Why do we have a skeleton?

30th January 2025Laura Godley

Today in expedition we have discussed the differences between vertebrates and invertebrates. We used our reading skills to retrieve information, by playing fastest finger first and discussing our findings. Some of the facts really surprised us when reading. We then explored the types of skeletons linking these to vertebrates and invertebrates. We then tested our understanding so far with a quick quiz!

We then worked to sort animals into the two groupings based on what we had discovered – vertebrates and invertebrates. Moving onto the human skeleton, we explored how many bones an adult human skeleton has and looked at what a skeleton does. Did you know that an adult has 206 bones but as a baby, we have 300! We linked our skeleton to the digestive process, thinking about the organs that are protected by our bones. We assessed our understanding with a Kahoot quiz, it was very close with only a point between Mason and Declan!

How do we group animals?

28th January 2025Ruth Shields

In our expedition lesson (science), we have been learning about grouping animals. We learned (through some reading) that the scientific word for this is taxonomy and that the reason we do this is because we like things to be organised and orderly.

We discussed some ways that animals could be grouped and looked at some examples. Children then had an opportunity to group some animals using a Venn diagram. After this, they were given a larger group of animals where they worked in pairs to decide how they could be grouped. Children were able to show a good understanding of how they could be grouped differently and it was great to see them using language such as vertebrate, invertebrate, mammals, warm blooded or cold blooded. We’re now ready to move on to classification.

Expeditionary learning continues in MI…

22nd January 2025Stacey McClare

Our expedition lesson today continued to look at grouping living things. First, we recapped our previous learning on vertebrates and invertebrates, working with our partner to sort a variety of animals.

From here we started to classify vertebrates into 5 groups and watched a video clip to help us build background knowledge. We noted down facts and then shared these with the whole crew. We then explored a variety of texts, building further information on mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. We played fastest finger to further assess our understanding. There were lots of reading opportunities again today, reading with a partner and echo read to name a few.

From here we worked in mini crews to demonstrate our understanding. We read a variety of facts and put these facts in the correct group.

We then took part in a quiz to test our understanding further! We are really enjoying our expeditionary lessons 🙂

Grouping animals in MI

20th January 2025Stacey McClare

Our expeditionary learning today allowed us to recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of different ways. First of all we looked at a variety of objects and thought about how we may group them. We worked well in mini crews to do this. We then moved onto looking at similarities and differences between certain living things and animals. We thought back to our previous lessons on food chains and skeletons to help us with this task. We then moved onto sorting animals into groups using similarities and differences to help us. We thought more about how animals can be grouped including through habitat, physical features and through diet. We discussed the term classify in more detail and related this to ‘taxonomy’. Again, there were lots of reading opportunities where we used fastest finger first to find answers. From here we worked in mini crews to find as many different ways as we could to sort a variety of animal pictures. There was some great collaborative working which was fantastic to see. Our debrief then allowed us to share our groups with the whole crew.

Skeletons and muscles in MI

15th January 2025Stacey McClare

The activate to our expedition lesson today allowed us to recap the human body by making a skeleton. We did this in hook week and it was incredible to see how much quicker we had got today and how much we had remembered!

From here we discussed the differences between vertebrates and invertebrates where we did lots of reading out loud. We played fastest finger first and did lots of discussion! Some of the facts really surprised us when reading. We then explored the types of skeletons linking these to vertebrates and invertebrates. We did some partner reading, echo reading and also some independent reading. We then tested our understanding so far with a quick quiz! We all enjoyed this.

From here we worked in mini crews to sort animals into the two groupings- vertebrates and invertebrates. We discussed our ideas and explained our reasons. We then moved onto the human skeleton, we looked at scientific names for our bones, explored how many bones an adult human skeleton has and looked at what a skeleton does. We linked our skeleton to the digestive process, thinking about the organs that are protected by our bones. From here we discussed our muscles, we even had a go at contracting and relaxing our biceps and triceps! Tomorrow we will assess our understanding with a kahoot quiz!

Basic Needs

15th January 2025Nicola Robson

Today we were scientists again and discussed what humans and animals need to survive. The children knew they needed food and water to survive and we also discussed the importance of air.

They produced lots of beautiful work. Well done everyone!

Animals and their offspring

14th January 2025Nicola Robson

Today in our expedition lesson we have been scientists and investigating life cycles. We began by ordering the life cycle of a human and then thinking what skills an adult has that a baby doesn’t. We came up with lots of great ideas.

We then completed a matching activity where we linked different animals and their offspring. We noticed that some animals look like their parents but others look completely different.

How does digestion work?

14th January 2025Laura Godley

After studying the organs involved in digestion, we explored how each one plays a crucial role in breaking down food. We followed the journey food takes through the digestive system and examined what happens at each stage. To deepen our understanding, we conducted an experiment demonstrating the digestion process. Although it got a bit messy, it was an enjoyable and insightful experience!

Where do bones and organs go?

14th January 2025Laura Godley

Before diving into the digestive system, we started by constructing a human body. The children cut out bones and organs, then placed them where they thought they belonged. While we were quite successful in arranging the bones, we needed a bit more guidance when it came to positioning the organs. From there, we focused on identifying the specific organs involved in digesting food.

Digestion – How does it work?

13th January 2025Ruth Shields

After learning about the organs involved with digesting out food, we learned about how each organ plays a vital role in the digestion of food. We discovered the journey that food takes and what happens to it in each stage. To help with this we were able to complete an experiment which shows what happens to food. This did get a little messy but we had fun and really helped our understanding.