started to hang down from the lid. We noticed one had turned itself into a chrysalis.

We listened to ‘Babies Don’t Eat Pizza’ then discussed what we could do when we were a baby and what we could not do when we were a baby but could now. We have loved dressing the babies. 

Our main Maths focus this week has been sequencing and comparing. We have been sequencing lifecycles and making comparisons between the size of each stage of the lifecycle e.g. The larva is smaller than the bee. Comparing the sizes of our buildings. We have also been counting and matching numerals to amounts. We have been doing number games involving reciting numbers in the correct order, recognising numbers, counting and comparing quantities. The spotty dog game, counting during cooking, counting loose parts, mini beasts and toy bees were our favourites. We also learnt a new counting and action song, ‘Here is the beehive but where are the Bees?’

During phonics this week we have continued to play rhyming games, used a poem ‘Myself’ to do rhythm and rhyme, rhyme substitution and general sound discrimination. We played ‘Georgie’s Gym’. We are continuing to learn the words and actions to our Alphabet chant. The letters we have been learning this week were ‘x’, ‘y’ and ‘z’. The letter ‘x’ ('The excited fox exercises’). The writing cue we use to write the grapheme ‘x’ is ‘Hand to toe this way, hand to toe that way.’ The letter ‘y’ (‘Yank the yellow yo-yo’). The writing cue we use is ‘Down one string and way down the other’. The letter ‘z’ (‘Zip the zig zag zip’). The writing cue we use to write the grapheme ‘z’ is ‘Zig, zag, zig.’ We practiced writing the letters ‘x’, ‘y’ and ‘z’ using our magic fingers in the air, using pencils and whiteboard pens. We also practised saying the sounds in words with these letters and breaking words down e.g. f-o-x fox and zip z-i-p.

We have worked together using a variety of construction kits to make garages, houses, castles and rockets. We then made stories around them.

Next week we will continue to observe the changes our caterpillars, chrysalis make, and look after our sunflower and bean plants. We are going to have a fruit theme and as part of this we will be exploring fruit, preparing and eating fruit salad. We will also be sending home ‘Wow moment slips’. Please can you complete these sharing achievements from home, ready for children to share with the rest of the class next week. The Wow slips could be to celebrate a skill that your child/children have achieved through practice and resilience e.g. Putting their own socks/shoes on, riding a bike etc. We will also be having a real baby visit coming to see us.

Hope you have all had a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you all this week

Best wishes

Mrs Fenwick