Storms!

This week we have been learning all about rain and clouds, and this morning we were learning about something else - storms! We listened to the sound of a thunderstorm and talked about it. We thought about the words to describe what we could hear, like crashing thunder and heavy rain. We talked about the lightning - Maddie said "you can't hear lightning, you just see the light of it." We then talked about what lightning looks like and looked at some different pictures of storms showing amazing lightning. We learnt that during a storm you see the lightning before you hear the thunder. Sometimes when there's a thunderstorm there's rain too. We talked about how we feel when there's a thunderstorm - some of us said we feel scared, and we talked about why that might be. For some people it's the loud noise of the thunder which makes us jump!

We listened to a poem about a thunderstorm and joined in with actions - wiggling our fingers to show rain and banging our palms on the floor when the thunder came!

Then we explored the musical instruments and talked about how we could make some stormy music. First, we thought about rain. What instruments would be good for making the sound of rain? We chose rainsticks, shakers, Chinese wood blocks and cabassas. We explored how we could play them and make them sound like rain.


Then we talked about the storm - what instruments would be good to show the sound of thunder? We chose drums, tambourines and cymbals. Sometimes thunder is a low, rumbling sound and sometimes it's a crashing sound!

Everyone chose an instrument to play that represented the rain or the thunder. We looked at some picture cards showing the sun, rain and a storm. When we see the sun picture, there is no storm and we don't play our instruments - we are silent! When we see the rain card, the people with rain instruments have to start play, quietly and slowly. Then as the card is lifted higher, the noise of the rain has to get louder - we have to play our instruments harder and more loudly! When the storm card is shown, the storm players have to play their instruments, while the rain players are still playing. Then the storm goes away, so the storm people stop playing their instruments. The rain players keep playing as the card is moved lower, showing them they have to start playing more quietly. Finally, the sun card is shown again and we are all silent - the storm has gone!

We have also been busy making rainsticks this week. We decorated our tubes with lots of colours, then filled it with rice or pasta. When you move it you can hear the sound of rain!

In our Play and Learn time we were exploring different ways of making stormy scenes. Some of us were busy on the making table making fantastic stormy pictures. We used straws to blow the paint - it was great fun! We also had the boats and the playmobile people in the water tray and pretend there was a storm - if there was a storm at sea the boats would rock in the waves and the people might fall out! Rhys also chose to use the cards we had used in music. Ollie, Trystan and Harry played instruments and Rhys held up the cards to show them how to play.

The Foggy, Foggy Forest

This afternoon we talked about fog and read a great book called The Foggy, Foggy Forest. On every page there are dark shapes you can't see clearly in the forest because of the fog, and it asks "What can this be in the foggy, foggy forest?" We made predictions about what could be hiding in the fog. Then on the next page we could see what it was, for example, "A little elf all by himself" and "Three brown bears in picnic chairs". We realised that the answers had rhyming words in them and we used this to help us guess what might be on the other pages.

After reading the story we talked about our own experiences of fog and looked at some photographs of fog.

Then it was time for our challenge - to make another page for the book The Foggy, Foggy Forest! We worked in groups and had to work together as a team, sharing jobs and listening to each other's ideas. Each group came up with their own idea about what could be in the foggy, foggy forest. We drew the pictures on black paper and cut them out. We then stuck them onto grey paper and used charcoal pencils to draw trees in the background. On this page we wrote, "What can this be in the foggy, foggy forest?" We also had to draw a coloured picture for the next page. We stuck these on the grey paper with more dark trees in the background, and on this page we wrote the answer.

This is what we wrote:

What can this be in the foggy, foggy forest?

A cat on a mat.

(Maddie, Jamie, Harry, Olivia, Hope, Matthew and Lilly)

What can this be in the foggy, foggy forest?

Goldilocks with smelly socks.

(Grace, Trystan, Lucy, Aaron, Lexi and Ollie)

Then we read the whole book again with our new pages in the middle, and the other group had to guess who was hiding in the foggy, foggy forest!

All about clouds!

This week we have been learning all about rain, and this morning we talked about where rain comes from - clouds. We discussed whether it always rains when there are clouds and if there are always clouds when it rains. We worked out that rain comes from clouds so if it is raining, there must be clouds in the sky. But not all clouds bring rain - sometimes it's cloudy, but not rainy - like today!

