What have Mrs Cottis's class been up to?

We had a real treat in year 2 this week when a old friend, Mrs. Solan, came in with 2 of her many pets to show the children.  First we met Niff the skunk.  Niff is 3 years old and had her smell gland 'de-scented' when she was young.  The children had lots of questions for Mrs. Solan about how she looks after Niff and what she feeds her, and they had the opportunity to stroke the skunk if they wanted to.  After Niff we met Finn, a lovely meercat who has his own leash and understands a lot of what Mrs. Solan says to her.  It was great meeting both animals and learning about their care and habits. 

Our science this termlet has revolved around the theme of 'Pushes and Pulls' so we have been thinking about how pushing and pulling things helps us in our lives.  In class we watched some short video clips from the great online Espresso teaching resource which showed us some children pushing and pulling on playground equipment, but also changing the shapes of different materials.  We tried some of this ourselves with sponges and elastic bands, but had fun using plasticine in class to make our own shapes which meant we had to do a lot pushing, pulling and twisting with our small fingers.  Have a look at a few of our plasticine shapes!

Some weeks in school we have a 'Show and Tell' session when the children can show things that they care about to their friends and tell them their news.  Last week we had our first 'Show and Tell' and it was really interesting to see what the children brought in to show and to hear their news.  Spencer brought in a scarf his dad brought home from the recent England v Croatia match, while Lola had a lot of photos and souvenirs of her holiday in Wales.  Calum had a fantastic model of a spider he made at home from lego.  Have a look at a few of the pictures from our 'Show and Tell' and see what you think!