Following on with our work based around the book Possum Magic we made Anzac biscuits this week. We have been learning all about instructions this week.  We followed the instructions to make the delicious Australian sweet treat, then we have written our own instructions.

We had a great time yesterday taking part in the sponsored bunny bounce. We enjoyed cheering each other on and trying to do as many bounces as we could in a minute. 

We loved taking part in the Greek Culture day today. In Discoverers Class we designed our own Greek Gods and did some traditional Greek dancing. We loved learning all of the moves.

Discoverers class had an amazing time at Neeli Mosque. It was a fantastic end to our RE topic on Islam. The children all knew lots about the Islamic faith and the Muslim community. We did lots of practical activities in the mosque including prayer positions and Wudu as well as having an full tour of the inside of the mosque.

R.E. 
Today we have visited St John’s Thornham church where Reverend Alison helped us to explore Holy Week. We listened to the story and added actions, making connections to how people might have been feeling at the time and how Christians feel about the story today. We explored how worship is shown in church, exploring different artefacts and linking them to the days of Holy Week and what they represent. Reverend Alison was impressed with all that we knew and the thoughtful questions we asked, she very kindly gifted us with a palm cross each which we used to recreate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

In DT we made a hummus dip and served it with our favourite dippers. We learnt lots of new skills such as slicing, juicing, crushing and blending. The best part was tasting it afterwards. It was delicious!

In science we have been learning about forces and magnets. We made toy cars powered by magnets. We were able to use magnetic force to move the cars forwards and backwards without even touching them!

In R.E. This half term we are exploring Christianity and the concept of Salvation. We have been learning about the events of Holy Week and have worked together to retell these by ordering pictures and discussing the events and their impact on Christians today and why this story is so important that it is remembered. 

In Design technology this week we have been tasting different dips and dippers.  We then had a vote for the most popular dip so that we could decide which one we are going to design and make.  We recorded the results from our survey in a tally chart and then put them onto a block graph.  We found out that the class favourite was hummus.  Look out for us making our own hummus dip soon.

In Design Technology we have been looking at where our food comes from and seasonal fruit and vegetables. We made seasonal fruit kebabs and then sorted the vegetables according to the part of the plant that we eat.

We had a lovely surprise this week = a secret reader - Fleur”s mummy read ‘The Whale Who Wanted More’ which was about discover, love and happiness found from others not things you buy. The children loved the story and their special treat of donuts. 

Happy New Year and welcome back Discoverers Class. We have fun action packed term ahead of us..  In English we will be reading the book 'Tuesday'.  In history we will be looking at some more significant individuals such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Columbus. In Science we will be learning all about forces and magnets. 

We had a fantastic workshop today with Kapla planks. Every child in school participated in the building of a fantastic masterpiece. Discoverers Class built the crocodiles and the cruise ships. We were all extremely proud of our contribution to the showcase and displayed great team work.

Discoverers and Explorers had a special visit today from the fire brigade. The children all got to have a go at becoming fire fighters and using the hose. They were also allowed into the fire engine which was very exciting. 

Take a look at the amazing game that we designed on our TASC day for the school Christmas Everyone loved playing the game and some of the children from Discoverers’ class helped out on the stall which was great fun.

We had a very special visitor today which was amazing!

Discoverers Class loved their breakfast with the elf and enjoyed dancing and singing along to the Christmas songs too. The elf was a very good dancer!

We made our Christingles today ready for our church service.

We had a great time doing the reindeer run raising money for Springhill Hospice.

In Design Technology we have been looking at and making different types of slider mechanisms.

This week we had a special visit from the Ice Trolls who live deep in the ice caves of Antarctica. We had to become scientists in order to help them whilst they were here. Unfortunately despite the cold weather we have been having it still wasn’t cold enough for the Ice Trolls here at school. Therefore we needed to conduct a science investigation to see what material would be the best to make a special cost for the trolls to keep them frozen. We then had to make sure the test was fair. We found out that the coats made out of tinfoil worked best. 

This week we had a special visitor in Discoverers Class - A Secret Reader. The children loved listening to the story ‘Jabari Jumps’.

This week in science we did a blubber experiment. We put our hands in a blubber glove and a plain plastic bag glove. We then put our hands in iced cold water for the same amount of time and observed what happened. We found out that the hand in the glove without the blubber was icy cold and we struggled to withstand it. The hand in the rubber glove felt cosy and warm. This helped us to understand about the purpose of blubber (a thick layer of fat) for animals in the polar regions.

In art we have been looking at the artist Edgar Degas. This week we painted our own seascapes in the style of Edgar Degas, including a sunset. The finished paintings were amazing. The children really captured the movement of the sea and used great light and tone. Some even created the effect of the reflection of the sun in the water.

Music

we have been learning how to play chords together on boomwhackers and concentrating on reading the notation and knowing when to play our own notes. We have enjoyed learning to play and sing the melody to you are my sunshine.

This week in maths we have been rounding numbers to the nearest 10.

Listen to our performance of our Harvest poem.

We really enjoyed doing our class assembly today in front of our parents and the rest of the school. We hope you enjoyed finding out about all the fun things we did whilst learning all about the Stone Age.

This half term in R.E. we are learning about Islam. We have been exploring beliefs, exploring artefacts and learning about people important to Muslims. This week we have listened to a story about the Prophet Muhammad and the cat, to help us retell the story we created our own models based on the story and used these to help explain how Muslims use this story to help them understand how to respect and care for God’s creation. 

We had a great time in Hopwood woods. We travelled back in time to the Stone Age and became hunter gatherers. We made pitfall and deadfall traps to catch the Stone Age animals. Then we made our own harpoons so that we could catch fish in the stream. We were really good at using our pointy harpoons to do this.

In English this week we have been doing some drama. First of all the children acted out the part in ‘Stone Age Boy’ when the boy meets the girl from the Stone Age for the first time. We then worked in groups to create freeze frames of different parts of the story.

We have been hard at work this week creating 3 new class displays. We wrote our dreams on dream jars for our school values display. After reading the book ‘The Huge Bag of Worries’ we did some fantastic writing to go on our display in the hall. Then we made some great predictions about our new class book ‘Stonw Age Boy’. I’m sue you will agree that they look amazing.

Discoverers were set a challenge today to find letters in our classroom and outdoor area then work as a team to make as many words as they could. The longest word made by one of the groups was the nine letter word- therapist. I was amazed at all the words they came up with and the super spelling.

Wow! What an amazing first few days we have had in Discoverers Class. The children have all settled in really well and have shown great gem work and resilience in some of the fun activities we have been doing. We came up with our class rules and promises to each other, built towers out of marshmallows and cocktail sticks and had a scavenger hunt.

For the Coronation Mrs Hunter challenged all of the classes to make a crown fit for a King. Take a look at our crown and the children going down the catwalk to show the rest of the school. I’m sure you will agree that it looks fantastic!

