On Monday the children enjoyed reading some seaside poems and then enjoyed creating their own poem. Looking at the five senses, the children generated lots of wonderful ideas about what they might see, feel, hear, smell and taste when at the seaside. They worked hard to use descriptive language and even started to learn about alliteration. The children then worked independently and wrote their own poems.

The children have also been practising reciting their poem for our Pre-Prep Celebration in a few weeks time. They have worked brilliantly in their groups to remember all the words and recite their part of the poem clearly and with expression.

In maths this week, Form 1 have been learning about how to tell the time. They started by exploring the face, hands and numbers on a clock and together built a large clock on the carpet. The children then used their smaller individual clocks to make different times, focusing on o’clock and half-past. They had great fun making their own clocks by cutting out numbers and then adding hands to their clock face. They joined the hands to their clocks using split-pins so they could then continue to make different times.

In the afternoons the children have been exploring pastels and have created some beautiful pictures of underwater animals, learning how to smudge the pastels together to create different effects. Children have also used collage and printing techniques to create an underwater scene. They then made fish or any sea creature of their choice using bubble wrap and other materials and added these to their scenes. The pictures look really effective and lots of great thinking skills went into creating them.

The children have also been fascinated by giant and colossal squid, whales, orcas and dolphins and have watched various videos to learn more about these amazing animals. They have also been interested in the deepest parts of the sea and were full of questions about the Mariana Trench.

Also, there was much excitement when the children found a really colourful and fluffy caterpillar outside in the garden. After looking it up on the internet the children were excited to discover it was a species called the Vapourer caterpillar which would eventually become a moth. The children created a habitat for the caterpillar and then observed it over the course of the afternoon, drawing and writing about it.

Another fantastic week of learning and exploring in Form 1!