Our Trip to Africa

To start our new topic all about Africa, we welcomed Kwame from African Activities into our school. He brought in a selection of resources to help us get experience traditional Africa life. We started with a whole-school assembly to welcome Kwame before starting our workshop.

Our first challenge was to learn an African dance. Some of the moves were really tricky but it was all a lot of fun and the children (and staff) put their resilience to great purpose and the end product was fantastic.

While we rested from our dance workout Kwame told us a traditional African tale all about a group of animals who tried to steal a drum for the Sky God 'Nyame'. The children were really gripped and it was great to compare our own traditional tales with those from another continent.

Once we were fully rested Kwame taught us African drumming. This was a real highlight but it did make our hands hurt. Kwame showed us a little pattern and we had to copy. The most important thing was to use the right part of our hands and the right part of the drum to make bass sounds and rhythm sounds.

In the afternoon Kwame talked to us about how he and his brother used to make their own toys and models out of plastic waste. In true Blue Peter style Kwame produced an amazing bird straight from an old milk bottle. He taught us the basics and got us started with making some African masks.

 Our final activity was traditional African Adinkra printing. We used Kwame's special paint and printing symbols to make our own patterns. Our cloths will be sewn together to make a large tapestry for the hall.

We had such a wonderful day we can't wait to continue our learning all about Africa. We will be getting ready to share some of our outcomes with you at the Spring Celebration...

We Survived Life in the Royal Navy!

What an amazing start to Year 2. The children have worked so hard and developed in so many ways already. It has been a joy to work through our first topic and we are ever so pleased with the children's outcomes! Here are a selection of photos to give a snapshot of their learning.

Diaries and letters in role as a member of the Royal Navy.

Poems after sailing through a storm.

Baking healthy ship biscuits.

Designing and making replica naval ships.

A portrait of Sir Harry Burrard Neale.

Our naval display in the Key Stage One corridor.

It is now time to recharge and get ready for a magical return after half-term.

Making Models and Meeting Captain Morgan

Yesterday we continued our hook into celebrated local hero Sir Harry Burrard-Neale by making replicas of his monument and alternative designs dedicated to our own 'heroes'. Make sure you take a good look at the children's completed models when we display them at the picnic next Friday.

Today we concluded our amazing week of special activities in partnership with The Friends of Burrard Neale by meeting Captain Morgan for a question and answer session and artifact handling..

We were able to hold a range of different items from naval history (brought from HMS Victory at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and gets hands of with real parts of British history.

Captain Hardy was on hand to talk us through each of the items and was happy to show us how they would have been used.

 After we had learnt about life on board a naval ship we put on the hats we made on Wednesday and learnt how to salute the captain. We even practiced marching around the playground. Everybody agreed that life in the navy would have been very tough!

Launching our first topic

The Apples and Hawthorns are settling into Year 2 extremely well and the staff are all impressed with how smoothly that have transferred from Year 1.

This has allowed us to make a fantastic start to our first topic all about a local hero from British history; Sir Harry Burrard Neale.

As part of hooking the children into the topic we took them to Burrard Neale's monument at Walhampton (the obelisk you can see in the close distance from Lymington high street as you look down the hill towards the ferry terminal). 

The children worked as history detectives to investigate the plaques on the monument and find out about Burrard Neale's role in Lymington and career as an Admiral of the British Navy. 

This is the first part of a week of special events designed to start Year 2 with a bang and the children are already really excited about the next part of our work. Look out for photos of our bi-corn hats coming soon...

Out Trip to the Countryside Education Trust - Bats.

We also had an incredible day at the Countryside Education Trust in Beaulieu! 

Our day was a little different to the Adders. Our first activity was a 'Mole Walk'. The children loved pretending to be moles as they attempted to navigate around a trail with a mask on that covered their eyes.

              

Our next activity was a 'Squirrel Run'. The children had to focus on their balance as they attempted to walk along a branch without falling! After that, each group became a family of badgers and had to find out how many pots share their family smell.

The children then had to become foxes and rabbits for the next activity as they chased each other through a burrow.

Our last activity before lunch involved the children becoming bees and having a relay race to try and collect the most nectar. They really enjoyed doing the 'bee wiggle' to tell their bee friends they have found good nectar.

    

Once we had eaten we participated in a fun bird call game. The children had to guess the bird from the sound it made!
We then made our way back outside and had some great fun pond dipping. The children really enjoyed finding newts and other exciting creatures. 

       

     

Due to having so much fun as rabbits and foxes before lunch, the children asked really politely to have another go on the burrow chase!

      

We then headed back to have another go at the bird call game with the Adders. The children and adults really enjoyed their day. We are so grateful to all of the volunteers and the Beaulieu staff for making it such a great day.