Saturday

Another weekend!  It's going to be a very busy one too, with plenty of stuff to get on with.  I'm hoping tomorrow will be easier though.

Yesterday started off very dull and dismal but by playtime it had brightened up and by lunch time it was bright and sunny.  Not so warm though, despite the sun, and when I went out for playtime duty in the afternoon, it was so chilly that I wished I had put on my coat.  I suppose it didn't help that I seem to be going down with a cold, although it might be hay fever.  I've bought some piriteze and will see if that makes any difference.  I'm feeling rough this morning but nothing that a bit of meds won't sort out, whether it be the hay fever stuff or the aches and pains stuff!

Going back to Thursday afternoon again, we all went out to hug a tree!!!  I have to explain that our school environment is lovely.  A field bordered by trees and a youthful hedge on three sides plus two small-ish playgrounds and plenty of tree-d slopes and some walled beds.  I was going through a sheet for labelling parts of a tree and realised that few children knew what 'bark' was so, as the field was empty, out we went to 'hug a tree' - in other words, get up close and observe carefully.  The hugging was to test which trunks they could get their arms round and which were too big.  It was lovely to watch them running from tree to tree, hugging and comparing.  I saw two children comparing arm length in an effort to work out why one could get his arms round and touch fingers and one couldn't!

Five minutes later they all ran happily back to me to line up and walk back in to get on with their labelling sheet.  The pay back came yesterday as I marked their work and saw how beautifully many children had coloured in their tree trunks.  No plain brown for them, dear me, no, not after seeing the reds, yellows, greens, beiges, maroons and purples of the barks of trees around the playground.  I'll try and remember to take a photo of one or two, because they really were beautiful.

This is something I love about my class.  Send them off with a task or challenge and they do what they have been asked to do.  They don't divert into their own interests.  It's brilliant

I'm sure you will be thrilled to know that the cress seeds with water are managing to grow beautifully.  Funnily enough, the ones in the dark are growing faster but are a very strange colour.  This observation will lead us on very neatly on to Food For Plants, a brief intro to photosyntheses, etc . . .  We're also going to put them under a box with a hole on one side and see what happens!

You can tell I am enjoying this theme, can't you?  :-)