The sun continued to shine on Earls Hall today, allowing lots of the classes to carry out their work in the outdoors.
The day started with an assembly in KS1 where Mr Geach led a discussion where the children updated each other on their findings from their mysterious mounds investigations. The children in Year Two shaered the fact that they thought the mound was linked to the author Julia Donaldson so Mr Geach read on e of her stories, ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’ to the hall.
Throughout the day the children in Year Two continued to take part in their ‘Bikeability’ sessions where our cyclists became more and more competent on their bicycles by the minute. Meanwhile, outside in the Forest Friends’ area, the children in Year One spent their sessions taking part in activities centred around water. The children created their own water chute out of drainpipes and used the force of the water to send items down it into a tray at the bottom. They were also challenged to create their own boats out of pieces of wood, which they fastened together with elastic bands, and watched to see if they floated.
The children in Hawks went on a walk outside where they tried to identify varieties of trees from their leaves whilst the children in 6B were challenged to make a raft which could hold as many coins as possible and still float using only a piece of tin foil. They tried out their designs in the classroom with paper and then went outside to test their actual rafts on water. Meanwhile the children in 6C put the finishing touches to their Tudor masks!
The whole of Year Six enjoyed fun sessions with the team from ‘Explore Learn’ where they set up their own ‘Dragons Den’ scenarios. The children chose inventions, such as butter on sticks, and pitched them to the dragons using persuasive language in their pitches. Meanwhile, downstairs in the library, the children in Squirrels enjoyed sharing books on the sofas and bean bags.
Down in the Foundation Stage the children had lots of fun in the early years garden. They played with the shop, exchanging goods for money, created volcanoes in the sand pit and invented their own games using the balls and hoops. As it was such a sunny day some of the children made their own hats out of paper and string. Back in the classroom the children used the discovery of the giant bone in the mysterious mound of earth, thought to belong to a dinosaur, as a stimulus for further work. Some of the children used the dinosaur play figures to create dinosaur footprints in a variety of patterns. Some children also used Pokemon cards to identify numbers which were higher or lower than each other and had great fun in the process.
Throughout the day a team of technicians continued work on the installation of a new lift which will allow wheelchair users to access the downstairs hall. The last lift had stopped working and was no longer servicable but the new lift will allow equal access to the hall for all people. Meanwhile, outside on the playground, the finishing touches were being put to the new planters and seating area.
It was an exciting day for the children in Year Four as they ventured off site and visited Southend Synagogue. The children learned that synagogue is a word of Greek origin which means ‘Meeting Place’ and investigated the Star of David. They learned that Christians prayed to the same god as Jewish people and saw lots of plaques in the reception of the synagogue with people’s names on them who have passed yet once a year relatives light up their plaque on the day of their passing to show respect and their remembrance of them. The children sat very respectfully and discovered that the men sit separate from the women in a synagogue (women upstairs, men downstairs) because that’s what they did thousands of years ago so the tradition remains today. They discovered that the Torah is handwritten with a quill feather by expert calligraphers and takes a year to write and that it is made of light tanned leather NOT paper. It was a really interesting visit where the children displayed excellent behaviour.