Learning through stories

A part of our RE and class topic GROWING, we read The Extraordinary Gardener.

We talked about how gardens and outdoor spaces make us feel and the importance of them during our periods of lockdown.

We talked about how important growing food is to sustain life and how to look after the soil and plants, to provide the best conditions for growth. We learnt about keeping healthy and the importance of vegetables are in our daily diet.

We learnt about the life cycles of frogs, butterflies, chickens and sunflowers. We planted sunflower seeds, which were harvested from giant sunflowers, planted by the previous year group.

Last week we planted a variety of vegetables, which we will look after, watch grow and hopefully get to eat.

The Extraordinary Gardener Please share this book at home and ask the children about planting flowers and vegetables in school.

Organic Alice our Soil Superhero We have been talking about looking after the soil in which our food grows. We read the story Organic Alice and the Wiggly Jiggly Worms, which discussed how important worms are to soil health.

Planting & Watering our Sunflowers

Taking Care of our sunflowers

We planted a variety of vegetables in pots and vegetable beds. We will look after soil and plants, to help them to grow into strong healthy vegetables to eat. We talked about the best time to plant particular vegetables and why.

Planting Vegetables to Eat

What We'll Build Oliver Jeffers sharing his new book with his children

What We'll Build Listen to the story at home

From observing the children's interest in building structures both inside and out, alongside watching their friendships form in the process, I searched for an appropraite text to share with the class.

What We'll Build, is a beautiful book which explores relationships, the present and future, feelings the children may wish to explore further; as well as celebating the endless potential each child holds.

Please share the following videos with your child, which explore the author and his reasons for writing his beautiful book.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears Please listen to the story with your child at home

After dismantling the nativity scene and leaving blocks behind in an empty space, the children instantly began to play, making up their own story. The blocks were arranged into beds of different sizes due to the limited amount of blocks. When asked if they would extra props they asked for three bears and our new role area was decided upon.

Please listen to the Golilocks and the Threee Bears story at home and ask them about playing in this area.

The Snowman by Raymond Briggs In class we have been discussing the story of The Snowman, planning a storymap and discussing the characters feelings.

In class we are reading Oliver's Vegetables We are learning about keeping healthy - please read Oliver's Vegetables and discuss the importance of eating vegetables

We acted out the story of Oliver's Vegetables

We diced, sliced, grated and peeled vegetables for our soup, we really enjoyed learning these new skills.

We prepared vegetable soup

Our Homemade Vegetable Soup was Delicious!

We dug up our home grown potatoes from our compost bin. We also brought in potatoes from home, to see if we could find the heaviest and lightest potatoes in Liverpool. Once we had finished with them, we peeled and sliced them to make real homemade chips. they were delicious!

We made real chips with our home grown potatoes

As part of our topic about keeping healthy, the children learnt about the importance of their skeleton. They listened to the Funnybones story and danced along to the skeleton dance song. The children also met our class skeleton and drew their own. Why not listen to the story again with your child and have a little dance too?