All our year 6 leavers were treated to a very special evening meal made and served by our very professional, attentive and talented year 5 chefs and waiters!
They also enjoyed a wonderful trip to Brockhole that included a picnic by the lake and fun on the Treetop Nets!
We have been having fun creating 3D symmetrical creations. We worked in small teams to use any bits and pieces from our classroom to create patterns and models that had one or two lines of symmetry. We looked carefully at as many of the details as we could – writing and patterns on things made it really tricky but we made it as symmetrical as we could!
If you did happen to pass Heaves woods this afternoon, you may well have seen Reception having super fun at their forest school session! The rain did not put us off, especially as we had one of Miss Butler’s brilliant shelters to hide underneath when we got there! We all enjoyed having a scavenger hunt to see what we could see and hear, we thought about why we might not have found certain things on our list and created our own magical wands from nature’s treasures. Mrs Haslam was also very proud of her newly acquired fire making skills, which were put to good use for us to toast marshmallows on to complete our afternoon!
Skiddaw class have been learning all about rocks in Science recently. There is nothing better than chocolate to show the ways of making different types of rocks! The Rock Cycle goes round and round and rocks are changed into other types over millions of years. We started with layers of grated milk and white chocolate to represent the sedimentary rocks like limestone and chalk. We pressed these little bits down just like the sea presses the layers down to make these rocks.
We then applied a bit of heat from our hands and twisted the chocolate sediment to form metamorphic rocks like marble and slate.
Then we put some of the chocolate into a cup of hot water and melted it and cooled it, like the igneous rocks that are formed underground and then erupted out of a volcano like granite and basalt. We know that rocks are weathered and eroded into little bits that flow into rivers and into the sea and the whole cycle starts again!
Of course, we stopped and ate our chocolate which tasted pretty good even though we had changed it to much!
The benefits of learning to play a musical instrument are very well researched and understood. So with this in mind, Year 2 have been ‘adding a new string to their bow’ and learning to play the violin with the wonderful Mrs Hurley, kindly supported by a bequest from Guy and Maggie Paton, local residents, in memory of their son Jamie.
As a showcase for their new skills they performed a concert to the rest of Skiddaw class and our VIP guest Mrs Coker. They demonstrated how to hold the violin in rest position, how to position it to play, pluck the strings and use the bow. So much thinking and fine movement is involved; it is a bit like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time! Superb listening, following of instructions and great enjoyment from everyone.
Well done to all Year 2 pupils, and Mrs Matheson who learnt too, saying learning this new skill was a highlight of her week! Each week, Mrs Hurley played great solo tunes to the group on her violin, while they tidied away, and Year 3 and 4 often stopped to listen too – a real treat for the ears! We are looking forward to continuing violin lessons again for those in Year 2 who wish to carry on in September. Please see the letter that has come home for more details.
This morning, both Scafell and Skiddaw enjoyed a fantastic morning of sport and team-building games on the playing fields. Thanks to everyone who took part, joined in with all the games and cheered their team onwards to victory. It was really lovely to get to spend time together, and great to see everyone being supportive of one another.
Our morning started with a series of team games – wriggling through hoops, running a relay with cups of water and a lacrosse challenge. And who could forget what seemed to be a fan-favourite; the dressing-up relay! Imagine, if you will, a relay with a top hat and rather fetching scarf instead of the more traditional baton. Giggles all around for that one! After the team games everyone also took part in a more traditional flat race. Our brand new track was on fire with the blindingly fast lap times being posted!
Lastly, was the hotly-anticipated Year 6 Race – something of a Levens Tradition. Our year 6 performed marvellously, handling almost every sport we could think of. Football, hockey, hurdles – everything was included! Oh, and of course the famous Olympic “rescue the Jelly Baby from a pile of icing sugar” – a true classic!
A great day was had by all – thank you and well done to all involved!!
Children in Nursery and Reception have enjoyed two recent visits from PC Jayne Park from Cumbria Constabulary. The children were fascinated to find out about the work of a Police Officer and all the equipment they use to help them do their job. The uniform was a definite hit as well as exploring the Police van and hearing the sirens! Jayne also visited again to help us learn some important rules about keeping safe on the road.
You might have already heard about Skiddaw’s amazing work building structures from spaghetti and marshmallows. Well, today they’ve taken it to the next level, using a range of engineering techniques to create our very own truss bridges!
We started by looking at simple paper bridges, and saw that just by changing the shape of the paper we could make our bridges much more rigid. Next, we looked for inspiration in buildings across the world. We examined the shapes that crop up again and again in tall, strong buildings and found that triangles are used very often because they are such a strong shape!
Using what we had learned, we had a go at building our very own truss bridges. Check out the results below!
Year 5+6 were the last class to go out on an adventure this week. Their challenges included King Swing, low ropes and raft building.
Our first trip in over two years and it didn’t disappoint. The excitement was felt by everyone from the moment we boarded the coach.
Every participant threw themselves into each challenge with determination and enthusiasm. There was lots of good collaboration demonstrated during our raft building; effective team working in the low ropes as we paired up to support our partners; determination as we encountered the problem solving task to cross the moon on huge crates; and nerves of steel to complete the giant swing!
A magical day for us all!
We enjoyed the best of days at Lakeside! From the moment we set off from school, everybody was cheering and buzzing with excitement.
First Year 1 took themselves to new heights on a rope ladder up to the treetops! Everyone pushed themselves to the limit to get as high as possible. Next we enjoyed a game of ‘Duckies’ on the lake where we had to use our hands as oars to collect as many floats as possible. After a delicious packed lunch, we enjoyed an adventure in the woods making potions, creating homes for our furry friends and then some calm mindfulness moments getting close to nature.
Everyone had an amazing time with their friends! Well done everyone!