In maths this week we have been learning all about money and how to make different amounts.

In Science we have been learning all about shadows and how they are formed. We used the shadow puppet theatres that we had made to investigate how the size of a shadow can change. 

We went outside this morning to see what we could see in the school grounds. We found a box on the field. This inspired us to write some amazing poems called “What’s Inside the Box”.

In Design and Technology we have been designing and making a wind-powered toy car. We even got chance to test them out and race them outside today. They all worked really well.

We had great fun today doing the sponsored bunny bounce!

In Geography we have been learning all about the features of a river. We made our own river models out of salt dough. We then painted them and labelled the features. We are all really proud of the finished models.

We had great fun playing with Explorers’ Class in the snow.

Music

This half term the musical genre we are focusing on is disco, we have all been feeling the groove adding disco moves and actions to help us learn our performance song ‘Bringing us together’. This is the very start of our musical disco journey but we are already having lots of fun. We have asked the children to find some more examples of disco moves to share next week so please share your best moves to be included in our final performance 💃🏼🕺🏽

We had a great day on World Boksburg Day. We wrote poems based on the poem ‘10 things found in a Wizard’s Pocket’ by Ian McMillan. We even got to have our lunch as a treat in the classroom. 

In maths this week we ended our topic on 2D and 3D shapes by using the big mat and finding the coordinates of the various shapes.

R.E.

Discoverers have been exploring the Christian belief on the Trinity. The belief in one God but also in three different ways of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They have looked at different representations of this idea using an egg and an apple.

In science we have been investigating how shadows are formed and the type of object that make the clearest shadow. We found out that opaque objects make the best shadows, translucent objects make a pale shadow but transparent objects don’t make very clear shadows at all. 

We created lots of different artwork in the style of Wassily Kandinsky this week in art. We listened to music to inspire us just like he did.

We have been continuing to explore the Samba instruments and learning to play as an ensemble. We have had to listen carefully to the leader’s whistle that instructs us how to play and anticipate when to play our instruments. We have been learning simple Samba rhythms and having lots of fun.

In art today we have been looking at the artist Leonardo de Vinci. We concentrated on the skill of sketching that we learnt about in our art masterclass last week. We found out that Leonardo da Vinci was interested in anatomy and the human form. We then used wooden mannequins to help us sketch the outline of a person.

This week we have been writing a newspaper report about the tiger in the woods. To help us do this we created a class newspaper report based on another strange creature that was spotted in the woods. We used Talk for writing to orally perform our class model piece. Use the bar code below to watch us perform it. Can you guess who the strange creature is. 

We have been learning all about Samba music and how to play different Samba instruments; samba drums, guiros, agogo bells and tambours. We have been learning to play different rhythms and anticipating when to play listening to the leader who sets the tempo of the music. 

What amazing afternoon we had in Hopwood Woods. We found evidence of the missing tiger from Blackpool Zoo in the woods. There was orange and black stripy fur in the branches of the trees and we also found a small amount of green fur. We are hoping that the tiger is not too sick and that we can catch her before all of her stripes turn green! We made humane traps in groups to hopefully lure the tiger then capture her safely so that the zookeeper can take her back to the zoo. Each group made a unique trap with lots of amazing features. Watch this space to see if they work.

We had a special visitor today. Zara the zookeeper from Blackpool Zoo told us that one of her tigers had escaped whilst being transported to London. She wanted to know if we had seen her missing tiger called Alyona. We told her that we think that Alyona came to our classroom over the weekend because when we came to school on a Monday our classroom was messed up and there were giant muddy paw prints everywhere. The zookeeper was very worried about the tiger when we said what she had eaten and thinks she may get sick. She even things her stripes may turn green! She has asked us to help her.  She wants us to make some ‘LOST’ posters. She also asked us to go to Hopwood Woods (where we think she may be hiding) to make some humane traps. She told us not to be afraid of Alyona because  she is a very friendly tiger who is probably very scared.

Today in computing we took part in the BUPA Get With the Programme completing a coding activity. We had to design and write an algorithm to get a robot to pack up healthy lunch nags in time for lunch. We had great fun doing it and faced a few challenges along the way making us re-think and debug our algorithms:

This morning when Discoverers’ came into their classroom they were shocked by what they saw. There was lots of empty food packets everywhere, an empty teapot, empty cans of Daddy”s beer and giant paw prints on the floor near the door. When they looked even closer they also found paw prints on the tables and on the side of the sink! We also couldn’t fill our water bottles because there was no water left in the taps! Immediately We all thought that it must have been the tiger. Later on Mrs Worsley in the office confirmed our suspicions by finding footage on the security cameras of the tiger caught in the act. We then wrote eye witness statements describing what we had found to inform the local police. 

First week back in Discoverers”Class

Wow what a week we have had! We have had lots of fun this week getting to know our new class. I have been really impressed with your growth mindsets and how well you have all worked in different teams. We ended the week with a scavenger hunt in the classroom and our outside area. I can see that this year you are all going to be fantastic learners. 

Welcome back Discoverers' Class!

I hope that you have all had a fantastic summer, I certainly have.  I am really looking forward to seeing yo all again on Monday morning.  We have lots of exciting thing to look forward to this term and in the year ahead.  I can't wait to see you smiley faces and hear your laughter filling my classroom. Myself, Mrs Taylor, Miss Smith and Miss Jones have been working hard to get our classroom ready for you all and planning some fun activities for us to do.  

See you all very soon

Mrs Howarth

Discoverers’ Class had an amazing day today enjoying their end of year treat on the inflatable. I don’t know who loved it more the children or Mrs Howarth! 

In Design and Technology this half term we have been learning all about structures and how to make them stable and strong. We have designed a bridge in groups using a running bond. Have a look at some of the bridges we made following our designs using sugar cubes.

We made Anzac biscuits just like the ones in Possum Magic. We worked well together to follow the instructions then after making them we wrote our own instructions.

Today in science we have been learning all about soil. Mrs Worsley gave us a problem to solve. She has been asked to plant some plants in the school grounds but she doesn’t know which area to plant them in. There are lots of different types of soil in our grounds and she needed to know which would. Be best for planting. First of all we looked closely at some soil samples to see what we could see. We found out the soil is made up of lots of different things and that without it there would be no life on planet earth. Who would have thought that soil could be so amazing, we then found out about the different layers of soil and the different types. Finally we conducted an experiment to find out which soil type was the most permeable. We found out that the clay soil was impermeable so wouldn’t be good for planting as the water did not drain well. The Sandy soil was the most permeable as nearly all the water drained through very quickly. The loam soil drained well too and it also absorbed quite a lot of the water which we thought would be good for planting as they need the water to drain well and they need to absorb a lot of water. Discoverers worked well to ensure that they carried out a fair test and record their findings.

