Our topic this week was minibeasts and one that everyone was very excited about! We watched a very interesting video and found out lots of facts. We also learnt what the word invertebrate means and challenged ourselves to think of different types of minibeast. The children drew their invertebrates on our interactive whiteboard and made sure they were careful to add the correct amount of legs. It took a very long time to draw all the legs for the centipede! After watching the video, we headed out on a minibeast hunt. With magnifying glasses, bug pots and clipboards in hand, the children had everything they needed to go exploring. They searched high and low, in the trees and under logs and found an impressive array of creatures from pill bugs and spiders, to ants and bees. 

In our maths lesson this week, we have been discussing symmetry. I was so impressed with the children’s understanding of symmetry. We started off by looking at symmetrical pictures and finding the matching half, before moving on to some very tricky shape and pattern symmetry. Transition do love a challenge though and they left me almost speechless as they found the missing pieces of some very difficult puzzles. Later that morning, we made some beautiful butterflies by painting one half of the butterfly and then printing it onto the other side. 

We have enjoyed some wonderful books about minibeasts this week. Yucky Worms taught us how important worms are for the soil and for plants. We also found out that worms don’t have eyes or ears but can feel vibrations through their skin. We thought it would be fun to try and be worms too, so we closed our eyes while some birds stamped on the ground. We also enjoyed Some Smug Slug which introduced us to alliteration. 

Our sound of the week n. The children thought of lots of ideas including; net, nine, nose and nurse. The children are needing less reminders to use their super fingers when forming their letters and have been trying so hard to write their names. Well done, Transition! 

On Wednesday, we found out some incredible facts about bees. We couldn’t bee-lieve that honey bees can tell other bees in the hive about the location of a food source, by doing a special dance called a waggle dance. Transition made their own bees, by wrapping wool around an alder cone, then set out to find some flowers. When the worker bees found a good flower source, they had to shake their abdomens to let the others know. There was much delight and laughter as we watched the bees perform their dance!  The bees also found some beautiful elderflowers which we collected to turn into elderflower lemonade.

On Thursday, Transition got to enjoy a special treat, as a reward for filling the marble jar. Our classroom became a restaurant and tables were laid in preparation for the children’s arrival. Everyone was served a slice of fruit pizza paired with an elderflower cocktail, of course! It was lovely to see the children trying new foods and drinks, with some declaring that it was the best class treat they’d ever had! You thoroughly deserved it, Transition, keep up the fantastic work!