Monday 26 May 2014

Wonky cows and custard





The little Sunnyside learners of Whippy Cove have been out and about again.

This time when they boarded the Sunnyside School minibus (with their trousers tucked firmly into their Wellington boots), they headed straight off to one of the Island's dairy farms. 

As part of their health and fitness topic this term, the Team arranged for the little learners to visit a dairy farm specifically to learn about and experience first hand 'The Story of Milk.' 

Consequently, this fun and exciting dairy adventure inspired a multitude of follow-on activities back in the classroom. All this week little learners have been constructing farms from large foam bricks, role playing farmers and farm shops, reading farm animal stories, junk modelling farm animals, painting farmy type pictures and writing a few words about their farm trip in their writing books.

Today though, the little learners worked in small groups on a milk related brain storming activity. The objective of the activity was to name as many foods as possible produced from milk, and to then jot them down on a hastily drawn and slightly wonky cow, courtesy of Mrs Crayon .

Once the little learners had suggested the more obvious foods, such as butter, cheese and yoghurt, they became rather stuck and had to don their thinking caps in order to come up with some more ideas. However, following some gentle prompting from the supporting grown ups, little learners were soon reeling off a whole variety of foods including custard, rice pudding, squirty cream, ice cream, milkshake, and.........soup! Yes, soup was the suggestion from one particular little learner, much to the surprise of Mrs Crayon!
"Do we actually get soup from a cow?" Mrs Crayon asked the little brain stormer in question . 
"Yep!" she replied with a certainty that almost had Mrs Crayon convinced. "And do you know?" she continued, "Mummy gives me poorly soup when I'm poorly, but poorly soup just makes me more poorly, and do you know poorly soup hurts my feelings!"
Forgetting about milk products for a moment, a very intrigued and smiling Mrs Crayon couldn't help but ask the little learner, "If poorly soup makes you poorly, what kind of soup makes you feel better then?"
"Proper soup of course!" replied the little learner colouring the udders of Mrs Crayon's wonky cow in a rather fetching purple felt pen! 


Before you could say, cream of tomato soup, Mrs Crayon had already felt the rumblings of a soupy rhyme coming on.



Poorly Soup

Please don't give me Poorly Soup,
Poorly Soup's a curse.
Whenever I eat Poorly Soup,
It makes me feel much worse.
I cough till I turn purple,
My tummy starts to ache,
Me nostrils end up snotty,
And me bones begin to shake.
My legs go weak and wobbly,
Me head does loop the loop,
But the one thing that will cure me,
Is a bowl of Proper Soup! 



"Can I please just have a bowl of Proper Soup!"

Saturday 17 May 2014

Magic beans and itchy fingers





Plant a little seed and don't disturb it!

Wise words indeed, and also the words of a very familiar spring time song, sung by all the little learners at Sunnyside School. Whilst they may be proficient at singing about NOT disturbing little seeds once they've planted them, in practice little learners as a rule find it utterly impossible.

Yesterday afternoon in the Sunnyside garden, groups of little learners had the opportunity to plant their very own sunflower seed in their very own flower pot. The process was a simple one: fill pot with soil, make hole in soil with finger, drop seed in hole, cover hole with soil, water soil with water from small watering can. Job Done!

So it came as no surprise to the Team, that when the little learners had finished planting their seeds, they fully expected them to germinate there and then and begin to sprout leaves right before their very eyes

When no such sprouting occurred, those hopeful little seed sowers waited, and waited, and then they waited a bit more. And then they waited with magnifying glasses and binoculars, desperate for a sunflower sighting how ever minuscule. When the waiting proved fruitless, they decided that a bit of poking and prodding might speed up the germination process, and when that didn't work, they resorted to cries of "Why haven't they grown yet!" and "How many sleeps until they do grow?"

Consequently, it turned out to be a very long afternoon indeed. The Team suspects that tomorrow will be a very long day too, and the next, and the next until the first sunflower shoot decides to make an appearance, or until a clever somebody invents the all new 'Germinate while you wait, sunflower seed'.

Sadly, the Team suspects that that particular horticultural breakthrough won't be any time soon!

Although when it does happen, it could look a bit like this......


INSTRUCTIONS
  

1. Fill a pot with soil

2. Drop your seed straight in it

3. Now all you have to do 
  Is wait about a minute

4. Your little seed will grow
  And after just one hour

5. You'll have a ton of leaves
   And a twenty foot sunflower!


If only!

Worth their weight in gold!

Monday 5 May 2014

Smelly herbs and Fairy fluff







The first little learner to step through the classroom door this morning was clutching a tiny sprig of Rosemary. "Look!" said she, thrusting it straight up the nostrils of Mrs Crayon. "It's 'Rosebury' from my garden!" 

A somewhat startled Mrs Crayon refocused her watering eyes and sniffed the aromatic herb still held tightly in the little learner's hand. "Oooh....Rosemary my favourite!", she said visualising a roast dinner with all the trimmings. "Do you like Rosemary poppet?" 
"No!" replied the little learner rolling her eyes at Mrs Crayon's over the top reaction to the wilting sprig. "I only like mash potato!"

It was that initial interaction at precisely 8.35 am, that seemed to herald a day of fascinating little learnerisms, the like of which continue to delight and entertain the Reception Team at Sunnyside School.

And flora and fauna seemed to be the theme for the day, because quite by coincidence, Miss Kind was treated to a second botanical fact this afternoon when the little learners were outside in the Sunnyside garden. 

The prolonged recent spell of warm spring sunshine has transformed the grassy hillock in the garden into a beautiful carpet of daisies and dandelions. Among the dandelion florets sit the delicate dandelion 'clocks', and it was the dandelion 'clocks' that so captivated the little learners this afternoon.

As a cloud of the tiny downy seeds cleared, it revealed a large group of little learners rendered breathless from all their puffing and blowing. Just as they drew breath again in order to scatter another batch of seeds to the four winds, Miss Kind asked if they could explain to her what it was they were blowing. As quick as a grasshopper, one little learner blurted out, "They're called 'dandelion wish pops!'" 

Realising this would very likely turn out to be a gift of a doodle for Mrs Crayon, Miss Kind decided to pursue the little learner further. "'Dandelion wish pops' you say...why are they called that I wonder?" she asked studying a dandelion 'clock' for herself. 
"Well," began the little botanist, "You make a wish and blow the fluffy bits and the fairies takes them off and grant your wishes." 

Impressed with the little learner's use of the word 'grant', Miss Kind asked her about the wish she was hoping would be granted by the 'wish pop fairies'. "Well," the little learner began again, "I've wished for a Rapunzel DVD, a Frozen DVD, a Frozen dress, a Tinker-Bell and the Fairy Pirate DVD, a Forget-Me-Not My Little Pony, she's purple with white hair you know, a Honeysuckle My-Little-Pony, she's pink with light pink hair..........and a Disney Princess Scooter.

Miss Kind didn't like to spoil things by asking the little learner how presumably teeny weeny fairies manage to transport scooters, ponies, DVDs and dressing up clothes around the neighbourhood-she just assumed they've got it covered!







 HAPPY SEED BLOWING EVERYONE!