Monthly archives: March 2018


What an amazing day Year 2 had at Leighton Moss

When we arrived we were welcomed by Carol and John who told us all about the different habitats at Leighton Moss – reed beds, woodland, willow scrub and all the different wildlife that live there; and how the RSPB look after nature, not just birds. The children were great at asking and answering questions about the wildlife including where they live, how they are camouflaged and their predators.  Great knowledge!

On our minibeast hunt we discovered and collected slugs, snails, millipedes and worms under logs and stones in all the dark and wet places. Then to the Hideout where we looked at the garden birds; including the cheeky pheasant and moorhen looking for food.

We learned about brilliant birds by touching and feeling feathers and looking at lots of different kinds of nests built by garden birds. We were listening to birds singing when we were joined by a very noisy robin! We squeezed teddy birds to listen to the sounds of different birds.

In the afternoon we were brave enough to climb to the top of the Skytower to look over the whole of Leighton Moss and listen for the Bittern, quiet enough to use our binoculars in Lillian’s Hide to observe lots of different birds – dipping, diving ducks, moorhen, geese and marsh harriers.

Then we became plant detectives, making bookmarks and smelly cocktails from leaves and flowers, collecting leaves to make rubbings of bark and leaves and lots of other activities.

We had a brilliant day at Leighton Moss: it was over far too quickly!


A great reason to eat chocolate crispy cakes!

In Science we have been learning about Solids, Liquids and Gases and what better way to see the transformation between two of these but to make, and eat, chocolate crispy cakes! We split into small groups so we each got a good look closely at the heating of the chocolate and with great squeals of delight we realised what looked like simple chunks of solid chocolate really had been transformed into shiny liquid.


Sporty Skiddaw

Today Skiddaw have been super sporty. It was our last morning working with Keith Robinson, from Newcastle Falcons, on the Tackling Numbers programme. We have been working over the past 5 weeks on some fantastic tag rugby sessions followed by sport inspired maths lessons. Today it was all about financial know how. We learnt about bank, building society and post office accounts, about the importance of earning money and saving up rather than borrowing and having to pay more back in the long term – really important life lessons!

Then in the afternoon we took two teams to the Quick Sticks Hockey tournament for Y3 and 4 children hosted by Dallam. Everyone raised their game in this competition and we won all but one game! Levens Llamas and Levens Rhinos both did themselves very proud with great team spirit, game awareness and strong tactics. Levens Rhinos came in the top two teams out of 14, and go through to the next round. Thank you to all parent transporters and keen supporters it was great to hear so many cheering us on!


Dancing at the Brewery Arts Centre

Last week, our amazing Dance Club took part in the Dance Festival at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal for the very first time In Levens’ History – and we were AMAZING!!  Our dance was based on the story of Hercules – the fearless Greek hero and our music was taken from three different songs from the classic Disney movie.  The children have worked incredibly hard over the last few months developing their routines and perfecting every move with our talented and inspirational dance teacher, Miss Nic.   We hope to be able to share our dance with parents at a future Good Work Assembly!! Well done dancers – we are all already looking forward to enjoying next year’s event!


Sport Relief Action

Each day this week, School Council are organising Get Active sessions at lunchtime playtime. We are challenged to keep an activity going in the Sport Relief Zone for half an hour non stop! Monday was bouncing balls, Tuesday was doing “keepy uppy” and Wednesday was singing Heads, shoulders, knees and toes! It was harder than we thought to keep going all that time! School councillors are on hand to give out stickers to those taking part.

Did we manage to keep it going for the 30 minutes every lunch time? YES!!

Thank you for coming in something SPORTY on Friday and bringing a donation of £1. We made £70 to add to the nation’s Sport Relief total and we learnt that half of the money raised is spent in the UK and half is spent in other areas around the world.


Reading comics and cartoons

Skiddaw have been reading lots of different types of texts recently including plays, letters and poems. Comics have been proving very popular! Here we are with our noses in our comics during morning task.

We have also been writing our own cartoons using captions and different types of speech bubbles. This week we are going to be practising how transform our speech bubbles to use speech marks correctly.

 


The Tree of Life

Reception and Year 1 have ben exploring swirls and patterns, in the style of Gustav Klimt. One of Klimpt’s famous paintings is The Tree of Life.

The children created their own pieces of art in his style.


Pupil Parliament – Homelessness

Our Pupil Parliamentarians are all ready for their presentation tomorrow on the topic of Homelessness in the Uk.  Scafell Class have researched information about this social crisis and have discovered some shocking facts.  Did you know that in the North West of England, homelessness has increased more than in any other region in the whole of England; and that 1 in every 59 people in London are believed to be sleeping on the streets or in temporary sheltered accomodation.

Our four representatives have written a thought-provoking speech;created a display from everyone’s research; and written poems inspired by a Manchester based homeless man called Jamie who writes and sells his poems so that he has enough to eat.

Their message: Next time you walk by a homeless person; don’t be scared, don’t judge; have some compassion; every homeless person has a story.  Remember they are human just like you and me: becoming homeless is easier than you think – it can happen to anyone!