The Rainbow Fish music

On Friday we composed some music to go with the story we were reading all week, The Rainbow Fish. First we explored the different instruments to hear what sounds they made and how we could play them. Then we thought about which instruments we could play at different parts of the story. After that we practised the instrument we would be playing. Finally we played our instruments as Mrs Batson read the story. Can you hear the instruments we played?

We used rainsticks to make the sound of the sea and the triangles to show the beautiful rainbow fish. We used shakers to make the sound of the other fish darting around the ocean. When the rainbow fish gets cross, Olivia played her instrument very quickly to show his annoyance. Then, when he is feeling lonely, Aaron and Fallon played their instruments slowly to show how sad he was feeling. We used drums and tambours to represent the octopus, who has a deep voice, and Matthew used a scraper to show how happy the rainbow fish felt when he had friends to play with.

The Fish Who Could Wish

This afternoon we read a story called The Fish Who Could Wish. We are learning how to use talk partners effectively, so first we talked about ways to be a good talk partner.

We decided that you must:

• listen carefully when your partner is talking
• take turns to talk
• talk about what you've been asked to talk about
• only talk to your talk partner and no one else
• speak clearly so your partner can hear you
• face your partner when you are speaking and listening to them

We practised these skills by talking to our partners about what we would wish for if we could wish for anything in the world! Then we had to tell the whole class what our partner would wish for, to show that we had been a good talk partner and listened carefully. We had lots of interesting ideas, including: being an octonaut to see the fish, having a submarine, having a digger and having a one direction cake!

After that we wrote "If I had a wish I would wish" and then finished the sentence by writing about what we would wish for. We drew and coloured in pictures to go with our writing.

Exploring materials for our underwater pictures

This afternoon we have been exploring materials and deciding which ones to use to add more detail to our underwater pictures. First we looked at pictures of underwater plants and coral and talked about the colours and the shapes. Then we tried out lots of different materials on a piece of paper to test the colour and texture and to see if we thought they would look good on our underwater picture. We used pencils, felt pens, chalks, oil pastels, poster paint and thick acrylic paint.

Then we decided which ones we wanted to use on our finished pictures. The bubble background pictures we made yesterday were dry, so we could add the plants and weeds to make them look even better!

To finish our pictures we just need to cut out our colourful fish and stick them on our backgrounds - check back to see photos of our finished pictures!

Fish facts!

This morning we have been learning how we can find out information. We've been reading the book The Rainbow Fish and we wanted to learn more about fish and sea creatures.

First we talked about what we already know - for example, "they live under water," (Fallon), "they swim around in a fish tank," (Lilly) and "sometimes they live at the beach," (Emily).

Then we talked about what we wanted to find out and thought of some questions we'd like to answer. Some of these were - "What do they eat?" (Hope), "Are there big fish and little fish?" (Rhys) and "What colour tails do they have?" (Ollie).

Next we had to decide how we could find this information out. We decided that we could use the internet (which could be on computers, iPads or phones) or look in books. We split into two groups and looked at books about fish with Mrs Batson and used the internet with Miss Ayres to find answers to our questions and find some interesting facts about fish. Then we got together again in a big group to share what we'd learnt. Here are some of the things we found out!

Some fish are spiky, like the red lion fish.
Some fish are pink. 
They're very colourful animals.
Fish eat a lot of plankton.
The biggest fish is called the whale shark.
The smallest fish is called paedocypris progenetica and it's transparent! (We've learnt about transparent, translucent and opaque things before so we knew this meant that you can see through it).
The fastest fish is called the sailfish and it's very fast at leaping.
Nemo and Marlin in the film Finding Nemo are clownfish.
Jellyfish can sting you!
Some starfish are blue.

Making colourful fish and exploring shells

This morning we've been making colourful fish pictures to go on our display about The Rainbow Fish. We used bubble wrap and lots of different colours of paint!

We've also been exploring shells in the discovery area. We've been feeling them to see if they are rough or smooth, looking at their colours, looking closely at them with the magnifying glasses and listening to find out if we can hear the ocean in them!

Sharing

This afternoon we talked about sharing. In The Rainbow Fish the rainbow fish learns to share - when he doesn't share his shiny scales he is lonely because the other fish don't want to play with him after he is unkind and selfish. After he shares his scales with them, they want to play with him and be friends when they see he is kind and generous. Then he is happy because he has lots of friends! We talked about who we share with and used our phonics to help us write in speech bubbles who we share with.

"I share with Ethan." - Rhys

"I share with my cousin Harrison." - Aaron

"I share my digger toy with Jack." - Matthew

"I share my toys with Leila." - Lilly

"I share with Eleanor." - Olivia

"I share with my brother and my sister and my family." - Hope

"I share my One Direction doll with my sister." - Grace

"I share my toys with Hayden." - Trystan

"I share my toys with Sonny." - Ollie

"I share my fighting toys with Caden." - Jamie

"I share my cars with my brother." - Lucy

"I share my toys with Grace." - Maddie

"I share my lego with my mummy." - Lexi

The Rainbow Fish

This morning we read a story called The Rainbow Fish. It's about a beautiful, colourful fish who shares his shimmering scales with the other fish and makes lots of new friends by being kind and generous. We have got lots of fun things to do and learn about this week connected to the story - watch this space!