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Catch up on the growth of our cress seeds. Some of our seeds have not germinated, can you think why this might be? This is the final week of our growing challenge, let's make it a good one!
Excitedly, we arrived to school today to find that four of our butterflies have emerged from their chrysalides. How amazing they are! We are unsure of when they emerged but we know that it was over the weekend. Since this morning, they have completely changed in colour. We predicted their symmetrical patterns, to our amazement they looked nothing like we had imagined. They were dull in colour, almost like a moth. As the day progressed, two of the butterflies' wings have changed. They now have orange and red throughout their wings. We were a bit shocked at a red liquid that had been expelled, we read our information leaflet and it assured us that this was normal and it is not blood but meconium- essential for the formation of their wings. Have a look at our most recent video blog.
In Year 3 and 4 our final topic is 'Let's get growing'. The children would like to learn about how plants, children and animals grow. We will begin by looking at plants. So far, we have named the different parts of plants and are learning what their jobs are. Using our iPads, the children have researched each of the parts and are observing this first hand in class by planting our own cress seeds. To begin with we were a bit confused as to how some seeds grow in different places even though they hadn't been planted by a person. Some of the children had a question they would like to find the answer to which was, 'Do all seeds need soil to grow?' The cress seeds have proven the answer to this question as they can grow on cotton wool so long as they get watered each day, have sunlight and a bit of heat. Be careful not to add too much water though, they might get too soggy and kill the seeds! We have uploaded video blogs about the growth of our cress seeds, check out our videos!
In Year 3 and 4 we have been learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. We have observed our caterpillars changing and have created video blogs each day to create a diary of the different stages of their development. Check out our video blogs, it won't be long until the butterflies emerge from their chrysalides!
World Animal Day
This month we have been learning about World animal day which was celebrated around the world on the 4th of October. We have been learning that certain species are becoming extinct because of pollution and rubbish. The children thought of different ways that we could protect animals. They came up with ideas such as; giving our pets more space to play, making sure that animals have fresh, clean water and making time to spend with animals.
Belfast Zoo look after animals that are endangered so we decided to donate some money and adopt an animal. At first we were expecting to adopt a penguin, however when the envelope arrived in school we were shocked to find out that we had actually adopted an Asian Elephant! In the Bible we read about Noah who built an Ark to save the animals when God sent a flood. In our class we are trying to be more like Noah, looking after the animals and thinking carefully about what we do.
The next time you visit the Zoo, have a look for the Asian Elephants and let us know how they are doing. We hope that the zoo will keep us up to date with how they are getting on.
Click on this link to have a look at the elephants in the zoo.
http://www.belfastzoo.co.uk/animals/asian-elephant.aspx
We really enjoyed making our scarecrow. In class we had a vote to choose a name, Nasher had the most votes from the children! The council have now collected Nasher so keep a look out for him in the shop windows! Send us a picture if you spot him on his travels.
In Year 3 and 4 we are working extremely hard but we still manage to have lots of fun. In September we thought about the lovely holidays we went on over the summer and we have written a few of our favourite things in a "Summer Selfie". We built Lego and drew pictures to remind us of these wonderful memories. Have a look to see if you can spot your selfie!
In Year 3 and 4 our topic is called "Take a good look at the body". We have been busy naming the bones in our body and even the organs too! A new member has joined our class especially for this topic, his name is Skelly.
We made our own skeletons using art straws and crayons to create wax resistant pictures. All of the children are very proud of their efforts. The children really enjoyed learning the dancing bones song. You can find the words in one of the pictures or you can watch the video for yourself.
Keep moving those dancing bones!
