Welcome back! It has been so lovely to see the children return to school so happily after the break. They came in full of smiles, excitement and ready to learn. I am sure they have all grown over the past two weeks because they looked so grown up when they came back.
The warmer and sometimes unpredictable weather has given us lots of wonderful opportunities for learning this week. We started by sharing the classic and much loved story The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The children were so pleased to read this familiar favourite again and joined in beautifully with the story. It led to lots of lovely discussions about the life cycle of a butterfly. We are now busy creating our own versions of the life cycle using a range of arts and craft materials in the classroom, and the children have shown so much creativity.
We then enjoyed another lovely story by Eric Carle, The Tiny Seed. This inspired us to create our very own greenhouse in the classroom, where the children have been able to plant their own seeds. Before we started, we talked together about what seeds need in order to grow. The children had some fantastic ideas, including water, sunlight, soil and plenty of care.
Once everything was ready, the children were very excited to begin planting. They have been taking their new job as gardeners very seriously, carefully spraying the seeds with fresh water each day and checking closely to see whose seed might sprout first. There have also been a few surprised and slightly disappointed faces when some children realised that seeds do not grow into plants in an hour. It has been a lovely way to learn about patience and how living things need time to grow.
In phonics, we learned how to recognise the grapheme k. The children enjoyed practising the sound and had great fun thinking of silly alliteration sentences using words that begin with k.
In maths, we were inspired by the beautiful symmetry of butterflies. The children experimented with paint to make their own symmetrical pictures and were delighted to open them up and see the patterns they had created. We also explored repeating patterns by making caterpillars inspired by the monarch butterfly.
It has been such a happy and busy start to the term, and we are so proud of how enthusiastically the children have come back to school and settled straight into their learning.
Here are three lovely ways to continue the learning at home this week:
Discuss the lifecycle of your child’s favourite animal, can they make their own depiction of their lifecycle.
Plant a seed at home and encourage your child to check on it each day and notice any changes.
Look for patterns and symmetry at home or outside, such as on flowers, leaves or butterflies.