The Very Hungry Caterpillar

We have been excited with our special delivery of tiny caterpillars.

They are so tiny and have come in a pot complete with food ( not leaves like we thought but a brown, sandy type of food).

We will watch them as they feed and grow and wait patiently for the next stage in the cycle to happen.

We have enjoyed reading the story of The a Very a Hungry Caterpillar.

We have played the board game and this led onto some talk about foods which are healthy and those which are not.

We have played at being the Hungry Caterpillar outside, crawling through tunnels.

We enjoyed tasting the different fruits from the story. The watermelon was a big hit!

And plums..

We used fruit to create patterns and dime even made caterpillars!

We printed our very own caterpillar numberlines too.

We have made our life cycles to show the changes that take place.

We have used natural materials to explore symmetrical butterfly wing patterns.

We have focussed on shapes and properties of shapes and used these yo make symmetrical patterns too.

We also enjoyed dragging shapes yo create symmetrical patterns on the game on the IWB.

We enjoyed playing the caterpillar gone on the interactive whiteboard where we had to put leaves in order of size, from the smallest to the largest number.

The children have been very creative.

Eggs on leaves in the Duplo

Caterpillar and butterfly kites.

And other kites!

And look how much they've grown.

I ended if we will have caterpillars or chrysalis's when we get to school tomorrow?!

Never a dull moment

We have had a super week in Cherry class and what is always exciting is that we can never really predict all that we will learn each week.

Yesterday gave us some very exciting and unusual weather and we had to go out and explore the hail. What did it look like? What did it feel like? What did it sound like as it hit the canopy roof and the floor out side?? What was it ? 

Today we were lucky enough to watch some beautiful wild bird behaviour. As we came out to play in the outside area, we spotted a blackbird fledgling who was being fed worms and other Minibeasts by its Mummy. We watched as it hopped around and we kept still and quiet so that we didn't frighten it away.

Some of the children were so fascinated that they even got a chair and sat down some more to watch more carefully.

The little bird hopped and jumped and made a couple of small flights before it disappeared for a long spell.

Whilst it was gone, we noticed a nest in out cherry tree.

Later, I went to inspect the nest and the eggs inside it. There were 4 speckled beautiful eggs. I will have to watch and listen to when the eggs hatch.

Look who's back!

This week, we welcomed back the chicks we hatched just before we broke up for the Easter holidays.

They have a new home with one of the children from Cherry class, but came back to visit earlier this week and stayed for a sleepover!

We couldn't believe how much they had grown! They were quite tricky to handle because they were now so strong. The children couldn't physically hold them by themselves but they were able to stroke them and feel ,and look at, their big feet!

We looked at their wings and how the tiny feathers were growing there.

The 'cute' fluffy chicks have changed so much. The children noticed that you can also see the start of the chickens comb on the top of its head.

They are now 3 weeks old and we await to find out if they are girls and boys. This will be noticeable between 12-16 weeks. If they are hens, then at around this time, they too will start laying. If they are cockerals then they will show themselves by making lots of noise and possibly by fighting if there's another cockeral about.......

We have used this real life experience to look at the life cycle of the hen. And so, if there is a hen and a cockeral is running with her, chances are there could be more baby chicks yo follow!

Hatching day!

Today we were very egg-cited. One of our chicks had hatched earlier this morning!! 

The children have been full of great excitement and have spent the day watching our new chick as it dried out and moved around the incubator. 

We used magnifying glasses to get a better look and so that we could see the cracks that had appeared in 2 more of our eggs.

We drew pictures as we sat and watched the activity. We also read and found out about what the chicks in the egg look like now and how they will hatch.

And the children thought of names to call our chick. The fairest way was for those children who wanted to, to write a chosen name onto a piece of paper and then to put all the names in a box. We then pulled out a name and chick 1 is now Christened 'Chick chick'. Very fitting!

After the children went home, I moved Chick Chick into his/her new home. Trying to find out the sex of chicks is a very difficult job and usually one you find out at about week 12 ( unless you are an expert- which I am not!). 

Goodnight Chick Chick. We hope to have some fluffy friends to keep you company tomorrow!! 

Egg day

DMrs Hough showed us a special machine. What was it? What did it do? There was a lot of excitement and curiosity over it! Some children thought it made milkshakes whilst others thought it was a popcorn maker of even a coffee machine!! 

I then took out the flat part inside and one child guessed it was for eggs because of the shapes of the holes, saying they were "oval". 

This was indeed correct. Our new machine was for eggs and I then went onto explain that it is called an incubator and that it is a bit like a robot because it acts like a Mummy hen because we don't have one of those to look after these eggs. We then talked about what the Mummy hen would do - sit on her eggs and keep them warm. I also told them that when the Mummy gets off her eggs,from time to time, to go to the toilet of have some food, etc, that the eggs would move slightly. Our incubator does the same. It's hard to miss too as the machine makes a noise. We have got into a habit of hearing this and saying " the eggs are on the move"!! 

Mrs Hough had programmed the incubator to make sure everything was right and got the temperature to the correct number. The children felt the outside of the incubator and said that it felt "warm". 

Next it was time to 'set the eggs'. There were 25 to choose from but only enough room for 7 in our incubator. Hard to select children to set the eggs but we have learnt ( and are still learning) that we can't always be chosen to do everything and that Mrs Hough and Mrs Harrison are fair so if they weren't chosen for one thing then they are chosen for the next. A good life skill to learn at an early age ( though I wish there was enough space and eggs for all children to have done this). 

And here goes.....

Egg 1

Egg 2

Egg 3

Egg 4

Egg 5

Egg 6

And finally, egg 7

Lid on and now the incubation period begins. 21 days and counting..... Very egg-citing!!