Reception: Muddy Monday
This week, Reception visited the war memorial at Whitehall park. We looked at the names of some of the soldiers and what the soldiers wore. The children took time to reflect and said thank you to the soldiers.
Year 6’s visit to our adopted war graves.
Year 6 today visited our school’s adopted war graves to give them a tidy up in preparation for a special service at Darwen Cemetery on Remembrance Day this Friday.
D.T- Year 5
Year 5 thoroughly enjoyed their first lesson in design and technology today. Prior to our lesson, the children learnt about the different types of cushions from different time periods around the world, leading up to the present day and the wide and varied range we have now. They have been developing their knowledge of, and skills in different sewing techniques. They will use these skills to design and create their Christmas-themed cushion. They have also been investigating and analysing various types of pillows, this will allow them to be creative and imaginative when they make their cushion.
Escape to Pompeii - English -Year 4
In English this week, we have started a new story called ‘Escape from Pompeii’ by Christina Bali’s. In todays session, we have focused on conveying the thoughts and feelings of a character from the story. We looked at how Tranio would feel about living in the beautiful city of Pompeii, developing our own sentences around this.
Reception- All about Bonfire Night
Reception have been learning about Bonfire Night this week. Today, we looked at the importance of staying safe around bonfires and fireworks. For example, we discussed how only adults can set off fireworks, how we should stand well back and the importance of wearing gloves. We then went outside and used the powder paint to create our own colourful fireworks.
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Year 5- Class Worship- How do you think rules should be decided?
During our class worship this morning, the children were fascinated to learn about the history behind the Lindt chocolate bunnies. The first Lindt bunny saw the light of day in 1952 inspired by a father and a young daughter. Over 150 million chocolate bunnies are produced and distributed in 50 countries. However, Lidl (supermarket) were offering a cheaper alternative to shoppers, therefore Lindt took Lidl to court and won the case. This then opened a discussion about rules, how rules are decided, whether we should follow rules and what might happen if rules were broken. The children agreed that rules are in place to keep us safe and if there were no rules things could get chaotic. ”It's about having the freedom to do what you want as long as it's within the law and you're safe” (British Value)
Reception: 50 years of St Barnabas
This year, St Barnabas primary school is 50 years old. We walked to the old school which is now Barnabas House nursery. Lots of the children recognised this building as they used to go to the nursery. We discussed how small it is compared to our big school.
Year 2 - Local History Walk
In our history lessons we have been focusing on local history and the cotton industry. At this point in history, we have looked at why Gandhi visited Darwen. We have begun to explore the reasoning behind his visit- to allow India to become independent and free to make and sell their own cotton. As this was his mission, we went on a walk and explored where the Greenfield Mill used to be (where Gandhi visited) and the house in which he stayed in.
Monday Worship- Black History Month
Last week we focussed on being kind to our neighbour. When we came into worship, we listened to ‘Respect’ by Aretha Franklin. We discussed what this meant and looked at how it was one of our Christian values and our British Value, mutual respect. Mrs Ham told us about how many years ago, Africans were captured and taken to America to be slaves. The children all agreed that this was unfair. Mrs Ham then role played with Declan and Elsie to show the children how slaves were treated. They weren’t treated nicely which was very unfair. In 1865, slavery was completely banned. In 1926, Carter Woodson created black history week and now we celebrate black history month every October. We watched a video which showed how Ayanna Najuma who was just 7 years old changed the world! Ayanna did a peaceful protest and went into a white only restaurant and waited until they were served. Ayanna asked for a hamburger and a coke but the waitress said no. They went back on day 2 and 3. By day 3, they were served food and the restaurant became integrated. Ayanna said “my voice was little but it was just as important as everybody else’s voice”. Martin Luther King Junior also stood up for what was right and he fought for a long time for everybody to be treated equally. Finally we watched a song video about Rosa Parks and how she fought for change. This week, Mrs Ham asked the children to reflect on anything that we have experienced that seemed unfair. Did we have the courage to speak up? Can we do this going forward? We finished our worship by singing ‘Make a difference’.
Year 2 - Creating a weave pattern.
Year 2 created their own weave patterns using different coloured card to create their own unique pattern. This weaving linked in well with their work on local history and the cotton industry.
Year 5 - History - Ancient Maya
This term in history, Year 5 are learning about Ancient Maya. We are having a big focus on how does our own history differ from that of the Mayans? In today's lesson, the children looked at Maya's writing and compared it to our writing. We learnt that the Maya wrote on standing stone slabs (stelae), walls, pottery and on sculptures.
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Year 5- P.S.H.E- Happy being me
During our P.S.H.E lesson today, the children explored some of the ways similarities and, more importantly, differences can affect people’s attitudes and behaviour. We looked at reasons for people being discriminated against and how it made them feel. We also looked at the early life of Rosa Parks, thinking about the lives of all that suffered during the segregation period. We spoke about the importance of respecting others, even when they are very different from them (for example, physically, in character, personality or background), making different choices or having different preferences or beliefs.