Food chains

This week we are doing lots of science linked to our topic, 'animal planet'. We grouped several animals depending on what they eat and learned that they have a special name, carnivore, herbivore or omnivore. We thought it was funny that humans were an animal too! Can you remember which we were?

We used our playmobil animals to demonstrate which animals ate what and discovered that we could actually line some of them up with more than one thing being eaten.

We later learned that this is called a 'food chain' and that there are lots of different ones that link animals and plants together - we even saw one with 5 different plants or animals in it! We learned how the arrow shows the 'energy transfer', although lots of us remembered this as 'which way the food is going' or 'whose belly does it go into!'

We put a selection of animals into a food chain and with support, we had a go at deciding whether each animal was a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore.

We discovered that as plants didn't eat anything as such, they couldn't be a carnivore, herbivore or an omnivore. We very briefly discussed how plants produce their own food and so are called a 'producer'.

To finish off, we challenged ourselves further to think about the new scientific vocabulary that we had learned. We came up with some of our own animals to draw put into Venn diagrams (which lots of us remembered from our home learning!)

                          Green = herbivores                 Omnivores                Red = carnivores

Fantastic effort today Orange Class and an awful lot of new information to take in! Jolly well done. In advance, have a wonderful weekend (:

Workshops

What an exciting week we have had in Orange Class! On Monday and Tuesday, the Puppet Theatre team came to Sutton to follow up from our school trip a few weeks ago.

The workshop began with some drama. The children thought travelled through a range of imaginary habitats, thinking about how they should move depending on the terrain and their surroundings. They joined in with the narrative, helping to describe habitats.

Later, they became animals within the habitats, thinking about the adaptations each animal would have, linked to our science work.

The children were challenged to create an animal that was a mixture of two animals from the same habitat. For example, Emma made a 'bat bear' from a cave and Lucy made a mixture of a whale, shark and turtle from the sea.

Next, the children had to work together to create a stage area in which their own and their group's puppets could live. I have to say that they children were incredibly considerate, sharing resources and ensuring everyone's ideas were included, which can be tricky at this age. The Puppet Theatre team were very impressed and they made our school very proud.

Later, we got to making our puppets! It was fab and the children really loved using such exciting materials and seeing their designs come to life...

Of course we then had a go at putting on our own shows and even used our puppets to retell some stories we knew already.

On Wednesday's drop and read session, I shall ask Mrs Scott who is covering to have this work displayed for the children to share with you and they may take their puppets home. Maybe they could put on a show for you? Have a lovely weekend.

Penguin diaries

Our book for the past few weeks has been 'The Emperor's Egg', a story you can watch on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py_WZenAxrI&t=471s&safe=active

The children have worked hard to retell the story from the point of view of daddy penguin in the form of a series of diary entries. One day, we came in from snack time to find that the classroom was transformed into Antarctica. We thought about what we could see, hear and feel and used this to help us with our diary entries. Our final diary entry was written as independently as possible and I was very impressed with how hard everyone tried. Please do come in if you'd like to see your child's book.

We also used the Emperor's egg book to help us with our science work on habitats and adaptations. The children thought about their Antarctic descriptions and came up with several ways that a penguin is able to survive in this harsh environment. We decided their thick feathers helped them stay warm, their wings helped them to swim and catch fish and their fluffy tummies were fantastic for keeping the fragile eggs warm through the blizzards.

Have a fantastic weekend.

Puppet Theatre

We were very lucky this week to go to Norwich Puppet Theatre to watch 'Thumbelina'.

The children watched the show, which used a range of different puppet types and props. After the show, the children had a 'show and tell' session with Joy, the puppeteer. They were able to ask lots of questions and to feel some of the puppets! They found out lots about the different materials used, design choices and the names of different types of puppet. I'm sure they will be able to remember lots of facts to tell you.

Can you child remember the puppet types?

R____ or S______ puppet (it uses a wooden pole)

G_____ puppet (you put your hand in it)

Str______   (It has little see through ropes to hold it up)


Here are a few pictures from our day. Have a fab weekend

(:

And this was golden time today...I think they were inspired!