Bonkers about Beetroot:

To celebrate the final stage of our learning on the book ‘Bonkers about Beetroot’ the children, well most of the children, enjoyed a beetroot smoothie. Many of them were surprised how delicious it was, but they were all disappointed that they did not turn purple! 

We talked about the importance of a balanced diet, and we discussed what ingredients we would need to make the smoothie. The children wanted to share the recipe, so they could possibly make it at home as well: 

Kale, spinach, banana, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, beetroot, apple juice and water.

The final part of our sequence of learning was to write an independent, innovative version of the story. The children used their ideas from last week to inspire their writing. We encouraged and supported their independence to write their own sentence. In the original story, the zebra ate an enormous beetroot and turned purple. The children changed the animal, the fruit or vegetable, and the colour that the animal turned into. They had some wonderful ideas. A polar bear eating broccoli and turning green, a cat eating an apple and turning red, and a giraffe eating carrots and turning orange. The children are at different stages of their developmental writing journey, and we consistently praise the efforts of every child. It was so wonderful to see them all engaged and inspired to write, they had so many fantastic ideas. We value the power of talk and invest a lot of time allowing children to talk about their ideas and share them with us before and during writing. We will share their learning with you on Seesaw. 

Lego Discover – Playmakers Session 8 – Let’s get innovative:

This week the children were expanding on ideas and thinking of new things to make for their obstacle course, they were challenged to be innovative. The question this week was, how can we use a moving part to change our obstacle course?

The six brick activity this week was blind build. This is when the children sit back to back and have to describe to the other person what they need to do with their six bricks. This is great for listening skills and developing vocabulary to describe and give instructions. They worked together to help one another and had lots of giggles. For part two of the session, the big build, the children explored all the functional elements of the bricks, all the bricks that allow movement. The children had some wonderful ideas including, roundabouts that were elevated, double swings and games with pulleys. They then shared their ideas and recorded them in their engineers notebook.

Maths:

In Maths this week some of us have been continuing our work on subtraction. We have been creating number stories using the vocabulary, First, Then, Now. For example, First there were 8 frogs, Then 3 frogs jumped into the pond, Now there are 5 frogs. We have also been using the iPads and 10 frames to practice.

Others have been looking at number bonds to 5, and have been using cherry models, five frames and number sentences to represent that, eg 3+2=5. We have also Been talking about missing numbers, for example, “I have five counters altogether, I have got three in this hand, so can you work out how many counters are in my other hand?” The children have then had to ‘prove’ how they know the missing amount.

New Arrivals!

We had some exciting new arrivals to the class this week. We have 33 baby caterpillars to look after! The children were very excited and curious about the new arrivals and I think the caterpillars were equally curious about their new home. We will be learning about the life cycle of a butterfly over the next couple of weeks so please encourage your child to talk to you about our new learning experience. 

Home Learning:

Six Bricks – A new six brick challenge has been set for you on Seesaw.

Storytime – Miss Lovell-Healy has read a lovely story for you.

Maths – Activities have been set for you on Seesaw to try.

Phonics and reading – Continue to practice reading your Read Write Inc Books and enjoy sharing your library book with a grown up.

Messages:

End of term is Friday 28th May.

Monday 7th June is a non-pupil day.

Children return to school on Tuesday 8th June.

From Mrs Bastin, Mrs Clague and the Foundation Stage Team