Jörmungandr Austr bought their enthusiasm for all things Vikings to our school and we had an amazing day of learning! The children learnt so much about the daily life of Vikings; they really enjoyed studying artefacts, learning shield manoeuvres and getting first hand experience of handling weapons. It certainly created a real buzz for our new history topic this half term and we can’t wait to get started.
This half term we have been learning about Climate Change and have been inspired by the monsters from the book ‘Planet SOS’. We created our own climate change poems about the despicable Trash-Kong. Children included poetic features such as: hyperbole, alliteration, metaphor, simile, personification and onomatopoeia. They built their very own ‘Poetic Toolkits’ to support in their writing.
Year 2 had a fantastic Curriculum Day celebrating Black History Month. We learnt all about local hero Pablo Fanque. Feeling inspired by Pablo Fanque, we learnt how to perform some of the different acts that he had in his own circus. In the afternoon, we performed our circus for our Year 5 buddies.
Today in school we have had a curriculum day in honour of Norfolk Black History Month. Across the school, children have been learning about influential Black people; Chadwick Boseman, Kadeena Cox, Ashley Banjo, Oti Mabuse, Mo Farah and John Boyega. They have looked into their achievements and contributions and why they have inspired people across the world with their work and their amazing approaches to life.
We were also treated to sessions of African dancing and drumming with the PanAfro Band. It was a joy to see everyone moving and enjoying themselves and experiencing this wonderful style of music and dance.
Throughout our school year, we are committed to celebrating diversity across our curriculum and in all of our learning and so this is just an opportunity to extend the already wonderfully diverse curriculum we have here at Queens Hill.
Y5 had a great day celebrating Black History Month. We learnt about the Windrush Generation and what it was like for people at this time, who travelled over to the UK. We read our class reader ‘Windrush Child’ by Benjamin Zephaniah, which the children have been enjoying already this half term. We researched and learnt about the Caribbean carnival, Notting Hill. We got to design and make our own carnival masks and we were lucky enough to go and model these for our Year 2 buddies class, Les Grenouilles. If that wasn’t enough we were lucky to take part in an African Dance workshop and watch them perform at the end of the day.
In Year Two this half term we have been learning about China in geography. The children compared the weather in Beijing to the weather in Norwich and worked together in groups to create weather reports. They made sure their weather reports included information about temperature and items of clothing that people might need.
Mr. Clarke, along with the rest of the Year 5 team have been challenging the pupils to see how many European countries they can name as part of their current geography topic.
Why not have a go at home, using this free online quiz from Lizard Point!
In year 4, we are going to be writing a recount about the events that took place when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. To kick start our writing, we reenacted a volcanic eruption and watched a reconstructed animation of Mount Vesuvius erupting over Pompeii. The children were really engaged and took notes about what happened at each stage of the eruption to inform their writing.
You can watch the video here.
After our successful Roman day, we started our learning about the Romans with a research lesson. The children worked in groups and used books and iPads to research the question ‘Why did Emperor Claudius invade Britain?’.
Then the children presented their findings to the class.
In Y5 we have been identifying emotions and discussing how we can manage them. We made ‘Thunderstorm Bottles’ by filling a bottle with water and adding in a range of craft materials and paint. We can then use these whenever we feel angry or anxious about something by shaking the bottle. The swirling water and added craft items represent an angry storm, demonstrating how our anger can stir up inside of us. After a few minutes, we think of something that we like doing to help us feel calm. Finally, putting our bottles down and watch the angry storm calm down as we ourselves calm down.