As part of our World Book Day celebrations we took part in a whole school book swap. Discoverers Class loved choosing their new books. It was great to hear the children recommending books to each other.

We had a fantastic time in Discoverers Class on World Book Day doing lots of fun activities. Our favourite was the book tasting that we did. We looked at 3 different texts and read only a couple of. pages. We then completed a mini review in our tasting menu about our thoughts about the book and if we would like to read the rest of the book. 

In PE this half term we are doing gymnastics in one of our sessions. This week we focused on balancing and doing a pencil jump using the apparatus. 

In DT this week we prepared some dippers then tasted different dips and dippers. We created a tally chart of our favourite ones then transferred the information onto a bar chart in maths. As a class our favourite dipper was tortilla chips and our favourite dip was hummus. In our next DT lesson we are going  to create a mood board and design our own hummus dip ready to make it. We can’t wait to make our own hummus dip and hope that it tastes as good as the one we tried today.

We have been using our new world map in the corridor to locate the 7 continents and 5 oceans.

In DT we have been looking at seasonal fruit and vegetables. We then made our own fruit kebabs using seasonal fruit. The children all said that they tasted amazing!

This half term our school value is perseverance Today we discussed what perseverance was and ways that we can show it. We then played a game where the children worked with a partner. One of them had an empty cup and the other had ten mini marshmallows. The one with the marshmallows had to throw them underarm one at a time to the partner with the cup. The goal was for the children to catch them without dropping any. During the activity the children were encouraging each other and themselves and had to think of strategies to help them achieve their goal. They also were really good at celebrating each other’s successes. They found the task extremely hard but none of them gave up showing great perseverance. 

When we came into the classroom this morning we found the polar bears from our display were all frozen. They had left us a message asking us to help them. We decided that we needed to free them quickly and safely. We discussed that by heating up the ice we would be able to melt it and turn the solid ice into a liquid. We discussed what things would heat the ice up safely. In our groups we decided to try 5 different things. We used a hairdryer, the radiator, a hot water bottle, a towel and a blanket. To measure how much the ice had melted we weighed the ice blocks at 10 minute intervals. We found out that the hairdryer was the quickest method of raising the temperature of the ice so that it would melt and free the polar bears. We had lots of fun completing this experiment and recording our results.

This week we conducted a science experiment to see how polar bears keep warm. We made blubber gloves and tested how a hand in a the blubber glove felt in comparison to the hand without in iced water. To make the test fair we put both hands into the iced water for the same amount of time. We found out that the thick layer of fat called blubber acts as an insulator to keep the polar bears warm.

In science we have been learning all about rocks and soils. We made the 3 types of rock - Sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks using Starburst. 

This week Discoverer’s Class went back in time to the Stone Age. We went to the woods and became hunters and gatherers. The children made pitfall and deadfall traps to catch animal, they made their own harpoons, then they caught their own fish in the stream. We had a fantastic time and can’t wait to cook our fish on the open camp fire next week in forest school.

After reading the book Stone Age Boy we created some freeze frames of various parts in the story.

Discoverers’ Class were set the challenge of getting the hoop around their circle without letting go of each other’s hands. They came up with some great ways of moving the hoop from person to person.

As a team building exercise we made marshmallow and spaghetti towers. They raced against time in their teams to build the tallest tower. The children worked extremely hard in their groups and showed great perseverance. They created some amazing towers.

Please find attached below the homework grid for this half term.  This grid will also be posted on Showbie.  I have emailed all parents with our new class code for accessing Showbie.  If anyone has any difficulties please do not hesitate to contact me. If you would like a paper copy of the grid please ask your child to request one from me.

Wow! What a fantastic first week we have had in Discoverers Class.  It has been lovely to welcome the children old and new into our brand new classroom.  We have done lots of team challenges this week and getting to know each other activities.  I have been really impressed with how well all of the children have settled back into school.

I have attached below a welcome letter for all the parents of children in Discoverers Class.  This will tell you a little bit about what we will be doing this half term and a bit about me.  Our PE days are on Tuesday and Thursday and the children can come into school in their PE kits on these days.  The children will also be doing forest school every Wednesday so please can you ensure that your child has a pair or wellies in school labelled with their names.  Please can I also ask that you label all of your child's uniforms and PE kits with their names as we have already had a few left in the classroom with no name in.  This makes it a lot easier for your child to locate their own things.

Thank you 

Mrs Howarth

Welcome Discoverers

I hope that you have all had a lovely summer and are ready for the exciting things we have planned for this year. Our new classroom is finally ready. I have attached a couple of photographs of our new story shed and the other areas in the room. I can’t wait to welcome you all and hear your laughter and see your smiles making the room come alive.

Mrs Howarth

As part of us looking at local history we went to Tandle Hill. It was lovely to be able to go out and about again even in the rain. We has a fantastic time looking at the monuments at the top of Tandle Hill and could see our school and church clearly. We even marched around the Peterloo plaque in memory of the radicals that met there in 1819 prior to the Peterloo demonstrations.

After learning all about the Great Fire of London in history we made our own human chain to put out a chalk fire on the wall. We soon realised that this was very slow and would have been very tiring. We are thankful that we now have the fire brigade and fully equipped fire engines to put out fires.

Today in maths the children in Discoverer’s class were set a crime solving case by Greater Manchester Police. Over the weekend an unidentified intruder  stole one of the diggers from the school grounds. They sent us artist impressions of their suspects and because the police computers systems had failed the only way to uncover the identity of the thief was to solve fraction problems and use a top secret code. The children were amazing at solving the calculations and eliminating all the suspects until they were left with the culprit. At 2pm sharp the Deputy Police constable arrived at St John’s to collect all of our information. We have been informed since that Eric has been arrested and is currently awaiting sentencing! We were congratulated on our fast investigation and mathematical skills as have been honoured with a good citizens award and an extra playtime😀👮‍♀️🏅

After reading the story Paper Dolls we made our own paper dolls. We gave them names and took them on an adventure around the school before writing our own version of the story.

We have had great fun today on Number Day. This morning we worked on our sense of number and number facts. Then in the afternoon we used the map out of out literacy book - Harry and the Jaggedy Daggers to plot and locate the coordinates of the people and places in Bottlenose Bay. We ended the day with a game of Who Wants to be a Millionaire and won the Million!! We are now wondering what to spend it on.

Welcome Back

Welcome back to school Discoverer’s class. I can’t wait for us all to be back in class together again. Due to the building work our classroom looks a bit different but me and Mrs shill spent all day Friday cleaning up the dust and getting things ready in our cosy classroom. PE will now be on a Monday and Thursday so you will need to come in your PE kits on these days. Please also bring all reading books and homework books if they are at home in so that we can update them.

See you all on Monday

Mrs Howarth

Welcome Back!

