Wriggle and Crawl

On your belly, legs at the ready, it’s time to wriggle and crawl.

Mini Beast Hunt

To start this topic off, go on a hunt for mini beasts.  You could go around your garden or look for them whilst on your exercise walk, or even in a park or woodland area (but remember social distancing still and to keep 2  metres away from people not in your home).

Before the hunt, talk about what you might expect to see, think of some questions about different minibeasts and the environments they live in.

Below is a fully comprehensive guide to a mimibeast hunt, Minibeasts pack pdf,  that a teacher may use to prepare.  You may not need all the pages and I certainly wouldn't print them all off, but it does provide useful information about what a minibeast is, what to do on a minibeast hunt, different ways to collect / look at minibeasts, information about the different classification or groups of minibeasts, health and safety tips, food chains, a guide to help identify common minibeasts in different environments and different sheets to record your findings.   

The guide also includes a bit about 'tree shaking'.   This involves exploring small trees and bushes to discover what is hiding in them.  Hold a white sheet under a bush or small tree.  Shake the tree/bush gently and work quickly, but gently again, to catch the minibeasts from the sheet with spoon,s pooters or fingers.  Alternatively, identify them on the sheet.  Flying minibeasts often live in trees and bushes, including ladybirds and small moths.  Try searching evergreen and deciduous tress and bushes and see if there is a difference

You could record your findings in many different ways: using the recording sheets, taking photographs, video footage or even draw and make notes on the minibeasts they find, such as how them move, where they were found or other observations.  

Useful equipment you may have: 

clear plastic container, spoon, soft paintbrush (to gently sweep minibeasts onto a spoon/into a container, magnifying glass (or other type of lens), a net, camera, drawing equipment, clip board/something to lean on.

Further, more specialist equipment you may have:

dental mirror (for looking under rocks/logs), pooter (to suck up small minibeasts into a pot), digital microscope, video recorder technology, identification key, minibeast guide, map of the area

Make sure the children return all minibeasts to their natural habitat.

Also below is a link to the BBC Bitesize video 'What are minibeasts?' and there is a quiz game too.

Here are some further links using the DK find out website that you may like to access throughout this topic:

https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/animals-and-nature/food-chains/  food chains

https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/animals-and-nature/insects/ insects

https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/animals-and-nature/invertebrates/ invertebrates

https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/animals-and-nature/amphibians/ amphibians

https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/animals-and-nature/arachnids/ arachnids

https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/animals-and-nature/centipedes-and-millipedes/ myriapods (many legs)

https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/animals-and-nature/habitats-and-ecosystems/  habitats (around the world)

https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/animals-and-nature/what-is-living-thing/  living things

And a further child's science website that has lots of different animals on, including a huge list if you scroll down partly:

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/animals.html  

A huge range of spotter sheets can be found at:  https://www.wildlifewatch.org.uk/spotting-sheets  

English Activity - A Guide to Minibeast Hunting

Using the word document below, 'Planning and writing a minibeast hunt guide' follow the steps to producing their own guide to going on a minibeast hunt.

Optional paper to use also below.

Geography - sketch map

Make a simple sketch map of the area, or one of the areas, you carried out the minibeast hunt. 

Talk about the physical (natural) and human (manmade) features you saw there. 

Add a key to indicate features on the sketch map. 

Identify stopping off points along the route.

What minibeasts did you find in each area?

Look at the example below to give you an idea of what your map could look like.

Observational Drawings

Draw detailed sketches of the minibeasts you spotted or collected using pencils or fine pens. 

You may like to use a hand lens/magnifying glass or digital microscope if you have, to look closely at each minibeast, making careful line drawings of the features you observe. 

Alternatively you could make an observational drawing from a book, or picture, taking the whole minibeast or just key parts up close.

Below are some ideas of how a minibeast may look sketched. (Cornerstones minibeast illustrations pdf.)

You could add colours to one of these, but remember it should be the real colours, as if you have observed them.

Remember to sketch larger than the minibeast itself, don't make it too small or you will not be able to add detail.

PSHE - Worry activities (Personal, Social, Health, Education )

Below are some activities about the emotion 'worry'.

Please look at the power point guide and it will inform you when to do the activity sheets.

There are prompts for discussion, scenarios to suppport thinking and also a video to help them see how to make good decisions.

Reading Activities

This week there are two different reading activities.

The Minibeast differentiated reading comprehension activity has, as with previous Twinkl versions, three different levels of text, with questions and answers for each.  Please choose the level of text and questions for your child's ability.

The second is a simpler text with the questions placed after each part of the story of The Hare and the Tortoise.

Spellings

This week's spelling words are linked to the topic of minibeasts and include scientific words to support this topic.  There are some sentences to complete too.  If you need reminding of how to use the look, write, cover, check method I have added the original letter to parents again. 

Maths Activities

Options for maths again this week.

If you have the Power Maths practice books at home then please do the units below depending on which year group you have.  

Remember you can access the power maths text books online using the links below in order to introduce each activity.   (You may need to agree to the terms and conditions again)

There is square paper if needed for the shape lessons on the week 7 home learning page. 

Year 2 - Spring Text Book B - Unit 9 - Properties of Shape -  Lessons 6 to 10

Year 3 - Spring Text Book C - Unit 10 - Fractions - Lessons 1 to 5

Also available on the links are the Summer Maths Home Edition versions of Power Maths with different units each week.  The online resource includes the introduction slides and the pupil practice questions.  I have again prepared the questions on word documents below for ease of use.

Year 2 Summer Maths Home Edition - Week 3 - multiplication and division

Year 3 Summer Maths Home Edition - Week 3 - fractions (these are revision pages)

Link to Year 2 Resources

https://preview.pearsonactivelearn.com/powermathsyear2   

Link to Year 3 Resources

https://preview.pearsonactivelearn.com/powermathsyear3