Antarctica
ANTARCTICA
Oscar Bear came to visit us this week. He asked us to help him pack his suitcase. He is going on holiday to Antarctica. It is very cold and icy in Antarctica. We had to sort out which things he would need to keep him warm and dry. We found out about materials which are thick and warm and materials which are waterproof to keep us dry.
We used GOOGLE EARTH to find out where Antarctica is. We had great fun pretending to blast off to space in our rockets then land on Antarctica! We made miniature worlds to show Antarctica. 
Ask your child why Antarctica is white.
Google Earth is a really fun way to find out about our world. The children enjoy zooming in and out and finding places which they have visited. Why not have a look together at home.
We have made Antarctica in our outdoor area.
Freezing and Melting
We have been investigating how water turns to ice. The children put their cups of water in various places which they thought were cold. Some thought that putting the water outside would make it turn to ice, others thought that the fridge would turn water to ice and some thought that by standing the cup of water in ice would make it freeze.
We found out that the only water which froze were the cups of water in the freezer.
We learnt the words LIQUID and SOLID to describe the difference between water and ice.
Next we found out about melting. We found that ice melts when it is warm. We put the ice on a hot water bottle and it melted very quickly. We did an experiment to find out which other things melted when they were warm. Can your child talk about which of these things melts and which does not melt?
Our Melting Investigation
The Emperor's Egg
We have been reading The Emperor's Egg. These are the largest type of penguin and live in Antarctica. This is a non-fiction book which means that it gives us information.
We have been looking at lots of non-fiction books and using them to ask questions and find out the answers. In non-fiction books you often find pictures with labels. We have been drawing penguins and labeling them. Why not try drawing a picture of something at home and writing labels. This is an example of a labelled picture. 
We received a very special delivery. It was from Oscar Bear in Antarctica. Oscar sent us a daddy Emperor penguin. He was doing a very special job. He was carrying his egg on his feet to keep it safe and warm. This is what the daddy penguin does whilst the mummy penguin is off at sea catching fish to eat.
We used our non fiction book to help us write lots of facts about our new penguin.
We tried to find out how difficult it is for an Emperor penguin to balance an egg on it's feet whilst waddling. It was very difficult!
Look at all of the fun things we are doing in our class
