The children, who have managed to avoid self-isolation this week, have been continuing to learn all about Space. They began the week by completing the making all of the planets in our solar system. The planets have now been displayed in our space role play area. They look amazing! The children have loved singing songs about the planets and have learnt some amazing facts!

This week some children chose to make play dough stars and used their stars to find out one more or one less than a number on a rocket.

Other children wrote about what they would need if they were an astronaut going to the moon.

Some children made rockets out of junk modelling. They were great problem solvers and decision makers!

Lots of children loved playing with our small world moon! They enjoyed flying the rockets, driving the moon buggies and collect moon rock samples!

And the children loved dressing up as astronauts and pretending they were Tim Peake, flying to the moon in a rocket. They enjoyed working the rocket controls, space walking on the moon, looking for aliens, collecting moon rocks and keeping space logs.

This week we have begun our topic on ‘To Infinity and Beyond!’ We began our topic with a brainstorm about Space. The children thought about what they already knew about Space as well as what they would like to know about Space.

We decided to start the topic by focussing this week upon our planet, the Earth. The children have learnt a lot of information about Earth. We have discussed how the Earth rotates on its axis, how it orbits the sun, how it is the third planet in our solar system, how the Earth is made up of land and water, that Earth has an atmosphere and how Earth is the only planet to sustain life. The children know that we live on Earth and that Earth is a beautiful planet.

The children then decided to make our planet Earth in different ways. Some children chose to paint the Earth.

Some children decided to make the Earth out of play dough.

And some children decided to collage the Earth.

Lots of children stamped, read and wrote tricky words onto the Earth they had cut out of playdough.

Lots of children also used their phonic knowledge to write their own sentences about why the Earth is such a beautiful place to live.

The children have also been developing their knowledge and understanding of number. They have filled tens frames using green, blue and white gems. They matched the number of gems to corresponding numbers and then they explained how they knew they had the correct number of gems. The children are getting very good at subitising – for example, they know that 6 is 5 and 1 more, 7 is 5 and 2 more and 8 is 5 and 3 more.

The children have also been making all of the planets in our solar system. The planets will be displayed in our space role play area when they are finished. So far the children have paper mached the planets and next week they will paint them the appropriate colours. Why not pop down and take a look?!

This week the children have been learning about milk and why it is good for us. The children know that milk is good for us because it makes our bones, teeth and nails grow strong. They also know that milk contains the vitamin calcium! The children have really grasped that eating healthily and exercising is good for us! They enjoyed playing at the play dough table making healthy hearts!

They have also been busy thinking about Oliver’s trip to the farm and they have been thinking about what fruits they would like to put in their milkshakes. At the workshop table they have been collaging milkshakes and then they have written super sentences about their milkshakes.

The children have also learnt about where milk comes from and they watched Farmer Jack milk his cows by hand and by machine. The children really enjoyed having a go at milking a cow. The laughter from each family group was lovely to hear. The children were certainly enjoying their learning.

We have ended the week with the final group of children going to Sainsbury’s. They went to Sainsbury’s on the number 50 bus, they selected the ingredients for their milkshakes, they scanned the food and paid at the self-checkout, and then they came back to school on the Number 49 bus!

The Bumble Bees family group wanted to make a strawberry and a raspberry milkshake. The Honey Bees family group wanted to make a strawberry and an apple milkshake. As a whole class we also decided to make a banana milkshake.

The children enjoyed making their fruit milkshakes. They thought they were yummy, scrummy, fruity, frothy, icy, nicey, tip top tasty, dreamy, creamy milkshakes!!

As well as learning all about milk, the children have also been busy this week learning all about the numbers 6, 7 and 8. They have been subitising 6, 7 and 8 on a 10s frame, making 6, 7 and 8 in different ways with the Numicon and partitioning 6, 7 and 8 in different ways on our part, part, whole models! What great mathematicians the Swans are!

The children have also been super writers! Here are a few examples of some lovely story writing the children have written. The children have chosen their own characters, settings, problems and solutions and they have used their phonic knowledge to write sentences, making plausible attempts at words. Well done Swans!

This week the children learnt the importance of staying safe on the internet. Mrs Horsley read the children a story called ‘Buddy the Dog’s Internet Safety Story.’ Through the story the children learnt how to use the Internet safely in a fun way!

The story specifically focused upon the safe use of tablets and smartphones. Throughout the story the children were asked their opinions on what Ben should do in each scenario. This initiated lots of discussions about key online safety issues. The children also learnt a catchy song to reinforce the key Internet Safety messages.