We looked at pictures of different types of clouds and talked about them. We took it in turns to share our ideas about what the clouds looked like - we saw all sorts of shapes and patterns in them! What's interesting is how different people saw different things. Some of us saw camels, rabbits, birds, boats, squares, circles... all sorts of things!

We looked at fluffy clouds and wispy, stripy clouds. We looked at white clouds and dark clouds, which we said were "rainclouds" and "stormy clouds" because they were dark. We also looked at clouds that had some orange and pink in them. Some of us thought this was because the clouds were hot, but Lucy said it was "from the sun" and Grace said "it's when the sun is setting." We talked about 'sunset' and how it can make the sky - and the clouds - look red, orange, pink or even sometimes purple.

Then we explored different ways that we could make cloud pictures. We thought about the resources we would need for the type of cloud we wanted to show and which colours we would need. Some of us did white clouds, some did grey, stormy clouds - those people had to make grey paint by mixing black and white. Some people wanted to make sunset clouds, so they mixed up different shades of pink and orange to show clouds at sunset. Some people used paintbrushes, some people used sponges. We found that we could get lots of different effects from the sponge - you could press it down on your paper and lift it off, or you could wipe it across the paper, which made it look very different. Ruby found that if you touch the sponge lightly on the paper it looks different to when you press down harder. Grace had the idea of using a feather to try and create the wispy effect of the clouds and she tested it out with white paint. Great thinking Grace!



We also explored other ways of making cloud pictures. We used chalks and pastels and learnt how to blend the chalk with our fingers - this gave a really good effect on our cloud pictures. Some of us also used the computer to make cloud pictures using the Paint programme - we used the 'Fill' tool to make the background blue, then used the 'Spray' tool with the colour white to make clouds. Aaron also added a text box and wrote his name himself - well done Aaron!

Waterproof investigation

This afternoon we talked about what we've learnt about rain, and remembered that in Zok's letter he said that he wants to know what things he'll need for different types of weather. We talked about what we need when it's wet - coats, hoods, hats, umbrellas. We decided to investigate a good material for making an umbrella so we could tell Zok what the best kind was. First we reminded ourselves of what 'materials' are, and named lots of materials such as plastic, glass, metal, wood, paper and fabric. Then we talked about what properties materials have - for example, they might be hard, soft, rough, smooth, transparent, opaque, bendy. We used our talk partners and tried to think of what was important in an umbrella. What do we need it to do? Hope said "you need the umbrella to keep you dry". We learnt the word waterproof and talked about what it means. We talked about how we could test if things were waterproof, and filled out what we're trying to find out on our investigation sheet.

Then we tested four materials to see if they were waterproof. We made predictions, then poured on water to see if they were waterproof or not.

First, we tested paper. We didn't think it would be waterproof and when we tested it we found that the paper got very soggy and started to rip. We were right - paper isn't waterproof.

Then we tested fabric. We didn't think this would be waterproof either. Maddie said "when your clothes get rain on then they get all wet." We tested it out and found that we were right - although the fabric didn't rip, it got very wet and wouldn't protect us from the rain at all!

Next we tried wood. Most of us thought this would be waterproof. Harry said "wood will be waterproof because it's hard and it doesn't have holes in." When we tested it we talked about what had happened. Although the wood didn't break, it did get darker - this is because the water was soaking into it. We talked about what happens when wooden things are left out in the rain, and how they might get damaged. Wood isn't waterproof and wouldn't be good for an umbrella!

Finally we tested plastic. We all predicted that it would be waterproof, and when we tested it out - it was! The water didn't go through it, so we'd be nice and dry if we were stood underneath it, and it didn't soak into the plastic and damage it. We thought again about some of our outdoor furniture, and why we had chosen plastic tables and chairs for outside rather than wooden ones.

We then talked through our investigation and what we had learnt. We were trying to find out which materials were waterproof - what had we found out? That plastic is waterproof, but paper, fabric and wood are not waterproof. We decided that plastic would be the best material for Zok to make an umbrella with! Here is our completed investigation sheet.

In our Play and Learn time we explored some other things in the water tray to see if they were waterproof, such as feathers, shiny paper, pipe cleaners and shells. What do you think we found out?

Raindrop pictures

This morning we were talking about what rain looks like when it falls. We agreed that it doesn't look like water when you pour it from a bucket, but that it falls in 'raindrops' - well done Trystan for knowing this word! We decided to make some pictures showing what water drops look like to show Zok, the alien who needs to learn what weather is. But a picture of just water on paper would be a bit boring... so we decided to use watery paint instead!