I hope you have all had a lovely half-term and are well rested.  I am looking forward to seeing you all on zoom on Monday morning.  I have attached below this weeks learning grid.  This is also on showbie with all of your work.  I have been super impressed with all of the work that is being sent in and the work from the children in school.  Hopefully we will all be back in the classroom again together in a couple of weeks. so lets stay positive and we will get through the next couple of weeks just as we did last term.

See you on Zoom 

As I said on the zoom this morning I am incredibly proud of all of you for all of your positivity and hard work this half term.  You have all produced some amazing work and kept smiling on all of our zoom calls.  I hope that you and your families have a lovely half-term spending time together and having a break from school work.  I have put a grid of some activities that you can do over half term on showbie in a new folder called half term activity grid.  I have also attached this below.  This is not school work but a few ideas of things that you can do if you are struggling to think of things whilst you are at home. Hopefully we will all be back in the classroom again very soon. I would also like to thank all of the parents/carers for your continued help and support the children are very lucky and I feel that as a school we are extremely lucky too to have such wonderful children and families.

Stay Safe

Mrs Howarth

Hi Discoverers

I hope that you are all safe and well.  We have had yet another fantastic week of home learning.  I have been blown away by the standard of work that you have all been sending me this week.  Your attendance on the zoom/live lessons is also outstanding.  I found it extremely hard to choose a remote learner of the week for each year group and school learner for the children still attending school.  This was due to the quality of work from all of you and your amazing attitude.  You should all give yourselves a big pat on the back.  I would also like to thank all of your parents for their continued support.  I understand how difficult it must be for lots of you trying to juggle home schooling with working.

I have attached below the weekly timetable grids for this week.  They are also on Showbie alongside all of their work and scheduled zooms for this week. I have also added some more pictures of some of the work from this week.   

Hello Discoverers. and welcome to the first week of timetabled learning.  I am extremely impressed with how well all of you have engaged with the learning on showbie last week.  You have all sent me some great pieces of artwork for the Lowry project you completed.  Well done navigating around the app and using the various features to complete and send me your work.

Below I have attached your timetable for next week.  There is one for year 2 and one for year 3. I appreciate that it can be difficult for parents who are working to get there children to complete all of the tasks on the set days so I have left the due date open for the end of the week.  Try as much as possible to stick to the timetable that Mrs Hunter sent out so that the day is well structured with rest breaks. Try also to do some exercise each day even if it is just going for a walk.  This is good for our minds as well as our bodies 

I have released the grids on showbie now so that you can have a look at them incase you have any questions. Each piece of work will be opened up for student editing on the day specified on the timetable. I have planned Phonics/Guided Reading, Maths, Writing and a Foundation Subject to complete each day.  There is also Heartsmart, Assembles (from Mrs Hunter), French (for year 3 only) and spellings for you to access .  If you look on the class discussion I have also put a login for Oxford Owl so that you can read your reading book at least three times per week.  Please also go on TT Rockstars as often as you can.

For Phonics, you only need to do the work if you are in Blue Group (Miss Ireland and Mrs Wales' group). If you are not in this phonics group please complete the guided reading activity for the day for your specific year group. Some year 3 children will complete the year 2 Guided Reading activity.  They should know who they are.  Any queries please ask and I can direct you to the correct one for your child.  

There are separate activities for maths for the year 2 and year 3 children.  Some children in year 3 will prefer to access the year 2 maths.  They know who they are.

Parents if you have any questions please do ask. You can either phone school and I will get back to you, email or put a message on your child's account on showbie. (only I can see the individual accounts.)
Good luck to you all next week and remember I am always here if you need anything.  I am hoping to set up a zoom for the Tuesday English lesson.  I will email the details for this and put the link on showbie in the discussions thread to join.

Good Luck and stay positive

Mrs Howarth😊

Good Morning Discoverers

This is a strange time for all of us and we will have to show great resilience and stay positive once again.  We have got through this once before and we will do it again.  The remote learning will look a bit different this time and we will be sticking to a timetable much like we do in school.  Most of the learning will go on the Showbie app, there will be some live sessions and I will post weekly timetables on here.

If you haven't already please can you download the Showbie app and create a log-in for yourself following the instructions that were emailed to parents yesterday.  All of the work for the next three days is on Showbie.  We will be completing an art project on LS Lowry that will give us all a chance to get to know how to use and navigate around Showbie - as this is new to me too!  On Monday a timetable will be posted on our class blog and all of the work including video input sessions will be on Showbie for you to complete each day.  I will then comment on the work you have completed.  Good Luck with your remote learning.  I am in school all day today with the key worker children so if you have any queries please don't hesitate to contact me.

Stay positive and keep smiling

Mrs Howarth

Good Morning.  I hope you are all well.  I will be touch tomorrow about the procedures for the next few weeks.  In the meantime please can you download the Showbie app if you have not already done so and then Sign up to showbie using the instructions below.  Some of the remote learning will be put on this platform for your child to access..

Sign Up with a Username

Tap on the button that says Sign Up for Free and you’re on your way to creating your own Showbie account.

1. I’m a Student
2. Sign Up with a Username; Signing Up with Google and Other Sign-up Options are a bit different (see below)
3. Type in your account information and then tap Sign Up when you’re done. If your teacher gave you a class code already, type it in now and then tap Join Class. Don’t have a code yet? Just tap Skip and join a class later instead

Note: Remember that student accounts don’t need an email address. You can leave the Email field empty and still create an account.

Our class code is- APAZU

Merry Christmas

Wow we have all made it to the end of term!  I just wanted to say how proud I am of each and everyone of you.  You have all worked extremely hard this term and shown lots of resilience, determination and we have had lots of fun along the way.

Below is a video of our class performance of a Christmas poem that was was written by one of our very own Discoverers - Elouise.  I think you will agree with me that it is a fantastic poem.  It is both funny and heartfelt and the children though it said everything that they wanted to say.

I hope that you and your families have a lovely Christmas and New Year.  Stay safe and enjoy yourselves,  you all deserve it.  I look forward to seeing you all back in class in January.

PS I hope your turkey left over sandwiches are not TOO DISTUSTING!!!

Love Mrs Howarth

In science we conducted an experiment to see what type of crisps contained the most fat.  We looked at Baked, Kettle and Classic ready salted crisps.  We placed the crisps in the centre of a squared piece of paper then used a rolling pin, placed on top of some grease proof paper to flatten the crisps out.  When we removed the grease proof paper we looked at how many squares were translucent as this showed the amount of grease from the crisps.  We found out that the Classic crisps contained the most fat, followed by the Kettle chips and that the Baked  contained the least amount of fat with only a few squared covered in grease.

