What a great first half term Chaffinches have had. From making our own ice lollies to drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows, Chaffinches have had a fun-filled and busy start to the year. We launched our topic ‘Fire and Ice’ with an amazing Wow day where we made beautiful snowflakes, caused volcanoes to erupt, used a variety of media to make giant flames and played ‘ice’ hockey too.

Chaffinches have settled in very well to their new class and routines and are already making great progress, both in their work and with their independence.

In our English lessons, we began by looking at explorers of the Arctic, reading a book entitled ‘The Great Explorer’ by Chris Judge. We researched animals of the Arctic and wrote an information text about polar bears.  We then moved half way around the world to learn about Antarctica, and the animals that can be found there.  Another book we enjoyed reading is ‘The penguin who wanted to find out’: this inspired us to write our own adventure about Otto the penguin.   We have been dancing like penguins and singing a song about Rocking at the North Pole.

We have been learning how to find the Arctic and the Antarctic, using globes, maps and atlases.  Chaffinches were lucky enough to speak to a Research Scientist who is currently stationed in Antarctica: the children thought of some fantastic questions to ask her and were enthralled by her answers.

What a fantastic start to the new academic year. Well done Chaffinches!!

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The children from Chaffinches went out into the forest to gather natural resources to create their own artwork of rainforest animals.  They created snakes, a sloth, a toucan, a butterfly and a jaguar, using twigs, branches, leaves and stones

.  Take a look at our creations.

Chaffinches have had a fantastic week learning about Climate Change. They now realise the importance of recycling, re-using and not wasting things, and how this can make a difference to our planet. We made a video to highlight what we’ve learned and how we can help!

What a fantastic time Robins and Chaffinches had at Woodside Wildlife Park.  We were able to see some amazing animals, some of which are usually found in the rainforest.  Children were able to see birds of prey, a tiger (rescued from a circus), bats, meerkats, lemurs and a sloth (Sid).  As you can see from the photos, children had the chance to handle or stroke some of the reptiles and they loved it! We learned a lot about these amazing animals and about the habitats that they usually live in and the food they eat.

Over the last few months, several children from Year 1 and 2 have been taking part in a Book Club. They have enjoyed reading several books, have written detailed book reviews and have attended several meetings where they have discussed elements of the books and have shared their opinions on the various texts. This week, we ended Book Club with a celebration event.  We played games and shared our views on books and authors. There was also an opportunity to take part in a competition to design an alternative book cover with some super new books as prizes. Well done to all the participants, we have had lots of fun sharing our love of books together.