Watching bread -science
Just over a week ago we started a long term experiment, observing bread. We did different things to each slice.
Slice 1 : untouched, straight in the bag
Slice 2 : touched with dirty hands
Slice 3 : touched after we washed hands with soap and water
Slice 4 : touched after putting anti-bacterial hand gel on hands
We discussed what we thought would happen. Lots of children thought the bread touched with dirty hands would go mouldy first because there would be more germs on it. Here is what the bread looks like 10 days later…
Living and Learning – Keeping bugs and germs at bay!
Professor Myers came to visit and did a couple of Science experiments with the children to show how important hand washing is. The children put their hands in glitter (to represent the germs) and had to wash their hands with soap and water to get rid of the ‘germs’. This was a great way to learn how important it is to take our time when washing our hands.
For the second experiment the children all touched a piece of bread which was then placed in a sealed bag. A second piece of bread was put in a sealed bag without anyone touching it. We left it for a few days to see what would happen. We asked the children to predict what they think will happen to the bread. They replied with lots of different answers.
“I think it might turn mouldy.”
“Germs will be on it.”
“Go all green…like your hair (Professor Myers hair).”
We are still waiting to find out the results.
The children have also enjoyed cleaning the ‘crocodiles teeth’. This promoted a lot of discussion around why it is important to brush your teeth.
Home-link – 3 challenge cubes.
Can your child tell you why it is important to wash their hands, brush their teeth and cover their mouth when coughing?
Some sunshine!
We had some very mixed weather this week again, but when the sun came out, so did we! The children enjoyed singing together in the sunshine and using the bikes, climbing frame and slide. As we posted a few weeks ago, behind every photograph, is lots of learning.
Whilst lots of people may just see children having fun riding bikes and whizzing down the slide, we see this too, as well as lots of aspects of the Physical Development part of the Early Years curriculum being developed.
In the 30-50 months developmental band for Physical Development, children should be able to:
- Move freely and with pleasure and confidence in a range of ways such as slithering, shuffling, rolling, crawling, walking, running, jumping, skipping, sliding and hopping.
- Mount stairs, steps or climbing equipment with alternate feet.
- Walks downstairs, two feet to each step while carrying a small object.
- Runs skilfully and negotiates space or direction to avoid obstacles.
- Can stand momentarily on one foot when shown.
At the end of the week, as part of Sport Relief, we took part in an obstacle course which practised many of these skills. Photographs to follow soon!
We loved listening to the story of Jack and the Beanstalk this week so we’re going to continue with this story into next week. We’ll also be learning about changes that we can see around us during spring and Mother’s Day.
Success at the West Yorkshire cross country finals
Well done to our wildcard entry into the West Yorkshire cross country finals. Out of all of the year 6 girls in West Yorkshire, she came 15th – AMAZING! We are so proud of you.
World Book Day
We shared over 30 books in our classes with our friends, classmates or just with our own imagination.
During the day, Hobgoblin Theatre Group came to Scholes to perform an incredible show of The Wind in the Willows.
Living and learning
This week year 5 and 6 were visited by a medical student from Leeds University. They took part in a ‘Brain Building Bonanza’ in which they were discovering how the brain works, how it is structured and its function within the human body. The children acted out being a neuron to show how signals are sent to the rest of the body. Ask your child what facts they can remember from the workshop. Ask them what the cerebellum does.
Living and Learning – I can say something good about myself
This week, our statement was ‘I can say something good about myself.’ Not an easy thing to do for some of us, so we spent some time thinking about what makes them special and unique.
Living and Learning – Keeping bugs and germs at bay
The children our enjoying our mini topic about germs, hygiene and keeping bugs at bay!
Over the next couple of weeks the children will be involved in various activities which aims to explore and promote discussions about staying healthy.
Wiz sent the Writing Warriors a special mission all about keeping germs at bay. The Writing Warriors shared what they had learnt with their peers. They taught us all to do ‘the vampire sneeze’ to stop germs from spreading.
We talked about the importance of washing our hands with soap and water. When washing our hands the children sing happy birthday – once while rubbing the soap into their hands and again when rinsing the soap off. The song that they sing is below:
Happy birthday to my thumbs (clean thumbs), happy birthday to my fingers (clean between fingers), happy birthday to the bottoms (rub hands together), happy birthday to the tops (rub the tops of hands together).
The Writing Warriors also shared some instructions on how to wash our hands properly. We have put these up in the cloakroom to remind us of the 5 steps to clean our hands.
Home-link – 3 challenge cubes.
Can your child tell you why it is important to wash their hands? Can they tell you when they should wash their hands?
Fee Fi Fo Fum!
Last week, we enjoyed a few sunny afternoons in the Nursery garden. Children noticed the daffodils and some other flowers growing and we began to talk about spring time and growing. Some children helped Miss Backhouse to weed and prepare the planters ready to plant our seeds. This week, we will plant some vegetable seeds outside. We’re also going to plant our own bean seeds, and as you will have already guessed, we couldn’t possibly do this without reading one of our favourite stories, Jack and the Beanstalk.
This week, some of our learning will be themed around this story. In maths, we will count magic beans and remember to STOP at the stop number. Eg. Jack needs 5 magic beans. In our sensory area, we’ll be exploring different types of beans, including baked beans, kidney beans and runner beans. We might even find some of the hen’s golden eggs in our water tray. Which eggs float? Which eggs sink? Why?
Hens, hand washing and hunting for treasure
What a busy week! On Tuesday, Mrs Beesley collected some eggs from the farm and we put them in our incubator. During group time, we talked about how to care for the eggs and how to behave when we’re near the incubator. We have to be very careful not to knock it! Children were fascinated by the eggs and were very curious about what was happening inside the egg. We read a non-fiction book about the life cycle of a hen; we looked carefully at photographs which showed what happens inside the egg as the chick grows. It takes 21 days before the chicks will hatch. We’re counting down the days…
With the increased focus on hygiene in the news at the moment, we’ve been paying extra attention to handwashing this week. We’ve enjoyed singing a few songs about washing our hands, inlcuding this song and have learnt how to wash our palms, in between our fingers, the backs of our hands and our thumbs and fingernails! We’ve all noticed a big improvement in children’s hand washing, we hope you have at home too.
Over the last few weeks, children have returned several times to making pirate ships in our role play area. To follow this interest further, we’ve created a small world area outside with pirate ships. Children have been hiding and hunting for treasure but we couldn’t do this without drawing some treasure maps. Can you find the ‘X’ that marks the spot on our maps?