The next day we tasted the crisps to see if the amount of fat in the crisps made affected the flavour.  Dis the crisps with the most fat in taste better than the ones with less fat.  There was a mixed opinion in the class as some children preferred the crisps with less fat whilst others liked the taste of the Baked crisps better.  It was also interesting to see that the Baked crisps had far more ingredients than the other two types of crisps that only contained potatoes, sunflower oil and salt.  We all loved doing this experiment, especially the taste test at the end. 

The Spaghetti and Marshmallow Challenge!

The children were set a task in groups to make the tallest tower they could only using spaghetti and marshmallows that would stand up on its own.  This proved to be an very tricky and sticky task!  The children came up with lots of very different ideas for their towers.  The winning team produced a well thought out structure and worked extremely well together as a team.  Proving that Together Everyone Achieves More.

Fruity Friday!

As part of our knew science topic this term about being healthy each Friday will be 'Fruity Friday' in Discoverer's Class.  We will be tasting a new fruit each week that the children perhaps haven't tried before.  This week we tried a Mango.  The children had to use their 5 senses to come up with adjectives to describe the mango.  Here are some of the adjectives they came up with: firm, tangy, sweet, juicy, fizzy, squishy, green,orange, round,smooth.  I was extremely impressed that all the children tried the mango and that nearly all of them said that they really enjoyed it and would love to eat a full one again.  Look out next week for our next taste sensation!

Welcome Back Discoverers' Class!

I hope you have all had a fantastic summer and that you are looking forward to being back at school.  I certainly am as we have a very exciting term ahead full of lots of fun activities! Mrs Hill and myself have been busy getting our classroom all ready for you.  I am excited to see the year 3 children that were already in Discoverer's class and welcoming the new year 2 children into our class.  We also have two new year 3 children to welcome into our class.  Over the next two days we will be going through any changes and getting to know each other again as it has been a long time since we were all in school together.  I know that lots of you might be a bit worried about coming back to school (me and Mrs Hill are also a bit nervous), so for the first 2 weeks we will be reading some book all about ur emotions and doing lots of fun activities based on them that will help us all to deal with some of these worries or other feelings we might have at the moment or have had during this strange period in our lives. 

I will be meeting you at the main gate in the mornings as this where your parents will be dropping you off and picking you up.  Other classes will be using different entrances. School will look a little bit  different as the new building work has started. I can't wait for the the transformations especially what is planned for our new classroom.

See you all very soon

Mrs Howarth

To Discoverer's Class old and new

Words can not express how much I have missed seeing all of you together in our classroom each day. I realise this drastic change wasn’t easy, but I am extremely proud of all of you and what you have been doing at home.  I hope you have been able to spend more time with your family and have enjoyed not having to set your alarms every day!

All of you have impressed me more than you will ever know. I am proud of your flexibility, positivity and resilience during these crazy times. Although this wasn’t the ending we were expecting those children moving up to year 4 please know that I will miss you immensely and please pop your heads in to see me as you progress through the school.

I am looking forward to teaching the current year 2’s in year 3 next year and welcoming the current Year 1 children into Discoverer’s class.  Myself and Mrs Hill (who will be your TA next year) have lots of exciting things planned.

Hooray the summer holidays are here.  What exciting things will you do over the summer? I have attached a grid of summer activities for you to do over the holidays.  Those in my class next year look out for something through your doors with a summer challenge that I would like you to do before we come back to school. l will continue to miss you over the next six weeks. I hope you and your families all have a wonderful summer! You deserve it! I am looking forward to seeing you in September.

Love Mrs Howarth

Hi Discoverer's 

I am sorry that I am late writing to you all this week but I was busy in school at the beginning of the week.  On Friday and Monday we were all getting everything ready for more children coming back to school.  One of my jobs was painting lines 2 metres apart on the playground for lining up and at the school gates for drop off and pick-up just like there is at the supermarkets,  I ended up with paint all over me and Mrs Hill (who was measuring for me) forgot and stood in the paint which was very funny!!  The classrooms also look very different and we are now in our own 'Bubbles'.  On Tuesday more keyworker children came back to school and hopefully  some children from Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 will be joining us soon too.  I am hoping that I will get chance to see you too before the summer holidays.  It was lovely to see Lucinda and her mum on Friday on my way to school walking her dog.  I have also received lots of e-mails from you all this week which was lovely.  If you haven't sent an e-mail,postcard or letter yet please do.

Keep up the baking I have had some great pictures of your amazing creations this week.  They look delicious!! We have been baking again this week too.  We made chocolate chip cookies and raspberry ripple buns.  We have also had lots of BBQ's and made the most of the fantastic weather we have been having.

I hope you are all keeping well and safe and remember to send me pictures of what you have been doing at home.  Take a look below at what some of you have been up to this week.

Love  Mrs Howarth xx

Hello again Discoverers

I hope you are all still well and keeping safe.  Well this week should have been half term and I'm sure that many of you had lots of plans for things to do with your families or perhaps going on holiday.  We should have been in New York this week.  Mr Howarth should have been working over there and me and the girls were joining him for the week and going to stay with his brother and family who live over there.  Hopefully the sun will shine this week and we can all enjoy doing lots of activities outside.  

I was in school for some of the time this week and we were still at Boarshaw.  However, we are moving back to St John's this week so that we can prepare for more children returning over the next few weeks. I am really missing seeing your smiley faces in the morning, hearing you laughter filling our classroom and hearing all about what you have been up to when you rush to my desk in a morning to tell me your news.  

I have loved all the pictures you have sent me this week of your home learning. I have also been amazed by some of the pictures that you have sent in of your baking for our 'GREAT DISCOVERER'S BAKE OFF'.  Please keep sending these in -  you never know you may even get a 'Hollywood Handshake' and there will be a prize at the end for the best entry.  We have been busy baking again at the Howarth household (well Isabel and Marisa have I am not allowed in the kitchen anymore until they unveil their latest creations which I have to say always taste delicious!)  This week we have had salted caramel cupcakes. It was also my Uncle Frank's 85th Birthday so the girls made him a very special birthday cake which he loved.

I hope you all have a lovely Bank holiday weekend and keep sending in your pictures so that I can see what you have all been doing. 

Love 

Mrs Howarth

Hello again Discoverer's

I hope you have all had a good week.  I have loved seeing all of the pictures that you have sent in of things you have been up to at home.  I especially loved seeing the science experiments that some of you have done and the pictures of you reading in different places.  Please keep sending these in and check on the slideshow under the heading reading challenge on our page for your pictures. 

This week is  Mental Health Awareness week and the theme is kindness.  I think that at the moment it is essential that we look out for each other and show little acts of kindness to make sure that people are ok and coping with the situation.  I have attached a similar RE activity all about kindness to the one we did last week on courage.  I hope that lots of you try some of these activities.

I was in school last week at Boarshaw with the children from our school that are still attending.  We did lots of fun things and even decorated some cakes making our own multi-coloured butter cream with an electric mixer.  

