This week we got together with our buddies to make heart shaped gingerbread biscuits and marshmallow crunchies, in honour of Saint Valentine's Day and to help raise money for our new school library.
We love spending time with our buddies and chatting to them while we cooked was a lot of fun. They helped us to work through the method, helping us to weigh the ingredients and use the hob to melt the butter and marshmallows.
A truly wonderful time for all.
This week we were very fortunate to have a visit from Amber Batson, a vet and animal behaviourist.
Amber said that as a vet she needs lots of help from the people she works with; we were very happy to be her vet helpers!
First we learned that we need to be quiet, calm and comforting to animals, as they will be scared and frightened, just like us when we go to the doctors.
Also, when we meet people's dogs, we should never touch them without asking if they like to be stroked first and then approach them calmly and quietly. We learned that if a dog approaches us we need to stand like trees, with our branches in and looking at our roots - it was fun to practise this!
Then it was time to get to work and meet the first patient of the day. We met Fluffy the bunny, who had hurt her leg. We watched how the vet bandaged the leg and then put a funny cover over the top with chicken pictures on it! This was to keep the bandage clean and dry, incase Fluffy stepped in her water bowl.
We helped to count out the tablets for Max, who needed them to help his sore leg get better.
We then got in our car and drove to the farm to meet our next patient, Bob. Bob needed a tetanus injection. This needed to go into the neck muscles and Bob was stroked to keep home calm and comfort him.
Then we travelled back to the surgery to meet the last patient, Boo. Boo had been a bit naughty and swallowed something he shouldn't have. The vet took Boo to a special room to do an x-ray and when we looked at the x-ray we could see something inside Boo' stomach that should not be there. It was time to do an OPERATION!
Boo was given an injection to sedate him, and then we held an oxygen mask over his mouth to help him to breathe. The vet then had to cut open Boo's skin to get to his stomach and do you know what was pulled out - batteries! Thank goodness the vet was able to get those out. Then Boo's stomach had to be stitched carefully back up again.
What an exciting and busy day vets have!!
Thank you so much Amber for your inspiring visit.
This first week back we have been exploring the job of being a doctor and nurse, and the children have really put what they are learning into practice, as you can see...
We took appointments...
Dressed wounds with bandages...
Checked blood pressure...
Wrote out prescriptions...
Held a baby clinic...
Checked reflexes and took out splinters...
And when we weren't sure what the best course of action should be, we checked in a book...
A lot of fun and fantastic learning!
We have had a wonderful time in the woods these last few weeks, and we thought we would share a few of the highlights with you ...
Making our own tools and using them to make holes for animals...
Helping worms find their way back into the earth...
Working together to make a river from Stanton to London...
Decorating the trees, because why should Christmas trees get all the attention...
And finally, having the chance to take a moment to just be...
Keen to spend time with our older buddies from Rhine Class, we invited them to an outdoor Space event to share our enthusiasm for our learning this term.
We took part in a space challenge to carry meteorites out of the earth's atmosphere, travelling over clouds, along comets and in and out of space debris...
We launched rockets into space...
and raced to find all the planets to create our solar system ...
At the end we shared some delicious vegan star biscuits that we had made...
There would be a picture of the finished article, but they were so yummy that they were all eaten very quickly, as you can see...
This week we have had a lot of fun with rocket launches.
First we discussed how the launcher works and what we needed to do ...
"It's a launcher, you have to jump on the yellow bit and it flies off"
"I wonder what happens inside?"
"The air's coming!"
"It's like wind, and it blows the rocket up in the air."
Then we thought about the direction that the rocket would go in...
"We need to twist this, so it doesn't go over the wall."
"If it goes upright it will go far, but not high."
Then the fun part of the launch.
Some tried it with their hands...
However, seeing that the rocket did not travel very far like this prompted lots of discussion...
"I'm going to use two feet to make it go all the way up to space. It will make it go huff and puff and really high."
"I'll use two feet and a really high jump to make it go further."
"If I jump on it mine will go further because I am heavier."
Then the task of how to measure the distance that the rockets travelled.
There were a range of approaches...
Feet...
Chalk...
And metre rulers...
A fantastic exploration of rockets that produced an amazing array of predictions language, maths skills, teamwork and most importantly FUN!
