While Mrs Mayo and Year 2 were intrepidly exploring the wilderness of Africa, I was snapping a few photos of my own…
Great work Year 2!
Otley All Saints CE Primary School Blog
Our ideas, thoughts, experiments, challenges, opinions and more…In Year 2 yesterday we linked up a Nintendo Wii to play a game called African Safari. The aim is to help us work together well in teams, improve our communication skills and help us write interesting texts with detail. The first challenge was to get the Wii linked up and working – fortunately there were plenty of young experts on hand.
Each team has now had the chance to explore the first few scenes, and the observers took notes. Today we wrote the first page of a journal to tell other people about the Serengeti.
Here are a just a few excellent snippets:-
Millie
On the African safari I could see a sapphire river promising to lead us to elephants footprints.
Sam Luigi
When we go near an animal it grunts angrily.
Lottie
I saw a couple of red and white spotted mushrooms in the middle of emerald green grass.
Rhys
I saw a giraffe curling its tongue to get the leaves off the tree.
Alex C
Behind the camp on a rock was a baobab tree blowing in the wind.
Noel
The giraffes were bending down to drink the water that was shining in the sunlight.
Rifka
On the way to find the elephant dung we saw ants scuttling on the floor.
Harry H
I saw a giraffe eating green leaves by wrapping its tongue around the leaves.
Alex B
On a termite mound there were lots of tiny ants hiding, probably hiding from a predator close by.
Chris C
On a termite mound there were lots and lots of ants scuttling to hide in the bushes on the sand.
Today in her journal Lily wrote:
I saw pink flowers looming out of the grass. As well I could hear funny grunting sounds that told us we were so close to some animals we could be eaten at any moment! Behind the camp sticking up from the marshy ground were huge grey rocks so covered in moss it was hard to see them. A bit later we found a deep pool that apparently you could walk straight into. The river had a tiny river leading out of the river but surprisingly the tiny river led up hill. Next we saw more than 100 ants scurry across the floor in single file loving the smell of a nearby dung heap.
The bridge over the Wharfe in Otley is such an important feature of the town, that the children in Year 2 had a go at designing and making their own model bridges to span a river and support the weight of two Lego people and two toy cars. It proved to be a real challenge with lots of patience, perseverance and problem-solving skills needed. At the end of our project, everyone had learnt how to build a structure that is stable.
Some got as far as having towers ready to support the “road”.
Rifka and Maisie’s bridge
Jack and Sam-Luigi’s
Alex B and Ellie’s
Lily and Lottie tested their bridge as they worked and made amendments as necessary.
Year 2 thought about the different features of Otley that particularly appealed to them, and then put them into a poem. Here are a few of my favourite lines from their work.
Ellie and Mya
Otley is a sturdy bridge sitting in the cold, blue water.
Harry G and Grace
Otley is a wonderful, flowing river
Otley is a busy, noisy bus station.
Harry H, Jack and Sam
Otley is a big, windy Chevin with bumpy rocks and spiky trees.
Maisie
Otley is the splashing, sapphire river swaying, bubbling under the swans.
Chloe
Otley is a dark forest full of green, gigantic trees and perfect pink bushes.
Christopher S
Otley is a park shouting with laughter.
Charlotte J
Otley is the arched bridge with a fast, wavy river flowing underneath.
William
Otley is a silvery, sapphire, deep river where children like to feed the ducks and swans.
Christopher C and Alfie
Otley is the peaceful, wavy, glinting river floating under the arching bridge.
Lily and Noel
Otley is the old ticking clock telling people on the market the time.
As part of their work on Otley, Year 2 went into town on a market day to do a traffic survey. Having collected information at three different spots, they put the data onto a spreadsheet programme back at school.
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.
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!
Year 1 were lucky enough to have two visitors last week.As part of our topic on Otley and our local area,Mrs Habin (Lucy’s mum) a vet,and John Parkin from All Saints Church came to talk to the children about their jobs. Mrs Habin brought two of her pet guinea pigs (Buttercup and Molly.) She showed the children how she examines them using various instruments, and how she treats the different illnesses.The children were then lucky enough to have a stroke of the two very patient guineas!!
As well as Mrs Habin, John Parkin came to talk about his job as the curate of Otley Parish Church.He brought in some of the vestments and stoles he has, in different colours and explained to the children the different meanings of each and the times that he wears them.He also showed them his Holy Communion case which contained bread and wine and a cross.
Here is John wearing his white Alb,green and red vestment which he wears at Pentecost and white stole.
Sometimes in Year 4 we use a random number generator on our SmartBoard to make a four-digit random number. We then challenge ourselves to produce a short story with the 4 sentences containing the number of words in each sentence from the random number.
Here is a (fantastic!) example:
Today’s number was 8671
Jasmin wrote:
I quickly ran down the old creaky stairs. To my surprise, nothing was there. I thought everyone would remember my birthday….”SURPRISE!”