Whilst I have been in school my daughters have still been baking.  Infact the cakes they made this week were the best yet.  They made some butterfly buns with jam and cream in them and then they tried a new recipe for 'Blueberry cheesecake cupcakes' which were delicious! I have put some pictures of them below.

All of this baking and seeing all the things you have been making at home made me think that we should have our very own 'Great Discoverer's Bake Off'  All you have to do is send in a picture of the things you bake at home by Monday 1st June.  You may even be lucky enough to get a  Hollywood Handshake!

Happy Baking

Mrs Howarth

VE DAY CELEBRATIONS

It is lovely to see all of the work that you have done related to VE Day and how you all celebrated this momentous occasion with your familes at home.

Hi Discoverer's

I hope you are all well and have had a lovely week in the sunshine and celebrating VE day.  Please remember to send me your pictures celebrating VE day at your house with your family so that I can put them on here for the rest of the class to see.  I have also loved the pictures you have sent me of you reading - look out for them being posted on our class page.  Anyone who hasn't sent one please send them in.  The best picture might even get a prize! It is very important that you continue to read during your time at home as it helps with everything.  It is also a great way to relax and forget about everything that is going on around you.  It can even take you to far off magical places.

We have had a busy week in the Howarth household and loved celebrating VE day on Friday.  We had an afternoon tea in the garden and lots of our neighbours did the same.  It was also Mr Howarth's birthday on Friday so we made him a birthday cake, special blue layered cakes (he is a Manchester City fan!)and sweets in cones with his picture on.  As a special surprise for his birthday we had also ordered him a beard and hair trimmer as over the lockdown Mr Howarth's beard had got very long and his hair was getting bigger and bushier by the day!  Luckily it arrived in time for Isabel and Marisa to give him a birthday haircut and beard trim.  He was very brave and let them do it for him - he didn't let me touch the clippers though I wonder why! 

Keep sending me  your pictures of what you have been doing at home I love seeing what you have been up to.  I miss you all and hope that you and your families are staying safe and making the most of this very strange situation by spending lots of time together doing things that you don't usually have time for or maybe even learning a new skill .

Love

Mrs Howarth

Try one of these science experiments or find one of your own to do.

Egg White and Yolk Science Experiment and Prompt Card

Magic Potions Science Experiment and Prompt Card

Make Your Own Butter Science Experiment and Prompt Card

Picking Up an Ice Cube Science Experiment and Prompt Card

Raspberry Pi Foundation - coding activities

The Raspberry Pi Foundation have launched a new, free Digital Making at Home initiative to support parents and young people with coding at home. You don’t need any coding experience to join in, and all of their resources and activities are free forever.

Every Monday, they release new themed code-along videos about projects designed for all levels of ability. They also provide support tutorials for parents who are interested in learning more about coding tools like Scratch and Python, and over 200 projects with step-by-step instructions that are accessible online at any time — all for free.

Sign up now to start receiving free activities suitable to your child’s age and ability straight to your inbox.

Links are:-

https://www.raspberrypi.org

https://www.tfaforms.com/4815305

Reading Challenge

It is really important that we keep up our reading during these challenging times.  Reading is one of the most beneficial and enjoyable activities that we can all continue to do whilst we are at home.  At my house we have been trying to set some time aside each day to read.  Isabel has re-read all of the Harry Potter series whilst we have been at home plus several other books and Marisa has been enjoying lots of David Walliams books.  I have attached some pictures of us reading in different places.  Please can you send in pictures of you reading to office@thornhamce.rochdale.sch.uk so that I can put them on our class blog.  Where is the most unusual place that you have read your book this week?  

I look forward to seeing you reading and hearing all about the books you have been reading.  Remember that there are also lots of eBooks and audio books available free at the moment.

Love

Mrs Howarth

Hello Discoverer's

I hope that you and your families are all keeping well and that you have been doing lots of learning and other fun things this last week in lockdown.  The weather hasn't been as good this week but not as bad as it was originally forecast so in the Howarth household we have still been able to go out for our daily walks and bike rides.  I have loved looking at the pictures that you have sent me showing me what you have all been up to.  It always cheers me up to seeing your smiley faces and all the hard work you are putting into your home learning.  This weeks homelearning grid is themed around VE day which is being marked as a special bank holiday this year on Friday 8th May.  We will be double celebrating at our house this week at this is also Mr Howarth's birthday.  I thought that as the celebrations that had been planned for this day to mark this special moment in history can't go ahead because of lockdown that us in Discoverer's class could have our very own stay at home/virtual parties.  I have created a booklet which is below to help you to prepare for your own home/virtual celebrations on Friday.  I would love to see lots of pictures of you celebrating with your families so please send them to office@thornhamce.rochdale.sch.uk  We are going to have an afternoon tea in our garden if the weather is nice enough and decorate our house.  We have also started to practice some of the wartime dances that I have put on your homelearning grid!!

I hope you have a great party and enjoy the rest of your week in the sunshine.  Remember that I am thinking of you all and can't wait until we are all back together again at school.  

Mrs Howarth

Please find below a calendar for May sent by Edstart with a PE exercise that you can do everyday to keeo fit.  You could involve the whole family!

Anyone who has given the exercises a do can get a certificate at the end of the month.  Happy exercising!

Hi Discoverers

I hope you are all keeping well and have had a lovely week in the sunshine.  We have had a good week in the Howarth household, when we haven't been working and home schooling we have done lots of things to keep busy.  We have been on lots of walks, bike rides, playing in the garden and making the most of the weather.  We have done some gardening, had a BBQ, done some science experiments and 7 months after we moved in eventually sorted our garage!  Isabel and Marisa have done lots more baking and every week they also make a cake for their grandad to enjoy and then we drop it off when we take him his weekly shopping.

On the pictures below you can also see that my eldest daughter (Isabel) made us mussels this week under the supervision of her dad.  They bought them from the fishman in a van that comes to our street every Friday, then they washed and prepared them and cooked them in a mariniere sauce.  They were delicious!!  Marisa has been mastering the art of making an omelette for our breakfast.  Have you learnt to cook anything new whilst you have been at home?  If so please send me your pictures I would love to see them as cooking is a fantastic life skill to have. 

On Saturday we had a cinema evening.  As you can't go to the cinema we tried to bring the cinema experience to our lounge. We had a carpet picnic with hot dogs, nachos and lots of goodies and watched the new 'Trolls World Tour' movie.  I would recommend it if you haven't already seen it.  On Sunday we usually go to our local Italian restaurant for a meal but we haven't been able to go recently so we were delighted when we heard that they are now doing a delivery service.  We decided that we would order some food, all get dressed up and pretend that we were going out for a meal.  Isabel and Marisa did their nails and even made Mr Howarth wear a suit!!  I think the man that delivered the food wondered what we were doing all dressed up.  

