Dinosaurs and Fossils

Dinosaurs and Fossils

THEME

Dinosaurs & Fossils

COLOUR

Silver & Green

SHAPE

Circle/Sphere & Triangle/Cone

NUMBER

Recap

j

LETTER

Dd – dinosaurs

This week always lands up being very WILD and LOUD! Raaaawrrrrr!!!! Haha! A firm favourite with both boys and girls, we have had so much fun exploring the magical world of dinosaurs these two past weeks.

It is amazing how much the Pups already know about these amazing, legendary and extinct creatures… what IS IT about DINOSAURS?! We spoke about all sorts of dinosaurs and we were very impressed with the pronunciation of these little people. They could say brachiosaurus, tyrannosaurus, pterodactyl, triceratops… the list goes on! We learnt that some dinosaurs were soooo big and others were a lot smaller. Some had feathers and some had scales! Some could fly, some could swim, some walked on two legs and had tiny little arms and some walked on four legs and had really big feet like an elephant! Some had very long, sharp, scary teeth and they ate meat! We call them carnivores! Others had smaller teeth and ate plants and they are called herbivores! We don’t know exactly what the dinosaurs looked like but we think they looked something like lizards do now! So when we painted our dinosaur art this week, we made sure to make it very colourful! Oh what FUN we had!

Earlier in the week, we put out some green coloured rice – the colour of the week – for the children. (Recipe: put rice in a plastic packet, squirt some acrylic paint onto it and smoosh it all over the rice, covering it completely, then spread it on a tray to dry for an hour or so – it will colour the rice vividly, wont stain hands and will keep forever if stored in an airtight container and it keeps them busy for ages – win!) They spent a long time playing with it and making homes for the dinosaurs and feeling the awesome, calming textures of it in their hands. They loved this activity and it is so good for their sensory development and imagination.

We painted some cardboard dinosaurs and then gave the children some string, with their teachers help they learnt how to wrap the string around the dinosaur, quite a difficult technique that seems very simple to do, some of our Pups grasped it while others didn’t, this is a simple and great activity to do at home with your Pup.

Then we made some cool dinosaur crowns that they painted.

We have had a fantastic two weeks but we can tell the children are tired, sick of winter and in need of a break! Please remember to fill in your holiday club forms if you want your child to attend holiday club. Please remember to label EVERYTHING that comes to school with your child that could ever possibly be taken off them. Please also remember to cut nails. Some nails grow very fast in this class and an unintentional accident can happen in a second. With short nails, a scratching incident is easily sorted out.

Next theme: Term 3 – Spring flowers and planting.

 

 

 

 

 

THE WORST THING ABOUT BEING AN ADULT IS ...

… that no one cares what your favourite dinosaur is. BUT WE DO CARE! Tell us what your favourite dinosaur is!

 

 

 Dates to Diarise: 

Holiday Club: 8 August 

Public Holiday: 9 August

Holiday Club: 10 Aug – 2 Sept

Set Up Day: 5 Sept (NO SCHOOL)

Back to School: 6 Sept

Haircut Day: 7 Sept

School Photographs: 12-14 Sept

Hat Parade Day: 23 Sept

Public Holiday: 24 Sept

 

 

Lots of love

Teacher Cecelia and the Playful Pups Assistants

Our Happy Boys and Girls!

Dinosaurs and Fossils

Dinosaurs and Fossils

THEME

Dinosaurs & Fossils

COLOUR

Silver & Green

SHAPE

Circle/Sphere & Triangle/Cone

NUMBER

Recap

j

LETTER

Dd – dinosaurs

What an exciting 2 weeks we have had, with a super awesome theme to get everyone even more excited!! Because who doesn’t love Dinosaurs!?! These Busy Bugs have non-stop stomped and roared their way through the classrooms and we have loved every second of it!

