Spring 1-Is it all just rubbish?
Week 15
Welcome back! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and new year.
This week we settled back into our routines and explored our new season of winter. The children explored what different types of weather we can expect in the UK, they looked at the UK on the globe and spoke about if the weather the same all over the world. The children discussed which types of clothing we wear in the winter to keep us warm. We also learnt about animals that hibernate. We shared the story of ‘Don’t hog the hedge’ and learnt about how some animals sleep all through winter, we also learnt that some animals migrate to warmer countries to escape the cold weather. They classified and sorted animals which hibernate and those which do not. They drew the animals onto a table to show their understanding.
We explored the properties of ice and discussed how ice is solid and then melts and turns into a liquid. The children were very knowledgeable and knew heat made ice melt, they also realized very quickly that ice made your hands very cold!
In maths, we learnt about zero, we enjoyed reading ‘None the number’ and debated if none is a number- read the story and see what you think!
Week 16
We have introduced our new big question this week, ‘Is it all just rubbish?’ The children learnt about where all our rubbish goes and what can happen to it if we recycle it. We looked at the impact rubbish can have on our environment. The children discovered that our rubbish is made from all different types of materials such as paper, cardboard, glass, metal and plastic. We learnt about how these materials are sorted, cleaned and recycled to make something new. The children all took part in a recycling sorting activity and separated all the items according to their material. We also learnt about the 3 Rs- Reuse, Reduce and Recycle.
They used their letter and sounds skills to write a list of items that can be recycled and also wrote about what they knew about the 3 Rs.
We looked at how we can reuse items rather than throw them away. The children spoke about clothes they had grown out of and how their clothes were given to a younger cousin or friend. We reused lots of boxes and containers to create a new toy or model. We also read the story of the life of a plastic bottle and the life of a cardboard box. We watched several videos which showed how things that are recycled are made into something new. The children also reused various items to create a printing using paints.
The children made up their own recycling song (see the attached video) They chose the words and performed it as a whole class, they were extremely proud of themselves.
For maths this week we continued embedding our understanding of 0-5 also looking at 1 more and 1 less. We sang songs about snapping crocodiles and melting snowmen-sing along at home using the videos.
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Week 17
Wow! What a cold week we have had! The children have enjoyed exploring the effects of winter weather and how the environment changes with the ice and frost. They quickly realised the cold makes your hands hurt! They investigated the properties of the ice that had formed in our water tray, firstly they freed the trapped sea world animals from their icy cage. They then moved on to experiment what happened when the ice was dropped, hit and trodden on. They discovered that the pieces left in the sun.
We continued our big question ‘Is it all just rubbish?’ by reading the story The Messy Magpie. We were introduced to the character of Morris who thought he was making his forest look lovely by filling it with rubbish but it made the forest and the animal’s habitat polluted and the animals got sick. The children retold the story using their phonic knowledge to write the words. They did an amazing job! They were also challenged to create a picture to show the contrast of a sad forest and a happy forest. The class had great fun acting out the story of Morris using masks to take on the different roles. They used the small world animals to role play what happened to the forest when it was filled with rubbish. We spoke about how it made them feel when the forest was polluted and how they then felt when the forest was cleaned up. They wrote about their feelings and we explored words which we could use such as unhappy, upset, sad, angry and happy, better.
As their creative art and design the children were introduced to the skill of creating a background and then building onto their picture using stampers and paint. Once they observed the process they created their own forest pictures using pencils to make the forest landscape and forest animal stamper to put the animals into their picture.
For maths this week we have been exploring mass through weight and capacity. We built on our understanding of heavy, light and balance. The children used the balance scales to explore which objects were heavier, lighter or equal. They went onto making their own balance scales and working out who was heavier and lighter or how they could stand on the scales to make them balance. We also recapped on capacity and how the mass of an object changes the amount that can fill a cup.
Please share the stories below at home as they have enjoyed them so much in school this week.
Week 18
This week we were recycling super heroes! We read the story of Michael Recycle and how he helped towns get clean and green! The children all created their own recycling super hero and thought of their own slogan to save the world! We also enjoyed the story of Litter Bug Doug. The children watched videos of real life wildlife rescues of animals caught in plastic waste, we all cheered when the animals were saved and set free!
We have continued learning about numbers 6,7 and 8. We watched number blocks and have enjoyed joining in with activities and reading stories about these numbers. You can share the number block videos at home too!
The children used reused loose parts to create transitional art and also learnt new songs in music.
The children were extremely excited to join in with the trampoline workshop this week run by Rebound fitness. The children jumped and danced to learn routines and find out how fit they are! It was great fun!
