The children in Form 1 all knew that the creature would get unwell if it was taken out of its habitat and that we must always leave minibeasts where we find them. 

The children then imagined that if they had discovered a magical pond and found their own Bog Baby, what it would look like. They then created fact files about their own Bog Babies, writing about where they found them, their favourite food and described some of their features. The children added an illustration to their fact file and had fun imagining what they might look like.

As Form 1 have been learning all about bees, it was a great opportunity to make some honey biscuits! The children worked as a class to weigh out the ingredients and they loved using their knowledge of larger numbers to measure 100g of butter and sugar and 180g of flour. The children learnt about teaspoons and tablespoons as a measurement and how to separate an egg yoke from the white. Then, in smaller groups, the children rolled their dough into balls and baked them in the oven - they looked delicious! 

In maths, the children have been exploring adding groups of 2 to a tens frame and quickly recognising the new amount. This has been the start of developing their understanding of counting on in 2’s. It has also been explained as repeated addition. This is a good introduction to the concept of multiplication and great practice for adding and counting on. We also explored the pattern we noticed when we coloured in the numbers that we say when we count on in 2’s. The children noticed the stripy pattern and that they all ended in the same numbers. Exploring further, the children noticed these numbers are all even and we recapped how to check if we were right. 

Everyone has been very creative this week and have made their own little Bog Babies using clay. The children thought about the features they would like to add, such as wings, ears, tails, arms and legs. We discussed how to pinch and manipulate the clay and the tools we could use to add texture. The children are excited for their Bog Babies to dry so they can paint them next week.

The weather was perfect to take a walk and explore the school pond to learn more about pond life minibeasts. We spotted lots and lots of water snails, tiny beetles and a few creatures we couldn’t identify! The children had great fun pond dipping and were all excited to see what they had caught when we emptied their nets into the tray. We also discussed how important it was to place the creatures back into the pond once we had finished.

We have also been busy preparing for our Coffee Morning presentation next week. The children have loved learning their words, the songs and presenting all the facts they have learnt about bees. Thank you for supporting them to learn their words at home - they are all superstars and are very much looking forward to sharing their hard work with you all!

The fascination with minibeasts has continued with the children discovering that lots of creatures are making good use of the ‘bug hotel’ they made last week. They have found stag beetles, woodlice and centipedes. The children were also fascinated to see a dragonfly that was brought in by Arthur and a slow worm that I found on the steps up to Form 1. We googled slow worms to find out more about them and discovered they are in fact the UK’s only species of legless lizard. We have put them in our curiosity cube and the children have been able to have a really good look at these more unusual creatures.