Otley All Saints CE Primary School Blog

Once again, Year 5 enjoyed an excellent day at Nell Bank Outdoor Education Centre in Ilkley.

Hopefully, this slideshow will give you a taste of some of the activities we enjoyed during our visit.

For the past three years, everyone at Otley All Saints has been making a determined effort to ensure that our school is run in an environmentally sustainable manner. In particular, we have been closely monitoring our energy consumption; trying to reduce our waste through recycling and composting; and improving our grounds so that the land is friendly to children ….. and wildlife! 

Last week we were delighted to hear that our application for a ‘Green Flag’ Award from Eco Schools had been successful.

Here is a photograph of the eco team proudly displaying our wonderful green flag in today’s assembly.

http://www.eco-schools.org.uk/

Do you know what phenology means?

Thanks to ‘The Great Plant Hunt’ team, Year 5 now know that it is the study of seasonal timings of the life cycle events of plants and animals. 

Together with primary children from across the UK, we are participating in a mass observation of flowering times of ten species of common wild flowers.

The Great Plant Hunt have provided us with some brilliant resources like this plant indentikit.

A Year 5 ‘Plant Hunter’ at work!

http://www.greatplanthunt.org/home

Alongside schools and community organisations  throughout the UK,  members of  Otley All Saints Eco Team joined ‘The Big Tidy Up’.

 Although the event focused on 23rd April, St George’s Day, many groups have been out and about in their local community ahead of the day!  As Nature Club had recently checked out our school grounds for unwanted litter, we decided to concentrate our efforts on some of the pathways nearby.

Here is a photograph of the team in action.

Sadly, by the end of our tidy up, our bag was quite full of items such as discarded wrappers, juice containers and cigarette packets!

More information can be found from the following link:

http://www.thebigtidyup.org/default.aspx

Well done to our Eco Team for taking the lead on raising awareness – and cleaning up!

With one of our class members stranded in Africa, and the news media transfixed by travel chaos, last week seemed to be the ideal time for Year 5 to take a closer look at the source of all the problems. Which led us to Iceland – a land of ice and fire!

First, we found out the whereaboutsof the volcano in Iceland!

Then we thought about what it might feel like if you lived and worked close to the eruption.

However, the ‘icing on the cake’ was the timely return of Magnus, which provided us with the opportunity to conduct a real interview and write our own news reports. Magnus gave a superb account of his long trek back to the UK by train and coach. A massive well done to his intrepid and resourceful parents!

Finally, here is a picture of our resulting classroom display!

Almscliffe team explored life at the ocean’s edge during our  ’Creative Day’ about oceans. We found out about the amazing adaptations plants and animals have, that allow them to survive both in and out of the water. Then we devised a range of poems, played some games and created our very own sea shore habitat.

 Here we are, proudly displaying the team’s home grown rockpool.

Which earlier in the day looked like this ……

The children came up with some brilliant ideas for constructing plants and animals from scraps of material, rafia and paper.

 A special thanks to Year 5 members of Almscliffe, who constructed the rockpool ahead of the day from a range of junk materials.

 

Ably assisted by Mrs Rose!

Groundwork recently supplied us with an exciting ’box of tricks’ which included a fun game and some more serious energy monitors.

 The latter, will allow us to monitor which appliances in school use a lot of electricity and then to consider which should be put on timers, (or even better, switched off!), to further reduce our consumption of electricity.

The wind up game required a steady hand

Reading the monitor was quite tricky, but it did provide some useful information about electricity consumption and carbon emissions.

As the weather has been a little milder for the last few days, Year 5 ventured outside to see if we could spot any signs of Spring  around the school.

We found …….

…… quite a few clumps of snowdrops ……

…… some catkins ……

…… daffodil bulbs ………….

……. and a rapidly departing frog!

What have you seen?

With the assistance of Groundwork, children in Nature Club have been adding to our collection of desirable residences for minibeasts.

One carefully placed spider shelter….

…… covered in sticks …….

…… is now awaiting occupants.

In Year 5 we have been exploring reflecting shapes and patterns across two lines of symmetry. This is trickier than it appears!