Trespassing dinosaurs and hometime groans

What an eventful day in Otters class!!! (A day worthy of three exclamation marks)


On Tuesday afternoon the otters were busily wrapping twigs in wool as part of their funky fingers provision when all of a sudden I could see a lot of activity happening underneath the table.

Following a few huffs and puffs I came to find Christopher not wrapping his twig but wrapping the table leg. ''Oh, I'm just making a dinosaur trap!'', he nonchalantly told me. I wasn't aware we had to trap any dinosaurs so asked him why. ''I keep finding clues that they wake up at night, just like in toy story....so I'm making a trap.'' He continued to string ribbon and wool across two of the classroom tables and soon a few more of the intrigued Otters were busily making dinosaur tarps around him.

The children discovered that they had to tie the ribbon taut or else it would droop in the middle. Reese and Mateo set about writing a poster that said 'Stop Dinosaur!'

I was left under strict instructions not to leave school on Tuesday night, instead I was to ''Be on Guard!''.

This morning, the children were the first to get to the classroom as I was busy talking to Mrs Sturrock about todays' funky fingers provision. As we were talking I was interrupted by an almighty sound coming from the classroom. The children were squealing and rushing out to drag me back into the classroom. I couldn't believe my eyes. The trap had worked...almost. For all over Otters classroom was chaos caused by the pesky dinosaurs. They had strewn the children's enquiry books all over the floor and knocked over all of the ingredients for making an erupting volcano.

The Otters were not impressed! Mateo's beady eyes noticed that the trap had caught a few of the dinosaurs but some of them had managed to sneak underneath and that was how they had been able to sneak through our enquiry books.

The morning's activities all stemmed from this excitement and the children initiated their own learning from it. Signs were made and Lucas even tried to teach the dinosaurs how to make an exploding volcano WITHOUT knocking everything over. Chloe even made a ''bounceleen'' from a  plan that she drew. Her idea was that if the dinosaurs dared to creep back in they wouldn't be able to walk on the ''bounceleen'' but instead be bounced back into 'Dinosaur land.''

In literacy, the lesson I thought I would be teaching went out of the window! The children wanted to plan how to make a better trap ...so we wrote instructions. We knew that Year two had been trying to catch a dragon so ventured upstairs to get their advice. They helped us with our text maps.

Lunchtime was a flurry of activity. The deconstructed role play area that had been a Frozen palace was now turned into a makeshift dinosaur trap. Chloe and Kerron upturned one of the boxes of toys to lure the dinosaurs in.

After lunch was no different....the children were keen to try out their plans and follow their instructions so a busy crew of den builders set out to the quiet area to construct traps, dens and hides. Samuel, Samridi, Jack and Reese wrapped the blue wool around the benches and trees, creating a web. ''The dinosaurs will get stuck.'' ''It's just like in Home Alone'', said Reese. Samuel tried out his best commando rolls and leaps to check that the Otters could safely manoeuvre through it.

Children were working together to create all sorts of dens. Ask your child what they made. At one point a well positioned telescope was constructed...again, I was told that I would have to do the night duty!

Impromptu writing opportunities arose and Paige even created her very own reading den and asked to go back into the corridor so she could collect some dinosaur books.

Mr and Mrs Gill were invited to take a look at the dens, traps and hides but were safely walked through the danger zone first.

There is SO much more I could write about today but I hope the photos will speak for themselves. Thank you Christopher for the spark that started it all off.

...I suppose some dinosaurs might have to appear in the trap overnight.

Watch this space.

Volcano inspired baking!

Lucas is one of our dedicated volcanologists, he has been researching the answers to his teams enquiry questions and thinking of new directions to take his learning. He has choreographed a volcano inspired dance and directed a volcano inspired soundscape with ever increasing volume and tempo!!


His learning has not stopped at school, so intrigued has he been about volcanoes that he has taken his learning home and continued his enquiry there.


Lucas asked his Mum if they could bake a volcano cake to share with the other Otter scientists.

We had been looking forward to seeing (and tasting) his creation all week. He promised that it would explode and talked to us about the ingredients he had been to buy with his Mum.

We were not disappointed. Lucas was waiting in line for me on Friday morning with an enormous cake box. His Mum carefully lifted off the lid to reveal an incredible cake, with lava icing and a magma chamber..it even came complete with a dinosaur scene around the lower slopes. WOW! The other children quickly gathered around Lucas and his volcano cake. Everybody was very impressed.

