We have been learning all about the seasonal changes which come with Autumn. The children have been reading the story “The Leaf Thief” and have learnt about what happens to the leaves in Autumn and why. We have learnt about the vegetables and plants which grow, the animals who hibernate and created pictures inspired by Autumnal colours. The children even got to visit our on-site outdoor classroom for an Autumn hunt!
Today, Year 3 have been learning about botanist and photographer Anna Atkins. She is considered the first person to publish a book of photographs.
Inspired by her work, Year 3 collected natural materials to create their own cyanotypes.
They layered their gathered materials onto the special paper and laid them in the sun for around 15 minutes.
After rinsing their paper in water, their final cyanotypes were revealed.
We have been learning about the life cycles of plants. As part of this topic, we have planted a Sunflower seed. We have been looking after them and look forward to taking them home to plant!
Reception had a wonderful time on our trip to Gressenhall. We met Fairy tale characters, such as Cinderella and Jack. We helped them find their magical objects the Wicked Witch had stolen. We particularly enjoyed the tractor ride on the farm, helping the Ugly-Stepsister with her chores and sliding down the beanstalk slides.
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!
