Year 3, 19th October

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After a nature walk to find interesting and unusual natural objects to print with, the children learned about relief printing.

This involved carving a potato, to leave the raised ‘relief’ and scribble, scratching and carving into polystyrene and then printing.

The children explored different paints and discussed what methods worked best and which ones they preferred.

“I did a relief print of a flower in a window. The last one was perfect!” (Fergus)

“I made a wooden sculpture with wooden discs. Look, it lifts up!” (Adam)

Some of the children made bows and arrows:

“First we used a bow saw to cut the hazel wood.” (Eleanor)

“It was flexible but not too flexible. We measured our arm and it also needed to be the thickness of our thumb.” (Jessica)

“We tied paracord to each end of the stick after we’d made a hole and pulled it tight. So, the perseverance of this is…don’t give up when your bow and arrow doesn’t work, just try again! The further back you pull the further it goes and the more momentum it has.” (Florence)

Zienna and Honey banged heads today. “We have been resilient because we both hurt ourselves. Even though it hurt we still carried on.”

“No pain, no gain!” (Vienna)

“Even if you have pain, you can focus on the good stuff and know it won’t hurt for long. That made us feel better. We can distract ourselves. Maybe look at nature?” (Darcy)

Year 4, 14th October

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Today’s focus was learning how to out up rope ladders, along with the knots that are needed.

Ayaz and Jessie mastered these and were able to help others.

“I re-created a swing using the rope ladder. Instead of have a middle rung I took that out and sat on the bottom one and swung holding to top one.” (Jessie)

“I learnt a knew word today: succulent means juicy.” (Romi)

“I made a broom and a swing. First I had to ask for help as I struggled. After that I mastered it and then helped others.” (Paula)

“Today I made my own swing and remembered my memories from when I was five years old in Bulgaria.” (Koko)

Mrs Parsons brought us a hairy, bright green caterpillar with black and yellow markings, which we identified as being the larva of the transverse moth.

Year 3, 12th October

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Today we consolidated classroom learning of skeletons and how they support, protect and enable movement.

We also learned the word endoskeleton when looking at vertebrates and exoskeleton for some invertebrates.

It was fascinating looking at sheep and badger skulls, especially the teeth of herbivores and omnivores.

The eyes are on the side for grazing animals as this helps them see all around, in case of attack and for predators they are at the front, so they can focus on and target their prey.

Esme in Year R donated two shed snake’s skins.

We shed our skin cells every day but with snake it is like removing a sock – in one whole piece, as their skin cannot grow with the snake’s skeleton.

Delicate, patterned and crispy to touch with intricate detailing; nature really is amazing!

Afterwards, the children learned new knots that enabled them to put up swings.

Some had to saw wood for a seat, using the bow saw.

“Today I was resilient. I had an earache, but I put my hood up and carried on.” (Vienna)

“We were tying our using knots to tie our swing. We threw the rope over the branch independently. We learned the timber hitch and underhand knots. We felt proud that we’d persevered.” (Darcy)

“It was challenging but I was determined and I didn’t cry when I felt really frustrated. We persevered because we had to undo the underhand knot a few times because it was either too high or too low. “ (Jayden)

Visit from Education Officer, Tom White, from the Kent Wildlife Trust

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Still buzzing from winning GOLD in the Kent Wildlife Awards, it was an absolute honour to welcome Tom White, Education Officer with Kent Wildlife Trust.   

Earthclass, Eco Club and Garden Gang were all there answering questions and were filmed for a short video that will be featured on their website as well as an article in the winter edition of the magazine.

Listening to the children speak so passionately about the environment and what they are doing here at Sutton Valence Primary School gave me goose bumps.

It was wonderful to share with Tom what we are doing with regards to protecting wildlife, engaging with nature as well improving our environmental sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint.

Really interesting listening to Tom and hear about what Kent Wildlife are doing with their wilding project involving the introduction of the three Bs: boar, bison and beavers.

 https://www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/wilderblean

In Eco Club this term we will be focusing on vocabulary and definitions, the first three being: sustainability, biodiversity and carbon footprint.

The children are designing the eco board to share this learning with the school.  

Year 3

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We were all very excited to be leaving the school site and headed to the woods, just beyond the local allotments which we enjoyed along the way, pointing out and discussing everything growing.

The children learned how to build an A frame shelter and one using a tarpaulin.

They also made up lazer games using the extra rope.

We had a lot of fun!

“We built an A frame using sticks. We used forked sticks for the entrance and large logs at the side to make it safe and stable.” (Henry)

“By using the timber hitch knot we were able to tie the rope between two trees. It’s a sliding knot and tightens when you pull it.” (Eleanor)

“Me, George, Adam and Carrie made a tree house and put a ladder there. We introduced a door bell. If we had more time we would use this ivy to lash the sticks together.” (Freddie)

“I added to the lazer ropes for a game. If you touch one you will get electrocuted.” (Carrie)