What a wonderful week of warm weather we’ve had! Transition have certainly made the most of the glorious sunshine by enjoying lots of time outside and in the paddock.

On Monday, we learnt all about the life cycle of a frog and the names for the different stages of its life. Some of the children were excited to tell me that they’ve spotted frogspawn and tadpoles in local ponds and we wondered how long it might be before they turn into frogs. We found out that tadpoles have gills, but adult frogs breathe air like us. We put our hands on our rib cages and felt them expand as we breathed in, then reduce as we breathed out. It was very relaxing!

Later that morning, we visited The Farm for a spot of pond dipping. Everyone was so careful as they fished for creatures and then emptied them into our tray. We found pond snails, pond skaters, a whirligig beetle and dragonfly larvae; it was hard to believe that the tiny creature in the pot would one day become a beautiful dragonfly!

On Tuesday, we checked on the seedlings that we’d planted before half-term. We could not believe how much they’d grown! The beetroot and courgette plants were looking very strong and the sunflower was nearly 40 cm tall. I asked the children why they thought the plants were growing so well, and I was so impressed that they remembered what a plant needs to survive and grow. After discussing the names of the different parts of the plant, the children created and labelled their own flower picture. There was lots of concentration as the children carefully cut, stuck and coloured their flowers, which have really brightened up our classroom!

In maths, we’ve been working on our number recognition by playing some fun games. First, the children had to choose a numbered beanbag, then do the amount of corresponding jumps, while the others clapped the same amount. Next, we lined up all the numbers in order, and everyone took it in turns to frog jump as far as possible, then identify which number they’d hopped to! It was ribbit-ing to watch!

Our letter sound this week was a which some of the children recognised instantly. They thought of some a-mazing words that started with that letter, including ant, alligator, astronaut and apple. Some of our older children had a go at spelling and writing the word apple, and some other a words too. It is wonderful to see everyone making such good progress with their sounds!

On Thursday, we created a real mini pond. We walked to The Farm to collect rocks and rain water, then walked very carefully back to the classroom, so we didn’t spill a drop! We added a ramp to our mini pond, so that creatures can crawl out if they accidentally fall in. We are very excited to see which creatures move in and will keep you posted!

The children have also been having lots of fun building bridges, painting, making paper chain caterpillars, exploring our play pond and feeding flies to the frogs!

Miss Norford took us outside for our music lesson and we were very surprised to find a piano on the grass, near the pirate ship! It was more of a challenge for the children to sing outside as they had to use their loud singing voices, but they rose to the challenge and sounded so beautiful, even the birds wanted to join in!