Wildlife News!

Wildlife at school!

Yesterday, the children at school were lucky enough to catch a brilliant view of a fabulous Red Kite over the KS1 playground while we were having break time!  It was soaring in the sunshine, looking for food.  They mainly eat carrion (animals that are already dead) but will also feed on  chicks, small mammals and invertebrates such as beetles and earthworms.  Mrs Smith has seen one three days in a row, at home, at school and out for a walk, so when out looking for wildlife, don't forget to look up too!   When they are flying low, they are easy to identify because they have a forked tail.  Can you spot it in this photo?

Red Kites are large birds of prey with a wing span of nearly 2 metres!

In Mrs Smith's Garden

Mr Smith helped with the search for all things wild in the garden and took some photos.  Over the past few days we have found a green shield bug, a scary looking spider and lots of worms and woodlice!

Mrs Smith's Wildlife Walk

Mrs Smith kept looking for wildlife when out for a walk in the sunshine.  There is so much to see but here are a few of the highlights!

A hedgehog snuffling about in the leaves - this was late afternoon so we weren't too worried about seeing a hedgehog in the daytime.  It looked pretty strong and healthy too. 

                                        Bumble bee                             Zoom in to spot all the ants!

A comma butterfly

Spot the difference!  The track on the left was by a Fallow deer and is actually a lot bigger than the one on the right which is by a Muntjack deer.

A beautiful primrose!

Last but not least a Tawny owl feather!!  This was really exciting to find because it means they are in the area and might breed here too!

Year 2 RE visit

On Monday, Year 2 had a visit from Reverend Sarah as part of our RE learning about Christianity. We wanted to learn about our local church, why Christians go to church and what they do there.

We began the session underneath a piece of cloth that represented the a tent under the night sky as this is what the very first Christians did. They would gather together to share their worship of God. When they started building houses for themselves, they thought that the place where they worshipped God should also be a house, and so they started building big houses to hold people in. These eventually became temples then Churches as we know them today.

Christians listen to stories of the bible when they go to church, so Reverend Sarah shared some stories with us. We listened to the story of the Good Shepard, which explains communion, which is the sharing of bread and wine in Christian churches. As she told the story, she used figurines to demonstrate it.

We  also asked Reverend Sarah some questions that we had about about Christianity and the church and we discussed what people do there (weddings, celebrations, praying, singing). We then looked at pictures of different churches, and discussed that although they were different, they all brought people together so that they could worship God. We discussed how this was similar for other religions where they have places of worship. We then looked at pictures of Reverend Sarah's church, and we talked about the different elements that make it up, and what these are used for (such as the font, the altar, and the bible). 

Reverend Sarah explained that churches not only bring people together, but it is also a space for quiet reflection. We have created a space in our classroom so that we can have a calm place to reflect about our day.