On Monday, they were excited to see a real bird's nest that was found in Mrs Cooper’s garden. The children looked closely at the nest and noticed all the material that the bird had used to build with. They even spotted some long coarse hair and wondered what it was. When they were told that Mrs Cooper lives next to a stable, the children guessed correctly that it was horse hair! We used this interesting object as a focus for our writing and the children wrote simple sentences about what they could see in the nest. They noticed moss, twigs, feathers, grass, horse hair and hay.

The children went on a scavenger hunt this week, pretending to be birds and looking for materials to build their own nests. Firstly we discussed why birds make nests and watched a time-lapse video to show how these amazing creatures create their nests. It looked like a lot of work and the video we watched showed that it took a bluetit around 40 days to build its nest. We discussed the materials that would be best; twigs for structure and strength and then softer materials to protect the fragile eggs. The children thought that sheep's wool would make a great nesting material as it is soft and cosy. They were thrilled to find lots of wool on the fences when we visited the lambs field, as well as blossom, dry grass, twigs, leaves and feathers.

Once the children had gathered their materials, we headed back to Form 1 to set to work to create our own nests. We added a little bit of clay to act as mud to help join the twigs and sticks together. The children discovered that they were able to create a stronger base for the nests using this. The children then added the softer materials on top to keep their eggs warm. The nests looked rather pretty thanks to all the pink blossoms the children found and they were all different and unique.

In maths this week we have been learning all about 3D shapes. The children have been learning their names and some new vocabulary (face, edge and vertices) was introduced to discuss the properties of 3D shapes. The children have been building with these 3D shapes and exploring their properties in a practical and hands-on way.

On Wednesday, Form 1 were excited to share some of their learning about birds with the rest of the Pre-Prep as they led our weekly assembly. The children shared some facts about what a bird is and where they might build their nests. The children then shared how to draw a simple bird, showing the step-by-step process that they had learnt last week. All the children, from our littlest Robins to our very grown-up Form 2s were able to follow the steps and we had a hall full of lovely little birds at the end! We finished with a song about birds which was lots of fun.

Form 1 have also been learning about birds from around the world this week and discovered some very unusual creatures! The children were fascinated by the Shoebill from the swamps of Africa, the Great Potoo from South America, the Kakapo Parrot from New Zealand and the Tawny Frogmouth from Australia. We watched some videos all about these birds and learnt some interesting facts. The children were very excited to learn that the Shoebill is the only bird known to eat crocodiles! The children then made their own little books all about these birds, learning how to use the hole punch and split pins to join their pages.

We had lots of fun making binoculars this week using toilet roll tubes, tape and string. The children thought about how to join their toilet rolls together and used the single hole punch to make holes and thread through the string to make a neck strap. The children decorated their binoculars in any way they chose and we can’t wait to go on a bird spotting adventure and see what we can find! Another brilliant bird themed week in Form 1!