The big garden birdwatch
26 Jan 2024Our topic this week was The Big Garden Birdwatch. We have enjoyed such a wonderful week, exploring nature and our fantastic school grounds.
On Tuesday we made yummy bread rolls and we used a variety of actions to work the dough. We made lots of marks in the flour and then we poked, squeezed and patted the dough. Once finished, we popped them in the oven and set our timer. Everyone loves our baking, so we made a delivery to Mrs Tickner, Mrs Parker and Mr McCarthy. They were all very pleased with their rolls and I must say, it was lovely to see the children's confidence shine through as they explained what we had made.
Snack time is a special time in Russell Robins, as this is when we come together to discuss our weekend news, whilst trying lots of different fruit and vegetables. Our Robins like to try everything on their plate, which is great! Crumpets and toast are then offered to the children and this is a very exciting time as we have lots of crumpet monsters.
It was great to see the children persevere with changing into their wellies. Lots of fun was had jumping in puddles and we then ventured through the woods, listening to the bird sounds on our way. This was followed by a warming hot chocolate and biscuit in the Outdoor Classroom. It was lovely to hear all the children’s manners as they said please and thank you. Well done, Robins.
As part of this week’s topic, we made binoculars from egg boxes. Can you guess the shape? The children are looking forward to showing their Pre-Prep friends during our assembly next week.
Our bird table has been revamped this week with the help of Mr Phil. Wow! We now have such a wonderful feeding station for our feathery friends and it did not take long for them to land and peck their way through the yummy seed and suet blocks. As you know, I place a big emphasis on nature and the children are able to identify a variety of garden birds. With this in mind, I wanted to share our love of nature with The Wildlife Trust. We composed a letter, along with some photos of our feeding station and delivered the letter to Mrs Tickner to post. It would be lovely to get a reply, so we are keeping our fingers crossed.
Mr Phil helped us with our fire practice and we quickly walked to the playground like speedy spiders. The Robins stood on their white line beautifully and very sensibly. They listened for their names and then we counted each other to make sure everyone was present.
The children have enjoyed using our new crayon beans. They are such a fabulous mark-making tool as they support children’s fine motor control. These were used to add lots of colour to their wonderful bird pictures, along with feathers and tissue paper.
Sensory activities are a great way to engage the senses. The children enjoyed exploring a nature-themed sensory tray. This also supported the children’s language skills as they were able to describe the different textures.
On Wednesday, Mr McCarthy visited us for Storytime. They enjoyed listening to the new stories and they liked revealing what was hiding underneath the flaps. The Robins liked the story Birds by Kevin Henkes and they enjoyed looking at the different birds. The story promoted lots of discussion and the illustrations were beautiful. It supported this week’s story and the children made connections to our own feathery friends.
We had a couple of bananas that were a little too soft, so we made a delicious banana and sultana cake with cinnamon as our special ingredient. As a treat, we tried some before we made our way to assembly. On our return, Form 6 greeted us and joined us for snack time. Form 6 also tried some scrummy cake and they said it was delicious!
On Thursday, we explored the school grounds and used our identification sheets to identify different types of berries and seeds. I spoke to the children about the importance of these crucial foods for birds as they are antioxidants. We also spotted redwings around the fields, eating ivy berries, which is super fantastic! On our return to class, we saw long-tailed tits at our feeding station. As a treat (and continuing with our topic), the children were able to choose whether to watch a garden camera video of nature on the CTOUCH or to do free-play. Some of the children were able to correctly identify the birds which was wonderful. They also laughed when one of the birds was a little cheeky for taking all the food!
We finished the week with an energetic session in the Russell Hall; balancing, climbing, jumping and rolling.
The children are looking forward to next week’s topic: Mythical creatures. Perhaps you could send in a book or toy from home linked to dragons, fairies, mermaids or unicorns.
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