Year 5

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Badges this term: foraging, whittling (continued) and photography

What a talented bunch!

Some photographs taken after learning some key tips: know your subject; know your camera; patience; golden hours; up close; eye level; rule of Three; creating lines; take lots of shots and be quirky and creative.

We used a variety of cameras and kindles.

Year 4

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The first few weeks in photographs.

Badges this term: naturalist, advanced gardener and conservation.

Class links: physical health and mental wellbeing (with a focus on yoga, mindfulness and meditation)

Year 2

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Year 2 have been busy learning more about woodland creatures and their habitats.

What do they eat?

What eats them?

We spoke about our most valuable habitats: pond and hedge.

Why are they so important? 

We looked in detail at an oak tree (some living to be over 1,000 years old), with over 3,000 living things depending on it for food, shelter, protection or warmth.

Last Sunday's episode of David Attenborough's Wild Isles focused on woodlands and included some amazing footage about oak trees and the wood wide web.

Child voice

Isabelle: The cloud cover is like a big, fat duvet keeping in the warm.

Cooper: I was inspired by Connie because I liked how she made her bee and especially its sting.

Teddy: We made birdboxes together!

LJ: First we had to sand them, to prevent splinters and make it smooth.

Teddy: Next we had to see how it was built.

Harley: Then we had to line it up and nail it together. After that we made a hinge.

LJ: Finally we painted it. 

Year 6

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There has been a lot of rain this month and not a lot of sun, so our solar project has had to be deferred.

Year 6 have still been able to learn about: solar energy; advantages and disadvantages of; how electricity is made in photovoltaic cells and to visualise how photons (light) cause electrons to flow and create electricity in a solar panel.

Fingers crossed that next session we have sun and can explore simple solar circuits.

George and Leo: We made four different types of fire: a lean to; a trench fire; log cabin and a star fire. We lit two of them at the same time to see which one burnt best. The log cabin was best because of the air flow and it had the best heat distribution.

Many thanks to George's grandma, who has kindly donated many seeds ready for the growing season.

Harrison: I made this swing to be either a sit down or a stand up swing. If you sit facing the tree you can launch yourself to swing. I used an underhand knot. 

Year 6

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Huge thanks to Year 6 for getting the allotment and surrounding area ready for spring.

We are good to go now and next week will start sowing some of the seeds, kindly donated by George’s (Year 6) grandmother.

There was some heavy work involving moving the stumps with rope and rebuilding the rockery but they all got stuck in!

Esmae and Libby said, “We had to get all the rocks out, some were buried deep. We thought about making an Egyptian tomb but there was nothing underneath to make it stable. We are going to plant herbs in the new areas.”

John mentioned, “We had to work as a team. Isla wedged in the spade and then we all lifted it together.”

“We had to take away the grass to help the edible hedge grow. It is young and we do not want it to be in competition with anything for water or nutrients. Then we covered it with mulch and leaves to add goodness to the soil”, voiced Kristian.

We’ve also been learning about Climate Change, the causes of and effects of, and most importantly: what we can do about it.

After research the children chose how they wanted to present their learning.

Their posters, poems, logos and recommendations will be displayed on the Eco board.

Next week, we will be hoping for a sunny day so we can get started with the solar panels.

The project this term is all about the pond: clearing it out; building a solar fountain but also designing and creating a mural, with Year 2.

Our school art specialist, Miss Tracey, will be helping with this, which is great.