Welcome back to school and to Spring Term 2023, it has been so lovely to see all your lovely children back in school again ready for a fresh term!

After sharing all our news from the holiday break we talked about our plans for the new year. As a class we have pledged to make a bigger effort to recycle, reuse and reduce both in school and at home. 

We read a lovely book about a family who rehome a dog from a dog shelter which created a huge amount of discussion around the topic of sustainability. As part of our activities the children had to think of new uses for a sock with a hole in (instead of throwing it away and buying a new pair) they had some fantastic ideas! 

Then they thought of three ways they could recycle or reuse items at home or school. 

In the story the dog, Hen, is very good at destroying his toys when he is a puppy and the family’s grandma makes Hen an indestructible toy out of material from the things he has ruined (curtains, cushions, teddies etc!). I challenged the children to design a toy for Hen reusing items we have that could be reused if they were to get a little bit worn or broken. 

David Mackintosh the author and illustrator of My Dog Hen has seen the children’s drawings and sent a message “The drawings are terrific: it’s great that their ideas are nothing like the dog toy in the book and they’ve used their imaginations to show their thinking” ! Isn’t that great? David has sent us a link to a pattern to make the actual dog toy in the book so if anyone would like to make the toy please take a look here https://profuselyillustrated.squarespace.com/my-dog-hen-plush-pattern . Don’t forget to send in photos, or better still, bring your ‘monster’ into school if you make one!

Take a look at these photos to see the great learning we did …

My Dog Hen