Waingroves Primary School

Forest School Week 4

It was a rather cold, damp and muddy session this week but we kept ourselves warm with the fire this week. We made flatbreads, toasted marshmallows, had some hot juice with optional seasonal cloves, made tree decorations and did a Christmas themed scavenger hunt! Wow! That certainly kept us warm out there.

Forest school Week 3

This week, we became wizards, making our own wands from an ash stick. We used peelers to peel our wands before decorating them. We also made some birdfeeders and kept warm with some hot chocolate.

Forest School Week 2

WARNING!! Muddy Children alert! Y4 children have been having far too much fun in Forest School today! Despite the wind, rain and mud (LOTS of mud!!) we have been busy orienteering, den building and planting violets for Violet. 

Forest School week 1

Ooh! We had such a fantastic, muddy, first Forest school session of the year. We went bug hunting around the pond area (found lots of worms which Mrs Gage just loved - NOT!), added an extension to Waingroves Manor Bug Hotel,  used palm drills to make conker comets, and had free time for digging, creating and rolling in the mud. Loved it! 

Electricity Topic

We had an exciting and unusual start to our new topic 'How would we cope without electricity?' We talked in groups about where electricity is used in what we eat for lunch, activities we do at home and what we use to keep ourselves and homes clean. We did our discussions in the classroom without using any electricity. It was a bit dark! Then Mrs Gage showed us a magic trick! We used the electricity that runs through our bodies and created circuits to make an energy stick light up and buzz. 

Art Days - Drawing

We have just completed our 2 days of art with a focus on drawing. We started by using our super powers of looking to examine some artwork that shows perspective, foreground and background. Then we practised drawing hands, fingers, facial expressions and perspective using diagonal lines. We also experimented with different shading techniques. All of these were then put together to create our final piece of art work. It had to have a pair of hands in the foreground, holding something, a face showing a clear expression on a path/bridge/road going off into the distance. Wow! What a challenge! But we did it and did our best.

River Walk

We had such a great morning, walking along the River Derwent, identifying features. We tested how fast the river was flowing in different sections with our tape measures, stop watches and dog biscuits. We talked about how the river is used. But the best bit of course, was going for a paddle! We did get a few soggy, waterlogged wellies but there were so many smiles, squeals and exclamations of 'this is the best trip ever!!!' Some of the children spotted a crayfish climbing back into the water. We even had time for a play in Darley Park before heading back to school for our lunch. And the weather was good to us today. We only really got wet (apart from paddling) when waiting for the bus. Just a couple of photos below to look through!

Exploring explanation texts and identifying their features

We had a great time today in our English lesson, looking for the features of explanation texts in a range of different non-fiction books. We identified the key features then labelled them with our post-it notes

Severn Trent Workshop

We have had an exciting morning! Leanne, from Severn Trent, came to visit. She delivered a school assembly about our sewers and we learned about what we can, and should not, flush down our toilets - the 3 Ps - pee, poo and paper. We even sang a song about poo!

Then, she came to our class to deliver a workshop about how precious our water is and how to save it. Did you know a desert mouse can live 10 years without water? That's something new that Mrs Gage learned this morning. We had lots of fun learning about the water usage of 3 fictional families, measuring out what they have used and talked about where water was being saved and where it was being wasted.

STEM challenge

To kickstart our new topic called 'How old is the water we drink?', Mrs Gage set a team challenge to see how far they could keep a marble rolling. Each team had to work out the best strategy just using a piece of card each. After lots of trial and error, the marble was then replaced by water, replicating the flow of a river. It certainly wasn't easy but we had lots of fun doing it!