Upper Transition - current activies

The World Around Us	We have been exploring the different kinds of beautiful patterns you can find in nature.
This term, we have been learning about the world around us and focusing on the local areas in which we live. For our Holiday Homework, we were each given a disposable camera and we spent the holidays photographing our local area – our homes, our street, the local shops, cafes and parks, as well as our favourite places to visit, such as the zoo, or our favourite bookshop. We have used the photographs to make books about where we live and we have spent time, in class, talking about the ways in which our homes and local areas are different from each other. We have also been looking at shape and patterns in the natural environment, using Andy Goldsworthy’s sculpture as a starting point. We spent ages looking at different sculptures and photographs of naturally occurring patterns, such as those you would find on leaves or tree bark. We looked closely at the different patterns and shapes, then drew a series of small pictures, focusing on just one part of the pattern.
	For the final half term, we are learning about the creatures and animals in our local areas and finding out about their habitats. We have been learning about the ways in which human activity can have a positive or negative impact and what we can do to protect and take care of our local environment. We are learning about minibeast life cycles and we each have a Painted Lady caterpillar, which we are taking care of in class. We are observing them very closely and checking on them every day, as well as keeping a diary of the changes taking place. They have grown a huge amount in just a week and they are now enormous! We can’t wait until they reach the chrysalis stage, so we can watch them hatch out and become butterflies. It’s VERY exciting!
We have been learning about life cycles through observing the life cycle of a butterfly first-hand.