Learning Enrichment Project

We are so excited to announce that as part of our food and farming topic the children will take part this term in hatching some real life eggs and caring for some baby chicks! This supports many parts of our EYFS curriculum and will provide so many great opportunities for Hedgehog class including:

• asking questions about growing and development
• first hand experience of caring for animals
• observing changes in living things
• providing stimulus and inspiration for writing
• practical maths

and so much more!

We would like to thank Mr Wodzynski for this amazing opportunity. Watch this space for photos of our work!

Weekly Blog

Week 13

What an amazing end to the term! We really enjoyed our RE enrichment week exploring the story of Easter. On Monday we learnt about Palm Sunday and re-enacted the story of Jesus coming into Jerusalem on the donkey. We laid down our coats and sang "We have a king who rides a donkey" as we waved the palm leaves we had made.

On Tuesday we learnt more about the last supper and how Jesus washed the disciple's feet. We looked at the symbols of the bread and the wine and why Christians take communion. We then re-enacted it with some bread and blackcurrant squash!

On Wednesday we saw a tiny hole in one of our eggs and we knew hatch day was imminent. We began making preparations by learning more about how to care for them once they came out. We learnt about the different parts of a chicken and labelled our diagrams thinking about how to make sure our writing was clear for people to read.

On Thursday we arrived to see 5 baby chicks had hatched! We were very excited. They were very small and wet so we had to leave them in the incubator to dry out but we couldn't stop looking at them! The children started to name them and couldn't wait to find out which egg had hatched first! Well done to Olivia who won our box of eggs!!! 

We then explored the next stage of the Easter story and Jesus's death and resurrection. We made paper crosses telling the story. We talked about why we associate eggs with Easter and how they bring new life into the world. We made Easter cards for our families and everyone wrote their own messages with beautiful handwriting!

On Friday we enjoyed an Easter egg hunt with squirrel class and we used our work on patterns last week to design our own Easter eggs. We wrote the final page of our information books about the chicks hatching and we finally had a cuddle with the chicks. We learnt how to hold them with our hands cupped to represent the egg so that they felt safe and secure. Some of them even went to sleep in our hands! Finally we invited our families to come and see our work from the term. The children were very keen to show their Mummies and Daddies the baby chicks and we couldn't resist another little cuddle!

The children have worked so very hard this term and deserve a lovely Easter break. We want to say a huge thank you to Mr. Wodsynski for bringing us such a wonderful hands on experience. We have learnt so much and had so much fun in the process! We hope you enjoy the photos and videos. If you would like copies please do email Mrs. Hall.

Happy Easter!

Week 10

What a fantastic science week! We have spent the week learning all there is to know about eggs. We are very privileged to have the opportunity to raise and hatch some real life eggs thanks to Mr Wodzynski and the little Red Hen! As part of this the children have had a week of enrichment activities centred around eggs and their properties. We carried out the Bouncy egg experiment ...

In the end we decided to work out the best protection for them. We worked in partners to investigate how to protect our eggs in 'The great egg drop'. We decided it was probably best to keep our special eggs safe in their incubator!

The children also came up with their own questions about eggs and spent some time investigating the answers ...

Week 9

We are so proud of the children and how far they have come in their writing recently. This week has seen some outstanding work on the story of "The little Red Hen". The children have been learning how to check each sentence for sense, finger spaces and punctuation. Last week we celebrated some work from the year ones and talked about what made it good. Now we are trying to write larger pieces of text and we have really risen to the challenge!

We have also been working hard on our observational drawing and modelling skills in topic this week. First we looked carefully at the different parts of a tractor. Then we used shapes and lines to draw them as accurately as we could. Next we used junk modelling to make a 3D version of our tractors. We learnt how to cover the boxes, add moving wheels using axles or split pins and how to add finishing touches. We hope you like our work!

Watch this space for photos of our displays.

Week 8

What a busy first week back. The children had lots of fun on World Book day exploring different books and authors in their house teams. Photos to follow... 

Week 7 in photos...

Week 6

We have really enjoyed ICT enrichment week. This week we have been exploring the Beebots. We have been making them draw shapes by getting them to travel in different directions. We have learnt how to follow instructions and predict the outcome. The children have been practicing their debugging skills by setting themselves a challenge and working out what has gone wrong and why. Some children have even been synchronising two programmable toys to follow the same instructions. We have been consolidating our understanding of position and direction in both our maths and P.E. lessons.

