Snails and caterpillars

Another week has whizzed by and it's been another interesting week. We started by recallling all the facts we could remember about snails. We did this by doing an oral language activity called 'the web'. We rolled a piece of string to each other and each of us shared a fact about a snail. When we had finished we had made a web and we placed a ' sock snail' in the middle.



We then wrote an information report about a snail. Using the computer programme KidPix everyone put labels on the snail they had photographed using the class camera. These photos will be placed at the bottom of the information reports.


At the end of the week we set to, to make sock snails with the help of our student teacher Mrs David who has joined us for four weeks. We looked at the sock snail that Mrs Rennie-Younger had made - and it became very clear that the snail was quite incorrect - it clearly did not have a foot and it only had 2 long tentacles when it needed 4, two long tentacles for looking and two short tentacles for smelling and tasting.


It's great to see how our knowledge of snails has grown. Just look at our sock snails - a great opportunity to reinforce our learning.


We have started to look at caterpillar's and have a caterpillar in our classroom that Finlay brought in last week. We have found some more food for it to eat and its is busy eating, eating and eating. We have found out that caterpillars
- emerge out of an egg
- the first thing they eat is their egg shell
- are insects
- have 6 true legs. The other legs are used by the caterpillar to move around.

We have watched this video of a caterpillar eating its egg shell - it's just fascinating.


For art we have looked at the very hungry caterpillar and looked at the techniques used by Eric Carle. We watched a video of Eric talking about the techniques he used.


We drew a caterpillar- and used a vivid marker to outline it. Next week we will start to paint pieces of paper ready to collage our rather unique caterpillars. Look out for these in the weeks to come.



Anthony brought in a little book he had made about The very hungry caterpillar. His pictures are simply spectacular. (click on the image to enlarge it) Look out for Anthony retelling the story later in the week.

The boat by Nancy

Nancy drew this picture on Kidpix and wrote about it. Listen to her read her sentence.

The bee by Miahi

Listen to Mihai read his story about a bee. He drew his bee on KidPix

A living thing by Taylor

Listen to Taylor read his explanation of a living thing.

A minibeast by Anthony

Listen to Anthony read his definition of a minibeast. Well done Anthony.

Minibeasts by Kenneth

Listen to Kenneth read his explanation of a minibeast.

Living and not living things by Isabel

Listen to Isabel explain her understanding of the difference between things that are living and not living.

Snail word search

Can you find the words in the word search

Make Your Own Word Search

Escaping snails!

Having snails in our classroom has been a lot of fun and we have learnt a very interesting fact about snails. We knew they like to eat at night time but they didn't want the food we had in the container they liked to escape.
Tuesday morning we discovered that the snails could and would eat the paper we had used to cover them


No matter what we covered the snails with they pushed their way out. Over the week we found snails in various places in our classroom
* under the chairs
* in the cupboard
* in the insect books we had on display on the table


We even found one in a headphone which was a long way away from the table where we had the snails - fancy that.


As we headed home on Friday - Mrs Rennie-Younger released the snails so they could explore our school grounds!
I wonder what next week will bring - when we look at caterpillars!!!

Snails, snails and more snails

This week we had a chance to look at a minibeast in some depth - the good old garden snail.


We looked at it very closely - taking the opportunity to sketch it.



We learnt about the parts of a snail and used a mimio activity to reinforce our learning.




We watched this video of a snail eating lettuce - a chance to see the snail's tongue with it's thousands and thousands of small sharp teeth munching it's way through a piece of lettuce.


We found out a lot of facts about snails and used a Y chart to organise our information


We looked at our snail sketches to draw a much bigger snail. We then used a black vivid and dye to make our snails colourful. Play the movie to see all of our wonderful art work.




Some of us drew a snail on KidPix making sure we drew tentacles, eyes, the foot and the breathing hole.


Next week we will write a report on a snail - using the information we have learnt. Look out for us reading these reports in the weeks to come.

Minibeasts

Here are the last of the wonderful minibeats we have drawn on KidPix. Look out for our definitions of a minibeast next week.

Living and not living things by Eunji

We have been learning about things that are living and not living. Listen to Eunji read her explanation of the difference between the two.

Swimming by Sharlene

We have been enjoying swimming in our school pool. Listen to Sharlene's story.

Living and not living things by Terina

Listen to Terina reading the explanation she wrote about the difference between things that are living and not living.

Minibeasts

Here are some more of the minibeasts we drew on KidPix