Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring!

It is hard to believe that we are nearly at Mid Term. Even though we have been confined to the classroom for the past few weeks, we have been enjoying the activity on our bird feeders. At this stage I get so much pleasure from seeing and hearing the joy that the children receive as they observe the little garden birds.To day we looked at a set of matching cards with both hen and cock(female and male) birds of the same species and I explained to them why the cock bird always has the brighter colours.The children thought it hilarious when I asked what would happen if their Dads  dressed up in similar bright colours and showed off to their Mums by singing at the top of his voice just as all the cock birds do when Spring arrives. This led on to telling them how the bird behave in Spring as cock sings his best song and wears his brightest colours to get a” girlfriend”! The children love this story and so from now on we shall be listening to birds singing non stop as they prepare for nesting.   While watching for the first signs of Spring we were delighted to see the little crocuses push their way up through the soil  in the flower bed outside the school door. We have been reading frog stories, studying their life cycle,  and watching out for them as they make their way across the field to their pond for mating. Some of the children have made their own life cycles and are producing beautiful work. Very soon we will wrap up warm and go down the lane to see the little buds open on the trees.  It will be so nice to be outdoors again and experience the work that we have been doing in the classroom come to life in the outdoor environment. By sharing my love of nature with the children  and bringing the work in the classroom to real life situations has given me great insight into how children learn.For me ,nature is the key and will win even the most difficult child.

The children are working well and independence is evident as they explore new materials. Since Christmas we have been exploring the continents.We started with Africa and beautiful animal projects were produced by all.We moved to Asia and having fun discovering the animals that live on this the biggest continent.I also changed the smelling jars to the spices of Asia . The projects are coming in daily and are greeted by all with great excitement!