We first started by looking at a map of the world and the children learnt a song about the seven continents. We thought about how the different continents around the world have different types of weather and habitats. The children understood that the animals that live there have adapted to these different conditions and this is why we do not have penguins in Otford!

The children looked at the world map closely on the CTouch and located the United Kingdom, discovering that we live in Europe. The children were quite surprised to see how small our continent is compared to others! We also learnt a catchy song all about the continents to help remember their names.

We have focused on North America and Africa this week and learnt some amazing facts about the animals that live there. One particular fact that the children loved was that beavers have transparent eyelids that act like swimming goggles when they are under the water! Everyone also tried to hold their breath for 15 minutes just like they can… we discovered this is very hard to do!

We learnt about hippos, lions, elephants and zebras when looking at Africa and the children loved watching clips of these animals in the wild. The children enjoyed learning that the stripes on a zebra are completely unique to each zebra, just like our fingerprints. In literacy, the children then made a start on their Amazing Animals fact book. They each chose an animal that we had learnt about and wrote a sentence about either its habitat, diet or a fun fact. Drawings were also added to accompany their writing. The children wrote another page about an African animal later in the week and they were particularly enthusiastic about writing about lions! We will continue to work on these books over the next few weeks, adding pages for each of the continents, learning how to add labels and a content page.

In maths the children have been learning about capacity. We discussed the vocabulary that is used to talk about how full a container is; full, nearly full, half full, nearly empty and empty. The children were able to order some containers from full to empty by comparing the amounts and sorting accordingly. We then went on to learn how to use a cup as a unit of measurement. We looked at a range of containers and discussed which ones we thought would hold the most water. The children initially said that the taller the container was, the more it would hold. A very logical prediction! We carefully counted how many cups each container held, remembering to always make each cup full to ensure we were accurate. We then ordered the containers according to their capacity. The children discovered that the width of the container also made a difference and were surprised by the capacity of some of the shorter jars.

The children then measured the capacity of different containers for themselves in the water tray outside. They carefully counted each cup as they poured it in and then recorded their answers on the easel. The children could then tell me which container held the most and the least.

In art, the children have been looking closely at the different patterns on animals' fur, skin and feathers. We divided some A4 paper into 4 squares and the children filled each square with a different animal pattern. They used a range of techniques to create this piece of work and they look really effective. The children enjoyed using pastels, pens, pencils, tissue paper and printing techniques. We have also been looking closely at photographs of animals and the children worked hard to draw accurate pictures of these. We focused on the body shape, features and colours of the animals.

Form 1 also presented their assembly on Chinese New Year for the rest of Pre-Prep and Form 2 this week. They were confident to share the wish they had written with the other children and tell them all about the things we learnt about during our topic. We shared photographs of our puppet making, stir-fry, cake baking and told the children some facts that we had learnt. It really has been a wonderful start to the second half of the Spring Term!