Levens School

The Great Fire Of London Role Play

 in Class Two / English / History / Whole School by

Class 2 have had a great morning travelling back in time over 350 years to 1666 and experiencing what it was like during the Great Fire of London. Laura and Adrian from Imagining History brought us an exciting workshop involving drama and role play. We created the kitchen in the bakery on Pudding Lane and then used a range of methods from the past to try and put out the raging fire. We threw leather buckets of water at the blaze, used squirts and water carts. We even tried to create a fire break by using dynamite to blow up the burning houses but to no avail. We took on different roles including King Charles 2nd, James, the Duke of York, scared Londoners and Samuel Pepys to create a big picture of the event, then tested our knowledge with a quiz about the key facts.

Design And Technology Week

 in Class Four / Class One / Class Three / Class Two / Design and Technology / Whole School by

What an amazing and busy time we had last week! The whole school took part in different Design and Technology projects. Class 1 were developing their cutting skills and exploring a range of different junk modelling materials. Class 2 were learning about fruit and vegetables, using their senses to explore them and then creating their own smoothies. Class 3 explored how to use a simple pneumatic system to make box monsters. Class 4 were learning about different ways to join fabric including different stictches, before designing and making their own soft toys. Each class enjoyed learning new skills, acquiring new knowledge and had opportunities to design, make and evaluate their work.

Class 4’s Soft Toys

Class 3’s Monster Boxes

Class 2’s Smoothies

Class 1’s Junk Modelling

Monster Creations at Art Club

 in Art by

Art Club got off to a ‘monster’ of a start last week when we were able to let our imagination go wild creating creatures inspired by the characters in ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak.

We began with a collaborative activity where we drew a feature or body part and then passed our drawing on to the next person to add another detail. This included exaggerated heads, curly claws, horns, prickles, bristles and more. It was great fun.

Next, we went on to build our own imaginary creatures using graphite sticks and watercolours.

We have already started to celebrate our work in our Art Club Display board in school.

This week we are looking forward to exploring monoprinting techniques.

Bonfire Night Safety

 in Class Two / SCARF / Whole School by

On Tuesday we were lucky enough to receive a visit from some of the officers from Kendal Fire Station to talk to us about how to keep ourselves and others safe on Bonfire Night. We found out some interesting facts around the history of the celebration as well as some important tips about handling sparklers, being around bonfires and leaving it to adults to handle the fireworks!

Class 2 then also had the opportunity to look around one of the engines they had brought along and the equipment on board. What a lovely way to begin their Fire of London topic!

Woodmatters

 in Class One / Whole School by

Reception have enjoyed an incredible visit to the National Trust Footprint site today on St Catherine’s estate in Windermere. The day began exploring the woodland, finding leaves from different trees and collecting a range of different sized sticks. They found out about how to build a campfire safely, learning that fires need oxygen, fuel and heat. They used flints and steel to create their own sparks and mini fires before toasting apples dipped in sugar.

After lunch, they learnt about willow, used loppers to cut their own pieces which were whittled using peelers and added to the fire to create charcoal. Whilst the charcoal was on the fire, there was just enough time to learn how to use a saw safely to create their own keepsakes of the day.

I think everyone will sleep well tonight!

Salty Science

 in Class Four / Science by

Before the break, Scafell began an experiment to see if they could grow Salt crystals in the classroom. We explored substances which dissolve, and then asked the question “how can we get it back?”

Dissolving salt into water, we then watched and waited as, over time, the water slowly evaporated. As it did so, the salt we dissolved in was left behind!

We did have some unexpected results as the salt crystals formed on the outside of the glass instead of the string as we’d expected, but we certainly got a lot of crystals forming!

“Every child is an artist” Picasso, Reception style!

 in Art / Class One by

Picasso’s famous quote “Every child is an artist”, absolutely rings true in Class One! Reception have just completed their unit of work on self-portraits, drawing inspiration from Pablo Picasso and his cubism style of work. They began their learning by drawing a portrait of themselves from a photograph, before studying the work of Picasso and looking closely at some of his famous cubism portraits. They had a go at using facial features arranged differently on the page and then considering different angles and perspectives of themselves to create their masterpieces. I wonder if you can guess who is who?

Harvest Service

 in Church by

Yesterday morning we enjoyed giving thanks for God’s creation and this year’s ‘harvest’ at our special service held in School.  The extreme rain and wind on Friday morning made it impossible for us to walk safely to church.

Our service included contributions from children across school who had each prepared poems, art work and prayers; or shared some of their learning about Harvest.  Our years 5+6 pupils shared their research on how food is distributed unfairly across the world.  Although there is enough food in the world to feed everyone and no one should be without food; there is hunger simply because food is not distributed equally, so millions of people have too much, whilst others never have enough.  This message has encouraged us to think more carefully about how we waste food in our own homes.

We are very grateful to all our families and the wider community for their food gifts.  These will be distributed to our local foodbanks in the next few days to support families in our locality who are struggling to feed their families.

Harvest Art

 in Art / Class Two / RE by

In Class 2, we been continuing to develop our drawing skills. We have learnt that to be able to draw, we need to observe closely. This week we used magnifying glasses to observe produce of the land. This combined our RE learning about Harvest of the land and sea, with learning about observational drawing of natural materials in art.

The Human Network

 in Class Four / Computing by

In their computing lessons, class 4 have been studying how computers can link together. We use computers in this way more and more in our interconnected world as the internet forms a larger part of our daily lives. Here’s what we’ve learned so far:

Computers on the internet all have their own IP address. This stands for internet protocol which is a set of rules for how computers should communicate. Computers work best with numbers, so this looks like a long string of numbers. For example, the IP address of the computer which stores our school website is 5.61.120.34. That’s kind of difficult for humans to remember though, so we also give websites names in words which get translated to an IP address later.

 

Once you know which computer in the network you want to talk to, the message you want to send is given an “envelope” with the information needed to get it to the destination. This is called a header. Messages on the internet are usually broken up into lots of very small pieces (called packets), so it’s important to make a note of what order they should go in and how many are being sent!

Finally your message is ready to send. All of the packets of information are sent, one by one, towards their destination. This usually starts over WiFi, through a router or server and along telephone lines. Messages often make several stops along the way to their destination, being sent on by other computers in the network. In class we acted out a very simplified version, with each child standing in for a computer. It took a while for us to remember that computers cannot move, and so must send their messages by passing them through the network!