Roman Legionary Visit
What a fantastic morning of History! Class 3 were visited this morning by a Roman legionary – complete with all of his equipment! He spoke to us about how and why the Romans invaded Britian, what life was like for legionaries and auxiliaries and why the Roman army was such an effective fighting force – their discipline, armour, weapons and training was much more advanced than the rest of the world at the time. The children were able to ask lots of questions and handle some replica objects! It was a fabulous way to put our new knowledge to the test and see for ourselves some of the things were have learned about and discussed in our lessons.
Nature/ science Walk at Eland Lodge
On Monday 14th March we kicked off our Science Week with a nature/ science walk at Eland Lodge.
It was perfect sunny but cold weather and the children had great fun and learned so much from John Coupland.
The children learnt about the deer in the woods, fungi, insects and much more!
A massive thank you to Eland Lodge and in particular John Coupland for his help with this! It really is a highlight in our calendar each season for us all!
African Drumming Workshop
This half term we are looking at Kenya. We started off our topic by creating projects at home based on: Mount Kenya, Kenyan mud huts and The Masaai. After researching some facts and looking at pictures we had found and gathered from grown-ups that had visited Africa, we noticed that drumming was popular and important activity within tribes and families.
To help encourage us to immerse ourselves in the new topic, we had a visitor called Susan come in to teach us about African drums. The drum we played on was a djembe drum and each one was unique because they had individual carvings on the wood – hearts, stars, flowers, trees, circles etc. She told us lots of brilliant facts such as:
- The drums were made in Ghana.
- The top is made from goat skin.
- Drum covers were made in West Africa from Kinsey cloth.
- The leader plays a rhythm to introduce the gathering.
She also taught us common rhythms and patterns that we would find African tribes and families making.
We had a brilliant time all together with our visitor and were super excited to tell everyone about it!
KS2 Roman Soldier Visit
What a fantastic day filled with learning, fun and excitement! The children were thrilled to welcome Greg to school today and get to know a little more about life in the Roman army! The children spent the morning learning about the armour, weapons and equipment a legionary would need. They also practiced their marching and shield skills, following the command of their officer. During the second half of the morning, the children explored the equipment in more detail, as they were able to try it on themselves. They also explored some Roman pottery, writing with dip pens and creating clay figures/votives to help them focus in the temple – all part of the Roman Forum session!
Our final part of the day involved playing Roman games. The children tried the games for themselves, trying to outwit their opponents!
The children absolutely loved the day and were able to share and deepen their learning from class, but also explore new knowledge through the wonderful artefacts and resources that were brought into school for us to explore – thank you so much ‘The Specialists’!
KS1 Christopher Columbus Trip
This half term we have been looking at significant explorers. We started off our topic looking at what exploring means, what an explorer is and what significant means. Christopher Columbus was the first we looked at. After learning some key facts about him, we went on a school trip to All Saints Academy in Denstone to discover some more. We began by playing a game that involved some language regularly used on boats – port, starboard and deck. We then worked in groups to practise using our bodies to create a boat and desert island. After warming up, we learnt some more facts about Christopher Columbus and came up with actions to help us memorise them. We then worked with a partner to take part in a quiz to see how much we could remember. Next, we all worked together to build the Santa Maria, Columbus’ main ship, out of equipment. We all had jobs to do during this activity, for example: captain, look out, cook and many more. Afterwards, we learnt a song about Christopher, in which we sang the key points. This was sung all the way home on the coach! At the end, we discussed whether Columbus was a good or bad explorer and what would happen if he acted the same way in the present. We had a brilliant time all together with our visitor and were super excited to tell everyone about it!