It is so incredible to hear how much these little people know about dinosaurs and it’s even more incredible to hear them perfectly pronounce some of the incredibly challenging dinosaur names! We have spoken about Herbivores and Carnivores, as well as all of the “basic” dinosaurs like T-Rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Velociraptors, Pterodactyl and Brontosaurus. We have also delved a little deeper into the lesser known dinosaurs such as the Mosasaurus (who looks like a very big whale with huge teeth!), the Ankylosaurs (this dino had a spiky, almost turtle like shell on his back and spikes on his tail) and even the Pachycephalosaurus (packy-sefa-lo-saurus)- just in case you were wondering how to say that giant word 😉 who had a giant “egg” shaped bubble on his head that was thought to be used to ram into things such and trees and bigger dinosaurs. We have loved watching the Bugs reactions to these incredible, extinct creatures and how they absorb everything that is said to them. We also learned all about fossils, how they are formed and who the people who dig them up and study them are, another very big word, Palaeontologist.

We did a Dino dig expedition by taking a trip to the sandpit and everyone had a chance to dig and uncover buried dinosaur bones. How exciting!?

For our art activities over these 2 weeks, the Bugs made adorable recycled Dinosaur feet that they can slip over their own feet and stomp around. We also made Dino horns by “hydro-dipping” egg cartons into watered down paint, painting the tips red and attaching them to cardboard boxes.

We also made another exciting Dino art piece, but we are keeping those safe for art expo!

We danced around to Dinosaur Stomp, Baby T-Rex and Walk The Dinosaur, as well as watched a few clips from the Jurassic Park/World movies (don’t worry, all the clips were age appropriate).

We can’t believe Term 2 has come to an end! We have loved every minute with these Bugs and can’t wait for the holidays to be over so we can get back to having fun!

We would like to wish our Busy Bugs friend Olivia, and her Mom and Dad, Catherine and Richard a safe journey and many happy memories as they relocate to Germany for an amazing adventure! We are going to miss you!

 

 

 

 

 

THE WORST THING ABOUT BEING AN ADULT IS ...

… that no one cares what your favourite dinosaur is. BUT WE DO CARE! Tell us what your favourite dinosaur is!

 

 

 Dates to Diarise: 

Holiday Club: 8 August 

Public Holiday: 9 August

Holiday Club: 10 Aug – 2 Sept

Set Up Day: 5 Sept (NO SCHOOL)

Back to School: 6 Sept

Haircut Day: 7 Sept

School Photographs: 12-14 Sept

Hat Parade Day: 23 Sept

Public Holiday: 24 Sept

 

 

Lots of love

Teacher Gemma, Teacher Monette and the Busy Bugs Assistants

Our Happy Boys and Girls!

Dinosaurs and Fossils

Dinosaurs and Fossils

THEME

Dinosaurs & Fossils

COLOUR

Silver & Green

SHAPE

Circle/Sphere & Triangle/Cone

NUMBER

Recap

j

LETTER

Dd – dinosaurs

These passed two weeks have been FANTASTIC!  We truly love this theme.

 We recapped and had many theme discussions about names of dinosaurs and types of dinosaurs; herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. We also spoke about prehistoric, fossils and extinction.

 We even had dinosaurs come and visit our school in the evenings and Teacher Kate-Lynn managed to get some pics. Our Hoppers were so excited about this! J

 Our first week of was filled with lots of fun. The children loved learning about this theme and it is safe to say that our Hoppers are experts when it comes to dinosaurs. Their imaginations ran wild and there was dinosaur role-play on a daily basis. We started our dinosaur theme off with our “d” for dinosaur colouring worksheet. We are focusing on fine motor skills to encourage the Happy Hoppers tripod pencil grip. We then cut out our dino pics and put together our “d” for dinosaur. We had very cute dinosaurs.

 We also created 3D dinosaurs out of halved paper plates, toilet rolls and a stencil of a dino head and tail.  These 3D dinos looked amazing, so we decided to keep them for art expo.

Our children love baking and our final activity to end off this week was a hit. We made dinosaur footprint cookies. The children each got a ball of cookie dough and pressed it down, using a toy dinosaur we then pressed the dinosaur foot into the dough leaving an awesome footprint.

