This week, in PSHE the children began to look at what makes them special and article 7 of  the UNICEF Children’s Rights handbook, “All children have the right to a legal name, nationality and family ties“. Circle time games and discussion helped the children to explore why it is important to feel special. Trying to build on the children’s self esteem, they were encouraged to identify what they liked about themselves and celebrate being unique.

Next week, we will have a break in our work on, ‘Feeling Special’ in order to welcome some exciting visitors!

Miss Akers

During PSHE , the children looked at the characters from their Dot Com journals. They began to identify what they liked about each character and how the characters showed kindness to others. Wizard the dog, Slam’s dad, who is a firefighter and PC P. Bonnet, who is a police officer, were some of the children’s favourites.  Looking at these characters helped the children to discuss who helps them and the training some people have to go through to do their job. The children agreed PSHE is part of their training in managing their feelings and making positive choices.

Next week, we will be looking at what makes us special.

Miss Akers

After a busy morning finding out about the different types of activities we would be doing at Woodlands and starting our diaries, we finally set off.  When we arrived and found our suitcases and all of our belongings, the next thing was to find our bedrooms and sort our beds out.  Once our sleeping bags and pillows were in place, we set off to find explore the facilities.

The staff gave us a safety talk before we split into our 2 groups and taking us to the zip wire and the assault course.  Once we were all kitted out with harnesses and safety helmets we all waited to complete the zip wire, even Mrs Hall and Miss Hughes took their turn and completed the zip wire.  The group doing the assault course had just as much fun getting muddy and wet on the cargo nets and doing the over and under beams.  They even found some mud with better cleansing properties than the local Spa!   As it was national hug a tree day everyone had to find and hug all the trees as well as give them a name.  Soon it was time to swap over activities and head back to the dorms and get cleaned up and start preparing tea for that evening;

Jerk Quorn Chicken and Caribbean Peas and Rice

All too soon it was bedtime and we eventually fell asleep.

The next day, we were all up bright and early and after a hearty breakfast of toast and cereals we were ready to face the day’s activities.  In the morning we attacked the climbing and abseiling wall.  We were split into groups of six and sent to a wall.  Each climbing wall differed in complexity and the children really had to think about where the next foot or hand hole/grip was that they could use.  Everyone climbed higher than they thought they could and everyone reached their aim with a little encouragement.  Although not everyone completed the abseil, everyone made it to the top of the tower and got their heels over the edge of the platform.

With lots of encouragement from the children Mrs Hall was able to overcome her phobia of heights and abseil down the wall.  Massive thanks for the encouragement guys!

After lunch was the activity that was for most of us the most fun the canoeing.   It was hard work making the canoe go in a straight line or just move, but once we got the hang of it and some of us got used to the water splashing our faces we were ready to race.  After we had a few races the real fun began, a game of fruit salad. We were all give a fruit and when our fruit was called out we had to swap seats with another person.  The last person standing was splashed by everyone in the group.  It was great fun and everyone got a thorough soaking.

Tea for the night was Paella.

We had a scavenger hunt followed by hot chocolate and snacks whilst sat around the camp fire.  It was really cosy.  As the soon began to set and our eyelids began to droop it was time to head indoors.  Before long our heads were on the pillows and we were fast asleep.  The day’s activities had tired us out.

Hopefully you have had great fun learning the main features of our class story Little Red Riding Hood and have been joining in with the actions.

As part of our Talk 4 Write lesson today we had to spot the patterns in our story – Little Red Riding Hood.

With the help of our magic glasses we have been able to ‘box up the text‘.  This means we have been able to identify the key parts of the warning tale and where in our story they area.

A warning tale has the following features:

• The Main Character (MC) is given a warning.
• The MC does something they are warned not to do.
• Something goes wrong as a result of ignoring the warning and the MC is in trouble.
• The MC is character is rescued.
• The MC is is punished or told off for not listening to the warning.

Now, discuss which parts of the story belong in which section?

As part of our topic ‘Flow’ Year 3 visited Beacon Park, Lichfield.  We had a great day with Ruth the Ranger observing, sampling and measuring Leomonsley Brook.  After meeting Ruth, we split into three groups and started our activities.  Those of us with Wellies on were allowed into the brook to help Mrs Hall measure the width and depth of the brook, we had to convert the cm to metres too!  We then had to measure the temperature of the water and the last part was the most fun.  To measure how fast the brook was flowing we played the traditional game of Pooh Sticks with dog biscuits with a modern twist – scoring a goal between Mrs Hall’s two feet while she timed them to see how fast the dog biscuits took to travel down river.  Play was only interrupted once by the opposition when they sent in a rogue player; a black Labrador into the brook to paddle and retrieve a few of the stray dog biscuits.  Mrs Hall was unharmed just a bit wet around the edges.  We also measured how clean the water was, as this would tell us how well the plant would grow.  The more circles we could see at the bottom of the container, the cleaner the water was.

Next, we went pond dipping with Ruth to take samples of the different creatures living in the brook.  We managed to catch and observe; snails, caddis fly larvae, fresh water shrimp, tadpoles and water mites.  We dragged a net in the water and then emptied our nets into a tray, we then used an identification chart to help us identify the things we had caught.  It was great fun and really interested to see what lives below the surface of the water.

Miss Groom and here group looked at the trees along the river bank and identified them from our key.  There were eight different trees alongside the river. Why not ask Year 3 to see if they can name them?  We then observed the layout of the river and made a sketch of it.

A great day was had by all.

Sketching the layout of the brook.

This week Green class took part in a drumming workshop. By working together as a class we were able to play a series of different  rhythms on the instruments. Everyone had a turn at playing all of the instruments. By the end of the session, we all  understood  the importance of watching our conductor closely so that we all started and finished at the correct time.

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