Year 2 have been busy getting ready for the carnival parade on Friday 15th July. We have made some masks to wear. We designed our own mask then assembled different materials to create a mask. They look brilliant! Well done Year 2! I cant wait to see you all wearing your masks at the carnival!

We have started our preparations for Carnival week by getting creative and making giant paper mache fish. The children had to work together in groups of 3 to cover a balloon in newspaper and PVA glue. We left the glue to dry over the weekend, so that we can decorate them for our carnival parade on Friday.

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.

Year 6 have had a great opportunity this week to work with members of the Birmingham Hippodrome team. Children have worked with the team to create headdresses and back packs which they will wear when leading the Carnival Parade next week. Children have created all their costume pieces with the Brazilian flag colours and have used a range of materials to create the headdresses and back pack. Year 6 have really enjoyed being creative this week. Look at some our hard work below.

This week we have been learning to write riddles. We have read lots of different riddles and discussed the key features. We have learnt how to write similes. Today, in Big Write, we wrote our own riddles based on our chosen animal! They were fantastic! Well done year 2!

Over the past two weeks, Year 5 have been looking at persuasive arguments in literacy. On Tuesday this week, we had the chance to debate a number of motions to help us with using persuasive language and how to structure an argument. The motions we debated were Art is better than PE; Zoos should be banned; and Children should be able to learn to drive form the age of 10. For each debate we had a proposition and an opposition team. Both teams had time to research their argument before writing it up. They then debated against each other before the rest of the class voted on which side they agreed with.