 Did you know?

The first dinosaur ever named was a Megalosaurus.  A person who looks for dinosaur fossils is called a Palaeontologist.

 Week two the fun continued and we spoke about dinosaur fossils. Our activity for the week was making a dinosaur fossil. We painted a dinosaur fossil picture with brown water paint. The next day we layout all different kinds of pasta and the children stuck the pasta onto the page creating amazing fossils. To finish off our fossils we then added sand. Our dinosaur fossils look so real. Our Hoppers really enjoyed making them.

 It has been a great two weeks.

 Wishing you all an amazing holiday, travel safe if you are travelling. See you soon for term 3!

 Our theme next term is: Spring and flowers and planting

 Have a safe and lovely weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

THE WORST THING ABOUT BEING AN ADULT IS ...

… that no one cares what your favourite dinosaur is. BUT WE DO CARE! Tell us what your favourite dinosaur is!

 

 

 Dates to Diarise: 

Holiday Club: 8 August 

Public Holiday: 9 August

Holiday Club: 10 Aug – 2 Sept

Set Up Day: 5 Sept (NO SCHOOL)

Back to School: 6 Sept

Haircut Day: 7 Sept

School Photographs: 12-14 Sept

Hat Parade Day: 23 Sept

Public Holiday: 24 Sept

 

 

Lots of love

Teacher Kate-Lynn, Teacher Katy and the Happy Hoppers Assistants

Our Happy Boys and Girls!

Dinosaurs and Fossils

Dinosaurs and Fossils

THEME

Dinosaurs & Fossils

COLOUR

Silver & Green

SHAPE

Circle/Sphere & Triangle/Cone

NUMBER

Recap

j

LETTER

Dd – dinosaurs

Firstly, we want to start off by saying wow! The Curious Crew know the names of more dinosaurs than we do heehee! Teacher Clarissa and I were so impressed with their ability to name the dinosaurs, very well-done Crew! We love this theme as the children are very enthusiastic about it which is awesome to see!

The children worked on their cutting and pasting skills. They initially coloured in their dinosaurs and then cut the pieces and finally built their dinosaur. Most of the Crew placed the pieces in the correct places – well done! We worked on copying dot patterns which can be tricky! They have improved from earlier this year though! Kee it up Crew. We did a Maths worksheet with a graph that the Crew also seemed to easily grasp. We made our next 3D shape (cone), and the Crew loved pretending this was an ice-cream cone! We made our own fossils with play dough, went looking for dinosaur foot prints and looked at interesting books about dinosaurs. We had interesting conversations about how long-ago Dinosaurs lived, what they ate, what they did and how they are now extinct. The Crew even learnt a new big word – ‘palaeontologist.’ During cooking they created a stegosaurus out of pancakes and fruit. These were very cute and the children loved it!

We worked on our Reggio Emilia art pieces where the children could build their very own dinosaur park. They did so well and we were so impressed with their attention to detail. We made an abstract T-rex with torn up leaves in shades of brown and green. These turned out beautifully and we will be keeping them for art expo! We also started our very own fossil art piece where the children copied a model of a Pterodactyl fossil made from pasta – they did so well at recreating this and following the shapes that teacher Clarissa had demonstrated. We invited the children to create a free drawing this week, they needed to tell us what they wanted to draw and explain the drawing afterwards. They loved this activity!

We had a little fantasy play session where the Crew had to go in small groups, each with a fossil brush and magnifying glass, to try and find/dig up dinosaur fossils in the sand pit. These fossils were made from salt dough and much fun was had pretending to be little palaeontologists!

Can you believe we have made it to the end of term 2? Our cold winter term is officially over and we return for spring! How exciting. The children have worked hard and are definitely in need of a holiday and time away from the classroom to return refreshed and ready for what the busy third term holds (so do their teacher’s heehee 😉).

