17.3.23

I can't believe that's another week gone by in Plum class and what a busy one it's been!

In our topic work this week we have continued to learn more about Kenya and have spent time comparing the animals that we see in Alnwick in comparison to Kenya. We had fun looking at the Big 5 (lion, buffalo, leopard, rhino, elephant) and thought carefully about the environment in which they live and how this is also different to Alnwick and the landscape of the pastures etc. We even spent some time reflecting on learning from last half term by comparing the animals that live in the Arctic and Antarctica. The children had fun searching for various animals around the garden, sorting them into groups to determine where they live and then using construction materials they created their own environments for the animals.

Later in the week we read the story The Ugly five by Julia Donaldson. Although this didn't include the Big 5 we had learnt about earlier in the week, we noticed that these animals also live in Africa, in the same environment. Lots of the children noticed that these animals also had bright, bold patterns/colours on their body. We used this book as stimulus for drawing club where we invented our own ugly creatures! We had some amazing designs!!

In our maths work this week we have been learning more about length and height. We focussed on using our previous learnt vocabulary accurately- 'tall', 'short' and 'long' and finding objects that were shorter, taller and longer all around our indoor and outdoor environment. We spent time measuring various objects using cubes and working out which objects were taller, tallest, shorter, shortest.

 As part of British science week we enjoyed becoming scientists! We found out that its a scientists job to find out and discover, this is something we do lots already in Plum class. We had fun exploring and recording which objects float and sink (this was a very fun job), we looked closely at some flowers and plants and did some observational drawing and we got outside to explore signs of Spring!

We also celebrated Comic Relief with lots of red children around our classroom! We had fun designing our very own red nose which we hope you enjoyed looking at on our window display. If you didn't get time to see them on Friday, have a peek when you drop off on Monday!  

In our RE activities this week we continued to find out about why Easter is a special time for Christians. We listened to a story called  'It is Easter time' and our Plum friend Tessa brought us some hot cross buns to try. We thought about the shape on top of the buns and if we recognised it or not. We then found out that hot cross buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday, the day Jesus died. The cross on top is a representation of this. Tessa thought the bun was like the stone door of the cave.

Our 'Charanga' unit of  ‘Our World’ continued this week and children listened and responded to 'Mars' from The Planets by Gustav Holst. We talked about how the music made us feel. Lots of us said that they recognised the song from movies and it made them feel excited. We had so much fun finding the pulse in familiar nursery rhymes and stamped, clicked, clapped and tapped to the rhythm. After all of this, with links to our RE learning, we even played Hot Cross Buns on the glockenspiels and sang along. This was so much fun!

Jigsaw this week saw us think about 'Food Glorious Food' with activities based around healthy eating. We sorted foods which were healthy and foods which weren't so healthy. Jigsaw Jerrie Cat raised his paws so then we paused and thought about the food we all liked. We thought about what healthy food does do to our bodies. 

Have a lovely weekend- Miss Freeman