Dear
Edgerley parents,
We
had another busy week this week, continuing to explore Autumn, symbols and
portraiture. But mid week we had a catastrophe that refocused our thinking
about our recent interest in habitats. You may have noticed that we have been
working together with clay and natural materials to make a mini jungle habitat.
We brainstormed together to think about what habitats need and ensured that we
included food, clean water and air in our jungle. BUT on Wednesday some
visitors got a little too overenthusiastic with our jungle and in the afternoon
we discovered that our jungle had been felled. The children were outraged!
Using this as an opportunity to look at habitats through another lens we
provoked the children by showing them some pictures of jungles where human
beings had decided to knock trees over. After learning about habitats as homes
the children wondered where all the animals would go if the jungle had been
knocked down.
“Don’t
forget the bats that come out at night time” said Charlie O, reminding
us that the jungle is a habitat at night time too.
“The
wood choppers chopped all the wood!” exclaimed Rory
“And
all the water dried out!” added Henry
“They
turned it into a wiggly road for the trucks” said Charlie O
Next
we looked at a photo of an orang-utan crossing a deforested road and asked the
children what the orang-utan was looking for.
“He’s
looking for his family” said Henry
“He’s
looking for bananas and all the banana trees got knocked down” said Charlie
O
“He’s
looking for trees to swing on” said Charlie P
“He’s
looking for some water” said Zali
“He’s
looking for another home that’s fixed” said Aston
We
wondered why human beings knocked over forests!
“They
knocked it over so they could make more homes” suggested Sebastien
“To
make a fire to keep them warm?” wondered Nicholas Y
“To
make a picture frame?” suggested Hamish
“We
get paper from trees” said Zali
“When
we waste all the paper trees get cut down” said Nicholas Y
“I
think they might need a factory to make trees into paper” said Sebastian
Afterwards
the children began to uncover all the wood that is used in our
own environment, our floors, rafters and trusses, tables, bookshelves and
blocks! We decided to reread “The Lorax” by Dr Seuss.
Our discussion raised so
many questions! It looks like our habitat inquiry has a brand new focus! We
have included some of the pictures that we shared with children on Thursday and
Friday in our blog this week in case you would like to revisit them with your
child.
We were also lucky enough to have a lengthy visit from the new mid Year Reception
teacher, Mrs Virginia Bubner. It was so much fun to have her in the classroom
and we look forward to lots more visits so we can begin to get to know her
better.
Have
a lovely weekend
Mel,
Emma and Cris
