FOREST SCHOOL- NURSERY

Last week at Forest School thought about hedgehogs as it is was hedgehog Awareness week.

We started the morning reminding ourselves of the Golden Rules and then we set off on a hedgehog trail.

The children were very excited to spot hedgehogs along the way, which told us different facts about hedgehogs. We then searched Robin Wood for pictures of the different foods that they like to eat. The children then enjoyed the rest of the morning playing in the wood revisiting activities from last week as well as painting muddy hedgehogs, making hedgehogs from play dough and weaving sticks to make spiky hedgehogs. 

Some of the children helped to set up a hedgehog feeding station and we hope to collect some footprint evidence that we may have hedgehogs in Robin Wood.

We all sat around the fire circle for snack together and finished the morning with a hedgehog story and rhyme and our goodbye song.

Mere Trip with Suffolk Wildlife Trust

Class KB have had a wonderful afternoon this week with the Suffolk Wildlife Trust visiting the mere for our new topic 'Wriggle and Crawl'. 

We had a lovely time enjoying pond dipping and looking for minibeasts in the grasslands. We found lots of different creatures including a water Stick Insect and a baby fish!  

Class KB had lots of fun exploring and being minibeast detectives! 

FOREST SCHOOL

 On Friday the children from nursery had fun exploring in Robin Wood. They learnt the Golden Rules and then enjoyed playing a game of  '1,2,3 Where are you?'  The children then accessed lots of different activities including, bug hunting, the mud kitchen, dinosaurs, fairies, digging, balancing, making potions, threading, mud painting and relaxing in the hammocks. It was lovely to see the children's confidence build as the morning went on. We finished the morning with a story and our Goodbye song.

Year 3 and 4 Farm Fair Trip

On Thursday 28^th April, Year 3 and 4 went to the ‘Suffolk School Farm and Country Fair’ at Trinity Park. The children had a fantastic day finding out how honey is made, where our food comes from, food tasting, how to make a compost and petting the animals and their young. To top it off they saw the hound dogs in action and ended watching a ‘Dancing sheep show’!  It was a fantastic and busy day.

Unsurprisingly, the children were very tired when they returned to school!

Class LH and Class JT wriggle and crawl around the mere

This week Class LH and Class JT visited the mere to launch the new topic of “Wriggle and Crawl”.

We had a lovely day with the Suffolk Wildlife Trust who showed us and shared lots of information about the habitats by the mere.  We talked about invertebrates and what was special about them before setting off to do our activities.  When we went hunting for the invertebrates, we had an identification chart to recognise the number of legs and shapes of their bodies. 

The mere dipping was great fun and we all managed to find a variety of creatures such as hog louse, water boatmen, damsel fly nymph and great diving beetle.  In Class LH, there was even a small fish that was found!   In the woods, the children located cards with unusual facts about minibeasts written on about them such as…Did you know that the older the snail the more coils it has on it?   Also did you know that flies smell with their feet?   After that, we then went exploring and hunting for minibeasts under tree stumps, inside the bark, in the grasses.  We found millipedes, wood louse, spiders, slugs and worms.  At the end of the session, we played a game of making ourselves into different invertebrates with specific number of legs. 

Thank you to Charlie and Catherine from the Suffolk Wildlife Trust who really inspired the children and helped them with their learning.

Year 6 Cooking

Lovely aromas have been wafting along the top corridor when VWe have been having cookery lessons with Mrs Jenkins. The children have been making their own pastry, chopping vegetables and devising their own fillings.

“Absolutely delicious” said Mrs Colchester after being lucky enough to sample one of the quiches.

“I really liked learning how to make them” said Faith “as I thought you made them very differently.”

Cameron told us how much fun he had making them and the bit he liked best was filling up the pastry cases.

Year 5 Maths - Using a compass to give directions.

Today, the year 5s from Class AJ joined Class MV for Maths.

The children were applying their knowledge of angles, which they had begun before Easter, to making and using a compass. The children worked out which direction North was and begun to draw their own compass. They added in the degrees accurately for North, East, South and West as well as North East, South East, South West and North West.

In small groups, they then began to give instructions to their peers on where to start or which direction to face, then tell them which way to turn (clockwise or anti-clockwise) and how many degrees. They worked extremely well together using their Mathematic vocabulary with great fluency.

Once the sun joined our lesson, the children checked the accuracy of their compass by looking at the direction their shadow fell. The children recalled their knowledge of light and shadows from the Autumn Term to explain why the shadows should form on the West point of their compass!

Great work today Year 5!

Swap or Sale event

On the last day of term the Eco- councillors held their first ‘Swap or Sale’ event. The children had created banners and were enthused about the sale and the potential it had. Many councillors came in and helped create a mini advertising campaign to promote the event in school. They prepared wide array of clothing in the Hall and it was lovely to see children coming along and swapping/ donating to such an important cause: the Ukraine humanitarian crisis. Additionally, we were doing our bit to reduce clothing waste and help others, getting more wear out of some stunning clothes. The councillors helped collect donations and provided smiley faces to front the effort. 

They raised a super £62.80 which is being donated directly to the Red Cross appeal: thank you to all the children and adults for attending, donating and supporting the event. We are planning on holding another event towards the end of term, whereby we hope to bring clothes in for collection during the week of the sale and offer uniform items for sale, too. If you felt able to contribute, please start saving outgrown items now and we will offer a collection point closer to the event date- details to follow when finalised.

Thank you for your generosity, 

The Eco- Council 

Year 5 Easter Service

Thank you to everyone who has supported Year 5 in their Easter Service this year. The children were amazing and have made us very proud. 

Year 5 wish you all a very Happy Easter!