Squirrels News - 9th May 2025
This week the Squirrels have been getting messy down on the farm in our Role Play Area, in preparation for our farm visit at the end of the week. The ducks were swimming in the pond, the pigs were rolling in the mud and the chickens were laying their eggs in the hay. The farmers had to tend to the animals and their crops, getting around on the tractors. It was hard work but great preparation for our trip.
Elsewhere in the class the children have been creating ladybirds from our book of the week ‘What the Ladybird Heard.’ We also counted ladybird spots in numeracy, matched initial letter sounds in sound lotto and went sound hunting down on the farm in Literacy, listening out for initial and ending sounds, with some children segmenting and blending CVC words. We are continuing to concentrate on positional and directional language, with the children navigating maps with the Beebots.
Friday came around quickly and the excitement for our farm trip was so much so a few of the children woke up extra early as they were so excited! Even the coach journey there and back was an amazing adventure! Once we arrived at the farm, we had snack before the Squirrels headed to the petting area where we met a couple of guinea pigs including one named Dumbo - can you guess why? We also met a couple of rabbits and a trio of ferrets.
Everyone was so excited to stroke our new friends, making sure to be extra careful we didn't hurt them and taking care not to be too loud around them. It was exciting to meet Marvin the ferret, who was super bendy and we got to learn lots of facts about these animals. Did you know rabbits have to eat their food twice, meaning they eat their poop because they do not absorb all of the nutrients they need first time around? Guinea pigs make 57 different squeak sounds, meaning they have 57 words and you can learn their language apparently. Horses have different accents based on where they were born and can change their dialect based on their peers. Ferrets also sleep for around 18 hours a day!
Once we had enjoyed the petting part of the farm we headed over to to the larger animals equipped with food to share amongst them. A couple of the children were reluctant to feed the animals at first but everyone had a go with many of the children having multiple goes at feeding the animals. We got to see cows, donkeys, pigs, horses, ducks and chickens. These animals we did not feed but we made sure to feed the sheep, lambs and goats. Some of the goats were a bit cheeky, headbutting others out of the way so that they could try and snatch the food.
We had a great day at the farm learning lots of interesting facts about the different animals and had a wonderful school week.