We had some visitors during our science lesson on Friday and even they couldn't help but be drawn in by the impressive volcano cake.

After lunch Mrs TC and Lucas cut the cake...leaving enough for our two visitors and me and Mrs Lewis, who were on PPA.

Lucas and Mrs Sturrock set off on a magical mystery tour to find the four adults he had promised cake to and eventually found us all. We were all very happy to see the cake as we had been eyeing it up all day. Lucas very proudly gave us our slices and smiled as we told him that it was as delicious as it looked.

What a wonderful way to link home and school learning. Well done Lucas! It was so lovely to see you so inspired by your enquiry learning.

Taking the cars to new heights.

This morning there was a very unusual object left in the car area in Foxes classroom. A mysterious plank of wood and some accessories were lying on the floor. Mateo was quick to notice that this would make "an excellent ramp". He spotted how the end of the ramp clipped onto the doweling.

Archie and Riley decided to investigate to see if different cars went different distances after travelling down the ramp. They soon realised it wasn't fair if Archie started at the top and Riley in the middle. Archie decided that it was important that they both started "in the same place at the same time to make it fair."

Crowds soon started to gather eager to find out what was happening. Suggestions were made "to see what happens when it's not as high". T

he carpet was deemed to be "too bumpy" by Emmanuel so Riley suggested the "ice floor would be better" meaning the laminate flooring. The ramp was quickly relocated and the experimenting began again.

Wonderful Woodwork

Have you heard about the new woodwork table in Otters classroom?

There has been an excited hive of activity huddled around the investigation area over the past two weeks. A selection of woodwork tools and a basketful of balsa wood appeared there with a temptingly glistening pot of nails and tacks.

At first the children were unsure if it was put there for them to explore and learn with. ''Miss Sullivan, Mr Morris has left his tools.''

Soon enough, the attraction of the saws and hammers became too much to bear and the children started to explore the tools and what they could do. The vice flummoxed the children and there was a very interesting conversation as to what it did. I explained that it would hold their wood still, ready to saw. Lots of funky fingers were then finding out how to screw it onto the table.

The children understood that they were working with dangerous tools so independently came up with their own rules. The most important one...that came from Kerron.. was, ''Just be sensible, nobody wants to hurt themselves.''  Indeed, we found that the children were capable of managing their own risks and respecting the tools they were working with.

From a lot of trial and error the children worked out that holding the hammer at the end worked best. They explored different forces of taps and decided that a few gentle taps to begin with would hold the tack I place...ready for a few more forceful 'taps'!

Mrs Nulty taught the children that carpenters mark their wood before cutting it. Rulers were brought to the table and notches drawn into the wood. ''Oh that's easier.'' said Jack.

There have been many, many creations built at the woodwork table and our kind, sensible FS2 children have been teaching the FS1 children all that they have learnt through their exploration and discovery.

Let us know if you have any more ideas to enhance this table... we have a feeling it will stay popular for a very long time!

Bow and arrow fever

This morning the children in Foxes class were quick to spot some new, giant drinking straws. Mrs Lewis had seen them in the supermarket and thought they would be great for building roads for the cars to race on. However, the children soon had their own much better ideas.

Tilly began by showing her friends how to make shapes out of the straws just like they had done with Mr Gill using bamboo sticks in 'Forest School'. Emmanuel realised he could make a star shape by laying the straws over each other.

This soon reminded Austin of Gigi's fabulous Susan costume on World Book Day where she wore a home made quiver full of arrows for her bow. He soon found some wool and set to work to make his own bow. With some help from Mrs Lewis showing him how to tie a knot he soon had a fully functioning bow and arrow.

Promising not to shoot his friends Austin showed Emmanuel, Ruth and Megan how to make their own.

Not one to be out done, Tilly realised she could make an even larger bow by joining 2 straws together.

This group of children realised the classroom was too crowded and not big enough to safely test how far their arrows could go and off they went outside to test their devices.

For the rest of the day children were busy making bows and arrows and improving the devices by trying different ways of attaching their wool to the straw. After lunch Archie decided he needed somewhere to store his arrows before he shot them and using a variety of joining techniques he made a quiver that he could wear over his shoulder.

Mrs Lewis was very impressed with the way the children worked well together, all around the classroom children could be heard saying "have you tried doing it like this?" and "I found that this worked better". Their perseverance and determination to succeed made Mrs Lewis very proud today!