We’ve been learning about using different coins to make an amount so we went to the post office to change our pounds into 5ps and 1ps. Then we walked to the sweet shop to use our money to buy sweets. We counted out 20p.

Afterwards, we enjoyed our sweets at the park and enjoyed sharing, negotiating plans and developing our physical skills at the park.

Science Week 2017 has been a massive success; lots of learning and fun have been had by all!

The opening ceremony was made spectacular  by the wonderful outfits the children wore. Being dressed as scientists and explorers really got them in the mood. Each class got a box of resources to introduce their topic for the week. These were funded by a grant from the British Science Association. The Wednesday was the highlight of the week. We really want to thank all the parents and grandparents for being so generous with amazing plant donations, but even more importantly their time and expertise in helping us overhaul our outdoor spaces. The weather was particularly kind that day which helped put smiles on everyone’s faces!  St Mary’s were lucky to have visitors from QES come and teach us some lessons, which the children were motivated by. Year 6 even got to go over to QES to see a special Science week show. Jennie, a volunteer from STEM, gave up a whole day to teach some children about trees and their habitats. In the afternoon, she helped plant the 50 trees donated by the Woodland trust, using the stakes and protective tubing provided by Tilhill Forestry. Mr Winnard came in to Nursery to talk to the younger children about what a vet does. They have hopefully been inspired to be budding veterinary scientists of our future! The whole school poster competition was themed around ‘Change’, and the winning entries have been sent off to the British Science Association for the national competition- fingers crossed! All in all, it was an outstanding week with everyone being enthused and buzzing about science. Thank you again for the donations, time, expertise and energy from all involved.

To end Science week in Nursery we made cheese. Jessica’s Mum came into school to show us how they make their cheese at Whin Yeats Farm. We felt the curds and whey, we put the cheese into the moulds and finally we got to taste the cheese with crackers. We all now know that cheese is made with milk!

We are having a wonderful week experimenting with different materials. We have explored the different materials and their properties in the Year 1 scrap heap! We have also  helped the three little pigs by exploring the best materials for a roof. It needs to be waterproof! We have also dressed up as scientists and explorers. We’re having an interesting week!

Over the past few weeks we have been exploring bananagrams and learning to play the game. Today we held the semi final and our finalists are George and Charlie. We expect the final to be very exciting next week!  Well done to everyone who has taken part.

We are looking forward to seeing our children as famous or inspiring scientists and explorers to launch science week.

There is a prize if you can guess who this scientist is? There are clues in the picture! Mr Jones is very inspired by this person.

We have noticed that we have a sparrow starting to build a nest in the bird box on the Nursery shed. We decided it would be a good idea to make some bird feeders to encourage the birds into the garden area and hopefully lay some eggs in the bird box. We threaded “cheerios” onto pipe cleaners to make the bird feeders and next we are going to hang them up.

We have been celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight by holding a big brew, we made cups and coffees for our visitors and Year 6 pupils helped sell fairly traded products. In worship time we looked at the trade of cocoa and bananas and encouraged children to discuss issues  relating to fair trade with adults at home. Thank you to everyone who supported the ‘Big Brew’ and well done to Year 6 and Mrs Neale for promoting this event over the past fortnight.

We had a presentation not only from Year 6 and Mrs Neale but from Mr Jones, sharing about his time in Ghana and linking this to Fairtrade fortnight.  The powerpoint is attached below:

Ghana Presentation

Year 1 visited the Museum of Lakeland Life in Kendal. We explored all the rooms and discussed how homes in the past were very different to our homes today. At the museum we saw a bath in front of the fire, a kitchen range, a grandfather clock and a four poster bed. We explored stories, particularly fairy tales, and made up our own tales. In the afternoon we animated these stories to make our own films. We had a really good day!

On Forest Schools’ Friday we made a stick bridge in the woods. The Nursery children had to find sticks which would fit between the gap. We used mathematical language to describe our sticks – “This stick is too long”, “My stick is too short it won’t stay on the bridge”. Nursery children were very proud of their bridge, but they knew it would not be safe to walk on so we just took a photo instead!