Otley All Saints CE Primary School Blog

Year 2 visited Thackray’s Medical Museum on Tuesday and were greeted by Florence Nightingale. They then spent the morning finding out more about her life and how she changed conditions for injured soldiers in the Crimean War. Pupils and teachers were drafted in to be nurses and porters.
On Wednesday Year 2 wrote letters home from the Crimea to tell people what had been happening there.

Florence telling the children about her life and work.

Tending to a wounded soldier

William told his parents
Lots of soldiers were wounded and had to go to Scutari hospital…There was someone called Florence Nightingale. At night she had a lantern. The soldiers called her “The lady with the lamp”.

Grace told her dad
It took two weeks to get to the hospital. We needed to help Florence because all the soldiers were dying. There were lots of rats. I had to make the bed and do lots more.

Chloe told her auntie
We travelled on a horse and carriage. Then we got to a big lake so we got on a boat. At last we got to the door of the hospital. We saw a sign that said “No nurses allowed”. We just ignored it. Finally we got in the hospital. There was food and bandages on the floor. There were rats… We cleaned the floor and washed the walls. We got rid of the rats. It stank of dirtiness and smelly feet… Please can you help. If you can that will be good.

In the afternoon we all looked around a different part of the museum to learn more about how our bodies work.

Today in Year 4, children have been learning how to cut themselves out of a digital image. Once they mastered this skill, they had a go at arranging themselves into a repeating pattern. There are some examples below. Beautiful aren’t they?! (If a little scary too!)

We are going to be doing a lot more with this technique over the coming weeks, so keep tuning in!

Well, the explorers had a surprise for Year 2 on Friday morning. Their spaceship had returned the previous night and not surprisingly they decided to pack up and leave quickly. In their haste two books, which have been intriguing Year 2, were left behind.

Year 2 took on the challenge of writing either a story of the planet long ago or a diary page to record what has happened this week.
Here are just a few extracts of the writing.

Willow
Millions and millions of years ago there were books buried under the ground. Noone knew what was inside them.
Her story finished:-
From that day on they heard a squawk sometimes.

William
On the unknown planet 1000 years ago people used to go up the twisted dragon’s tail to get some gold.

Harry H
One sunny morning a hundred years ago there was a bird that lived in a nest with seven chicks in a rock cave. There was gold underneath.

Charlotte R
When I got into school I saw a strange letter. I picked it up then I read it.

Rhys
On Monday morning we came to school. When we came into the classroom I saw a strange thing. It was on the Smartboard. It was a good picture but when I saw it I was a bit scared. But I had my friend to keep me company.

Rifka
On Monday morning we came to school and we found a letter on the table. So we read it. It was from two explorers called Tilly and Tom. They gave us a picture of where they were. It was a strange place and we found a really peculiar plant. But just then we noticed some gold on the wall. I thought it was real gold. On the next day Tilly and Tom had sent us another letter.
So we went on the trip again. This time we found some gardeners. They told us about some other really peculiar plants. But on Friday Tilly and Tom sent us a CD. We had to find two books. One with an old leaf on and one which was a diary.

Lottie
It was a cold day and I hung my coat up and I saw a letter on the table. It was from some people called Tilly and Tom. They had a spaceship. They fell asleep and when they woke up their spaceship was nowhere to be seen. When we looked on the Smartboard we saw a curly thing that was a long way up. Then we saw a bird that was strange. It had a little baaby and the mummy bird was giving the baby some purply blue food.

Charlotte J
It was a rainy day when I came to school on Monday and we didn’t expect to play out but we did. After we played out we found this unusual piece of paper. The teacher put the computer on and it came on as a funny planet. We climbed this strange plant. We went a bit further and found a creeping bird. After that we went back down the plant. We found some gardeners. They spoke a different language but Mrs Mayo had a thing in her pocket (to translate) so that was ok. We went a bit further along the path. It was bumpy. We found three scientists. They told us about a plant that was called the ice-skating plant. They also told us about the snow plant. We rushed back and to to school in time for assembly.

Lily
It was a normal wet Monday and I had just hung my coat up on the peg when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a letter. At first I just thought it was a piece of scrap paper but the more I glanced at it I knew it was a proper letter and that’s when the adventure really began. When I had read the letter I knew it was from two explorers called Tilly and Tom. Before I could read any more I knew I was on a mysterious planet. The first thing I saw was a curly wurly plant and I though it was a funny helter skelter with no sides. When I saw the helterskelter-like plant I went up it straightaway. On the way up I just caught a glimpse of some gold shining out. Just as I stepped on the helterskelter-like plant it really shook.

Everyone in Year 2 wants to see if we can join Tilly and Tom, the explorers on another adventure. So fingers crossed….

 

A very bad day.

A recount as told by several members of Year 4

In the beginning, the annoying buzz of my alarm clock pierced the morning air. I was late! I had no idea that this day would go from bad to worse!

Several minutes later, I put my bread into the toaster and slurped my coffee down as quick as possible. When the toast was ready, I scoffed it down and looked out of the window.I saw the sparkling droplets dance down my window and onto the floor. If this was anything like I thought it was going to be, today would be a day I couldn’t handle.

I realised the weather was horrendous, but I knew I had to get to work.Eventually I was in town. Suddenly, a gigantic gust of wind started. I quickly put up my black umbrella but it was so windy that it turned inside-out. As loud as I could, I shouted for a taxi. A few minutes later, a taxi arrived and picked me up. I gladly rushed into the taxi and set off to work.

In the middle of my journey, I had to get out because a big flood came. Now I had to walk which was worse. It was a big flood and there was a long way to go!While I was walking, the water kept getting deeper and deeper and I was getting wetter and wetter!

