Welcome to Mrs Gage's and Mrs Harvey's Class. Our Teaching Assistants are Mrs Hennell and Mrs Smalley
Forest School Week 5
It was our last session this week. Full of festive frolics! We made pine cone Christmas trees, went on a festive treasure hunt that Y5's elf left for us, then we all met in the Wonderhut for hot chocolate and a sing a long.
Forest School Week 4
Today we were feeling very festive. It was all about Santa and his reindeer. We used a bow saw to cut wood to make our Santas. We made our reindeer with clay and natural resources. We also had lots of fun exploring and playing games. Some of us had lots of fun sliding down the banking, some made a mini gym and did a workout, we even had a peacock strutting her stuff!
Forest School Week 3
This week was all about resilience. Don't give up! Persevere! Determination!
We were being creative this week by strengthening raffia through twisting, to make a bracelet. This was harder than it looked! Meanwhile, in the Wonderhut, we tried to ignite some cotton wool with sparks, again very tricky. Only 5 of us managed to light the wool. We also lit the firepit and toasted slices of apple, coated in cinnamon sugar. Yummy!!
Forest School Week 2
Well, it's not every week you get to do Forest School in the snow! We thought it would be better to just have 1 hour outside rather than 2, but we still had a lot of fun. First we used a hand drill to make conker creatures. Then we played in the snow!!! Great!!!
Forest School Week 1
We had a fantastic first week at forest school. We looked at how water is cleaned, following on from our Water topic, and had a go at making our own water filters with some astounding results! We used natural materials such as grass, leaves, stones and sticks, and layered them to help slow down the flow of the water and filter out all the detritus. The water water graded on the amount that had been filtered and the clarity of the water, 1 being very dirty to 10 being clear. You can see the results in some of the photos. We also made some super bird feeders to hang in our gardens. However, you can't have forest school in autumn without having lots of fun playing in all the autumn leaves.
How Would We Cope without Electricity?
We started our new topic off in an interesting way. First we spent time, in an electricity free classroom (it was quite dark!) discussing some questions which highlighted how reliant we are on electricity. What did you have for lunch? How much of it used electricity in it's production? What will you do after school? How much uses electricity? (You can't read a book in the dark!) How do we keep ourselves, homes and clothes clean? Make you think!
Then, we discovered that electricity runs through our bodies! Mrs Gage proved this with an energy stick. We created a human circuit to make the stick light up and buzz! We had so much fun with it!
River Derwent Walk
We've had a fabulous, albeit soggy, walk along the River Derwent in Derby today. We walked from Chester Green to Darley Abbey, looking for features of rivers and how it is used by people. We performed some investigations to see how fast the water was flowing at different points along the walk. It was an immersive trip as we experienced the effects of the Water Cycle in full flow too! However, the highlight of our trip was seeing the weir and having a bit of a paddle too (after Mrs Gage did her safety checks first.)