We have had a wonderful time in the woods these last few weeks, and we thought we would share a few of the highlights with you ...
Making our own tools and using them to make holes for animals...
Helping worms find their way back into the earth...
Working together to make a river from Stanton to London...
Decorating the trees, because why should Christmas trees get all the attention...
And finally, having the chance to take a moment to just be...
Keen to spend time with our older buddies from Rhine Class, we invited them to an outdoor Space event to share our enthusiasm for our learning this term.
We took part in a space challenge to carry meteorites out of the earth's atmosphere, travelling over clouds, along comets and in and out of space debris...
We launched rockets into space...
and raced to find all the planets to create our solar system ...
At the end we shared some delicious vegan star biscuits that we had made...
There would be a picture of the finished article, but they were so yummy that they were all eaten very quickly, as you can see...
This week we have had a lot of fun with rocket launches.
First we discussed how the launcher works and what we needed to do ...
"It's a launcher, you have to jump on the yellow bit and it flies off"
"I wonder what happens inside?"
"The air's coming!"
"It's like wind, and it blows the rocket up in the air."
Then we thought about the direction that the rocket would go in...
"We need to twist this, so it doesn't go over the wall."
"If it goes upright it will go far, but not high."
Then the fun part of the launch.
Some tried it with their hands...
However, seeing that the rocket did not travel very far like this prompted lots of discussion...
"I'm going to use two feet to make it go all the way up to space. It will make it go huff and puff and really high."
"I'll use two feet and a really high jump to make it go further."
"If I jump on it mine will go further because I am heavier."
Then the task of how to measure the distance that the rockets travelled.
There were a range of approaches...
Feet...
Chalk...
And metre rulers...
A fantastic exploration of rockets that produced an amazing array of predictions language, maths skills, teamwork and most importantly FUN!
This week we have enjoyed many space stories, including Bringing down the moon, Look up!, This way to Outer Space and Man on the Moon to name but a few. This has led to some fantastic chats about space, astronauts and how they travel.
Showing the children a picture of some fruit rockets got the children very excited, so we decided to make our own.
We talked about fruits that we do and don't like and tried to explain why. Then we designed our own fruit rocket, and made a list of all the ingredients we would need, using all of our phonics knowledge to help us. We said the names of the fruits very slowly to hear the different sounds in the words and then wrote the sounds that we heard...
Then we were all set...
We had a go at reading our own list and looked at our designs to help us transform our 2D designs into 3D edible masterpieces...
Then finally, the best part... we got to eat it!
This week we launched ourselves into space, and what better way to get there than our very own space shuttle.
First it needed designing...
Then the seats went in...
Followed by the outer shell, cone and fins...
Then a toilet was fitted and a changing unit to get astronaut ready...
We took our seats, lit the fire and launched ourselves into space!
After an exciting cosmic expedition it was time to return to earth, some needing a sleeping pod and others deciding to return by hoverboard!
We have had a very busy and exciting time, after hearing the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
We had a lot of fun acting out the story in the woods, especially building a rickety bridge for the troll to live underneath.
We learned to retell the story by creating a story map and using the actions from Talk4Writing. This helped us to remember our story language and connectives.
Then we changed parts of the traditional story to create our own versions and acted these out with small world animals.
We also explored the best ways to make a foil bridge. We thought that folding it over and over again or twisting it make the bridge quite sturdy.
