Welcome to Monkeys!

Monkeys class is taught by Miss Richardson with Mrs Smith as our wonderful teaching assistant to support learning in class. We also have Coach Mason teaching us PE on a Wednesday afternoon. 

What we are learning about this term...

This term we will still have time for learning play but we will be doing more adult directed and independent learning. We are really looking forward to it! 

This term our topic is 'Within Living Memory'. We will be looking at how things have changed since our parents and grandparents were our age by looking at similarities and differences. 

We are also learning about animals in science. We will be looking at features of different types of animals as well as classifying animals by what we have learnt. 

Seasonal Changes 

We enjoyed a visit to Ashdown Forest to learn about what happens as the seasons change. We learnt about animals that hibernate (sleep over winter), birds that migrate (fly to warmer countries over winter) and how animals prepare for the winter by gathering food. 

We loved exploring the forest and seeing the signs of autumn like different coloured leaves and lots of mushrooms. We also saw lots of chestnuts and acorns that had fallen from the trees for animals to collect. 

We made out own hedgehogs from pine cones and then created homes for them to sleep over the winter. 

Local History Week

For Local History Week we are looking at the Felbridge sign. We started the week by going to look at the sign and sketching what we could see. We then had visitors in to talk to us about what the different parts of the sign represent. 

Naughty Bus

In English we have been listening to the story 'Naughty Bus'. We got given our own bus and it seems it is just as naughty as the one in the story. We had to look for clues around the school to find the bus and we talked to Zoe, Mr Hogan and Mrs Sims to find out if they had seen anything. We found lots of evidence that the bus had zoomed around the school carelessly making a mess including lots of tyre tracks! 

Animals

We loved Alyssa visiting us with her animals to help us start our science learning on animals. We met some of her reptiles: Lilo (a bearded dragon), Cleo (a royal python) and Salem (a western hog-nosed snake). We learnt that reptiles are covered in scales and are cold-blooded so need the sun to warm them. We also met Stella who is a giant African land snail. We learnt that she grows her own shell and that she has thousands of little teeth but they aren't like our teeth! The last animals we met were Alyssa's rats called Lily and Figgy. We learnt that rats are mammals, they are covered in fur and give birth to live young. We loved having the chance to hold and stroke Lilo as well as stroking the wriggly rats! Thanks Alyssa!