Unidentified object

Yesterday we arrived at school to find that an unidentifiable object had landed on our school field.

What was it? Where had it come from?

An 'emergency' assembly was called for and we listened to a news report on the local radio.

We heard that Mr Graham had "made the area safe" and he thought it was ok for us to take a closer look.

We spotted dome clues to try and help solve the mystery as to where this 'thing' had come from. There was a camera, compass, burnt circles on the ground,fresh earth and holes in the field burnt branches from nearby trees. This led us to thinking what it might be and where it might have come from......

Some children thought that it must have come from out of space whilst others thought it had broken off a helicopter and lost its propellers. Other children thought it was part of an aeroplane.

Miss Yates called for the fire brigade and ambulance to come and assist in this mystery. We needed to check that the area was safe and that nobody was hurt.

 

Mr Hough had a phone call from the BBC who wanted him to come and investigate and film the event...

The brave men went inside to check the 'thing'.

What did they find?

A camera.....

A strange rock.....

An old tyre and a computer....

There were no casualties and the area was deemed safe. Phew!

We then heard that there were some people had seen and heard things in the night that might explain a bit more about the object and where it had come from. We listened to their eye witness accounts.

 

Jamie had heard noises and seen strange lights in the sky...

Mrs Good was up feeding baby Eden and saw an orange glow over the field...

Mrs Harrison was woken up by Rodney the dog barking and saw strange lights and heard a funny beeping noise....

Mr Hough saw a light and heard birds flying over the field when they should have been roosting.....( Mrs Hough must have slept through it!). 

We asked them questions to find more information.

We then went outside to take a closer look at the emergency vehicles and went inside to see what was  inside. It was very interesting.

This has led us on the start to our new whole school topic which is rescuers. We are starting with People who help us and have already started changing our role play area into a fire engine! We are on fire with excitement!!

Fly little butterfly!

The last butterfly emerged from the chrysalis on Saturday. 

Today the children at school got to see for themselves the last stage in the life cycle.

We looked at the empty chrysalis's and looked at how thin, light and delicate they were.

We then looked at the beautiful painted lady butterfly and admired it's beautiful patterns.

We decided that it was time to release this lovely Minibeast and headed out in the early morning sun to do so.

It didn't want to fly out of the net so Mrs Hough gave it a helping hand!

Some of us got the chance to look at it close up. We noticed its furry body and silky wings. Some of us even saw its eyes!!

And then, quick as a flash, the butterfly took off and we waved it goodbye as it flew across the field. Just wonderful!

Freedom

Today we decided to release our three painted lady butterflies. The weather was not sunny or warm as we had hoped and so, instead of the butterflies flying freely out of the butterfly net, we had to give them a helping hand.... Luckily, Sophie and Joshua were only too keen to help!

Can you see it??

Look at the lovely patterns on its wings...

Can you spot them?

And now there is only one more chrysalis left...

Can you see the empty chrysalis cases? The darker one still has something inside it. What could it be?!

And two more of a different variety found in our garden. Hopefully they will wait until we are back at school before they emerge....

Beautiful butterflies

It was a real shame that we didn't get to watch the final stage in our real live butterfly life cycle. 

The children were fascinated with watching the caterpillars grow and get bigger and bigger, before finally make their chrysalis. We then waited for a whole week and still nothing had happened. Mrs Hough then had to take them home in the butterfly net to wait for them to emerge.... And on the wet bank holiday Monday, butterfly number one did! 

A day later and another one too has emerged. 

There are two chrysalis's left since something happened to one....perhaps a parasite(?) got in and ate it? We're not quite sure. I have kept the chrysalis and also the empty ones to bring into school to show you.

The butterflies are happily enjoying feeding on the syrup mixture I have made which is on the bottom of the white dish shown. It has to be shallow so that the butterflies don't drown. They also have a nice plant to feed from. We are waiting for the sun to shine before releasing them into the wild... Watch this space....

They are 'Painted lady' butterflies. Why not look in a book or on the Internet to see what you can find out about them?

Mr Hough has found a different chrysalis whilst busy in the garden and so I've put it into net. Hopefully we will be able to watch that one emerge at school which would be very exciting.......

Minibeast fun

To end our topic on Minibeasts, we had a lovely time outside playing Minibeast -  themed games whilst dressed as minibeasts! We have been busy making our masks/hats, using papier mache and then decorated them as our favourite mini beast.

We enjoyed playing 'spider, spider, fly', where the children all sit in a circle and one person is the spider and walks around the outside of the circle, tapping each child on the head saying "spider, spider, spider"...until one is tapped with 'fly'! The race then begins as the spider chases the fly and tries to catch it before it has managed to get back to its space in the circle. 

Mrs Hough wasn't as quick as the children (or Mr Denniss for that matter!) but we all had lots of fun!

We then played the game based on '4 corners' where there are 4 pictures of different minibeasts and the children select one and stand next to that one. The caller ( who can't see where the children are standing) then calls out a Minibeast and those children who are standing by the named Minibeast are out. The game continues and the winner is the last person in the game. 

We then came inside and enjoyed a little Minibeast snack whilst listening to the music ' The ugly bug ball'. Yummy butterfly  and ladybird cakes, bee biscuits and hungry caterpillar grapes....