After our Christmas holiday the children have been busy thinking about all of the exciting things they got up to over the holiday period and have been thinking about the year a head.

The children have enjoyed listening to the stories about 'Sally the INDEPENDENT Snail' and 'Holly the COLLABORATIVE Hedgehog' and are trying to be more independent by getting changed for PE all by themselves, zipping their own coats up, going to the toilet and remembering to wash their hands all by themselves, cutting their own food up, listening to instructions and working independently.  They are also trying very hard to work together to tidy up, look after each other, listen to other people's views and opinions and communicate to resolve issues.  When children are spotted demonstrating these important'skills for learning' then they might get themselves a special sticker or certificate. 

This term our key question is ...

What was the world like when

the dinosaurs were alive?

Our topic started with a surprise visit from Ranger Mike and Rex an enormous dinosaur. 

The children gathered in the large hall and shouted for Rex who had gone missing in the school building.  They squealed with delight and nervous excitement as the huge dinosaur walked into the hall, and laughed as the very friendly but mischievous T-Rex swished his tail and knocked Ranger Mike's hat off!

The children then spent some time listening to Ranger Mike tell them all about dinosaurs, ask him some questions and stroke and pat Rex and his friend Trixie the baby Triceratops!

We have been comparing what the world looks like now in Grantham with what it would have looked like in prehistoric times when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. 

We watched this clip to help us imagine what the world was like and then used Google Earth to look at Grantham today so we could compare the old with the new.

We investigated the question - 'how do we know dinosaurs existed?'.  Through our research we all agreed that it was through the bones and fossils that were found and studied by Paleontologists that we have learnt most about the size, shape, eating habits and types of dinosaurs.

We enjoyed looking at the skeleton of a dinosaur, drawing dinosaur skeletons and making our own dinosaur bones using salt dough. 

We have been learning about the Stegosaurus.  We couldn't imagine the size of this dinosaur.  So we used a metre stick and us to measure out 9 metres wide and 4 metres high!

We found out a Stegosaurus would be wider and taller than our classroom - and we thought our classroom was big!

In PE we have been choreographing and practising our very own dinosaur dances.  We have thought about how different dinosaurs move and learned how to use ribbons to add to our dance. 

We then performed our dances for Mrs Jones who thought they were wonderful.