Our chicks are growing fast, the children are fascinated and like to spend time watching them.

The children very carefully handled the chicks. Some liked it more than others.

We got a surprise when we arrived this morning, a little earlier than expected, one of the chicks had hatched. Meet Barbara.

The children noticed cracks in another egg and were amazed when they got to watch another chick hatch.

Meet Brenda

Another 2 hatched throughout the day, so we have 4 chicks in total now.

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The children were very excited when our new arrivals came this morning.

Having this experience exposes the children to a rich vocabulary as well as the opportunity to watch the hatching process in action.

We are already encountering new words and finding out their meaning. Today we learnt what an incubator was, the children are already beginning to use the language when they are talking.

There were lots of questions:

“Why is that one a different colour?”

“What is that long thing at the top?”

“What is the cage for?” 
 
We are looking forward to finding out the answers.

The children were intrigued this morning when they saw posters in the classroom.

“Eggs are coming in here, look it says on the poster.”

“A new bird is coming in an egg.”

“I think it’s a chick because there is one on the poster.”

“It’s like Easter, we might get some new toy chicks.”

The children had a fantastic day taking part in our Euro celebration. They made flags, listented to classic football songs and had their own game of football.

Thank you for a wonderful day Class 1.

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Inspired by the book The Doorbell Rang, we had a go at sharing out some cookies.

The children were excited to see one of the butterflies had emerged from their chrysalis over the weekend.

“It’s the same.” Jacob

There was lots of discussion throughout the morning.

“Are the rest butterflies or moths?”  “Are they all the same colour?” Zirian

Charlie looked with interest and then recorded what he saw on paper. He captured the detail including the meconium and the net.

“They need oranges, sugar and flowers,” Koby told his friends.

They noticed the changes to the chrysalis that the butterfly had emerged from and looked at the others for any signs.

“It’s lighter.”

“That one might be ready.”

“That’s where it came from.“

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Just before half-term we received some visitors to Class 1, some caterpillars.
The children were fascinated and it led to a great discussion.

“They’re tiny.” Lewis

“I can see one moving up the pot.” Zirian

“There’s hard sand at the bottom.” Dylan

“What is it?” Eden

Over half-term the caterpillars grew and grew and some even formed a chrysalis. There was one left and we kept a close eye but we missed it. It formed while we were having our lunch.

Today we moved them into the net.

The children were very careful as they looked at the chrysalises.

“They spikey.” Arya

“They were wiggling because they thought it was a predator.” Eden

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a famous artist who created portraits using only fruit, vegetables, flowers and fish. This inspired us to have a go at created our own faces in this way.

The children have enjoyed exploring the new books about minibeasts.

“Eden, look at this worm. It’s so big.”

“Look at this.”

Charlotte was looking at a book about stag beetles. She told us that they sometimes fight with each other.

“What’s this?” asked Koby.

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