Den Day!

On Monday it was Den Day! 

Year 5 and Year 2 joined together to create a fantastic Den in the Key Stage 1 yard!
We first had a discussion about working as a team and communicating our ideas with each other before collecting the materials we needed to create our fabulous Den! Miss Henry and Miss Howe couldn't believe how great and original our ideas were! We had great fun doing this and hope we get to make an even better Den in the future!

Flutter by, butterflies!

Yesterday afternoon we released our beautiful 'Painted Lady' butterflies! We took them into the Early Years yard by the flowers and watched them fly free! Many of them liked their pop-up habitat so much they needed some encouragement to go! In particular, Curly needed a lot of support and encouragement as he struggles to fly and walk. The children all called encouragements to him and we managed to get him safely to a flower!

Over the next 2 weeks, they will mate and lay eggs on the underside of a leaf and then the life cycle will start all over again! We hope they come back to our Early Years garden - the children all said they'd be very welcome!

Year 6 Cricket Tournament

Year 6 Girls and Boys took part in a brilliant Kwik Cricket tournament at Felling CC. It was a great day full of lovely weather and great supportive competition. It was brilliant to see that our hard work paid off and the children were awarded third place out of 15 different schools.

Well done!

KS2 Parent Workshop. The Venerable Bede.

Last week we invited the parents to come and help year 3 and year 4 in the production of there Anglo Saxon scrolls. The scrolls told a recount of our recent trip to Bede's World and even had illuminated letters and tea stained paper. All the parents and guardians were a brilliant help and the children of lower key stage two produced some spectacular designs to show off to them!

6 butterflies and counting...!

Can you see the four paler chrysalides that the butterflies came out of? 

Don't worry about the red 'stuff'- it's called meconium. The butterflies dry and expand their wings by forcing this liquid into the veins of their wings. Then any leftover red liquid is gotten rid of!

This butterfly had just emerged!

Enjoying their little feast of orange and sugar water put onto the flowers using a pipette.

Butterflies!!

Just under two weeks ago, the caterpillars shed their last layer of skin and then hardened into their chrysalis states! After a bit of shaking on the first few days, which is a natural process to warn off predators, we put them in their pop-up habitat and they hadn't seemed to do much for over a week now!

 Look at the beautiful gold flecks on them!

But, Reception children at White Mere know better than that! We know that inside the chrysalis, each caterpillar had changed into a liquid, ready to reform and emerge as butterflies!

As we were lined up and about to leave yesterday afternoon (Friday 26th - day 23), someone suddenly called out, 'Butterflies!' To our amazement, three beautiful 'Painted Ladies' had come out!

Friday afternoon there were 3...

Saturday morning - now there are 5! 

Keep checking for updates! They are now resting and letting their wings dry off and have a feast of orange segments, flowers and nectar (sugar water) in the bottom of their habitat. In the next few days we will be releasing them so they can begin the whole life cycle again!

Feel free to bring in some potted flowers for our Early Years yard so they can stick around for a bit.

Happy Father's Day

We hope you really enjoyed your super hero pictures for Father's Day last Sunday - we really enjoyed making them! Thanks for being our superheroes!

Hall Hill Farm

Last Friday we had a fantastic trip to Hall Hill Farm. It was a day packed with amazing experiences, like holding chicks, feeding llamas and giving milk to lambs!

The chicks are kept under a special light to keep them warm.

Making a 'fence' with our arms, ready for the chicks.

 Certain parent helpers couldn't wait to have a go!

Piglets

Blossom the cow

 Giving the lambs milk

Feeding the goats

Pony

One of the big pigs was called 'Pepper'!

Milking the (plastic) cow

We loved holding the rabbits and guinea pigs. Some were so big!

Tractor ride

We loved the soft play and became little farmers!

Ice lollies!

Sheep racing! Each group took a number and cheered for their sheep. Will Woolly Jumper or Baa Baa win?

Looking at the beautiful peacock

Turns out that turkeys aren't as good looking as we thought they would be!

Feeding the llamas

Watching the wallaby jump. A baby wallaby is called a joey. 

The long-haired highland cow

Which part was your favourite?