Homes and Gardens Part 2

This half term we will be focussing on the 'Gardens' part of the topic. We are starting off by looking at plants that grow in the garden. We will be learning the names of some common flowering plants. We will also be planning what to grow in our class vegetable garden. 

We have already started to grow some cress in pots and we will be writing a set of instructions to tell Oliver (from the book 'Oliver's Vegetables') how to grow his own vegetables.

Minibeasts!

We have now started our topic of minibeasts, within our learning about 'Gardens'.

We have started to learn about what minibeasts are and where they can be found. On Tuesday (11.03.25) we went on a minibeast hunt around the school grounds. We found quite a few minibeasts which was surprising as it was so cold outside! We hope to look again in April when it is warmer in the hope that we might spot some bees and butterflies too. Take a look at the photos of our minibeast hunt below.

Our new class story is Aargh Spider! by Lydia Monks. We are learning the oral story, practising retelling the story using actions. We are practising writing sentences using conjunctions, time adverbials and the past tense (Y1-3) to retell the story. Our Reception group are sequencing pictures, drawing story maps and using these to verbally retell the story. 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

We have now started a new book in our English lessons that links really nicely with our minibeast topic in Science. It is the wonderful story 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle. A lovely story with great repetition, sequencing and story-telling opportunities. We have been orally retelling the story, sequencing pictures and naming (and spelling) the days of the week in order. 

We also have our very own hungry caterpillars in the classroom. Five tiny black caterpillars arrived in our class three weeks ago. We have patiently watched them grow in their little pot by the window. They grew to be big hairy caterpillars and have now turned into chrysalides. Today (03.04.25) the chrysalides were moved into their Butterfly habitat. We are watching every day to see when they will emerge as beautiful butterflies!

Take a look at some of the photos below.

Butterflies!

The caterpillars were still happily resting in their chrysalides at the end of Spring Term, so I took them home to care for them. Would you believe it?! They emerged from their chrysalides on Saturday 12th April! We managed to film one of the butterflies emerging from its chrysalis.

Unfortunately the weather turned cold on the weekend of the 12th April, so the butterflies needed to be kept inside for a few days. After a couple of failed attempts (it was just too cold and windy for them), they finally flew from their special habitat net on Thursday 17th April.

(Take a look at our videos in the Video Resource Centre, located at the bottom of the Children tab)

Space Day - British Science Week 2025

This year, to celebrate British Science Week, the whole school took part in a day of learning and activities linked to the theme of Space. Our class focus was 'Rockets'.

We watched rockets launch and learnt about the parts of a rocket. We learnt about astronauts, including some famous astronauts in history and what it is like to live on the ISS (International Space Station).

We made straw rockets and measured how far we could make them travel.

In the afternoon, KS1 & 2 children took part in a workshop, using VR headsets to explore and learn about the planets in our Solar System. 

We finished off the day making a rocket shoot into the air by stomping on the air pad. It flew really high!!!