Castle Room News

Over the next two weeks in Castle Class, we will be focusing on the key area of Understanding the World as we look at the scientific process of freezing, melting and insulation. The key vocabulary will be: melt, freeze, ice, cold, winter, warm, snow.

In the garden we will be experimenting with how we can keep ourselves warm in winter, as we talk about how arctic animals keep themselves warm. We will look at how long our bodies can handle the feeling of ice and use fat and rubber gloves to simulate the blubber used by arctic animals.

We will also look at the other ways humans keep themselves warm, with appropriate clothing and exercise. We will categorise clothing by its seasonal benefits and consider the ways we can get our blood pumping to warm up.

We will be learning all about how materials can be waterproof as we experiment around keeping ourselves dry in the wet weather. We will look at different materials and complete a series of experiments to check which is the most waterproof.

In the Creative Area we will be looking at creating shelters and arctic/Antarctic animals as we create a snowy landscape through various shapes painted white. We will look closely at the different animals and their family groups as we talk about how animals survive in the wintery world.

On the easel we will be looking at contrasting white with pale blues as we create gentle winter contrasts with snow and ice. We will mix shades of grey and white to create shadow and depth in our paintings.

In the home corner this week we have created a Christmas scene in order to help the children recall their Christmas at home. We have added a Christmas tree and gift bags along with different vegetables that the children may have eaten on their Christmas Day. We hope this will encourage the children to remember, re-enact and talk about their special Christmas traditions.

On the mark-making table, we have provided a variety of coloured card with an assortment of envelopes. We will encourage the children to make ‘Thankyou cards’ for Santa and their families. We will discuss and talk about what we are thankful for. This may be gifts, fun Christmas days out or yummy food!

Our first book of the week is 10 Little Lights, the story of 10 animals out in the wintery snow dreaming of sitting by a warm fire. The key vocabulary is: fox, hare, rat, owl, mole, deer, badger, stoat, prowl, shelter.

Our first song of the week is. Here we go round the Mulberry Bush, we will talk about different ways we do things on a cold and frosty morning.

Our second book of the week is One Winter's Day, the story of a hedgehog whose house blew away in the wind. His journey on the way to the badger’s house brings him across some cold animals, and he is always willing to help out.

Our second song of the week is called ‘Its winter time, what shall I wear?’ where we will reiterate the importance of the warm clothes we wear in winter.