We've had a busy few weeks at Nature Club. The children's input has been very helpful when deciding where to place the camera trap to effectively investigate what is living with us. You can find some clips from the camera trap earlier in the blog in the entry "Our amazing space". Last week we looked for evidence of hedgehogs and, rather unfortunately, found a dead one. The children's understanding of this sadness as part of the whole cycle of nature was pleasing to see as was their desire to see what more they could do to help this much loved species. On a lighter note this week, we found a fallen mistletoe ball complete with it's join to the host, in this case the large Acer in the wild area of the school field, and we researched the life cycle of this fascinating plant. I look forward to our next adventure! Mr Hopegood :)

 We had the most amazing afternoon inside of the 'Wonderdome', a special visit to kick start the excitement for our next half term of learning, about space.   We flew from the Earth, exploring the Milky Way and looking at some of the other galaxies, we looked at each of the other planets in our solar system and could not believe how big the sun was compared to Earth!.  We also flew on a rocket and landed on the moon, watched the Artemis 11 exploration and looked deeper into our own beautiful planet by heading into the ocean and also through forests and across deserts! We asked lots of questions and we only wish that we could have 'bottled up' the responses from the children: "This is beautiful", "Wow it's amazing", "I can't believe we get to do this!", "This is the best day I have ever had!" were some of the comments echoing around the dome!

 In Maths, we have been learning about halves and quarters.  This week, we used this knowledge to explain half turns and quarter turns, both clockwise and anti clockwise.  We used rotating shapes, large grids in our outdoor classroom (giving each other instructions) and treasure maps!  Here are some pictures of us following our treasure map instructions!

Some parents have said that the Rhino Reader texts are not working online; w read the Rhino Reader several times at school so please read their blue book and other reading book instead.    S tory focus :  Mad About Dinosaurs! by Gliles Andreae. We have added actions to our poems! Literacy focus : we have daily Phonics and handwriting sessions.  We now have a Literacy session where we discuss a picture, compose sentences and then write them.  We also have individual reading sessions, practising our blue Phonics book or reading books.  Maths focus:  composition of numbers 6-9 as '5 and a bit', represented in the Hungarian frame (dice spot pattern) and exploring how 10 is composed of 2 parts.  _____ is made of ___ and ___. ____ needs ___ to make 10. 10 is made of ___ and ___. PE focus : Crawl, Climb, Collect Understanding the World focus:  what types of dinosaurs were there? We found out that some walked on 2 legs and ate meat (Theropods) and so...