Jack Frost

On Monday morning we noticed that ‘Fairy Lake’ was frozen over and there was frost surrounding ‘Fairy Village’. 

We decided this was the work of Jack Frost!  We looked for further clues on the ground and followed the trail of ice and frost.  On the field we discovered Jack Frost’s footprints. He had been running all over the field.

Everything he had touched had turned into ice, including the school pond, leaves and a plastic water bottle!

We followed a trail of ice and frost along the footpaths, down the steps, over the field, right down into forest school.

We thought we had found Jack ‘Frost’s Bed’ in Forest School. We looked underneath it to see if we could see him.

We looked across the frosty field to catch a glimpse of him, but he had disappeared!

One morning there was a strange appearance of a pile of logs and a mysterious object.

On close inspection we thought it could be the skin of a snake and the logs looked like the log pile house from the story of ‘The Gruffalo’. The logs looked as though they had come from the Silver Birch tree down in Forest School and matched the bark on the logs of the log pile house in the story.

We haven’t found the snake yet…! We have found a hazel nut this morning so maybe a mouse or a gruffalo might appear next…

Who is afraid of the dark?

This week we discovered a message from the Forest Fairies. The writing was very small but we managed to read it! The message read:

‘Dear Mrs. George’s class,

 Please can you help us? We, the fairies of the forest are frightened of the dark! Can you think of a way to help us with our fear? 

Love from,

The Forest Fairies xxxxx

Amber thought of an idea which might help the fairies. She made a link with the recent story we have shared in class : ‘Can’t You Sleep Little Bear?', by Martin Waddell, by suggesting we should try and make a lantern out of paper with a light inside. We liked this idea and set about designing and making a paper lantern. We gathered and organised our resources and equipment. Through active learning we were involved and concentrating the whole way through the design process. We kept on trying and persevered to solve problems.

We quickly observed how confident and competent Rosa appeared, whist she was designing and making her own lantern, so she became our ‘design consultant’. Rosa supported and helped us achieve a positive result. We also, found other experts in design. Rowan was particularly helpful with handles and Oscar with bottoms to lanterns. 

When we had finished our lanterns we inserted some glow sticks and turned off the lights. The classroom glowed and we were sure the fairies would be happy to use our lanterns down in the forest.

Bella wanted to look at the message from the fairies. She noticed the stars and the snowflakes which were on the front of the message and said:

 ‘I noticed glitter, stars and snowflakes outside Mrs. Marsh’s classroom window last night, when I was outside playing in the after school club.’

So we went outside to look for the clues and found them where Bella had told us to look.

Thea decided she would send a letter to the fairies explaining what we had made for them.

This week we have been busy creating a cave in class so that our bats made from Lorimer’s template could have a home. Some of us created batman caves out of lego!

We have had a fantastic week and can’t wait to carry on with our learning next week.

Light and dark and life inside a cave.

On our way to Forest School we noticed that the moon was still out in the sky, the sun was shining brightly and our shadows were cast on the ground. This puzzled us and we started to question and explore the connection between these observations.

Jack commented: ‘The days are getting shorter. It’s nearer to Christmas. The time is changing and it might be dark even before we go to bed.’

Tilly added: ‘I noticed that the moon followed me on my way to school today!’

In response to our observation of the moon in the sky we shared the bear story (because we love bears!) ‘Can’t you sleep Little Bear?’ by Martin Waddell. This sparked our interest in the cave and light and dark.

Using the thinking floor mat we mapped out our shared knowledge and understanding of the sources of light. After we discussed and shared our thoughts, we tried to categorise the sources of light into ‘electrical’ ‘natural’ and  ‘burning’. We realised, that although at first we thought the moon was a source of light, that in actual fact it reflects the light from the sun. With this realisation we were able to make the connection between our observations of the moon being out during the day, whilst the sun was shining brightly.

Lorimer brought in two of his favourite stories about bears: ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen and ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ by Julia Donaldson. Both stories show images of a cave and life inside a cave. Lorimer also brought in his toy hedgehog. Rosa informed us that the hedgehog was a ‘nocturnal’ animal, which inspired us to mind map and share our knowledge and understanding of nocturnal life.

Then one morning as some of us went outside to record what we could find living outside we stumbled upon on a big cave! And inside there was a giant bear!

Using a homemade ‘bat’ by Lorimer, as a stencil, we set about making lots of bats for our cave in class. Like Little Bear in the story we have read, we added some light sources to help us see in the dark inside the cave.

Some of us have been exploring mixing colours on the light box.

On 5^th November, on the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, we created some beautiful collages and pastel drawings of fireworks and fire.

As you can see we have been very busy this week and are keen to learn more…