Year 4 had the best afternoon on their visit to Chetwynd Deer Park today. When we arrived, we dived straight into pond dipping where we found lots of tadpoles, a water boatman and even a newt! The hosts were very excited as no other school has ever found a newt before!

Next, they wet our appetites with a bug eating activity where we had the option of eating mealworms and crickets! They were surprisingly tasty and most of the children enjoyed…some even went back for seconds!

Finally, we went on a bug hunt around the deer park. We found lots of different insects including a rare beetle. One of the children also found a deer skull which was very exciting!

Charles Darwin Summer Planning 4 and 5

Spring is bursting out all over our school grounds. The buds are unfurling on the trees, the birds are singing and starting to build their nests and our glorious yellow daffodils are putting on a fantastic show around our school field.

The daffodils inspired us in our artwork this week. We hope you enjoy looking at our gallery of daffodil sketches.

On Wednesday, we had a remote learning session with a member of the Sea Cadets Corps. We learnt about the theory behind what makes an object float or sink and how this was then applied to boat building. Following this, in pairs, we were set a challenge to make our own boat from a piece of A4 card, foil and paperclips. Each pair then tested the buoyancy of their boat in water and how much weight could be added before sinking occurred. All the boats were able to float with 390g on board, far exceeding the challenge of 50g, so well done to everyone.

Tuesday saw us implementing the next stage of our Forest School revamp. As well as a general tidy up, great fun, some science/maths learning  also took place as we thought about the best way to remove our old fire pit seating. The old, oak trunk seating had naturally rotted and decayed over the many years of use. The use of levers in the form of crowbars and pushing and pulling forces were all needed for success. Thanks to the enthusiasm for the task by the children,  the work was all carried out in one session, including the new tree trunk seating put in place. We now have much more seating around our firepit. Well done everyone involved.