A Journey Through Time
27th February 2026
Buckle up, parents and guardians! This week, our classroom transformed into a time machine (and a genetics lab) as we dove headfirst into the epic story of our planet and the life that calls it home. It’s been 4.5 billion years in the making, so we had a lot of ground to cover!
To wrap our heads around just how old the Earth really is, we got a little "strung out." We used different lengths of colored string to create a visual timeline of the Earth’s four main Eons. It turns out that 4.5 billion years is a very long time - if the Earth’s history were a single day, humans wouldn't even show up until the final few seconds before midnight! We also mapped out the three distinct Eras of our current Eon, the Phanerozoic, to see how life exploded from tiny organisms to the complex world we see today.
In Science, things got even more colourful as we explored inheritance and variation. To understand how traits are passed down from parents to offspring, we played matchmaker with the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters. The children worked as "genetic consultants" to determine which inherited characteristics (like Mr. Tickle’s famously long arms) or acquired characteristics (like a stylish hat or a stubbed toe) would show up in their offspring.
The consensus? Evolution is much easier to understand when you’re deciding if a baby should be as grumpy as Mr. Uppity or as bright as Little Miss Sunshine!
We have also started looking at adaptation, discovering that if you want to survive on Earth, you’ve got to dress for the occasion - whether that’s growing thick fur for an ice age or developing clever camouflage for a rainforest.
Our young researchers are now gearing up for their biggest challenge yet: digging into the mysterious mass extinction events that wiped the slate clean and researching the specific climates and creatures that defined different geological periods.
It’s safe to say the children are becoming experts in the "long game." Just don't be surprised if they start analysing your inherited traits over dinner!
