Otley All Saints CE Primary School Blog

As part of our learning about healthy food the Reception class have been tasting some different fruits.
Pomegranates, Pineapple, Rhubarb, Mango and Blueberries.

They used lots of lovely vocabulary to describe the fruit.
Scrummy, delicious, awesome, juicy, tasty, yummy. A few of them were not so keen on the pomegranate.

After tasting the fruit they thought about how to record which fruits they had enjoyed tasting and which they hadn’t. Here are some of their ideas.


They also did some fantastic observational drawings of the pineapple and the pomegranate.

At the end of last week the Reception children were delighted by two stories the children in year 4 had written. The Reception Class listened carefully as the Year 4 children read their stories about Penguins. Well done Year 4, beautifully written and illustrated stories. The Reception Class loved them.

Year 6 led the way in our school in response to the earthquake in Haiti. They came up with the idea of having a ‘Hat for Haiti Day’, where children and staff could wear a hat and make a donation to the relief work which will be ongoing for many months.

Here we all are in assembly:

We are still counting the final amount raised, but Mrs Blake estimates it to be in the region of £500 which is a fantastic effort by everyone. Well done Year 6 for the good idea and well done to everyone else!

Year 2, along with the rest of school, came today in all sorts of headgear and more importantly a generous donation to the Haiti Disaster Fund. The last total we heard was £477 and still rising. So a huge thank you to everyone!

Recently, my Mum sent me a short video all about a penguin who wanted to fly. In year 4, We loved this video so much that we decided to write about it. I gave the children the difficult job of trying to draw a picture of the setting using words. They all did this brilliantly. Here are two which deserve a special mention:

Andrew wrote:

In the icy lands of Antarctica stood penguins in groups, squeaking and squawking. There were also some seagulls. The snow covered mountains stared at the black and white penguins. The winds blew across their delicate fur. As the penguins walk, the snow crunches like someone is eating coco pops.

An alone penguin stared endlessly at the boasting seaguls with his water-filled eyes…

 And Miriam wrote:

In the snow-covered wasteland, the cold clouds stretched across the freezing Antarctica. The snow capped jagged mountains towered through the clouds. The huge noise of the seagulls pierced the silence. The floating ice bergs looked so glamorous in their bed of water. The obnoxious waves lapped loudly as they crashed against the rocks.

One day, a young penguin was all alone. he looked at the inquisitive joyous seaguls, piercing the air.

What I really like about these pieces of writing is the way both children have tried to stretch their vocabulary and skills to the limit, constantly looking for better words to use.

Well done to everyone in Year 4 for making 5 fantastic penguin books and for reading them so nicely to the younger children in Reception and Key Stage 1.

Here is one of our finished books. Don’t they look professional?

As part of their work on changing materials in Science and writing explanations in Literacy, Year 2 made popcorn in the microwave this morning. Delicious smells wafted down the corridor just in time for everyone coming into assembly!
Here is what some children wrote to explain what was happening.

Popcorn is a type of food. People eat popcorn at the cinema.
1. The kernel of the corn is as small as a child’s finger nail. It is yellow and hard.
2. When the popcorn goes into the microwave it heats up. The bag gets bigger and it makes a popping sound. It makes a nice smell.
3. When it is taken out of the microwave it has expanded. The popcorn is now an irregular, fragile, rough shape. It is now ready to be eaten.

As Year 5 have just discovered, prolonged freezing weather seems to be just the ticket for  successful bird watching!

This week, from the warmth of our class ‘hide’, we have observed a surprising variety of birds visiting the feeders near the classroom. In just one hour of continuous observations some children recorded the following ‘most number of each species seen together at the same time’: 1 coal tit, 2 dunnocks, 2 great tits, 3 green finches, 3 woodpigeons, 2 blackbirds, 3 blue tits, 3 chaffinches, 7 house sparrows, 2 robins, 1 song thrush, 6 starlings, 3 bull finches, 4 reed buntings and 2 red kites.

 

A big thank you to one of our parents, Mr Hind, for his help with the bird watch!

Our records have now been posted on the RSPB’s Big School’s Birdwatch website.

The children in the Reception class have been setting up a Cafe in their role play area. To help them to do this Miss Wilson took the children out to a “Real Life ” Cafe in Otley. It was a chilly walk there but what a welcome we got from the ladies in the Cafe.
The children had one pound to spend. They chose a drink and a biscuit, “that will be 95p please” said the ladies they handed over thier pound coin and waited for their change. The children looked around the cafe for any signs and writing and thought about what they would need in their cafe at school. It was lots of fun for the children and the cappacino was very much appreciated by the staff and parents!!

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.

Given the recent weather, Year 2 have the perfect topic – Hot and Cold. Well, the cold part anyway.
So one of our experiments has involved looking at what happens to different materials when they freeze. This has prompted several children to do their own experiments.
Checking the results