F1 Understanding Our World
Growth and Change
For our topic of Growth and Change, we started by looking closely at our caterpillars that arrived in a tub. We wondered what was in the tub. Some of us knew they were caterpillars, others thought they might be something else. Some children remembered seeing caterpillars in their gardens, at home. We read the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. We loved learning new vocabulary. Our new words were caterpillar, butterfly and cocoon. We talked about the life cycle of a butterfly and practised using our new words. We retold the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar using our magnetic story props. We enjoyed moving the magnets around the board. We enjoyed practising our cutting skills by cutting lettuce and cabbage. We were intrigued by the size, shape and weight of the cabbage and enjoyed carefully peeling the cabbage leaves.
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Next, we did a bean experiment… Which bean will grow? We planted three types of bean and predicted which one we thought would grow. We planted a jelly bean, a baked bean and a broad bean. We put our predictions on a big chart. Most children thought the jelly bean would grow. We have put the beans on our talk table so we can keep checking which one will grow. Which type of bean do you think will grow? We carried out tally charts, asking our friends ‘which bean do you think will grow?’ When our friends told us which they thought would grow, we made a nice straight line to show their choice. After that we counted up the marks and worked out which bean our friends thought was most likely to grow. Some of practised writing the numbers to match our marks. |
Planting Beans
First, we wet our paper towels. We noticed that the towel changed colour when it went in the water.
Then we put the wet paper towels in the bottom of our clear, plastic bag. Next, we each put a bean on the wet paper towel. Finally, we hung our bags in the window. The sunlight will help our beans to grow. What will happen to the beans? Keep watching them to find out. |
Our next story was a traditional tale called, Jack and the Beanstalk. We loved hearing about the magic beans which grew into a beanstalk, growing so high it went up to the sky.
We read the story of Jack and the Beanstalk and watched a much shorter version on our interactive board. We planted beans in clear plastic bags so we could see how the beans grow and change. We thought this was a good idea because we can’t see the beans when they have been planted in soil. We have had fun filling and pouring bottles and pots with seeds and lentils, we have sorted seeds, counted them and made patterns with them. We used bricks to measure the Giant’s feet. We also painted daffodils. We carefully looked at the daffodils in a vase and painted what we saw. We were very careful to choose the right colours. We have also looked at the beautiful flowers in our Nursery Garden. Some very large clothes arrived in Nursery with a letter asking who we thought they belonged to. We spent a long time talking about the clothes and working out who’s they could be. We decided they must belong to the Giant. Some of us picked up the boots. They were very heavy. Some children thought the boots were very long too. We are getting really good at using our mathematical language. |
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Chinese New Year
We loved learning about Chinese New Year. We took part in lots of exciting activities. These activities included;
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Winter
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E- Safety
When we finished hearing the story of Smartie we learned a song to help us stay safe on the computer. Can you sing it at home? It goes like this:
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“You need to think, think, think, Before you click, click, click, And TELL someone.” |
Ourselves and Pets at Home
We have learned about ourselves and our bodies and have enjoyed learning lots of new ways to move with Miss Gubas in Physical Development.
We talked about our families, the people in our family and who lives in our houses. Some of us bought in family pictures for us to use as a stimulus for a talk session. |
We discussed pets and were lucky enough to have Pets at Home bring some animals in for us to meet. The pets we saw were all very different, we met rabbits, gerbils, hamsters, a bearded dragon, a leopard gecko and a crested gecko. The pets felt different and lived in different types of houses.
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Autumn
We loved learning about Autumn. We enjoyed collecting leaves and artefacts from our local environment. We talked about the size, shape and colour of the leaves and the textures of the different things we found.