We were so proud of how the children behaved on the trip, especially as this was the first time they had been offsite with us. They showed excitement and interest in all of the different exhibits, and some children showed courage when holding the hissing cockroaches! Back in the classroom, the children could recall the names of insect body parts and remembered  insects have six legs. A huge thank you to the parents and carers who came and helped on the trip- we couldn't have done it without you!

'Doug, the bug that went Boing!' has been our story focus in Drawing Club this week. In the story Doug and Trevor are best bug friends who love playing in the garden. But one day Doug gets dug up and stuck at the top of a tower block. The children drew illustrations of Doug, they thought about other ways he could travel back down to the ground and thought of new games he and Trevor could play. We are encouraging the children to write words, captions and strive for sentences to accompany their drawings during these sessions. In addition, some of the children have also been looking at illustrations from the storybook and writing speech bubbles for the characters to give them some extra writing practise!

In Maths we have been counting, reading and ordering numbers to twenty. We have been counting in steps of five and ten and using filled five and ten frames to help us. We have been using coloured connecting cubes and ten frames to represent numbers beyond ten. The children are developing an understanding that numbers beyond ten are made from one full 10  and some on the next ten. We have also been Maths detectives when examining Sunflower Seed Packets- considering what we could notice? What numbers could we see? And what other information there was. Next week, we will be looking closely at the Sunflower Seeds and finding out how many are in a seed packet. 

Our Poetry Basket brought us a wonderful poem about a worm called 'Under a Stone' and the children learned to say it boff by heart with actions too. 

As artists, we have been making swirly marks and patterns with chalk pastels on large, black paper inspired by swirly snail shells. The children enjoyed exploring, mixing and blending the different colours. 

Outdoors, the children have been hunting for bugs using magnifying glasses and bug spotter sheets to help them identify the bugs they found. As part of our topic work, the children worked in small teams to create 3D maps of our garden using a range of natural resources and building blocks, and indicated which places the bugs would be hiding. 

Next week, we will be examining bug X-rays on our light-up screen. We will be looking at the work of Levon Biss, a Microsculpture artist and recreating some of his photographic work of insects using oil pastels. We will be learning how to program and control bee robots and thinking about the wordless animation 'Bee and Me' in our Drawing Club sessions. 

The weather is looking warm and sunny again next week, so a reminder that sunscreen is to be applied before school (the once-a-day stuff is best!) and to please provide a sunhat/cap for your child to wear outside. 

Have a lovely weekend 

The Coral Reef Team