Winter Animals

This week Reception are exploring winter animals. We have begun to explore what animals hibernate and why. We have built dens for the bears and hedgehogs to hibernate in. We have also discussed animals that live in the Arctic and Antarctica such as penguins, polar bears and arctic foxes.

Animals trapped in ice!

Some of our polar bears are trapped in ice! The children used their prior knowledge of ice, and knew straight away that the ice would melt if we add warm water and use our warm hands. But it might take a long time, and the animals urgently needed our help. So instead, we used some tools! We started to see cracks in the ice, and slowly, we chipped away and finally freed the animals!

Yolanda King

This week Reception are exploring the African American author Yolanda King. Today we have read her book Curlilocks and the Sleepy Giant.
We are exploring; African instruments in our investigation area, friendships by making friendship bracelets, feelings and emotions by making a feeling monster for the Sleepy Giant and African animals in our construction area. We are also discussing how we are the same and different to each other and how we can treat everyone kindly.

Making tracks and footprints in the snow

After learning all about the animals that live in cold places, we decided to use the animals to make tracks and footprints in the snow, just like we found the bird footprints in the snow last week!

Arctic messy play!

Following our winter walk yesterday, and all the fantastic comments and observations made by the children, this morning we had a wintry messy tuff tray for the children to explore. One of the children told us “you’ve made the arctic! All of those animals live in the arctic!” We talked about which animals live in the arctic and similar places, and whether we thought it would be hot or cold.

Jack Frost – making connections

After our winter walk, we warmed up in Nursery and read Jack Frost together. The children were able to make many connections between the book and what we had seen and learned about on our walk earlier this morning. In our story, the boy was not allowed to talk about anything warm around Jack Frost – but why? The children knew straight away that anything warm would make Jack Frost melt, just like the frost melted when we touched it with our warm hands. We talked about things that the boy could not talk about – the children suggested hot chocolate, fire, their bed and blankets. We then chose some things that the boy could talk about – such as the fridge, milk, and ice cream. At the end of the story, Jack Frost disappeared…but D told us “he’ll be back next year when it’s winter again” 😍

Winter walk

This morning, our friend used words such as ‘slippery’ and ‘frozen’ when he was talking about his walk to school. We so wrapped up warm, and went to investigate. We found that our environment had changed a lot since our Autumn walk. The leaves have fallen from the trees, the weather is colder, and there is frost everywhere! We explored the frosty leaves, discussing whether the frost was hot or cold.

Winter

This week Reception have been exploring the season Winter. We have explored different winter animals and artic animals. We have also discussed what winter clothes we wear to stay warm.

Ice tray

We found lots of Autumn things trapped inside some ice! We explored how to get them out, using the warmth from our hands. We listened to the cracking noises the ice made when we snapped it.

Snow fun ⛄️ ❄️

We were so excited to explore the snow and ice today! We were very careful not to slip, and listened really carefully to our rules when we were outside. We were only able to stay out for 10 minutes, but we managed to learn so much! We found tracks in the snow…we decided they belonged to a bird, and we followed them all the way across our playground, across the grass, to the tree! We could hear a bird singing at the top of the tree, so we decided we had found the creature that had made the prints! How exciting! The children used words such as soft, cold, icy, slippy, wet and crunchy to describe the ice and snow. We warmed up on the carpet with a story about foxes playing in the snow, and the children made a fantastic connection in the story: the foxes left footprints in the snow, just like our visiting bird 🐦

Geography posters!

UK- compass

Cold walk

Even though winter isn’t quite here, the children noticed the weather is starting to change. They also noticed that on their walk to school today, the ground was “sparkly” so we went to investigate! The colder weather is changing how our environment looks and we had lots of fun exploring. We found that the water in the tray had frozen! So we chipped away and broke some off to hold.

Mountains Year 5

5H have been creating presentations about different mountains in Geography. They have worked in groups to research and draw diagrams about how these mountains are formed.

Year 6- Geography

Year 6 began their Settlements topic, focusing on finding different locations around the UK using atlases.

Geography – Year One

We have enjoyed learning all about where we live in the world. We explored globes and atlases to locate Europe, UK and Liverpool.

Autumn colour drop

We built an autumn tree using sticks and branches, and then created our own autumnal leaves by dropping different colours onto our cotton pad leaves! The children made links to our autumn walk, and discussed the different colours we could use. We found it tricky to draw the coloured water up into the pipettes but with some practise, we did it!

Learning about Autumn

Following our Autumn walk, we collected lots of Autumn treasure 🍂 we spent some time talking about what we found, and learning new words like conker, acorn and pine cone. We read some beautiful Autumn poems and talked about the rhyming words that we could hear. We then used magnifying glasses to explore our Autumn treasures.

Learning about Autumn

We went for a lovely walk around our school grounds to look at the signs of Autumn. We noticed how the leaves are changing colour and starting to fall. We even had a little shake of a branch and watching some loose leaves fall! We used an information book to help us identify some things that we had found.

Year One – Geography

We enjoyed going on a ‘fact hunt’ today and learning all about life in Kenya. How many facts can you recall?

Geography

In Geography this week, we searched a map for the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

Atlas work

Today, 4D were geographers. We used our atlas skills to find and label famous UK rivers.

Art week – clay sculptures

5M have made cross-curricular links between Art and Geography this week – learning about Totem Poles and then designing and sculpting our own.
We haven’t quite finished our sculptures yet, so watch this space for the end results.

Art Week 5H

This week we have been making Totem Poles in Art, linked to our North America topic in Geography.

Treasure Hunt⭐️

This week we used our map skills to find the treasure which the leprechaun had left outside. We had o much fun, we all found the treasure!

6MR – In Geography we have been learning about changes in our local area over time.

Knowsley Safari

This morning Knowsley Safari spoke to use about how our little actions can impact on animals and nature. We discussed how to make more sustainable choices.

5H Geography

5H enjoyed starting our topic on North America this week. We used the atlas’ to find major countries and cities and ipads to research facts.

3M Geography

3M enjoyed searching a map of the UK to locate rivers and cities.

Cross-curricular learning!

Today, 5M used an atlas to locate the place that the Muslim faith was founded.

5H Big Friday Quiz!

5H enjoyed the BFQ today, with over 30 dojos to win! Well done!