E I E I O

Welcome to the butterfly blog. I'm sure you can't guess what our topic has been this week!

Before we started thinking about animals that lived on a farm, we had an animal to deal with in our garden! The naughty caterpillar kept saying he was going to run away on an adventure, so we had to learn to tie knots so we could tie him to the ground and stop him running away!  

We all worked together to make sure he was nice and secure... but did it work?

 We have started having a maths focus at busy jobs on Monday, before introducing our topic. We have been having lots of fun exploring the numicon and developing our understanding of bigger and smaller numbers

Board games are a great way to learn maths and have fun! You can download and print a snakes and ladders game by clicking here if you do't have one!

Some butterflies invented their own game using the gigantic dice and some number cards.

Maths can be tactile, engaging and look like play!

I'm sure your butterfly would love to show you how nicely they can paint numbers!

Then that was the end of the week and we didn't do anything exciting at all.

EXCEPT GOING TO THE FARM!

We were met by farmer Eric who was very friendly! He quizzed us on the names of baby animals.

We knew them all! Including the name for baby bunnies! Can your butterfly remember what they are called?

We loved sitting on the giant hay bails and the butterflies thought they looked like gigantic couches!

Then farmer Eric took us on a walk around the farm, to see if we could spot any baby animals.

First stop was the sheep! There were so many tiny baby lambs with floppy ears!

Then we went across the courtyard to meet the donkey and the horses... little did we know we were going to have a closer encounter with a donkey that day!

Farmer Eric explained the difference between hay and silage, and told us which animals liked to eat which one. Can your butterfly remember? He let us smell is, and we decided we liked the smell of the hay better. Poor cows your dinner isn't as tasty as the horses!

Then we went to feed the cows!

 They were definitely not shy! 

Next up was some ducklings. They were bright yellow! It was hard to count them as they wouldn't stay still! Next week some butterflies will be focusing on counting an irregular arrangement in maths, it's trickier than it sounds! 

Then we went on a walk through the sheep field to hunt for some lambs. This donkey had other ideas! He was very friendly and came storming into the middle of our circle!

Farmer Eric fished something wiggly out of a near by stream. Miss Whitelock is frightened of wiggles and squiggles that live in the water so you will have to ask your butterflies if they can remember what it was because I didn't peek!

                                      

 After a long walk up a hill, following the zig-zag fairy path we found something very fun! It was a big barn full of HUGE straw bails and rope swings! We were allowed to play in it anyway we wanted!

Some butterflies went jumping up to the very top. It was ever so high!

Then we jumped off the bails and collapsed at the bottom! It was all snuggly warm and soft in the straw.

WEEE!

There were secret hiding places that we could crawl into.

This maybe why your butterfly came home with straw in their hoods and socks and t-shirts!

No grown ups allowed!

Then we went bouncing up and down on a big green tractor!

It was a very wobbly ride and we sang the whole way round.

When we got back, there was a very strange bird waiting for us! He looked a lot like a dinosaur and was very big! 

The farmer scooped him up to show us that he wasn't all that tough! He was about half the size he looked!

Then we jumped back on our bus to go back to Brookside. 

Hello Gaz!

We spoke about the changing landscape, and tried to work out when we were in the city, the country side and the village.

What a lovely day!

Back at school we have been working to develop the chidren's creative skills. Making sure that they have lots of opportunities to self select materials and create what ever they want.

They noticed that the naughty caterpillar had snuck away after all so set about building a trap to catch him in!

We made lots of space for building things and just let the children follow their imaginations! It was a wonderful day and lots of fantastic work got made!

Next week, we will start looking at some of the animals that live in our gardens. We will be looking closely at  an amphibian that goes through a lot of changes and is a bit slimey! Can you guess who it will be?

We will be swimming again on Tuesday, so please send your butterfly with their swimming kit.

The PE coordinator has been to remind us about earrings and so children will not be allowed to swim if they come to school with earrings in.

It's been a very adventurous week, and we hope your butterfly has a lot of things to tell you! 

Goodbye and toodle-oo!