Driffield Church Of England Voluntary Controlled Infant School

The children have really been enjoying our Environmentalism Project. We have talked about ways we can help to protect the planet we live on the plants and animals which live there. Our focus is ‘keep the sea plastic free.’ At the start of the week, we discussed what it means to be an environmentalist. We looked at plastic and what we can do to help the environment using the 3 R’s- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Today the children watched a puppet show with an Environmentalism message. They also looked at single use plastics and how it is much better to refill a reusable water bottle rather than buying a bottle of water and throwing away the bottle when it is finished. We also talked about the benefits of paper and metal straws compare to plastic and taking our own shopping bags to the supermarket rather than buying plastic bags. 

In Phonics this week, we have been revising the sounds we already know, and applying these into longer words with two syllables that we need to ‘chunk up’. For example: laptop (lap-top), sunset (sun-set) etc. We have also looked at compound words (two smaller words join together to make a new word). For example: carpark, farmyard, bedroom.

In Maths, we are learning about odd and even numbers and double facts. We have used Numicon pieces to identify odd and even numbers, and spotted the pattern on the number line (odd, even, odd, even etc). We have also used the Numicon to work out double facts. It would be great to practise these with your child at home, what is double 1? Double 2? The following link will take you to the song we used in school to reinforce doubles if you want to sing it at home as well.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_Oe6YD-K94

Our book this week, linked to our environmentalism topic, was Duffy's Lucky Escape by Ellie Jackson. The story explains how sea turtles often mistake a plastic bag floating in the sea for a jellyfish and try to eat it. Duffy was lucky because she was rescued and taken to the turtle hospital to get better before being released back into the sea. As part of our art curriculum, the children have worked together to create a collage of Duffy the Sea Turtle. We used different recycled materials to create the Duffy, following the children's ideas. 
The children are also making fish using recycled plastic bottles. Instead of throwing them in the bin, the children are turning them into a beautiful piece of art! These will also be on display in the exhibition next Thursday (see below).

Next Thursday- we are hosting a whole school environmentalism exhibition. This will begin at 2:30pm in the hall. You will be able to collect your child at 2:30pm from the normal place and then make your way to the hall via the main entrance. On display, you will find our art collage project, each child’s individual plastic bottle fish, all the learning we have been doing over the last two weeks including children’s comments, and pictures from The Deep. If you are unable to pick your child up at the earlier time, please come for them at 3:15pm as normal. 

Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards

Mrs Dean and the Hedgehog Team