Living and Learning – human life cycle
Week 3 of our Relationships and Sex education looks at the stages of the human life cycle. During our Living and Learning sessions, children have learned about growing from young to old and that they are also growing and changing.
We also discussed:
- key stages in the human life cycle
- some ways that we have changed since
we were babies - that all living things including humans
start life as babies
Whole school sports roundabout
Our whole school sports roundabout is a chance for all children to work together, in teams, showcasing their sporting skills. The mixed aged teams encourage children to work together, supporting and encouraging each other. Thank you to all the parents and carers who came to show their support.
Super sunny sports day
The Key Stage 2 children enjoyed a fantastic competitive sports event on Friday. Thank you to all the parents and carers who came to offer their support. It is much appreciated.
Ladybirds
We’ve learnt all about the life cycle of ladybirds this week and were lucky enough to see every stage of the cycle in Nursery. We found some little eggs on the leaves outside and caught some ladybird larvae which, after eating lots of aphids, formed pupae in our butterfly house. On Friday morning, we saw our first little ladybird! We released it back into our garden where we found the eggs and larvae.
In group times, we learnt about the letter ‘l’ and we carefully drew the correct number of spots on ladybirds. Two of the most popular activities this week were in our creative area; children loved making ladybird shapes out of salt dough and painting spotty ladybird masks. There was some great team work whilst playing a ladybird game on the interactive whiteboard too. Children worked together and took turns to count spots and order the ladybirds.
We also found a very large, hairy spider. Look at its hairy legs! We used our Exploroscope to view it closely and count how many eyes it had.
Living and Learning : relationships
We have be talking about being aware of how our words and actions make other people feel. This video about Sneetches can spark lots of discussion. We talked about how we feel if other people say things that hurt our feelings and what we could say instead.
https://youtu.be/8-QevAGsl6A
Living and learning
5/6 SK discussed telling the truth this week. They talked about how they felt when someone isn’t honest with them.
“I’d feel let down.”
“I’d be upset.”
They looked at different scenarios and discussed whether telling the truth would be easy or hard in these situations. They decided that telling lies weakens a friendship and saying sorry, and showing we are sorry we’re both important in repairing a relationship.
Living and Learning: Relationships and Sex Education
This week is the second week of our RSE learning.
We had a mature discussion about the differences between male and female.
We realised that males and females have more similarities than we have differences.
Incy Wincy Spider
It was lovely to be outside more at the beginning of the week and enjoy some more summery weather. Children enjoyed creating obstacle courses; they worked together to create a path through the ‘lava’ and helped each other to balance along the beams. It was great to see lots of children challenging themselves and working as a team. Balancing, climbing, jumping and moving in different ways are all important aspects of the Physical Development part of the curriculum; this is one of the prime areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage. We also enjoyed finding out all about spiders. Outside, we created a giant web that we could climb through and in our maths area, we carefully counted 8 legs onto our spiders.
Over the last few weeks, we have been looking closely at the insects on our willow arch. Children have found caterpillars, aphids, beetles and ladybirds. One particular insect caught their attention – it was black and spiky and had orange/red marks on its back. We’ve discovered that the little creatures are ladybird larvae. This week, we will learn all about the life cycle of ladybirds.
Transition into Foundation One
Our older children have enjoyed various activities over the last few weeks to aid their transition into Foundation Two. They’ve been visiting the classrooms to play and have enjoyed listening to a story with Mrs Palmer and Mrs Turner in Nursery. In the mornings, children have visited the ‘big playground’ and this week, they’ll enjoy joining in with ‘Wake Up Shake Up’ too.
On Tuesday 18th, many children enjoyed staying for a school dinner. They ate in the main school hall where they got to collect their own cutlery and use a tray. All the children coped very well with this new experience – they even managed to keep their trays flat so that no lunches escaped onto the floor!
Living and Learning-I know the difference between laughing with someone and laughing at them.
What a great thing to discuss and be mindful of! KS1 are very impressive to talk to about their Living and Learning skills. Maybe you could ask them their views on this statement. Here are a few shining stars who can be relied upon to model exemplary behaviour and attitudes towards others.
Temple Newsam Farm
On Tuesday, we were very excited to finally be going on our first school trip. Luckily, the rain stopped and the sun was shining as we set off on the coach.
When we arrived at Temple Newsam Farm we split into two groups. The Rainbow children spent the morning on a Gruffalo Hunt whist the Sunshine children spent their morning on the farm. At lunch time we came back together and enjoyed a picnic on the field. Then we swapped over for the afternoon.
The Gruffalo Hunt
Before we went on a Gruffalo hunt we listened to the story. After, we went on our hunt and looked for signs of animals along the way. We discovered lots of clues that told us a variety of animals/minibeasts had been about. We found animal footprints, animal poo, we noticed that lots of leaves had been nibbled at, we found some trails in the long grass where animals had created a path and we also found lots of mole holes – which we enjoyed digging to find the tunnel entrance!
The Farm
On the farm we saw a variety of animals. Some of our favourites were the piglets, bulls and geese. Our farm tour guide told us that a female sheep is called a Ewe, a male sheep is called a Ram and a baby goat is called a Kid. We also looked at some old machinery that the horses used to pull along the fields before the vehicles became motorised. We also had a look in a Blacksmiths workshop.
The Park
We also enjoyed having some time on the play park. We took turns to go on the equipment. We also nipped down to see Andy (the beekeeper that came to visit us in school a few weeks ago). He wasn’t there but we managed to find the queen bee in the hive by looking for her green spot.
We would like to say a huge thank you to the parent volunteers who supported us on the trip. We hope you had a great day out!
Challenge – 3 bricks
Can your child tell you something that we did to make sure that they all stayed safe during the trip? e.g. they all wore hi-vis jackets, we split them into small groups with an adult, lots and lots of counting of the children.
Please email any quotes from your child. This will support us in our assessment by providing evidence towards the Health and Self-care strand of the EYFS.
Children talk about ways to keep safe.