Personal, Social & Emotional Development

We read 'The and he Tortoise' and discussed the importance of perseverance.  

We read 'When the Bees Buzzed off'. This lead to a discussion about how to look after our environment to save the bees. It was great to hear the Caterpillars ideas about how to look after the world around them. They talked about putting rubbish in the bin, leaving the flowers for them to get the nectar and recycling. 

We discussed the importance of brushing your teeth. The Caterpillars were great at knowing you need to brush them in the morning and at night for 2 minutes each time. We talked about how we need to look after them as you only get 2 sets! This led to a massive discussion about wobbly teeth and the excitement that brings! 

In our Circle Time this week, we read the story 'Have You Filled Your Bucket?'. This was a story about us all having an invisible bucket. You can fill people's buckets, empty their buckets or fill your own by filling somebody else's. The moral of the story was about kindness and how being kind to others and how it makes them feel. We came up with great ideas about how to show kindness. It was a really worthwhile discussion and the Caterpillars took lots away from our conversations. 

Physical Development

We loved being back at Dance with Amy. We danced to some old favourites and are excited to learn our new dances. 

We have been working hard on our fine motor skills. We have been busy threading! 

Literacy

We have been learning about 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. We have been retelling the story, planting beanstalks, building castles, writing stories and lots of chopping the beanstalks down!

'When the Bees Buzzed Off' has got us thinking a lot about honey and where it comes from. We have loved making bees, hives and honeycomb using the playdough. 

We had a great Class Wide Reward where we made butter again to see if we could remember the steps. We linked our celebration with our work on Bees and enjoyed honey on toast! We used of fine and gross motor skills to spread and cut our toast. It was delicious. 

Maths 

We looked at how doubles and even numbers relate to each other. We showed our doubles on a ten frame. 

We learnt to make 6,7&8 using '5 and a bit'. We figured out this was the fastest way to know how many there are in each number. We showed it on our fingers, a ten frame and with objects. 

We have been learning about length. We ordered the Giant's footprint from longest to shortest and then explored the classroom finding items longer and shorter than our own Giant's footprint. 

We looked at capacity and the language of full, half full and empty. 

Using our knowledge of '5 and a bit', we expanded this by looking at an arrangement of '5 and a bit' in a double-dice frame. Then we could work out how many more we needed to make 10. This has used some serious brain power to see what number is being shown on the double-dice frame and then spotting how many spaces weren't filled. We played 'Don't Burn the Sausages'! We dropped 10 counters and if they landed on the red side, they were our burnt sausages, then we had to figure out how many yellow ones there were. 

We have been ordering numbers 1-10 on a number track. We played lots of games using the number track and rolling a dice. I kept making all sorts of mistakes such as skipping over the squares and counting the same square twice. The Caterpillars did a great job helping me do it right. 

Understanding the World 

We have been busy planting. We have read the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. We talked about what a plant needs to grow and planted beans. We keep watering them and are waiting patiently for a sign of growth. 

We were busy worker and drone bees. We had a relay race to see who could move the most nectar from the flower, back to the hive using a pipette. We had great fun! It was great to see how hard the bees actually have to work to make such a small amount of honey. Did you know... one bee makes about ONE tablespoon of honey in its lifetime! 

We found out the bees need lots of flowers to be able to make the honey. So we made bee bombs by combining clay, soil and seeds. We are looking forward to throwing them into the wild to see our flowers grow and hoping they will attract the bees. 

We planted our beanstalks into the planter. We can't wait to watch them grow. 

We explored the school ground to see where would be the best place to spread out bee bombs. We loved throwing them into the wild grass. We did the bee dance to show the other bees where the flowers were going to grow. Fingers crossed they grow and we can see our hard work come to life. 

It has been great to welcome out tadpoles this week. We have read the story of 'The Teeny Weeny Tadpole' and that has been a focus of our Drawing Club! We have been doing lots of frog activities in Continuous Provision as well as learning about the life cycle of a frog.  

Expressive Art and Design

Our D.T project this half term is looking at collaboratively building a beanstalk using junk modelling. Our first step was looking at different types of construction. Our aim as to build a sturdy base to support the beanstalk and stop it falling over. 

We looked at the properties of materials to work out which would be best to make our beanstalks tall and strong. 

We worked with our group to draw a design for how we are going to make our beanstalk. We wrote labels and thought about the materials we would need. 

Our beanstalks are growing! We are pushing our designs to build our beanstalks. 

To finish off our D.T project, it was time to evaluate our beanstalks. We used a hairdryer to see if it would blow our beanstalks over. The Caterpillars had great fun using the 3 different settings to see if they would withstand the highest force of air. This then led into a discussion about how important the base was and what we could improve if we did it again.