Welcome to Butterfly Class

Happy New Year to you all. We have had a lovely couple of weeks back with the children after Christmas. We hope you enjoy reading all about our Learning Journey this half term. We shall be updating you weekly on our learning and sharing the lovely activities which the children have been enjoying.

This half term our big question is

'Why is there a commotion in the ocean?'

Week 1 and Week 2

We have been finding out about lots of different sea animals and have been amazed at how many facts the children have retained. We can't wait to see their information books about the different sea life they have chosen to write about.

We have been learning to retell the story 'The Rainbow Fish' and have been putting actions to accompany our story. Perhaps your child could perform the story for you at home. The children had a very thoughtful discussion about who they would share their shiny shell with and why.

During our maths lessons we have been looking at different ways to make 5. We had lots of fun with the beanbag game. How many beanbags landed in the hoop? How many didn't go in? How many bean bags did we have altogether?

The children are listening well during phonic lessons and are confidently using their skills to read words and to write. We will be sending home more phonic cards to practise with this week.

We have been really pleased with the children's improved skill and speed at getting changed for PE. Butterfly Class are becoming very independent little learners. Well done!

Week 3

We've had such an exciting week in Butterfly Class. The children have loved helping us to set up a new ocean and pirate learning area in our covered outside area. Fantastic learning has taken place which has been really great to be a part of. We have been researching sea creatures and have used our newly learned facts to write sentences in our sea creatures book.

We were very excited to receive a letter from Rainbow Fish asking us for advice. Most of us thought that he should share his shiny scales.

During maths we have had a teddy bear's picnic to understand about sharing into equal groups. Sometimes the food couldn't be shared equally so we had unequal groups. We have introduced the children to balance scales and have investigated which fruit and veg could balance. Lots of discussion took place about which food was heavier and which was lighter. The children were challenged when a melon was produced. What could they balance with it? The children did some fantastic recording of their learning.

Mrs Totham had a great time with the children on Thursday. They listened to a piece of music, Mars, The Bringer of War from Holst's The Planets. They discussed the dramatic changes of mood and pace and tried to identify the instruments being played.

We have been looking carefully at the weather this week and have noticed that within one day we can experience quite different types of weather. The children have loved wearing the clothes from the tuff tray display, for different seasons and weather.

At lunch time we have some very helpful and kind Year 6 children to help us with cutting our food and who play with us in our outside area. We decided to write them thank you notes to show them our appreciation.

Week 4

This week the children have been exploring capacity. Lots of new vocabulary has been introduced and the children have investigated these words whilst also considering language that we already use. What does full mean? If a jug is full and a different container is full does that mean there is the same amount of liquid in each? If there is only a little amount of liquid in a container is that empty? What words could we use to explain this? The children had great fun using different sized containers, tall and short, wide and narrow. Do the tallest containers hold more? Really great mathematical thinking took place whilst having lots of fun and also getting a little bit wet at times! Perhaps your child could continue this learning at home, maybe bath time would be a great time to investigate.

We have been continuing our fact files on sea creatures so that we are prepared for our trip to the Sealife Centre on Wednesday 9th February. The children loved learning about seahorses this week and couldn't believe it that daddy gives birth to the babies! How fascinating. Ask your children if they can remember any other facts.

Our confidence to blend sounds is improving weekly and we are really excited to see the children choosing books to read in our many different areas of our environment, both inside and outside. The children are recognising tricky words, also known as red words in our phonics scheme. They have enjoyed re-telling stories that they already know. One group of children were playing in the fruit and vegetable shop and stopped to have a story whilst carrying all their shopping! Another group were reading recipes to decide what to cook for the teddies in the home corner. Proving that reading really can take place anywhere.

We had great fun exploring rain during some fun rain experiments. Next week we are going to be looking in more detail at weather reporting. Perhaps you could watch a weather forecast together.