This week the children have continued to focus on minibeasts, as part of our topic ‘how does your garden grow?’.
The children have been able to engage in sorting and classifying activities where they were able to group minibeasts with similar features (i.e. legs, no legs, wings) etc. The have explored the difference between insects and arachnids, describing how insects have 6 legs and arachnids have 8 legs.
The children have enjoyed learning about the life cycle of a butterfly, using key topic vocabulary such as ‘egg’, ‘caterpillar’, ‘cocoon/chrysalis’ and ‘butterfly’ to explain the process of metamorphosis. We have had caterpillars arrive within nursery for us to care for and observe closely as they grow and transition.
We have also been thinking carefully about minibeast habitats, understanding where certain creatures might decide to live. We thought carefully about the conditions and materials preferable to minibeasts and undertook some research into bug hotels before working hard to design our own. On Friday, the children worked collaboratively to build a bug hotel in the forest area using their knowledge and prior experiences. Thank you so much for your kind donations of wood and bricks, this wouldn’t have been possible without you!
In maths, the children have been focusing on 2D shapes. We have been naming and identifying simple 2D shapes in our environment and have discussed some properties each shape possesses to help us with identification. The children have enjoyed playing a shape game on the interactive whiteboard (https://www.topmarks.co.uk/early-years/shape-monsters), printing 2D shapes and constructing with shapes.
Have a great weekend!
Mrs Jones.