Spiders! 5.7.19

Spiders! 5.3.19

This week we have been learning more about spiders! We already knew that we could identify spiders from other insects by counting their legs. We know spiders have 8 legs and insects have 6. We have been very interested in finding out more about spiders!

We started the week reading the story Spinderella, by Julia Donaldson. Spinderella was a young spider who wanted to learn about numbers. She liked playing football with the leftover peas in the school hall. However her brothers and sisters always ended up arguing because their teams weren’t fair. Spinderella learnt more about numbers and helped her family to separate into 2 equal teams of 5; she even scored the winning goal! Our Giant children explored sharing spiders between 2 teams. We shared the spiders practically using a ‘one for you, one for you’ method. For some numbers we realised we had an odd spider left over that we couldn’t share it fairly. We noticed a pattern on the number track, recognising odd and even numbers. We know that even numbers are in the 2’s pattern. Super maths Giant class! Our Ducklings have been joining in with some maths learning on the carpet and have been starting to find doubles with their fingers! They have also all been counting carefully, practising counting all the way up to 20!

On Tuesday we had a very exciting visitor to Giant and Duckling class! Maisie’s Dad brought in their Chilean Rose Tarantula, Rosie! We were very excited to see Rosie being held and watch her walking over Maisie’s hands and arms! We had lots of questions to ask and thought of more as we were talking. We found out that Rosie is still a young tarantula and will grow to almost double her present size! She is a very gentle and inquisitive tarantula and likes to build tunnels inside her tank. She eats grasshoppers and will curl up a little when she’s sleeping. We found out that although most spiders have lots of eyes, they can’t actually see very well! They use ‘feelers’ at the front of their bodies, as well as the hairs on their legs, to pick up vibrations and sounds and to ’feel’ what’s around them. After we had been shown Rosie, we got to see the skin that had been shed from their larger tarantula, Honey! It was quite a lot bigger than Rosie and looked just like a real tarantula! It was hard to believe it was just the skin. We found out that spiders are very special creatures as their skeletons are on the outside of their bodies. When they get too big for their skin, they grow a new one and leave their old skin behind. We could see really closely where the spiders’ mouth and eyes would be. It was amazing to see! Thank you so much to Maisie’s family for bringing in Rosie for us to meet and for answering our questions. We really loved meeting her!

On Wednesday afternoon, our new Reception children joined the Ducklings for their first Sparklers afternoon! It was exciting to have the first afternoon together as our new class. We explored the classroom; playing lots of games, puzzles, play dough and then read a story together. We are looking forward to another Sparklers afternoon next week!

Thursday was an exciting day for our Giant children as they practised being grown up year 1 children! They met Mrs Cain, their teacher for next year and spent the day with her in Trendle class! It sounded like lots of fun!

Next week is Global Week and we will be learning about different countries and places in the world. It is also Sports Day next Thursday! We are looking forward to seeing you all there!

Have a super weekend!

Miss Stephens and Mrs Tite