Good luck with all of your learning this week and remember to send me lots of pictures to office@thornhamce.rochdale.sch.uk It is lovely to see what you have all been up to.  Take a look below at all the exciting things that children in Discoverer's class have been doing last week.  I miss you all very much and hope to see you all very soon. 

Love Mrs Howarth

From Monday, April 20, parents will be able to access up to 180 lessons a week. The lessons will provide education for all school year groups from Reception through to year 10 and will be taught via a new Government-backed online platform, the Oak National Academy. The scheme, which has been set up by teachers and funded by the Department of Education, is set to provide video lessons for students, with each lesson arriving with a quiz and worksheet to go with it.

https://www.thenational.academy/

Good Morning Discoverers

I hope you have all had a good week and managed to complete the activities form the home learning Grid.  The new grid below is for the Easter holidays.  Please still try to complete the blue squares daily so that you can keep in your routine.  The rest of the activities are based on an Easter theme and hopefully you will have fun doing these with your families over the next 2 weeks.  There is also some sheets underneath that you can print off or use as examples to make your own time capsule about what is happening in the world at the moment so that you can look back in years to come at what you were doing and what it was like.  We have done one at my house.

I have been at home this week and it has been lovely to spend time with my family between working from home and helping my girls with their home learning.  We have been on lots of walks, bike rides (not me, I walked alongside), done lots of baking and even managed a BBQ yesterday! I am hoping for some good weather again this week as I should have been going to Spain on Thursday.  I will have to get Mr Howarth to cook me lots of Spanish food and sit in my garden instead.  I hope you all have a lovely week, I am missing you all lots and love seeing the work you have been doing.  Remember to email in some examples of your work to office@thornhamce.sch.uk

Adios, Hasta luego

Mrs Howarth

Goodbye and Good Luck Miss Flynn

Unfortunately Miss Flynn is leaving us today to embark on a new adventure.  She is starting a college course in September so that she can become a Social Worker.  Even though we are all very sad to see her go and we will miss her greatly I am sure that you will all join me in wishing her all the best in the future.  She has promised that she will stay in touch with us and come and visit.

Message from Mrs Howarth

I hope that you have all managed to complete the activities on last weeks home learning grid.  I have missed seeing your smiley faces this week in school.  I have been in school this week working with some of you doing lots of fun activities.  We have done Joe Wicks every morning in school and I hope you have too.  I don't know about you and your parents but my legs have been aching a bit after doing it!! It has been lovely to seen some of you with your families walking up and down the lane whilst we were playing outside in this lovely weather.  When I get home I have been doing lots of work with my girls who are doing their school work too.  We have also been doing lots of baking, going for walks and playing in the garden.  This weeks learning and spellings are below.  Good Luck with your learning and remember to stay home and stay safe.  I can't wait until we are back together again.

PHONICS INFORMATION
Fantastic news!  The phonics scheme we follow at St. John's are going to do daily phonics sessions LIVE. I reccommend Year 2 children to do the set 3 sessions. Follow this link and it will take you to the YouTube channel. More information about times are given on the link below.

Ruth Miskin have also uploaded some of our home reading books onto the Oxford Owl. There is more information about how to access these through the link below also.

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/coronavirus-covid-19-update/

Below are a range of useful websites for your child to access whilst learning from home. I hope you find these useful x

On Friday we got a special delivery In Discoverers class.  We received a large box marked fragile.  When we opened it we were shocked to find a possum.  There was also a letter inside explaining who had sent us the possum and giving us .

The letter was as follows:-

G'day!

I am a park ranger in Australia and I have sent you one of my possums.  I would also like to hire you as my new researchers

You will need to research possums and write a report for me.

You will use your research to help you to care for the possum that I have sent. His name is Bush.  Therefore, it is very important that you pay close attention to facts regarding their physical characteristics, habitat, life cycle and diet.

Kind regards

Park Ranger Pete

In our topic lesson the children were asked the following questions - Why does it rain?  How do clouds happen? We then read the story 'The Drop Goes Plop'  and found out all about the water cycle.  We then made our own water cycles in a plastic zippy bag and hung them in the window of our classroom to observe over the next few days.

The next day we could see droplets of water sticking to the side of the bag.  Some of these were up high (in the clouds) while other droplets were on their way back down (like rain).

Why is this happening?  It's because the water in the bag is being heated up against the sunny window. That water turns into a gas through the process called evaporation.  In nature, evaporated water vapor goes into the atmosphere, but in our bag, it has nowhere to go, so it ends up sticking to the sides of the bag, turning back into a liquid as condensation.  That condensed water when it becomes too heavy then slides back into the pool of water below as "rain".

You could create your own water cycle zip lock bag at home so that you can see the water cycle progress and ask your child to explain what is happening.

We have been finding out all about expeditions to the Antarctic regions and we researched Robert Falcon Scott adventures in 1901 and 1910. He was very brave to go out in conditions where it is difficult for humans to survive and eventually he died out in Antarctica. He was truly committed to finding out more about Antarctica and his work there has helped people learn more about the conditions there. 

We thought about what we might need if we were to go on an expedition there. We know that animals and people cannot live in Antarctica as it is too cold and there would be nothing to eat! It is hard to imagine how cold it is there! We also know that Inuits do not live in the South Pole so building an igloo only happens in the North Pole. We did talk about the ice and held some for as long as we could in our hands. We talked about what it would be like to build an igloo and we all tried to make one from ice! It didn't last long because it melted with the heat in the classroom. We did try to make an igloo that would stand up but used marshmallows instead of ice cubes. It was a bit of a challenge but with team work and perseverance (and a few cocktail sticks) each group managed to build an igloo!

The festival of Sukkot is a Jewish celebration. It occurs between September and October.

Jewish families build a shelter in their garden that they will have their meals and pray in for the week of Sukkot. It helps them remember the time when Jews were slaves in Egypt and Moses led them to freedom. A sukkah is a three sided shelter with an open roof to see heaven.

Look at our paper models of our sukkots.

Welcome Back Discoverers' Class

I hope that you have all enjoyed your summer holidays and are ready for the busy and exciting term we have ahead. This term Discoverer's will be travelling back in time to the Stone Age.  As we journey back to this primitive age we will look at the people and animals that lived during this time, their dwellings and the things they did and made.  I have 'hunted and gathered' for some fun activities for us to do over the next few weeks, which will ROCK your world!

This week we have been making our own wormeries

A Wormery is a simple, clean and efficient way of turning ordinary organic kitchen waste into nutrient rich liquid plant feed and excellent organic compost. Essentially through the action of a colony of composting worms the waste is neutralised and 'speedily' processed into compost,  The children have really enjoyed studying worms this week and finding out how useful they are.  We will be observing what is happening in out wormeries over the next couple of weeks and recording our findings in our science books.

Titanic

Discoverers are very excited about their new topic - The Titanic and have been busy finding out lots of facts about the infamous ship.  We will become history detectives and try to find out who really was responsible for sinking the unsinkable ship.

