This week we have been completing challenges to help us to develop our growth mindset. We have learnt that scientists have discovered having a positive attitude and a growth mindset means you will achieve more than if you have a fixed mindset. Having a growth mindset means:

• You try again if you don’t succeed the first time.
• You try different things.
• You ask for help, advice or ideas.
• You learn from your mistakes.
• You talk positively to yourself remembering of power of YET! I can’t do this… YET!
• You work your brain hard because it is a muscle and learning challenging things makes it stronger.

We have completed challenges including painting with our feet, making something that can fly and building a marble run. We had to work hard to remind ourselves of all the above when doing the challenges as it is easy to fall back into ‘This is too hard!’ We tried really hard and are getting better.

Today we learnt about how germs are spread. We learnt new facts about germs and then learnt about what happens when we sneeze. We carried out our own experiments to see how far we could sneeze… we obviously didn’t really sneeze on each other! We used spray bottles to replicate what happens when you sneeze if you don’t catch it. We then learnt a song all about the importance of washing your hands properly.

In Science this week we have been learning how exercise keeps us healthy. We bought our bikes in and then talked about how helmets help to keep our heads safe and how important they are. Miss Williams showed us what might happen to our heads if we don’t wear a helmet by holding Mr Egg up high and dropping him. He didn’t end up looking very healthy – in fact he looked egg-stremely sorry for himself!

We decided to make him an egg-helmet to protect him. We designed them based on the materials we had available and then tested our egg helmets to see if they worked. Before we tested them we discussed how to keep it a fair test. We decided that:

• The same person would test them all.
• The egg would be the same size.
• They would all be dropped from the same height.

This made sure it was a fair test. Have a look at our photos to see the results!

As part of our Science topic, the Toucans brought their bikes and scooters to school. We discussed the importance of exercise to be healthy and what body parts we were using when riding our bikes, scooters or skipping.

We also talked about the importance of wearing helmets when riding our bikes and scooters for safety and protecting our heads. This was an interesting conversation as some children felt that if they could ride a bike they didn’t need to wear a helmet. We discussed this further and the reason why you need to wear a helmet even when you can ride a bike.

We have been learning about keeping ourselves healthy. Today we discussed what a snack is and things we have for a snack. We drew a picture of our favourite snack food. Then we used our pictures to make a pictogram.

The most popular type of snack was fruit with twelve children choosing this as their favourite snack food. The least popular snack was milk and MacDonald’s chips, with one child choosing each of these. Children also choose biscuits crisps and chocolate as snack foods.

Next we talked about their choices and whether they were healthy or not. We sorted the pictures into two groups, healthy and unhealthy.

Wow! Today Toucans had a really lovely day at Twycross Zoo. Everyone was perfectly behaved which meant we really got to make the most of our day.

This morning we saw the meerkats, leaopards, penguins, flamingos and all different sorts of birds.

Then we went to the discovery centre where we had a lesson all about how animals adapt to their habitats. The teacher was very impressed with how much we already knew! We met a bearded dragon called Alice and a hissing cockroach called Alan. We were super brave because most of us touched them.

After that we had lunch – finally! We then went to the park and had a whale of a time playing together.

This afternoon we saw many different types of monkeys, giraffes, rhinos, lemurs and many more animals on the way to them!

On the coach on the way back some of us even needed a little snooze!

Your teachers are very proud of the listening, behaviour and manners you showed today Toucans. Well done!

Today we talked about what plants need to be able to grow. We decided seeds, water, light and soil would all help a plant to grow well. We then planted some sunflower seeds which should started growing over the next few weeks if we are correct.

In our science less over the next few weeks we are learning all about plants. Today we explored which plants, flowers and trees we have in and around our school.

In Science today we learnt about how to change the shape of objects made from different materials. We started our lesson by collecting three things we thought we could change the shape of and three things we couldn’t. We had a discussion about the properties of these materials. We then investigated which materials we could change by stretching, bending, squashing and twisting. We had great fun finding out!

In our Science lesson today we learnt more about the properties of materials. We explored some different materials for ourselves to find out what properties they had. We focused on naming different materials but also describing them using scientific vocabulary. We focused on transparent, opaque, waterproof and flexible.