To make our water fall in drops we learnt how to use pipettes. We had to practise using them because you have to squeeze them and let go while the pipette is still in the water, so it fills up. Then you squeeze it gently to let drops fall out on your paper. We tried doing drops from different heights and explored the different splash marks they made. We explored different colours - what would happen when we did a drop of purple on top of blue? We also learnt about mixing colours when we mixed some black and white powder paint and found that they made grey. We could change the shade of grey by adding more black or white - more black made a darker grey, and more white made a lighter grey.

All about rain

Today we received a mysterious letter, written on green paper and sent to us by paper aeroplane! The letter is from an alien called Zok, who wrote to tell us that he is thinking of moving to Earth from his planet Sploogle, but he's not sure what 'weather' is. There is no weather on Sploogle, so he's not sure what it means - what types of weather there are, what things you need for different types of weather, and what things you can do in different kinds of weather. It's our job now to find out all we can about different kinds of weather so we can report back to Zok, and help him decide if he should move to Earth!

We are starting our learning about weather by looking at rain and clouds. This afternoon we talked about different types of rain, like heavy rain and light drizzle, and listened to some sounds of rain. We talked about what happens when there is too much rain and places are flooded. Some of us had seen or heard about flooded places near our homes, like a flooded park, and some of us had seen on the television that some people's homes had water in them from the floods. We also talked about the opposite of flooding - drought. This is when there isn't enough water and places are too dry. Some people don't have enough water where they live. Grace said, "rain is important because when you waste water it's not fair on all the people who don't have water, we're very lucky." We talked about all the reasons why water is important. For example:

"If flowers don't have water they won't grow." - Lilly
"We need water so we can drink it." - Lexi
"We need water for our taps." - Rhys
"The fish need water to live in." - Lucy
"Animals need water to drink." - Aaron
"The shower needs water." - Trystan

We talked about how lucky we are to have water to drink and to wash, and to use for other things, like Harry said "the washing machine needs water." Olivia said, "the poor people don't have water, they have dirty water." We decided we need to be careful about not wasting water - we are going to try and save water by turning taps off when we have finished and drinking up all the water in our water bottles so it doesn't have to be thrown away.

We worked in groups to make posters showing why water is important and how we can help to save water. We had to work together to do the pictures and writing. Then we presented our finished posters to the rest of the class, talking one at a time in a clear voice about what we had done.

Fun with poetry

This afternoon we have been reading some funny poems. A lot of them had rhyming words in and one, Betty Botter's Butter, had a lot of alliteration. Then we wrote a rhyming poem all about food we like. First we had to think of types of food that rhymed, like cheese and peas. Then we thought of words to describe some of these foods, like 'mushy peas', which Maddie said, and 'crunchy toast', which Rhys said. After 'hot mustard' Harry had the good idea of saying 'cold custard'. Here is our finished poem!

I like...

Melted cheese,

Mushy peas.

Crunchy toast,

Yummy roast.

Cornflakes,

Chocolate cakes.

Sweet strawberries,

Juicy cherries.

Hot mustard,

Cold custard.

Apple pips,

Potato chips!

We practised saying the poem with lots of rhythm and then we performed it for Miss Worsley!

Patterned fruit kebabs!

This morning we made patterned fruit kebabs. We used strawberries, bananas and grapes. First we had to wash our hands. Then we cut up the fruit. We cut the bananas and Miss Ayres cut the strawberries. After that we put the fruit on our kebab stick one piece at a time, making sure it was in a repeating pattern. For example, banana, strawberry, grape, banana, strawberry, grape. Finally, we ate them. They were delicious! Look at our pictures - can you see all the different repeating patterns we made?

Animal patterns

This afternoon we have been exploring animal patterns. We played a guessing game where we looked at close up photos of different animals and had to work out which animal it was from. They all had very different patterns, from the stripes of a zebra to the spots of a leopard! We decorated outlines of animals, making sure we chose the right colours and followed the right pattern. A zebra wouldn't look very good if we decorated it with spots instead of stripes!

We also learnt about camouflage. This is when animals are hard to see because of their colour or pattern. We looked at some pictures of animals that were well camouflaged. Some we spotted straight away, but some were really hard to see! Here are some of the pictures we looked at - can you see the animal hiding in the picture?