2020/21
This week we have been looking at tadpoles and frogs. We went pond dipping and found a tiny amount of frog spawn, a huge frog and lots of other bugs.
During our child initiated learning we investigated seeds. We had squash, melon, tomatoes, pomegranate, peppers and cucumbers to look at.
We learnt about the life cycle of a frog. The children have been brilliant at remembering all the stages.
As part of our topic, this week we have been learning about plants and what they need to help them grow. We have each planted a dwarf sunflower to hopefully bring home at the end of term!
We created beautiful tulip pictures using forks and paint! The children thought this was great as we usually use forks to eat with 
We also learnt about the parts of the plant. The children then made their own flower using different resources and stuck labels onto their pictures to show which bit was which.
We have been incredibly busy during our child initiated learning time. We planted carrot and lettuce seeds to grow to use for snack time. The malleable area has been very popular with lots of brilliant play dough time. We have made shapes using elastic bands and pictures using shapes. And even Ted came to visit! What another fantastic week we have had in Pear Trees!!
Term 5 Growing
For our topic this term we are looking at growing. We are thinking all sorts of growing, people, plants, frogs, butterflies and other animals. We will be carry out lots of fun activities like planting and growing vegetables, pond dipping, growing butterflies as well as some nice surprises along the way!
This week we have been learning about what people need to help us grow. The children were very knowledgeable, they told us we needed healthy food, water, sleep and exercise. We measured ourselves and we are going to re-measure ourselves during the last week of term to see if we have grown in 6 weeks!
The Farm Shop role play area has been very popular this week. The children are enjoying shopping for goods and paying for them at the checkout. This week we have had real potatoes and tomatoes to buy!
We have been learning about what foods are healthy and what food we can enjoy in moderation. The children had to decide what food was healthy and feed it to Alan the healthy eating alien and the food we can only eat sometimes went into the bin. The children were amazing at this activity, we had some brilliant conversations around the pictures as the burger had lettuce and tomato in it so had healthy bits and not so healthy bits! Mrs Jessops group decided that we would treat Alan to a burger as all the food he had eaten was healthy!! 
During our child initiated learning this week we have enjoyed being outside in the sunshine! We have enjoyed the new construction and art areas.
The large community play blocks have been very popular, we made a bus and went to the beach for a picnic. We ran out of petrol, got a flat tyre and got stuck in the mud!
The girls made a racing car!
On Friday we had a disco in the garden! The children (and Mrs Jessop) had a lovely time dancing in the sunshine. The children have some great dance moves 
Baby Shark doo doo doo doo doo doo!
.......and relax 
The weather was so lovely Friday afternoon we even had snack outside. Who doesn't love a frozen yogurt on a sunny day?
Dress up day!
We had a great last day of term in Pear Tree Class. The children all looked brilliant in their costumes. What a fantastic end to an amazing term 
The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
The children have really enjoyed this story. At first they thought it was not very kind of the big billy goat to headbutt the troll off of the bridge. We had a discussion around whether this was the right thing to do. We decided that maybe if the troll had been nicer and not threatened to eat the other billy goats he would not have ended up in the river!! 
We made our own trolls using playdough. Some of us pulled ugly faces while we had our photos taken with them.
During our child initiated time we have been building bridges. I don't think we have found any trolls yet though!
The girls have been busy practicing their letter formation during child initiated time. Our pen control is getting so much stronger!
The Gingerbread Man
The children have loved this story and get very excited when they can shout "run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread man!". After reading the story for the first time we made our own puppets from the story and took them on the mile run with us!
We decorated a mini gingerbread man. This was a brilliant way of developing our fine motor skills. The children had to carefully use a cocktail stick to put the icing onto their biscuit before adding the decorations.
We have been practicing really hard on our name writing and on writing our numbers!
