Trapping the Evil Peas
What an exciting week it has been! We began the week by reading 'Supertato' by Sue Hendra, which provided us with lots of exciting ideas to use to further our understanding of the world and develop our learning. We have been on an Evil Pea hunt, searching for the naughty runaways who 'went bad' when their freezer was turned off! Each pea that we found had a tricky digraph written on the back, which we then used to write words and sentences. We have designed and created our own pea traps, using a variety of different materials and considering how we will entice the peas inside the traps. Some of the children took this further by transforming the wendy house into a giant trap. They had to work out the correct angles needed to pull the string they had attached to the door handle in the right direction to make the door shut. It took a lot of cooperation! The children then took this further, by using a crate as a trap. They had to work out how to make it fall on top of the peas and ended up designing a pulley system that involved throwing rope over the beam of the outside shelter and hoisting the crate up. This all led to discussions about gravity, safety, friction and push and pull forces! Not bad for an afternoon's work!
Later in the week the children went out on a spring walk, and continued their understanding of push and pull by investigating in the park. They collected natural materials for creating bug hotels and spotted signs of the changing seasons. They learned all about St Patrick and discussed traditions that we celebrate in our families. One of the children suggested making fake gold coins to trick the leprachauns and continued their trap design ideas in order to try and capture on on St Patrick's day!
Not everything has involved trapping, but there has been a lot more designing and imaginative role play. The boys have designed cars and plans and have created dashboards with moving parts and maps - Miss Cale was keen to come on a flight on their plane! We have made potions and vegetable soup in the mud kitchen and have enjoyed performances of 'Let it Go!', have painted with potatoes and have investigated shadows- all of this on top of our maths challenges, working with doubles and completing patterns, our daily writing tasks in phonics and reading, among many others!
We hope you all enjoyed parents' evening and found it informative. It is such a pleasure to be able to show you the progress your children have been making and give you more of an insight into the work they have been doing. If you have any further queries, at any time, please don't hesitate to come and talk to us.
