Class LH "nestle" down in Robin Wood

This week we continued with the bird theme and in pairs we made nests out of twigs, fluff, sticks, moss, leaves and wood.  We spent ages building these to ensure that the middles were soft for the eggs and that there were good edges that the eggs didn’t roll out of.

After this we were given the chance to do some whittling.  We started off with a vegetable peeler and then when we were confident with the process, we were allowed to use the knife carefully.  We then made people out of the sticks that we whittled and decorated them with fabrics and created faces on them too. (see photos below). 

We also did some more drawing using natural charcoal and chalks; the mud kitchen and café were busy; a few learnt how to make bows out of the willow sticks; there was some great problem solving going on with the tubes and transferring the water from the top of the pipe into the bucket at the end and also on-going imagination play and creating stories using others part of the wood, the toys and the den building.

We were so lucky with the weather too which made for a most enjoyable, calm but busy morning. 

Enjoy some photos of our morning. 

British Science Week in Class MV

This week, in Class MV, we have been going daily Science activities in the morning such planning a civilisation on Mars, thinking about what would happen if we took plants to other planets, guessing the odd one out (out of three pictures) and making predictions based on items which have been zoomed in.

In our Science lesson this week, the children worked together setting up an experiment in groups. We were looking at fair tests and controlling variables. They did a brilliant write up for this too!

We have finished the week off by learning about the discovery of DNA and creating a jigsaw poster about the life and career of Rosalind Franklin!

Well done Year 5!

Fr….fr…fr…freezing time in Class LH

Class LH have been investigating and exploring changes of the state of materials particularly water. 

We examined 5 different tubs of ice and recorded adjectives used to describe it – slippery, shiny, hard, cold, freezing, smooth, icy.  We then made predictions about the five pots to decide which would melt first and these were then placed around the classroom – on the windowsill, the radiator and the front of the classroom.  The other two were placed in the fridge and the freezer.

During the day we did hourly observations and the first one to melt was the one on the radiator after 1 hour 20mins.  The one on the window sill was the next after 1 hour 50 mins.  The ice tub at the front of the classroom was the third to melt after 2 hours.  At the end of the day we wrote up our results and conclusions.

We talked about what people used to melt the ice when the roads were icy and talked about salt being used.  We then poured salt onto a new tub and watched it virtually melt in front of our eyes.

We discussed how the particles changed from ice, to water and to steam (gas) and looked at the steam from a boiling kettle. 

The photos below show the class as an ice block (all huddled together), the water (loosely standing near each other) and a gas all spread around the classroom.   The other photos show how we were examining the ice to generate the adjectives and comparing the ice blocks during the day.

SRH Framlingham Plant a Tree for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

We were truly delighted to be able to take part in the wonderful Queen’s Canopy project today, to plant a tree for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. https://queensgreencanopy.org/

Our beautiful Himalayan Birch tree was very kindly donated to the school by Barchams Trees who have two Royal Warrants, and have supplied trees to the Queen’s estates.

Our tree is about 5 years old - you can see one of the pictures with some of our 5 year old children in... the tree is much taller than they are!

Mr David Johnson, of Barchams Trees, brought the tree to the school and was joined by the Eco-Council, Mrs Ambrose and Mrs Picton, in order to plant it today.  

Mr Johnson also donated to the school 6 copies of their wonderful book ‘A time for Trees’ which will be great for the Eco Council to have and also as an addition to our school library.  The Eco Council presented Mr Johnson with a beautiful thank you card (made from recycled materials).

We would also like to thank Mr Ambrose who prepared the planting hole at the weekend.

You can see in the photos that our tree has an eco-tree tag which tells us how much pollution filtration, water capture, carbon sequestration and carbon storage a genus will achieve over its lifespan.  You can find out more here.

Class LH scurry around Robin Wood

Class LH enjoyed their second week at Robin Wood this morning. 

Last week we were identifying different types of birds and drawing them.  So we continued with the bird theme this week and found out about different birds' habitats, what their eggs looked like and what they ate. 

Making the paint using oil and egg yolkds

We were then able to 'get busy'.  This week we learnt how paint was made in prehistoric ages using charcoal which was ground into a fine powder using a pestle and mortar. This was then mixed with egg yolks and oil to make the paint. 

Cleaning up the brushes and bowls after painting.

Painting with charcoal on the trees. 

Grinding up the charcoal to make the paste 

Bug hunting in Robin Wood and using books to identify them.

Treasure hunt to identify habitats, what they eat and what the eggs look like. 

Settling into Forest School and listening to the activities for the day around the firepit. 

We also made dens, used the mud kitchen and café to make delicious 'leaf and chicken' soup on the menu - it was very tasty and so beautifully presented but can you believe it cost £5!!  We also had cakes to help the woodland animals which were poorly in the animal hospital.  

The hammock and the slack lines were popular with some of the children cleverly walking backwards along the slack line.  

It was a super morning with lots of problem solving going on in how to get the tarps to stay up for the dens, building structures out of wood and how to build abridge in the digging area.  Well done Class LH on a super effort this morning.  

Blood Heart topic in Class VWh

In class VWh, the children have immersed themselves int their new topic, Blood Heart. 

As well as an interesting lamb heart dissection, the children have researched and written explanation texts about the heart and its function and created anatomical and stylised sketches of the heart. 

We talked about scaling and perspective- here are a few unfinished examples to look at…

Bikeability

Thanks once again to the Suffolk RoadSafe team for delivering the Bikeability training session to our pupils this week.

12 children from Year 5/6 will complete their two days intensive training today & tomorrow. Those Year 5 children who were not successful in gaining a place this term, will be able to take part in September 2022.

During the training the children learn how to look after their bicycles, spend time learning key cycling & indicating skills on the playground, spend a day and a half on the roads around the school in Framlingham.
By the end of the course, they aim to give the children confidence on the roads and to help them learn the skills needed to become safe cyclists.