It is my last day with the Curious Crew as I leave for my maternity leave and will only be returning in January. I cannot believe this day has come! I am not ready to say goodbye to this wonderful class of children. They are all so special and have definitely found a place in my heart. I really am going to miss them! Thank you all so much for your love and support and beautiful baby shower gifts! I truly truly appreciate it! It has been a pleasure getting to know you all and teaching your beautiful children! All my love, teacher Jules.

Have a wonderful August holiday and stay safe.

 

 

 

 

 

THE WORST THING ABOUT BEING AN ADULT IS ...

… that no one cares what your favourite dinosaur is. BUT WE DO CARE! Tell us what your favourite dinosaur is!

 

 

 Dates to Diarise: 

Holiday Club: 8 August 

Public Holiday: 9 August

Holiday Club: 10 Aug – 2 Sept

Set Up Day: 5 Sept (NO SCHOOL)

Back to School: 6 Sept

Haircut Day: 7 Sept

School Photographs: 12-14 Sept

Hat Parade Day: 23 Sept

Public Holiday: 24 Sept

 

 

Lots of love

Teacher Clarissa, Teacher Jules and the Curious Crew Assistants

Our Happy Boys and Girls!

Dinosaurs and Fossils

Dinosaurs and Fossils

THEME

Dinosaurs & Fossils

COLOUR

Silver & Green

SHAPE

Circle/Sphere & Triangle/Cone

NUMBER

Recap

j

LETTER

Dd – dinosaurs

What we got up to this week:

We started off with listening to each other’s fun weekend news and interacting in a broad discussion of each other’s weekend.   

We introduced this week’s theme, Dinosaurs. We discussed the different kinds of Dinosaurs that existed as well as fossils and the different periods which are: Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. Everyone absolutely loved this theme and had many of their own awesome facts.

Phonics and Writing

We wrote sentences in our books using our sight words and our “cats” (head, tummy, tail) for the correct spacing of letters. The Squad did a worksheet where they had to complete the sentences by filling in the words using our “at” family as well as tracing the word and then rewriting it. We are very impressed by how the Squads’ writing skills have improved, we can only imagine how they will be writing next term, like champs! We also recapped on our sight words and added three new ones, ‘’get’’, ‘’big’’, ‘’but’’.

Maths:

We continued to practice counting from 1-30 as well as count backwards from 30 – 1.  This week we completed addition sums using the counting on method up to 20 as well as concrete objects. The Squad did a worksheet where they had to determine if the number is more or less, as well as fill in the missing numbers in worms. Everyone grasped this really well, well done Squad!

Life Skills:

With focusing on our moral conscious theme: Smart is better then strong and working together, we explained to the Squad that if they are in a situation, it is better to be smart and speak up instead of holding things in and trying to be strong and are always here to help no matter what. We also explained that working together is important, many hands make light work and TEAM stands for “Together-Everyone-Achieves-More”.

Art:

For Art the Squad each received a piece of blank paper where they drew a background for their dinosaurs. They then used a stencil to sponge paint their dinosaurs. We also did a fun activity where the Squad each received delicious jelly in a cup with a dinosaur as the surprise in the middle.

Afrikaans:

For Afrikaans we did a recap on everything we have covered so far, such as colours, fruit, numbers, and parts of the body.

 We are extremely proud of each Squader’s hard work, we can’t wait to see you grow even more next term. Can we please ask that you go over sight words during the holidays.

Keep safe and have an awesome holiday, we will see you next term!

 

 

 

 

THE WORST THING ABOUT BEING AN ADULT IS ...

… that no one cares what your favourite dinosaur is. BUT WE DO CARE! Tell us what your favourite dinosaur is!

 

 

 Dates to Diarise: 

Holiday Club: 8 August 

Public Holiday: 9 August

Holiday Club: 10 Aug – 2 Sept

Set Up Day: 5 Sept (NO SCHOOL)

Back to School: 6 Sept

Haircut Day: 7 Sept

School Photographs: 12-14 Sept

Hat Parade Day: 23 Sept

Public Holiday: 24 Sept

 

 

Lots of love

Teacher Carla, Teacher Hayley and the Smart Squad Assistants

Our Happy Boys and Girls!