Settling into life as Reception!
A huge well done to all our new Reception starters who have settled in brilliantly! They have had a wonderful week exploring our newly organised classroom, enjoying lunchtime, parachute games and playtime!
Levens School
Community Art Project at the County Show
This week, our collaborative art project based on the theme of community was celebrated in our display in the ‘Learning for Life’ tent at the Westmorland County Show’.
Huge thanks to the Michelle Jurd Trust for making this incredible opportunity possible for our all our pupils and to local artist, Sophie Martin, for helping us to develop our skills and experience art in the outdoors on such an exciting project.
The Art of Landscape
Years 5 + 6 have been exploring different techniques used by different artists to create movement, fluidity and texture in the landscape taking inspiration from our local area, and particularly our recent visit to Ullswater.
We have taken a closer look at mark making by Vincent Van Gogh and watercolours by William Heaton Cooper.
Portraits using collage in Class 2
Class 2 have been learning about shape, line and proportion through portraiture. They have explored facial details using a range of media taking inspiration from other artists.
After exploring the work of Guiseppe Arcimboldo who created portraits of people using images of fruits and vegetables, we have created our own fruity faces!
Exploring the work of Henri Rousseau
Class 3 have been enjoying experimenting with colour, shape and pattern through the incredible work of French artist Henri Rousseau. His work reminds us of the Amazon landscape (a link to our geography studies during this term) although the places that he painted do not actually exist. Each of his compositions – many of which look like tropical jungles – are actually imaginary places conjured up from the studies he did of plants and animals observed in zoos and gardens in and around Paris.
We have been using a range of media, including watercolour, ink pens and pencil crayons to create our own studies and details of foliage.
We then developed our learning further by exploring Rousseau’s use of colour, line, pattern and texture in details of his inspirational work.
Wheels and Axles
Class 2 have ended the year in style with a fantastic design and technology unit called ‘Wheels and Axles’. During this unit we have learnt about the parts that make a wheeled vehicle move and then experimented with ways to create axles, wheels and axle holders and how to attach them to a chassis. Finally, we designed and made our own moving vehicles. This project has been a great way for the children to develop their resilience and problem solving skills.
Scrawlers!
What can you make if you have a cup, some sellotape, felt-tip pens, a motor, a rubber, a battery and some crocodile clips? That’s exactly the question which was posed to class 4 last week! It wasn’t much to go on, but then they were given a prototype of a “Scrawler”
A Scrawler is an automatic drawing robot! A motor on top of the robot spins with an offset weight, causing it to vibrate. As it vibrates, the pens making up the “legs” of the robot wobble across the page and draw patterns as they go.
Class 4 wasted no time in taking the prototype to pieces to discover how it worked. With no further instructions, just some reverse-engineering, small teams got to work building a Scrawler of their very own!
Once we had perfected and tested our own versions, we took them apart for a further challenge. Was it possible to teach Class 3 how to make one of their own, without using our hands? That meant no pointing or touching, and no getting frustrated when somebody else was doing the wrong thing! With only 20 minutes to complete the project time was not on our side, but I think the gallery below proves our success!
Electric Posters in DT
Class 3 have been bringing together this year’s history and science knowledge in producing a special electric poster for a museum display to inform visitors about the Romans. They considered where to place a light bulb to draw people’s attention to an aspect of their poster – some are on the titles, others incorporated into their illustrations and others by their facts. It was great to see pupils helping each other to problem solve when circuits didn’t work as expected – this is certainly an important aspect of the job of a designer and engineer.
Musical Extravaganza
After missing performing for two years, we were delighted to be entertained on Friday morning by our marvellous pianists and violinists. We enjoyed solos, duets as well as small group performances introduced and supported by our first class instrumental teachers Mrs Rainbow and Mrs Hurley.
All year 2 pupils have learned to play the violin this year and the group who have been keen to continue presented a selection of pieces showing many different ways to produce sound on the violin including pizzicato (plucking the string) and arco (bowing). Our year 3 violinists showed their beautiful smooth bowing action that produced a lovely mellow tone.
The pianists all played different tunes, solos and duets that really got our feet tapping and produced smiles all around the appreciative audience. Well done to all performers and those who have supported and encouraged them this year – the fruits of that labour were clear to see thi
Police Visit to Class 4
As Class 4 arrive at the end of their learning journey on Crime and Punishment this term we were all treated to a visit from the rural police. James and Pete spent the morning in School describing what it is like to be a police officer in 21st century Britain; and this enabled our pupils to make some interesting comparisons with the first police known as the ‘Peelers’ or ‘Bobbies’ after Robert Peel.
The children had pre-prepared some interesting questions…….
Q: Have you ever been frightened?
Q: Do you think there are more crimes today than in the time of the Peelers?
Q: Would you recommend a career as a police officer?
Q: Do you have to always abide by the law?
Q: Have you ever used your taser?
They explained and demonstrated the uses of their equipment and described the types of rural crimes or incidents that they might be called to.
A thoroughly interesting and informative morning. Huge thanks to our visiting ‘Bobbies’ for talking to us this morning. We learnt lots, but let’s hope it’s the first and last time any of us are put in handcuffs!!
