Otley All Saints CE Primary School Blog

On Friday Year 2, armed with maps and cameras, went into town to look at different features of Otley. They now have lots of photos to choose from to make a presentation on what Otley is like.

To learn more about materials, Year 2 braved the elements at Harlow Carr today. They found out about how a range of plants can be made into different fabrics. Following that they saw how the skins, bark and roots of plants can be used to dye cotton. Then they used reeds to weave – apparently a technique used in Tudor times for rooves of houses. Outside they looked at the work of spiders – the cleverest of all weavers. Finally (after lunch) they explored different areas of the garden and created their own journey sticks. A fantastic day out – here are just a few of the images from the day.

The staff and children at All Saints have been all over the place today! Every major continent in the World was represented as classes had a taste of the culture, goegraphy and language of various countries.

In Year 4, we went the furthest from home and visited a place close to my heart. I lived in beautiful New Zealand for six years and I miss the country and its wonderful people dearly. The children and I immersed ourselves in everything kiwi today and tried to find out as much as we could about The Land of the Long White Cloud.

We learned first of all that things can be quite different in New Zealand. After a phone call to Helen, who lives in Napier, Hawkes Bay, the children were amazed to find out that she was off to bed as we were jut starting our day! We were all slightly jealous when Helen told us that it had been 24 degrees in Napier that morning (it was -1 here!) and to top it off, children were only 2 weeks away from their Summer Holidays (7 weeks!)

Some of our children liked the sound of barbies on the beach for Christmas dinner, but others prefered the thoughts of cosy fireside days!

We then tried to learn a song and a traditional Maori Haka. The children did brilliantly learning Heads, shoulders knees and toes in Maori and were frighteningly good at performing a haka. Children learned to say hello in Maori and to introduce themselves. Some even had a go at a Maori Hongi.

In the afternoon, we talked about Koru patterns, thinking a lot about the ferns that grow on the moors near us, and had a go at designing some ourselves. You can see these below.

All in all it was a great day!

Haere ra, Aotearoa! Ka kite ano akunei!

Look at this amazing volcano which Miriam made for her Learning Log on mountains(sound effects added by me!!)

Click here to view in your own media player

Isn’t it fabulous?!

To commemorate the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth, Years 4 and 5 have been finding out a little about his life and discoveries.

Year 5 have been looking at Darwin’s voyage in the HMS Beagle from the point of view of a cabin boy.  Here is their fantastic collage of the ship:

Year 4 began the day by retracing the route of the HMS Beagle and plotting it on a giant world map:

Year 4 then looked at how animals have adapted to their surroundings over time. We thought that camouflage was a good way to avoid being eaten by predators.  We tested how good camouflage was by colouring 12 eggs in greens, yellows and browns and leaving 12 eggs their natural colour:

The we let the hungry predators go and search for their prey!

It was very easy to find the non-camouflaged eggs, but very difficult to find the camouflaged ones.

Finally both classes were ‘treated’ to glimpses of what their teachers may have looked like 3.7 million years ago using the DEVOLVE ME application on the Open university website.

Now:

3.7 million years ago:

Not too much difference you might think! Have a go – it’s just a bit of fun!

We have all really enjoyed finding out a little about Charles Darwin!

I’ve just looked at the ‘ClusterMap’ on the home page.

It is quite amazing to see how many visitors have logged onto our site from around the world !!