Carnival of the Animals

We have begun our new topic and have enjoyed sharing our prior knowledge and questions. We have started to think about our favourite animals and are beginning to learn about new animals.

Did you know... that whales are mammals? (But they're not furry!)
Mrs R's class found that really exciting.

In English, our text has been Tadpole's Promise by Jeanne Willis. It has a rather unexpected ending! We used the story to discuss feelings and how authors (and illustrators!) show feelings in stories.

In Maths, we are exploring the best strategies for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. In Mrs R's room we explored how to add 19 by... adding 20 and taking away 1! We also looked at data handling and answered questions about tally charts. The data was about garden birds.

In topic, we thought of as many animals as we could and began to decorate the classrooms and role-play areas. Watch this space!

Ideas for your home learning:

• Make an A-Z of animals, what about an A-Z of insects? or mammals?
• Research a favourite animal
• Ask your adults to help you look carefully for mini-beasts in your garden or in the park
• Make a tally chart of birds you see 
• Ask your friends and family what their favourite animals are and make a graph that shows the answers
• Visit the library and choose some topic books
• Ask a member of your family about their pet
• Find out about an animal you've never heard about... an ocelot? an axolotl?
• Use well known websites such the BBC and National Geographic to help you ask and answer questions