Eventually, I got to work. I was so relieved! Just at that moment, I noticed a ‘closed’ sign on the door, so then I had to return all the way home again. The minute I got home, I collapsed straight onto my bed and hoped I would never have another day like this in my life!

Sometimes in the mornings, I ask the children to write about odd little things, just to get our writing flowing. One morning this week I aksed them to write about ‘the world’s first hiccough (hiccup!)

I was eating my tea and I felt a rumble in my tummy. It seemed like it was a volcano’s lava filling up nside me. I ate my last doughnut. A gas taste was now in my mouth. It came, the thing, I don’t know what it was but it was weird! It sounded like this ‘hiccup’! Everyone laughed – even me!

Erin

And at that moment, I felt a bit strange because gas was building up in my body and something was going to explode. unexpectedly, a weird sort of noise came out of my mouth, like ‘hiccup’! I was like a volcano exploding. What was it?

Anonymous!

The world’s first hiccough sounded like the most quiet burp in history. People around me stared as if I was a maniac! It was an unexpected sound coming from deep within me. I never knew I could make such a phenomenal sound! “Help!” I thought. Nobody in the whole wide world had experienced this…

Scarlet

Could you describe the world’s first hiccough?! Leave one in the comments and I’ll give/send you a sticker!

Today, in response to a request from the explorers, Year 2 climbed up to find out about living things at the top of the plant. Once up there they found a most unusual bird with a chick in its nest and yet another amazing plant.

Fortunately three scientists (Rifka, Alex C and Lily) could help with information about the bird, so Year 2 could produce a fact sheet for the explorers. Have a look what they wrote.

Lottie
There is grass around the nest to keep the chicks comfortable. There are lots of eggs in the nest with baby birds in.

Mya noticed
greeny, blue wings; sharp claws to grab things; flaps its wings to fly; the bird is getting worms for the chicks to eat

Noel wrote
The bird looks like a kind of black seagull eagle bird. The nest looks like it is made out of curly sticks or other birds’ big claws. The chick looks only two or three weeks old. Every time the mother or father bird gets some food they both blink when they give it to the chick. The nest is in a strange kind of mountain.

Willow noticed
curved beak to tear its food: feathers that are dark red for the chicks to see them: tallons for picking up food

Christopher C wrote
The bird looks like a parrot with sharp teeth. The bird has got four more eggs and they need to hatch. The nest is on top of a rock. The eggs are oval shaped.

Rifka presented her work this way:

We left a message asking the explorers about some books or maps we had spotted. I wonder what they are.

Year 2 have received another communication from the explorers stranded on the unknown planet, advising them to speak to two gardeners who live there. The two gardeners (Noel and Ellie) were very informative and revealed more about the strange plant-life – ice plants and ice-skater plants amongst others. Surprisingly they also told of gold found when they were digging in the gardens and more worryingly about people trying to steal the plants.
So Year 2 thought very hard about whether they should carry on their mission and wrote to the explorers to tell them what they had decided.

Alex C wrote
I feel excited. I want to find out what that twirly thing is. I know that some people want to go home because they might get attacked. But I will stay with you. Good luck.

Christopher C wrote
I feel a bit scared because the gardeners said if they see people too near the flowers they would arrest them. I am going home but other people want to stay because they want to do more exploring. Sorry I can’t stay. My mum and dad don’t want to lose me.

Joshua wrote
I feel excited because the gardeners told me about the gold. When we were moving closer to the gold I saw a bit of the sea. The edge looked steep. When you go closer there are little stones falling down into the sea.

Daniel wrote
I feel excited. I want to stay on the planet because I want to meet more people. I’m going to find the ice-skater plant that the gardeners told me about. I want to find out what the gold is because it’s cool.

Lottie wrote
I feel nervous. I want to stay because I want to get some of the gold because I want to make jewellery with it. Other people don’t want to stay because they are scared if they would be pushed in the water…. Hope you get out soon.

Alex B wrote
I feel brave because I like the curly wurly plant with spikes. I want to carry on this mission because you need to explore! The two gardeners said there are ice-skater plants and lots of other weird plants. I will not give up! Where are you? I am looking forward to seeing you. Yours sincerely

Alfie wrote
I feel curious. I want to stay because I want to find out what is at the top of the ladder. Some people want to go home but I will stay. Good luck.

Jack wrote
I feel that I want to stay because it is fun. I find it very interesting with all the different plants and the gold things. Do you like this planet?

Lily wrote
I feel curious because I would like to explore what is at the top of the helterskelter-like plant. I have decided to stay but I can see why some other people may not want to. We think the gold things are really gold. I hope to meet you soon.

Willow and Sam-Luigi are keen to find out about the books under the soil. I’m sure we will discover more soon.

We are learning about mountains in geography, so in art we have decided to investigate an artist who was inspired by Japan’s mightiest and most sacred mountain – Fuji. We have really enjoyed finding out a little about Hokusai. We found some of his pictures and learned how to set these to music using Photostory:

Click here to view in your own media player

 

Today we have enjoyed reading the brilliant book Hokusai: The man who painted a mountain by Deborah Kogan Ray.

The children (and I!) were fascinated to look at the Japanese Kanji inside the book and we were all keen to have a go at learning some and trying to write (draw?!) some.

Here are two of our attempts:

Good aren’t they?!

On Friday we are going to have a go at sketching some of our favourite pictures and some scenes inspired by Hokusai. Make sure you check back to see how we get on!

We made our own switches today in Year 4 (with adult help and only using batteries to power our circuits of course!)

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?!