Well Dressing Materials Wanted

During next week we will be putting together our contribution to the Brackenfield Well Dressings, “The Parting of the Red Sea”. We need natural materials:

Well Dressing Materials Wanted

Fresh materials such as flowers are added last and should be brought in from next Wednesday.

Pictures of our well dressings from previous years can be seen on the web site’s well dressing page.

Plummeting Peregrines and Propaganda Posters!

On Friday, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust visited school to give an assembly about the Derby Cathedral Peregrine Falcons. Find out more on our Wildlife Blog or on the Class 3 Blog. Keep an eye on our birdcams; we already have eggs in our colourcam box and more are likely to follow soon in the B&W birdcam box.

Have a look at the super propaganda posters that Class 2 have designed for their World War II topic.

Staff Sergeant Fleetwood Visits School

This term’s KS2 topic is World War II. On Friday, Staff Sergeant Fleetwood visited to talk to the children about how different it was for soldiers serving in the army in WWII compared with those serving now. He brought in kit and uniform used by soldiers in WWII as well as that used by soldiers today. There were plenty of dressing up opportunities!

PDSA visit Wednesday 1st May

On Wednesday morning we have a visitor from the PDSA visiting , to talk to all the children about caring for pets. This was originally planned for February but was cancelled due to snow.

World War II Topic

What was it like to live in fear of Doodlebugs?

Living in fear of the Doodlebug
doodlebugstories
The children have designed their own Anderson shelters
The children have designed their own Anderson shelters
Homework researching three facts about a WWII leader - Htiler by NH
Homework researching three facts about a WWII leader – Hitler by NH
Class 2 have looked at how propaganda posters were used during
World War II. Here are some that the children have designed.
Year 3 mind map: what we know
Mindmap – what we know, Class 2
Class 3 WWII Display
Class 3 WWII Display

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Our resident Year 4 WWII aircraft expert
shares his knowledge with Year 5 and 6.

Whirlow Farm Visit

KS2 children enjoyed a great day at Whirlow Farm taking part in WW2 workshops as part of their ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ topic, learning about life on the home front. They dressed up in 1940s clothing to be evacuated for the day and took their war time packed lunch in paper bags.

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The children used a hand pump to extinguish a potato incendiary bomb and took shelter when the air raid siren sounded. The farmer’s wife took them on a tour of a WW2 kitchen. In groups they kneaded dough for home made bread and set out the china for the visiting vicar, as well as having a go at some ‘make do and mend’ activities like knitting and rag rug making. It was very funny watching children peel vegetables and loading scraps into the metal pail for feeding the pigs.  Martha , the ‘land girl’ took the children on a tour of the farm. They had a go at ‘digging for Victory’ in the vegetable patch and had a look at how the farm land was used during the war.

Our Enterprising Tuck Shop

Class 3 Tuck ShopClass 3 has started running a tuck shop. We raised money to start it by running a Christmas coffee morning and inviting all the parents. We made over £20 and managed to buy stock and a place to keep it.

We have been running the tuck shop for about 6 weeks! Every few weeks we go out to buy stock. We have a wide range of sweets, fruits and savoury items. We have a treat day every Thursday which means we can buy chocolate, Haribos and lolly pops. On Thursdays, the tuck shop is really popular because it is sweet day, and every body loves sweets! On Fridays two Infant class school council members run the tuck shop, when KS2 go swimming. On other weekdays we have breadsticks, apples, bananas and a mixture of raisins.

We make around ten pounds profit each week from the tuck shop. We are saving our tuck shop money to buy a bin for the school playground. With our tuck shop money we have already bought name badges for our buddy and mini leader jobs.

By NS, MG, EE & RL Class 3

Easter Egg Competition

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The children were challenged to design and make an egg scene and/or person. The competition was judged by our Chair of Governors, Mrs Gill, and Easter egg prizes were awarded for the best ideas in each class. The Winners were as follows:

Class 1
1st – One DirEGGtion
Runners up – Magic Tomb and Glen the Goldfish

Class 2
1st – Neil Egg-Strong
Runners up – Captain Eggman and Horrid Henry

Class 3
1st – Egg-lection of Pope Fran-chick!
Runners up – The Very Greedy Spider and Easter Chicks

Bikeability in the Snow!

Bikeabilty, Level 1 challenge on the playground
Rising to the challenge

Well done to all our Year 6s who completed their Level 2 Bikeability training on Wednesday, despite the snow! Bikeability is cycling proficiency for the 21st century designed to give the next generation the skills and confidence to ride their bikes on today’s roads.

Our trainer for the day was Alastair, from Wheely Fun Wheels, an approved Bikeability trainer working with the School Sport Partnerships who access funding via the Youth Sport Trust. The first session took place on the playground  and included basic bike checks, helmet checks and general handling skills. This Level 1 session concluded with some games; the children barely noticed the falling snow as they rose to the challenge!

After break the children moved on to their Level 2 training on the road outside school. They learnt how to pass a parked vehicle, U-turns, starting and stopping, passing a junction and how to negotiate various left and right turns.

Learning to set off safely
Learning to set off safely

Children completing the course have received an information pack with a certificate and a badge. You can also download the Wheely Fun Wheels information leaflet. They stress that Bikeability training is only the first step in learning how to ride safely on the road. Please go out cycling with your child.

Easter egg competition

Easter egg competition – deadline Thursday 28th March

Over the next few weeks at home – design and make an egg scene/person eg Prince William and Katie, clown, story character? It’s upto you! Maybe you can come up with an amusing name for your design. Be as creative and imaginative as you like but completed items no bigger than a shoe box please.

Please do not bring in your designs until Wednesday 27th or Thursday 28th March and make sure your name is on but not where the judges will see it. Easter egg prizes will be presented for the best ideas in each class.

The Race is on!

At the end of last year Class 3 hid a geocache somewhere on the Woolley Moor Trail. Geocaching is a a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enable devices; participants (geocachers) can take part by hiding their own caches for others to find or by hunting out those already set. When you find a cache you should sign the logbook; you can take something out of the cache to keep and leave another item behind. You should also log your experience on the geocaching.com web site.

Occasionally, you may come across  special items in caches which are called trackables. These are not meant to be kept, but instead geocachers move them from cache to cache logging their movements on geocaching.com using the unique code etched on them. The web site allows you to track the progress of these trackables as they travel the world. At the beginning of this year Class 3 set off two of their own trackables in a Travel Bug race against another school’s trackables. The winner will be the trackable which travels the furthest in 2013. Check out our Travel Bug Race page to find out how we are doing or have a look at the map display in the classroom. Our Woolley Wanderer is currently winning the race having already been up to Scotland and back! Our Falcon Flyer is not far behind and is currently in a cache in Cornwall.

Stretton Handley's trackables are in the lead!
Stretton Handley’s trackables are in the lead!