Use this video to practice the left and right dance!...

Week 5

This week has seen Hedgehog turn into private investigators! Based on the book "Lost and found" by Oliver Jeffers the children have been exploring different purposes for reading and writing. Earlier in the week a penguin turned up in the classroom so we set about reading clues to find out where he had come from. All clues pointed to Father Christmas! Then on Wednesday one of our other penguins went missing amongst a big mess! We used our maths skills to identify which penguin had gone and made posters describing what he looked like. The children also made signs in their independent play asking whoever it was to stop making a mess. The children suggested we make a camera to catch the culprit. The next day we watched the CCTV camera footage and saw a Father Christmas imposter playing in our classroom! The police called in Father Christmas and the children wrote interview questions to interrogate him. It turned out he had a pretty good alibi! We then used our maths skills to measure the snowy footprints he left behind and what we discovered was a big shock! Ask your children to tell you who dunnit!

In Maths we also began looking at how to use number tracks to add 2 numbers and how to count on to combine two groups. We sorted dominos into 6,7,8 and 9 by adding the spots.

In Topic we found out that our lost penguin came from Antarctica. We used a globe to find Antarctica and discovered it was in the southern hemisphere far from the equator. We then used google earth to explore the terrain and discovered that it was largly snow. We talked about the difference between a continent and a country. We then watched some videos and read some articles to learn a bit more about penguins and the other animals that live in Antarctica.

Have a look at our photos from the week....

Week 4

The children have enjoyed the story of "Lila and the secret of rain" this week. They spent Thursday and Friday trying to make it rain. We tried making rain makers...

We tried making a water weather system with the pipes!

Ollie asked us to make him a coat as, living in Kenya, he's not used to the rain!! So we tested to see which material would do the best job at keeping him dry...

We had some great fun making birdfeeders on Forest Friday! Thank you Ms Williams ...

Week 3

What a week! The children are really enjoying our daily emails from Stick Man. This week he kept loosing his family in all sorts of places. We have been practciing our counting and recording skills as well as some map drawing and labelling to help him keep track of them! They think it might be something to do with Father Christmas so we are going to try and entice him to visit with mince pies, carrots and milk. One child suggested Whisky!

It has been really lovely to see the children engaging with the story and this week has seen some rather brilliant writing (see our photos). Next week we are looking at Kenya through the story of "Lila and the secret of rain". See the link below if you would like to watch this story at home. We will be using "Lost and Found" by Oliver Jeffers to compare the different environments.

In Maths we have been thinking about capacity and how to compare different containers. The children have been doing lots of investigation.

In phonics we have been learning the sounds ee,ai,ch,sh,th,ng and next week we will be revising and practicing reading and spelling. See the phonic links on our main page for some good games to practice reading with these sounds.

Week 2

We have had an extremely busy week! Stick Man sent us a video email asking for us to make a film about his adventure as his wife didn't believe him so we have made props, costumes and practiced telling the story. All of the children have contributed to the finished film which I think you'll agree tells Stick Man's story perfectly! We hope she likes it!

We had a great topic session on Thursday as Ollie explained to us using different maps where he lived. We watched this brilliant video about the equator.....

and then decided if Kenya was a hot country or not. After exploring Kenya using a picture map the children came up with some fantastic questions which they would like to know about the world and we will be making our own maps next week. We also made some fantatsic new years resolutions and thought about good attitudes that will help us reach our goals: Try our best! Work Hard! Never give up!

Week 1

What a fantastic first week back! As we launched our new 'Hot and Cold' Topic, the weather provided the perfect environment for exploring the effects of cold temperatures!  The children have initiated lots of their own investigations including adding salt and sugar to ice (see video). Investigating snowflake patterns, exploring the effects of freezing on different materials and much more. Ollie asked us what the weather was like in our country so we have decided to find different ways to monitor the weather. This week we made a weather chart and next week we are making rain guages to see how much rain fall we get at Aston-Rowant. The children are enjoying thinking about how materials can keep us dry in the rain and choosing the best material to make a coat for Ollie while he stays in the UK.