Chinese Celebration Day

To mark the end of our topic on Ancient China and Dragons, Discoverers class invited their parents into class for the afternoon to share with them some of the things they have been doing over the last half term.  We had an amazing time and would also live to thank all the parents, grandparents and carers who came in to celebrate with us.

We sang 2 of the song that we have been learning with Mrs Purser in music - 'The Dragon Song' and 'Puff the Magic Dradon'

Chopstick Challenge

The children all took part in a chopstick challenge. I was very impressed with how well they all did.

Science Week

In Discoverers class we have been reading the book 'The Snow Dragon' by Vivian French.  Following on from this book about a world divided into two - the North and the South. The southern half is ruled by evil Fire Dragons and the north is controlled by peace-loving Snow Dragons. In between the two halves live the Twolegs people. A special book known simply as 'Book' contains a set of instructions on how the world works. The Fire Dragons get hold of Book and cause 'The Happening', which destroys the land and forces the Twolegs to live underground to protect themselves from the Fire Dragons. However, a little Twoleg boy called Tuft joins forces with a Snow Dragon to save the world from the Fire Dragons by entering their volcano.  This book then inspired us to create our own volcanoes.  In groups the children designed their volcano which had to be made out of natural materials.  They then made a bases for their volcanoes out of salt dough.  

The Volcanoes Erupted

We added the vinegar, baking soda and red food colouring to the bottle that was inside our volcanoes.    We then waited to see what would happen.  We were very excited to see that our volcanoes erupted!! We then found out that this was caused by a chemical reaction between the vinegar and the baking soda.  When they mix together they create a gas called carbon dioxide.  Carbon dioxide is the same type of gas used to make fizzy drinks fizzy, We then considered and discussed this question - What happens if you shake a fizzy drink? The gas gets very excited and tries to spread out.  There is not enough room in the bottle for the gas to spread out so it leaves the opening very quickly causing an eruption!

Terracotta Army

Today we have be learning all about the Terracotta Army, the buried army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.  We then made our own Terracotta warriors out of clay adding individual details to them just like the ancient sculptures.  The children's creations are amazing and almost as impressive as the real thing!

Our science lesson this week was intercepted by an alien from Dock 5 called Zinnia.  She wants to set up a hotel on her planet for humans to go and visit their planet.  She has heard that a lot of human foods come from plants and would like us to investigate what plants need in order to grow strong and healthy and she would also like us to find out about the different parts of a plant that we eat.We have set up an investigation to see how important certain factors are for growing a healthy plant.  Each group is looking at a different factor.  They are investigating light, water, air, space, warmth and soil and how if they change the amount of this factor the plant gets will it effect the plants growth.  This will help Zinnia to see if they have the correct requirements to grow plants on Dock 5.

Welcome back Discoverers Class

We have lots of fun things planned this term.  Our topic is 'Here be Dragons'.  We will become expert Dragonologists and also learn about Ancient China.  Watch this Space.....

Owl Pellet Investigation

We looked around our local area to see if we could find any evidence of nocturnal animals.  We found out that there must be an owl living at our church - St John's Thornham.  There was lots of evidence of owl pellets on the steps.  Mrs Powell kindly brought us some samples into class so that we could see what was inside an owl pellet.  After researching owls we had found out that owls don't have any teeth so they swallow their food whole! Therefore they can't digest the bones,teeth and fur of their prey.  These “extra” parts are formed into a tight PELLET inside the owl and are then are later SPIT UP by the owl.

Inside the owl pellets that we looked at we found  tiny teeth,bones and fur.  The children were amazed to discover this. 

While the World is Sleeping

On Tuesday night as part of our new night time topic Discoverers came back to school at night wearing their pyjamas.  We all brought a teddy, a torch and a mug to help us with the activities that Mrs Howarth had planned.  We learnt all about nocturnal animals.  First we played a game where we had to guess the nocturnal animal sounds.  Then we went on a scavenger hunt looking for nocturnal animal facts with only our torches to light the way.  When the children entered the hall they couldn't believe their eyes!  There was a hug inflatable planetarium waiting for them.  We all went inside to learn more about night time before snuggling up with a hot chocolate and biscuits whilst they listened to a bedtime story - "While the World is Sleeping". We all had a fantastic time and enjoyed seeing what school was like in the evening.  

What we have found out about Christmas in Spain

In Discoverers Class we have learnt all about Christmas in Spain – ‘Navidad En Espagne’. We found out that in Spain as well as Christmas day, there is another festival that is celebrated that is about the Christmas Story. It is called Epiphany and is celebrated on 6th January. In Spanish, Epiphany is called Los Reyes de Magos': in English this means 'The festival of the three Kings’. Epiphany celebrates when the Kings or Wise men brought gifts to the baby Jesus. Children receive some presents on Christmas Day from Father Christmas, but most are received at Epiphany, when the Kings bring presents.

"Roscon de Reyes" is a traditional dessert, served the night before or morning of “Los Reyes” It is traditional to put several surprises inside the "roscon." In class we made our own Roscon and ate it in the traditional way dipped in a thick hot chocolate. It was delicious!

We also found out about another Spanish tradition. 'Tio Navidad'. In a region of Spain called Catalunya the children are given a decorated log with a blanket. They receive the log on the 8^th December then have to look after it like a pet until Christmas Eve.

We designed and made our own Tio Navidad. On Christmas Eve the children tap the log in the hope that their tio Navidad will deliver them sweets under its blanket.  I wonder if ours will work?

Rochdale Fire Museum

Discoverers class had a great time at Rochdale Fire museum thanks to Bob and his team of volunteers.  We took part in a Great Fire of London workshop to start with then had a tour of the museum.  The children were able to see historic fire engines and learn about fire fighting in Manchester throughout history.  They had a very hands on experience, being able to hand pump some of the old fire engines, try helmets and fire fighting equipment on and some even got to try to slide down a replica fire pole.

Discoverers Class Assembly

The children performed their story of the Great Fire of London through drama and song.  They were fantastic and I hope you all enjoyed the performance especially the bacon/sausage sandwiches afterwards!

Our Amazing Tudor Houses!

On Monday we had a great DT day making Tudor houses.  The children used the TASC wheel to design, make and evaluate their model.  There was glue, cello-tape, paper, boxes and straw everywhere but our finished products were fantastic!   They are now ready for us to make our very own Pudding Lane.  Will ours set on fire? Watch this space...

A Fantastic introduction to our new topic - The Great Fire of London

We had a special visit from Katherine, a maid from 1666,   She brought our topic alive by bringing in artefacts that the children could touch and study from this period.  The children became archaeological detectives finding out what the things were used for in everyday life.  They were able to handle investigate and draw the artefacts and even got to write with a real quill and ink.

Our Trip To Blackpool Zoo