To complete our rainforest topic we spent the afternoon on a team challenge around building trees. Our challenge was to build a tree taller than Miss S with roots, a trunk and leaves which would not fall over in a wind (Miss S blowing on it!).

We worked together with children from other year groups in our class to create a tree from junk modelling, newspaper and masking tape.

We soon found out that working together was important.

We all used a slightly different method to make our tree especially when it came to the roots. The classroom was a hive of activity.

At the end we all admired our work. All our trees were successful but we all thought we could do better if we had another go.

Maybe we’ll think of something different to build next term – do you have any suggestions?

Imagine our surprise when one of the children spotted this in our Book Corner!

It turns out the golden egg, which we found in our classroom a while ago, had cracked open over the weekend. Our only clues as to what might have happened were the goo oozing slowly out of a shattered top…

and some interestingly shaped footprints heading under our book shelf!

What on Earth (or in the universe…) could have appeared from our egg! Do you have any suggestions or any ideas as to how we could find it?

As part of our work with  plants and growing this term, Class One have been fascinated by the effect of different liquids on flowers.

They were very eager to design their own experiment around this.

First we came up with different liquids we could test – our list included hot water, fizzy water, cola, washing up liquid, paint, milk and food colourings.

Then we thought about a fair test. The year 2s suggested that we needed to use the same amount of each liquid and that the flowers all needed to be in the same place in the classroom.

We also kept one in normal water as a control flower to compare them to.

These are our observations.

Normal Tap Water – some flowers and white

“It’s alive and it has opened up!”

Cola – Some flowers and white

“I thought it would go brown because coke is brown but it hasn’t.”

“It is alive and has opened up a bit – I think coke has water in it!”

Washing Up Liquid – No flowers, sepals have turned yellow

“I think it’s dead” “I wouldn’t use that!”

Red Food Colouring – Some flowers, Pink

“It’s alive and very pretty!”

“It’s soaked up all the colour and the leaves (sepals) have gone red as well!”

Blue and Red Food Colouring – No flowers but not dead, a mix of colours.

“Some bits are blue and some bits are red and some bits are black.”

“Maybe different bits like different colours”

Fizzy water – Some flowers, white

“It’s water so it’s good for the flower.”

“I wouldn’t use it for flowers cos it costs money. Normal water is free.”

Hot water – started to open up, yellow flowers

“It’s dying – it’s gone all yellow”

Overall we thought that tap water was probably best for the flower but food colouring made for very attractive flowers.

Following on from our previous post about Jigsaw learning and our projects in the classroom, we’re excited to share some of our other activities.

Our Easter group have been working on their Easter Eggs. First they designed their pattern thinking about colour and pattern. They also discussed their reasons for choosing these designs. Next they painted their designs onto the eggs, adjusting their pattern to fit to the size of the egg. They have come up with some interesting ideas and executed them well with lots of concentration.

Meanwhile, our Shrove Tuesday group have been taking over teaching for the afternoon! Busy whipping up a storm in the kitchen, they taught all the children how to make pancakes before diving in and eating them. Well done to all our children for their hard work this half term.

In Class One, we often use Jigsaw Learning to explore our topics. This has nothing to do with jigsaws! It is about working in groups covering different areas of a topic and sharing our learning with the class.

For example, our current topic is Festivals so we have 4 groups each investigating a festival we celebrate. Our groups are Burns’ Night, Shrove Tuesday, Valentine’s Day and Easter. The children look at these topics using music, art, design and technology and history or geography.

Some of the activities we have done so far in this term are below:

Mr Monaghan came in wearing full Scottish regalia to talk about his Burns’ Night Supper. He shared some pictures of him addressing the Haggis and explained what the different parts of his outfit were called. The boys really enjoyed this discussion and Tom was able to share what he had learned with the rest of the class. He was especially fascinated by the poem and its unusual language.

Our Valentine’s group created a romantic song on the computer using composition software. They experimented with different instruments and notes combining them with beats and strings. They also played some instruments in class to explore the different sounds they could make.

Stay tuned for updates on our Shrove Tuesday and Easter groups…

What a shock Miss Seymour had when she came into class to find a witches hat and a pair of ruby shoes on the classroom floor! The children played detective to try and figure out what had happened. We think the witch must have visited us and forgotten her hat and shoes! We have no idea how she got in!

We made Tornadoes using glass jars, washing up liquid and water. We found that if you shook it in a circle we could see a tornado shape in the jar. We talked about the way the wind moved in a tornado.

“Charlotte shaking the bottle of water because we were making a tornado” – Caitlin

In choosing time some of Reception and Year 1 made a castle for the witch. They thought about the ramparts and how the witch might get in.

“A castle” – Josh “For a witch” – Archie

“We wanted to take a picture because we tried to challenge ourselves” – Tom S

Our Scarecrow group tried really hard to make a scarecrow, choosing the clothes coming up with a way to ensure he stayed standing and making a head.

“In our jigsaw learning we were making a scarecrow. It was excellent fun!” – Tom H

Our Tin Man group made a tin man. It was tricky to join the cans together.

“That’s me and Hollie making the tin man” – Lillie

“Well we put some long legs down and then it wobbles and we have to put some more tins on” -Alfie

We had lots of potion making activities out around class. This is Reception in the water tray outside.

“We were making potions outside with water and with spoons.” – Hollie