Today year 4 were excited to have a visit from polar explorer Adrian Hall. He spoke to us about his expeditions, showed us all the equipment he packed in his rucksack and shared lots of photos at the start of the day. After this, he worked outside with every class, teaching them about map reading and compass skills before they completed a treasure hunt around the school grounds. We had a great day and now feel we know a lot more about the life of an arctic explorer.
To kick-start their new English unit: Romeo & Juliet, Year 6 enjoyed participating in a variety of Shakespeare-related activities! Children took part in a scavenger hunt, collecting the answers to questions about the famous playwright and his works. They had to match symbols on their sheet to answers hidden away all around the playground. They discovered Shakespearean language and had to decide if phrases given to them were Shakespeare or ‘Fakespeare’. They explored the ancient grudge between the two feuding families in Romeo & Juliet: The Montagues and The Capulets and learnt about their household crests. Children were then tasked with creating their own crest, focusing on the significance of its design, colour and symbols. It was great to see how enthusiastic everyone was about our new topic and we look forward to seeing how they get on with their writing over the coming weeks.
This week Year 1 went to the woods to create Easter Gardens. We have been thinking about why The Cross is important to Christians and learning about the Easter story. The children confidently applied all of this knowledge to create some wonderful Easter Gardens! Great work Year 1!
Over the past two weeks Year 6 have been learning about butterflies. They all had some great questions and wanted to learn more about different species of butterflies! Children had a trail quiz to complete and were challenged to find out the answers to their questions. Upon their trail, they found a peacock butterfly in the grass. They were able to get really close up to it and see the beautiful colours of its wings. Some children even got to hold it!
Year 5 have been working hard on creating bug hotels this week. They have used materials they have found at home to create an inviting habitat for our creepy crawly friends.
We have been learning about the changes that Autumn brings in Reception and so we decided to see if we could find any evidence of Autumn arriving in Queen’s Hills. The children worked in pairs and hunted for Autumn items from a checklist. All of the children did super listening and showed our 3 school rules of Ready, Safe and Respectful!
Year one have made a fantastic start to the year. They have spent the first week exploring the new outside resources. They have created delicious food in the outdoor kitchen and building hand eye co-ordination playing tennis. Children have enjoyed having a go at writing and phonics is underway!
Year 6 had a wonderful morning in the sunshine at the Orchard today. They were able to fix the tree labels they made last year directly onto the steel mesh of the tree guards using zip ties through pre-drilled holes. They also participated in a ‘hands on’ conservation work activity making bee hotels and signs to welcome the bees! Children then had a tour of the site and were given some background information on the conservation work that has been going on in the park. Thank you to the volunteers who facilitated the visit, the children had a really great time and it was a lovely way to complete the project started by last year’s Year 6 children who planted the trees in the Summer term of 2022!
Reception had their first visit to the outdoor classroom. They were fantastic and walked carefully down. Once there they enjoyed den building, bug hunting and making nature bracelets and necklaces.
We had a fun packed few days at Eaton Vale this year. All the children were amazing and gave everything a go even if they were initially weary. We packed so much in that the photos below do not do it justice but hopefully you will get a snapshot of the lasting memories we built.
