This half term our topic is - How does your garden grow?

The children enjoyed writing letters to the chicks thinking about what they wanted to say.  Some children wanted to write I love you and others wrote about being happy that we have them.

Seven eggs hatched and the children thoroughly enjoyed watching the chicks emerging wet and tired.  They could see how quickly chicks recover and start walking about inside the incubator. 

After twenty-four hours the chicks could be put into the prepared brooding box.  The children wrote instructions about 'How to set up a brooding box' in their writing books.

In the brooding box the chicks could be watched easily as they ate, drank and slept.  They responded to the children looking at them through the front of the box and enjoyed jumping and flapping around on the carpet.  Some children were a little apprehensive about being so close to the chicks, however they could see how high they can jump and flap and the children learnt to sit calmly and wait for them to get closer for a gentle stroke.

Mrs Coleman's class were lucky enough to have frogspawn in their class.  Tiny tadpoles hatched and are now growing rapidly.  

Mrs Mullarkey's class have some very greedy tadpoles and they are feeding them boiled lettuce.  

The children have been ordering the life-cycle of frogs and learning about the changes that happen.  They now know that tadpoles have gills and long tails, they use to swim with.  They grow their back legs first and then their front legs.  They thought it was quite strange that their tails shrink and that they need to be able to breathe out of water. 

They learnt that frogs are amphibians and therefore spend the first part of their lives in water and the rest out of water.