A soup-er morning!

This morning we have been using some of the vegetables that we've been looking at on the discovery table to make soup!

First we used our special safe knives to chop the vegetables.

We used potato, carrot, onion, cabbage and tomato. After we had chopped the vegetables we put them in a pan with water and a stock cube. Then we had to cook it on the hob.

When it was cooked the vegetables were soft. We let it cool down then used the blender to make the soup smooth.

Then we ate it. It was very popular - nearly everyone liked it and asked for more! We took some to Mrs Comer and she said it was delicious.

The best thing about vegetable soup is that you can use whatever vegetables you like - and don't use ones you don't like! What vegetables would you like in your vegetable soup?

Growing things!

This morning we did a science investigation to find out what seeds need to grow best. We had some cress seeds and we put them on some pieces of kitchen roll on plates, using pastry cutters to make them into interesting shapes!

What do you think seeds need to grow well? We think they might need water, so to test that out we put water on two of our plates and kept one dry. We put the dry plate on the windowsill. Do you think the cress will grow without any water?

We also think seeds might need light to grow. To test this out we put one of the wet plates in a dark place. Do you think the seeds will grow in the dark?

The last plate had water and was put in a light place.

Which place do you think will be best for the seeds to grow? We are going to check our seeds every day to see how they are growing, and will keep the wet ones watered!

In our Play and Learn time we had lots of fun outside turning the playhouse into a garden centre. We grew flowers, sold them and made deliveries from our garden to the shop.

We explored seeds on the discovery table. We sorted them into different pots and talked about their shape, size, colour and texture. We also used some seeds on the making table to make some pictures.

Where does it grow?

This morning we went out looking for things that grow in the school grounds and found an apple tree! We looked at some of the apples that had fallen on the ground. Fallon said they were "rotten" and we talked about what this means and why we wouldn't want to eat them! We compared the rotten apples to the ones we had picked from the tree and discussed the differences - how can we tell the apple is rotten?

We also went into the garden, but there weren't any apples left on the apple tree! We did see something though... what do you think grows here?

During the morning we looked at the apples we had gathered this morning and at some of the other things we have been collecting for our discovery table inside and outside. We have lots of different types of vegetables, conkers, acorns, pine cones and some lovely autumn leaves to explore.

We also cooked some of the apples (the ones that weren't rotten!) and some of the rhubarb we've been looking at for our story Oliver's Vegetables that we've been reading. It was delicious!

This afternoon we were learning about where things grow. We read Oliver's Vegetables again and looked at those vegetables, as well as other vegetables and fruit we have gathered in our discovery area, and thought about where it grows. We had a picture of a garden and had to place the fruit or vegetable in the right place. Does it grow on trees? Under the ground? On the ground? On bushes? 

Here are some of the things we said:

"The green tomatoes haven't grown as long as the red ones." - Fallon

"Satsumas grow on trees like pears and apples." - Summer

"Onions grow under the ground." - Jack

"Cabbage is my favourite. It grows above the ground." - Brianna

"You have to take the skin off an orange before you can eat it." - Charlie

"You can see apples growing on trees." - Harry

"Some fruit is soft and some is harder. Grapes are soft and apples are hard." - Olivia

"When you cook spinach it goes little." - Emily

Do you think all kinds of fruit and vegetables can be grown in our country? Have you seen a banana tree growing near your house..?

Oliver's Vegetables!

This week we are learning all about harvest, autumn and food! We started by reading the book Oliver's Vegetables. Oliver visits his grandparents' house and finds lots of different vegetables in the garden. He thinks he doesn't like vegetables - until he tries them and loves them!

We looked at all the different vegetables from the story and learnt their names. We explored them using our senses and talked about how they are different to each other, such as their different shapes, sizes and colours.

The vegetables are in our discovery area and we've been looking at them closely using the magnifying glasses and magnifying pot.

This afternoon we talked about how some vegetables, like carrots, can be eaten raw - this means they haven't been cooked. Some vegetables need to be cooked before you can eat them, like potatoes. We talked about the different ways you can cook potatoes and how we like eating potatoes - do you like chips? Roast potatoes? Mash? Baked potatoes?

We looked at the spinach and talked about what it looked like before it was cooked. We thought about how it might change when we cooked it and decided it would "get hot."

When we cooked it we saw that the leaves turned darker and they seemed to get smaller - that's because the leaves were wilting and didn't look like leaves anymore!

