Meet our fluffy, little chicks!
Thank you for your emails; it’s great to keep in touch and find out how you’re all getting on at home. We’re pleased to hear that some of you have enjoyed joining in with the activities so far. Please remember, whilst at Nursery, children learn through play. We try to make things as fun as we can so please don’t worry about children sitting down to do activities for long periods of time.
Today’s chick news
This morning, we moved three of the chicks into the chicken brooder to give them more space and to keep them warm. They’ve also got some food and water too.
Thank you for sending us your suggestions for names. We’d like you to meet Chirpy and Chippy and their friend, Pecky. Joe, named after the nation’s current favourite PE teacher, is still drying his feathers in the incubator!
We still have one chick in the incubator that has begun to chip away at its shell but it’s taking a long time!
If you’ve drawn any pictures of our chicks, please take a photo of them and send them in. Make sure you listen and sing along to Chick, chick, chicken!
25 March 2020: Home learning
Day 3 of your home learning pack
Phonics
Tricky words! Ask your child what is a tricky word? “A tricky word is a word you can’t sound out. You just have to know it.”
You can sing the songs for all the tricky words here.
Maths
Did you go on a hunt for shapes today? What did your child find? Please email any photos or comments. It is great when we get direct quotes from children. This helps us gain a holistic view of your child’s learning journey.
Literacy
What book did you use to search for words today? Did your child have a favourite word that they found?
If you have any questions we are here to help and will respond to emails during school hours: scholesf2@spherefederation.org
Year 5/6 S Hello!
Hello my lovely class! I just thought I’d send you all a little message as I know you must be missing your teacher by now. I hope you are all getting on with all the home learning we are setting you. Don’t forget that presentation is still really important in those lovely green books I gave you. I would love to see some photos of your work if you would like to send me some. Make sure you are not forgetting to get some exercise each day and eat healthily. Remember, you can always use the Jo Wicks workouts, but also Otis Mabuse does a live dance routine every morning at 11:30 am. See if an adult can find it for you. It’s good fun- I had a go at it this morning. I will show you the routines I know when we get back to school! Look after yourselves. Mrs H.x
Chicks have hatched
Some of you may know that the eggs that were being incubated in F2 have come to my house (Mrs Latham’s). Yesterday, they started to hatch and I have three fluffy chicks that are already growing fast. I thought you might like to see them!
If you have any photos of learning you are doing at home, email them to me vickylatham@spherefederation.org (or your own teacher) and let me know if it is ok to put them here on the website. It will be nice to share with each other what we are doing.
Chick update!
Overnight, 2 more chicks have hatched! Yesterday, we had 1 chick. Today, we have 2 more chicks. Ask your child how many chicks we have altogether now?
24 March 2020: Home learning
Day 2 of your home learning pack
Phonics
How did your child find the writing activity?
Remember, it is okay for things to be spelt phonetically. It is important your child grows into an independent learner. Encouraging your child to write the words as they sound rather than always spelling correctly is important. It encourages your child to use their own skills – rather than copy from an adult.
It is important you do not let your child simply copy your writing. They need to use their phonics skills to write. Here is an example of a child’s writing in Foundation 2.
Maths
How did your child find todays activity? Remember, you can use objects around the house to count to help your child.
Literacy
What did your child predict would happen in the story? Were they right? Or did they come up with a better ending? Let us know via email.
If you have any questions we are here to help and will respond to emails during school hours: scholesf2@spherefederation.org
Chicks
At the time of writing this post, we have 4 chicks (2 yellow and 2 brown) that have hatched and 3 eggs that have little cracks in their shells. The fluffy chicks hatched earlier, their feathers have had time to dry in the incubator. The little chick in the corner only hatched 30 minutes ago. Its feathers are still wet and it’s lying down, resting.
We hope that you’ve enjoyed watching the videos so far. In the next video, we managed to film the little chick (in the corner of the photograph) just as it was about to hatch. It’s a time-lapse video so it appears to happen much quicker than it does in real life. Apologies for the wobbles, Mrs Long was videoing for about 20 minutes or more! It’s quite tricky to see clearly, but you might be able to see that the chick is pecking around the shell to crack it more and more. Each time it pecks, it has a little rest before starting again.
Here’s a photograph of the chick, taken just after the video stopped. Can you see its eye and legs? What colour feathers does it have?
What shall we call our chicks?
Send us an e-mail with your suggestions for names and don’t forget to tell us how you’re getting on with your learning from home. Did you read or watch ‘Oh Dear!’ today? Ferdie, our Nursery fox, has come to live with Mrs Long whilst we’re not at Nursery. He’s been busy today; he read ‘Oh Dear!’ this morning and he enjoyed taking part in a PE session with Joe Wick. He also counted how many chicks have hatched and counted how many eggs are left!
Chicks beginning to hatch…
We have been checking the incubator for the last few hours and the cracks in some of our eggs are getting bigger. It’s fascinating to watch; you can see the chick pecking from the inside, trying to get out!
We’ll add the videos and photos of our hatched chicks soon. We’re busy editing them!
Egg-citing news!
Mrs Latham has been looking after Foundation 2’s chicks. This morning one egg began to crack and…
How exciting! We will keep you updated with more chick news.
Can your child talk to you about the life cycle of a chicken? We have been talking lots about the life cycle of a chicken in the classroom.
We can see a crack…
How exciting! Last night, just before bedtime Mrs Long noticed a crack had appeared in some of our eggs.
We’ve taken the incubator off the rocker now, to keep the eggs still.
What happens when the eggs hatch?
After growing for about three weeks, the chicks inside are ready to break out of their shells. This is called hatching. The chick has a special ‘egg-tooth’ on its beak which it uses to crack a hole in the shell. If you listen very carefully on the video, you’ll be able to hear the chicks chirping inside.
Talk to your child about what happens as the chick hatches; they may remember talking about it during group time at Nursery. Over the next few hours, the chicks will gradually chip away around the inside of the shell until it has broken it enough to get out.
Remember to check the website again soon to see the first our chicks hatch!