Levens School

Bowfell’s STEM day

 in Bowfell / Whole School by

Reception and Year One enjoyed their STEM day last Thursday when Fran from C-STEM came to visit with his huge tubs of Lego! The children had the opportunity to have a rummage through the boxes and discovered some specialist pieces of Lego which aren’t normally found in the widely available sets. Fran challenged the children to build the tallest tower that they could with the Lego, they had to remember to try and make sure their towers were strong as well as tall! After looking at everyone’s creation they then had to build a bridge connecting the towers to each other. The final challenge of the morning was creating space houses and rockets. The children were thoroughly engrossed in their activities which promoted team work, problem- solving and critical thinking skills. Many thanks go to FOLS for kindly funding this experience for the children.

 

Tennis Club in the Rain

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The rain didn’t deter our young enthusiasts at our first of five sessions last week.  Our wonderful expert coach put us through our paces at the start warming us up thoroughly on a cold June day!  We developed our hand-eye coordination; learnt how to strike the ball using forehand and backhand strokes; and then had a fabulous game of ‘Cricket-Tennis’.  Well done everyone and look forward to more fun next week!

Pizza+Canoeing=Fab Day!

 in Skiddaw / Whole School by

Canoeing across to an island on Lake Windermere was made even more fun with lots of splashing from the waves, and lots from each other, but we were all dressed for the occasion and we made it in style! After a bit of exploring, we patiently made our own pizzas adding a wide variety of toppings lovingly prepared with mushrooms, ham, anchovies, salami, peppers, tomato and lashings of cheese. Once we had returned to the shore many splashed and played in the chilly water – sorry no pictures of that as we were having too much fun! Thank you to Phil, Pete and Chris for taking us – definitely a day to remember.

Rocket Cars!

 in Whole School by

It’s all gone so fast, but we’ve just had the final session of STEM club! After weeks of research, designing, planning, creating and diagnosing, the rocket cars were finally ready for a race!

Since the beginning of the Summer term, a group of future engineers have been working in small teams to design and build a rocket car out of scrap materials. Inspired by the Bloodhound SSC – a rocket car with a goal of being the first to travel faster than 1000mph, we’ve looked at different ways of producing and controlling thrust. Thrust is the reason why, when you blow up a balloon and let go, the balloon shoots around in random directions. Control this thrust – by strapping the balloon to a vehicle – and you have a very basic rocket engine.

All of the teams have worked super hard throughout the half term to design and build their cars, showing the resilience to not give up and try again if it didn’t work out. Today was the final race, with a wide range of strategies on show. Some slow and steady cars made their distance carefully and methodically, while some cars released all of their power in one big go, at one point ending up with an impressive negative score! Well done to all who joined in – prizes for the winning teams will be awarded soon!

To find out more about the Bloodhound rocket car, please click here! (http://www.bloodhoundeducation.com/

Busy Bees

 in Skiddaw / Whole School by

To mark UN World Environment Day 2019, we focused on bees and the essential job they do in the world. Having started with this rhyming story The Beeman – we explored facts about bees and how they live. We then explored tessellating hexagons to create our own hives and added a queen bee, drones, worker bees and house bees.

Countryfest

 in Bowfell / Whole School by

We were extremely proud of Bowfell’s hard work last half term in producing a scarecrow and planting trolley for competitions at Countryfest which was held last weekend.

Their Rapunzel scarecrow for this year’s fairy tale theme was on display in the Sew Crafty tent and received a ‘highly commended’ award.

They also entered for the first time the ‘thriving trolleys’ competition which involved a planting display on the theme of health and happiness in a supermarket trolley! Many thanks to Pam Martin for her tremendous help, in not only designing the trolley, but also giving up her time to help the children plant flowers, vegetables and herbs from her garden.

It was lovely to see the children’s efforts on display last weekend and they represented the school so well.

Hedgehog homes

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As part of Bowfell’s learning around World Environment Day yesterday, Reception and Year One learnt about the decline of hedgehogs. They found out about their habitat and what they like to eat. In an attempt to help, the children made hedgehog homes at the back of Bowfell’s outdoor area. They used plastic boxes, mud, leaves, twigs, stones and straw. They certainly look inviting and cosy, we hope for some inhabitants soon!

Scafell’s day of walking and sailing

 in Scafell / Whole School by

 

Well done everyone; you braved a wet, blustery and cold day to make the most of this wonderful second opportunity to develop our sailing skills.  The day started early with lots to do before we could get on the water.  First, we needed to be kitted out in wetsuits, water shoes and splash tops. Then, we learnt how to rig our boats: with the added addition of a boom at the base of the sail this week.  After lots of instruction about how to manoeuvre on the water, off we went.  It really isn’t easy; so lots of determination, teamwork and resilience was required from everyone.

After a great session on the lake, we headed up through the woods and fields to Orrest Head for our late picnic lunch.  Our day ended with a well-deserved ice cream to celebrate a memorable day.

 

UN World Environment Day 2019

 in Bowfell / Scafell / Skiddaw / Whole School by

Every year the 5th June is marked as the United Nations World Environment Day. This is a day to question what contribution you are making to reduce the catastrophic footprint humans make on our very precious planet; before it’s too late.

The theme for this year is air pollution.  Did you know that 90% of people around the globe are breathing polluted air each day and many children die each year because of air pollution.

Following a whole school assembly on Tuesday morning, each class has been exploring climate issues.    Look out for more posts soon to see what we’ve been up to.

 

Knex Crazy!

 in Skiddaw by

Thanks to FOLS, Skiddaw class enjoyed a fantastic Knex morning exploring maths, engineering and team work all mixed together! We learnt about how triangles are a stable and sturdy shape and that constructing things reinforced by triangles makes them more successful. We had competitions to see which team could build the highest sturdy tower and which team could build a helmet that fitted well and had a ‘special feature’. Our creativity and problem solving skills were certainly given a workout and Fran, our session leader who works all over the country, spoke very highly of all team’s perseverance, great ideas and determination. Well done Skiddaw – it was fascinating watching you at work and your teachers were really proud of you all.