Year 3 Trip to the Darwen Children’s Literature Festival
Today, Year 3 walked to Darwen Library to celebrate the Children's Literature Festival with author and poet Dommy B! The children were completely wowed by his high-energy poetry performance of The Dinosaurs Are Back. He had the entire class up on their feet, joining in and dancing along with him. We were also given a copy of his book to keep in our classroom. It was a brilliant day.
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Year 5 RotaKids Conference
On Friday, six pupils from Year 5 attended the annual RotaKids Conference at the University of Cumbria. They had the opportunity to take part in a variety of different fascinating activities, such as: learning how to keep our bodies healthy, extracting DNA from a strawberry and making poo; learning all about the life cycle of hornets and tasting local honey straight from the hive; learning about water safety from the Fire and Rescue Service; getting the chance to look inside a fire engine and even having a go with the powerful water hose! The children had a fantastic day and demonstrated excellent behaviour, with the staff commenting on how polite our pupils were.
Year 5 - Chicks
We were lucky today to have some special visitors in class today when chicks Dixie, Coco, Chanel and friends came in to say hello. Lilly’s mother Laura was kind enough to bring in the family’s newest additions and the children loved getting the chance to pet them.
Year 4 - PSHE: Kindness Workshop
On Tuesday, Years 1-6 took part in a kindness workshop delivered by 52 Lives. Following the workshop we were tasked with creating something for somebody else in an act of kindness. The Year 4 class had a plethora of fantastic ideas to make some very thoughtful and imaginative gifts for friends and family. These included chatterboxes containing positive affirmations, cards with moving parts revealing messages of love, paper aeroplanes delivering kind notes, friendship bracelets and much more. Krish from 52 Lives was amazed with the children’s creativity when he came to our classroom to see what we were making. The children were very proud of the items they had made and couldn’t wait to give them to their friends and family members.
Year 4 - PE: Introduction to The GULP Project
One of the weekly PE sessions in Year 4 this half term will be delivered by Blackburn Rovers FC in conjunction with Blackburn with Darwen Council. The GULP Project aims to get children active and also think about the drinks they consume, encouraging them to make healthy choices. This week was our first session in which we completed a sugary drinks quiz and an A to Z of drinks. We also received our free reusable GULP water bottles and were given a brief idea of the exciting activities that we will take part in over the next 4 weeks.
Whole School- Be the Change: Our Kindness Workshop
This morning, Years 1-6 took part in an inspiring 'Kindness Workshop' delivered by Krish, centred on Mahatma Gandhi’s famous quote: "Be the change you want to see in the world." The children explored the three pillars of kindness, being friendly, generous, and considerate, and brainstormed simple everyday actions like smiling, sharing, hugging, complimenting, etc. We looked at powerful, real-life examples from 52 Lives, a charity founded by Jamie in 2013, including Clare from Australia and Andrea from Romania, whose £5,000 operation goal was doubled to £10,000 by kind strangers. This sparked a wonderful discussion about how fortunate we are to have the NHS in our country compared to places where healthcare is very expensive. After watching a video of a young boy comforting an upset football fan after Portugal beat France, the children learned that kindness is actually scientifically proven to make us happier, give us healthier hearts, slow down ageing, and help us live longer. Best of all, kindness is contagious; a single act can spread to 125 people! During the workshop, the children had the opportunity to share kind words with their peers in pairs. They mentioned that giving and receiving compliments felt anywhere from a bit "weird" to really "joyful". At the end of the workshop, the children had a quiz with a series of questions. Arlo, Jack, Molly, Beau, Sophia, Phoebe, Elijah, Eden, Isaac, James, Desmond, Chay, Declan, and Archie did a brilliant job answering the questions, showing great listening skills, and everyone demonstrated our 4 school rules exceptionally well. Afterwards, the children went back into their classrooms to complete their kindness activities. They had a fantastic time making chatterboxes, bracelets, letters, poems, and posters. Lots of kindness has been shared today, and we will definitely continue to share it. We must remember that kindness doesn't cost anything, so we should all use it more.
Year 1: Making Kindness Cards and Bracelets
Year 1 loved learning more about kindness from 52 Lives. They learnt about empathy, friendliness and generosity. In class, they designed cards and bracelets for each other to spread kindness. It was lovely to see them all making things for their friends and the smiles on their faces when they received a card.
Year 5 - Money Matters
Debt Aware: Money Matters visited Year 5 today to talk about banking, including the names of high street banks and building societies as well as their role in providing loans and deposit accounts. The children learned about the growth of online banking and the decline of cash as a payment method. Different types of saving accounts were discussed as well as the role of interest.
Year 1: Bird Watching
The children began their exciting day at Brockholes Nature Reserve by taking part in a bird watching activity. They explored the wetlands and carefully looked for birds that enjoy living near water, such as ducks and swans. The children used their observation skills to spot different birds and enjoyed learning about the habitats and features of wetland wildlife.
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Year 1: Plant Hunt
The children then took part in a plant hunt around the nature reserve, where they explored the different plants and wildlife living in the area. As they searched, they discovered lots of slugs and snails hiding amongst the plants and enjoyed observing them closely. During their plant watch activity, the children identified a range of wild plants including cowslip, foxglove, rosebay willowherb, daisies, nettles, reeds and holly, helping them to learn more about the variety of plants found in natural habitats.
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Year 1: Minibeast Hunt
The children explored the Viking Woods during their minibeast hunt and discovered the remains of Thor’s hammer hidden amongst the trees. They learnt about woodland habitats and discussed why woods are important places for animals to find food, shelter and safety. The children talked about the different animals that live in the woods, including deer, foxes, squirrels, hedgehogs, mice, rabbits, birds, badgers and moles. During the minibeast hunt, they learnt that invertebrates are animals without bones and that insects always have six legs. They also discovered that centipedes and millipedes have many legs. As they searched carefully through the woodland, the children found a variety of minibeasts including woodlice, slugs, beetles, spiders and a millipede.
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Year 1: Fun On The Park
After their learning activities, the children had lots of fun playing on the park. They enjoyed climbing, balancing, sliding and exploring the different equipment with their friends. The children showed excellent teamwork, kindness and confidence whilst playing together and were excited to spend time outdoors in the sunshine.