At the beginning of this term, the children enjoyed finding out about our new central idea and were excited to find out more about rainforests. They enjoyed a vocabulary hunt around the classrooms to explore key words that they will come across this term. The children thoroughly enjoy this and it's a shame we didn't get to go outside due to the terrible weather!

This week we have been learning about where rainforests are, what plants and animals live there and what deforestation is. The children have really got stuck into how we need to look after the environment around us because otherwise we will run out of oxygen! We are also looking at plants in science lessons so this links really well with our unit of inquiry.

Wow! What a trip Year 3 had this week! On Thursday we embarked on a trip up to the Horniman Museum in Dulwich. 

The children became thoroughly engaged in a workshop all about the Amazon Rainforest. This 'hands-on' experience allowed the children to see and touch taxidermy animals that you would find in a rainforest such as a spider, hummingbird, butterfly, snake skin, scorpion, armadillo shell and a caiman! The children thought this was fantastic to see these 'real-life' animals up close. Not only did they do this, but they learnt more about the Wei Wei Tribe of the rainforest and were able to handle traditional objects that the tribe use for their everyday life when cooking and dressing themselves. 

After this, we took a trip to the aquarium where the children were able to see many varieties of small fish, including jellyfish (which some children said they had never seen before!) and seahorses. The children were very enthusiastic about telling us facts they already knew about some of the fish they saw.  Also, causing a lot of excitement were the numerous varieties of poison dart frog that they could find in the Amazon Rainforest. Despite their bright colours some weren't as easy to spot as others. 

This experience for the children has enhanced their cultural experiences and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day!

A HUGE THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO CAME WITH US FOR THE DAY! YOU WERE ALL AMAZING!