Then we tried the spinach. Everyone except one person loved it, and most people had second and third helpings - Fallon was very keen and had lots!

Remember, it's important to eat a variety of food - it's not healthy to eat the same thing all the time, like Oliver at the beginning of the story when he only eats chips! Can you be brave like Oliver and try some new foods? You might discover something new that you love, like Reception today when they found out how much they love spinach!

Where were we learning about today?

Today we looked at some mysterious items in a bag to try and work out what we were going to be learning about today. The clues were: a packet of noodles (were we going to be learning about food?), a picture of some strange symbols we didn't recognise (was it some kind of writing?), a map ("it shows you where you want to go," said Fallon), a panda (we know they eat bamboo...), a picture of some kind of parade with a dragon (what were they doing?), and some sticks ("for eating noodles," said Brianna).

Can you guess what we were learning about today? It was China!

Pandas come from China, and noodles are often eaten in China, with chopsticks. The map was a map of China, the strange symbols were Chinese writing and the picture was a Chinese New Year parade. We talked about our own experiences of Chinese food and what we thought the country might be like.

We used the wok to cook some noodles, stir fry vegetables and sweet and sour sauce. We tried to eat it with chopsticks - it was tricky but some people really persevered!

This afternoon Mrs Waites showed us some exciting things from China and told us about when she lived in Hong Kong.

We looked more closely at Chinese writing and used thin brushes and black paint to try and copy some of the symbols and numbers. Well done to Charlie, Jack and Brianna who all earned a house point for their super effort and great work with their Chinese writing.

Coloured ice!

Yesterday we told you about the coloured water we froze to see if we could make coloured ice. This is what we had in the water tray today..!

What do you think happened to the coloured ice when it melted?

Ice adventures!

This morning we were investigating the icy North Pole where polar bears live! We had ice cubes in the water tray and talked about how they felt, what happened when we held them and what they were made from. We learnt and used words like melt, freeze, frozen, solid, liquid, pour and hard to describe the texture and the changes. The ice melted in our hands and when we put it in some cups of water. We could tell the ice was melting because it was getting smaller and there was water in the cup - this is because when ice melts it changes back into water.

Then we made some snow and created some icy and snowy scenes using Arctic animals like polar bears and whales. Some of us made polar bear masks and we used ice and snow shakers, white glitter and white felt to make beautiful scenes of the North Pole! We drew around a stencil of a polar bear and cut them out before adding them to our Arctic pictures.

We also decided to make some more ice. We talked about what we needed to make ice - water - and what we had to do to it - make it very cold. So we filled an ice tray and put it in the freezer. We talked about how we'll know when the water has frozen and become ice - it will be hard and you won't be able to pour it. We thought it would be ready in ten minutes, but when we looked back it was still liquid!

Then this afternoon we had to perform a rescue mission! Miss Ayres found some bears that were frozen in ice! How could we get them out?! We thought about trying to smash the ice to break it, but we thought that might hurt the bears. We decided a much simpler way would be to melt the ice. But which would be the best way to melt ice?

We decided to try some different ways and see which was the quickest. We put one piece of ice with the bear in in a cup of warm water, one in a cup of cold water, one in a cup without any water inside and one in a cup without any water outside. Which one do you think melted the quickest?

We predicted that the one in the warm water would melt the fastest because ice melts quicker when it's warm. Fallon was very good at explaining this and remembering the words we'd learnt this morning to talk about melting and freezing. We thought about the bear in the ice outside and what might make the ice melt quicker - Jack said it would melt quicker outside if the sun was shining, which we all agreed was right because the sun is hot.

We discussed how we would know when the ice had melted - were we going to spend all afternoon watching the ice melt? That didn't sound very fun! Emily suggested we "keep looking back at them", so we decided to do a "bear check" every five minutes. We looked at the clock and every five minutes called "Bear Check!" Then we checked our bears.

The first bear to be freed came from the ice that was in the warm water, so we put a number one next to that on the board. Quite a while later the bear in the cold water was free, so we put a number 2 next to that one. By home time the bears in the cups inside and outside were still trapped in the ice! Do you think they'll be free by tomorrow?

We went back to check on the ice we made this morning - some of it was frozen, but some was still water! We also decided to make some special ice for Nursery tomorrow - we mixed some food colouring with water and poured it into the ice tray. Check out our blog tomorrow to see if we managed to make coloured ice!