This week's topic was Superworm by Julia Donaldson. The story is all about a superhero worm who goes on lots of adventures to come to the rescue of other animals who are in need of help. One day however Superworm is caught by the evil Wizard Lizard and it is now Superworm who is in need of rescuing! Luckily Superworm has lots of clever insect friends to help him escape! We chose this topic to support the discoveries on our Outdoor Learning Days as well as the children’s love of hunting for worms. The children are familiar with the story and loved joining in with the repeated refrains.
There was lots of worm related activities throughout the week beginning with a Maths activity all about measuring! The children created lots of different worms with playdough before using rulers to measure the different lengths. The children were encouraged to roll the playdough using their palms, putting pressure on the playdough and watching as their worms became longer and longer.
In Literacy we used our own Superworm to fish for phonics, carefully holding the magnetic worm over the letter cards and seeing what sounds we collected. The Squirrels took turns, saying the letter sounds and naming items with the same initial sound. This was a little tricky but we all supported each other with ideas when required.
We had another great Outdoor Learning Day this week. With our topic book being Superworm there was only one thing for us to do; a worm hunt! The Squirrels are well versed in encouraging worms out of the ground and after finding a suitably muddy area we began jumping and stomping. We kept our eyes peeled and used sticks as tools to dig up the mud and sure enough worms began to appear. We collected lots of worms, placing them in our magnifying pots before returning to the Safe Zone. Once there we poured all the worms out and counted how many we had found. We then we used rulers to measure the length of each worm. Most of the Squirrels were happy to hold the worms in their hands and gently stretch them out so that we could find out how long they were and read the corresponding numbers off the ruler. We compared the worms’ lengths deciding whether they were longer or shorter. Then we used the xploview to get up close to the worms watching on the iPad and observing how they move and the different patterns on their bodies.
Physical Activity is at the core of our Outdoor Learning Days and this week we played a team game of 'Through the Hoop’. Our challenge was to contort our bodies just like a worm to move the hoop around the circle without breaking hands. We had to focus hard and work together as a group to transport the hoop all the way around. After we succeeded in this, we had a go at skipping! This was a new skill for lots of us but that didn’t stop our enthusiasm and even though it was tricky we didn’t give up with most achieving at least one jump of the rope.
This week marks the end of the Spring term and the Easter holiday break. As part of our British Values and Cultural Capital we explored what Easter is, how it is celebrated and by whom. The Squirrels recalled the Nativity story and Jesus and recognised the symbol of the cross used in Christianity. We celebrated by decorating beautiful Easter Crowns with paper, paint and collage materials to wear on our Easter Egg Hunt which took place at the end of the week. The children followed clues around the classroom before revealing eggs filled with soft toy bunnies!
We have had a wonderful second half of term and we can't wait to welcome the children back after the Easter break!
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