Our topic this term was 'Growing and Changing'. Our focus in class was on the life cycles of animals and plants. We thought about the different types of animals, animals as pets, farm animals and zoo animals the places they live and what they like to eat. Our arrival of five tiny caterpillars at the start of term brought great excitement waiting and watching for them to turn into butterflies. The children had to learn to be patient as it was another five weeks before the first butterfly emerged from its chrysalis. In total we had five butterflies and after all that careful watching and waiting we missed every butterfly emerging from its chrysalis! However, we were still very excited to see them and once their wings were dry we were able to release them into the hedge by our classroom.

All those butterflies inspired us to ‘have a go’ at making our own. I think you will agree that they are very cute and have lovely bright colours. I am sure we would all be happy to see such beautiful butterflies in our gardens.

We not only looked at the lifecycle of animals but also plants. We chose to plant beans, which obviously fits in nicely with the story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. We discovered that there were lots of versions of this story and we had fun in class comparing the different versions of the story looking for similarities and differences - there were lots! Again, the children have had to learn about being patient whilst waiting for their ‘beanstalks’ to grow. There hasn’t been any overnight growth spurts as there was in the story. In fact some children are still waiting for signs of life in their plant pots!

As part of our topic we went on a trip to Farmer Gow's where we had a very 'hands on' experience with lots of baby animals, all of whom needed feeding! As you can see from the photos the children had a wonderful day, it was enormous fun and they learnt lots!

For more trip photos see 'Trips' on class page.

Of course as well as all the topic work we have done, we have still worked on everything else in our curriculum. Here are a few highlights of the other fun (work) that has been taking place.

I can’t believe we are already at the end of term five. Wishing everyone a good break next week and keeping everything crossed for some more sunshine!