Left, Right, Left, Right!

We've been skiing...on a pair we made ourselves! Using long planks of decking, a long, thick red strap, a staple gun and a hammer and nails...we set to work!

It was important that we created a pair of ski's so 7 children at a time could get on and work together to travel the length of the playground. We used a ruler and marked the wood every 12 inches (we decided this is how long our feet plus a little bit of extra room would take up). Caitlyn and Aimee cut the red strap into equal lengths whilst Alfie marked the wood to show where they would be attached. Sophie held the straps whilst we used the staple gun to secure them before Micheal and Jay hammered in some nails. They were such good fun to make - even though it started raining, we hardly noticed!

We had a go at walking on the ski's one at a time...it was pretty easy until another person joined in! The more people on the ski's, the harder it became to walk without falling over!

We found the best way to walk was to hold on to each other like a train, and listen to the person at the front shouting which foot to move first. Working as a team was so important because, "if one person doesn't move, it lets everybody else down." 

As you can see from the pictures - we had a lot of fun playing with the ski's and learnt a lot about teamwork. Working together really does get the job done quicker...as Mitchell and Abigail's team found out!!

Watch our video and you will see just how difficult we found this task at first!

Hideout Heaven!

Wow! This is one of the logs from our 'log pile' which the council dropped off last Friday after Sean spotted them chopping away near our school! These logs will look great dotted about our grounds once the landscaping is complete.

On Wednesday we all spent the day with Mrs Edwards and Sean, exploring the tree areas around school to find a good place build our den. We found some great spaces, like in the centre of tree island or along the edge of the wall near the school field.

We searched high and low for natural building materials in the wooded areas and took them back to class.

Once back in class we fixed our materials together along with some wood, cardboard and fabrics that Sean had brought in too. We worked in our own groups before Mrs Edwards split us up to work with some different people. We created some amazing dens and learnt that the best ones were made with a mix of boys and girls in a group!

We talked about how we couldn't have made these hideouts by ourselves and that working together brought about new ideas and interesting creations we wouldn't have thought about on our own.  

  

One group spent some time with Sean building an outdoor den! It had an upstairs, a hide-hole, steps up to the top and a letter box! We used the drill and saw and worked as a team to make our tree house on the infant playground! Our next step is to think about building a larger den for the rest of the school to use in our grounds. How exciting!!

 

Mini Models

Fun, fun, fun was the order of the day as we created some mini models of our Island Project!

We started by studying the plan Sean drew for us last week. We talked about all the different areas we hope to have around our grounds and their uses. We all got particularly excited thinking about making the snail mound, playing in the orchard and performing on our outdoor stage!

Mrs Mellor gathered lots of materials such as pipe cleaners, felt, string, wool, tissue paper and card for us to use...and Molly and Alfie even gathered some twigs from outside to use as mini logs!

Once we had studied the final plans, we set to work on our 3D models of the area and became very creative! Our models are displayed outside the classroom for everyone to see. Tidying up was a team effort and because we worked quickly and each chose a material to clear away - the classroom was ship shape in no time.

NEWSFLASH:

On Friday the council are delivering a few ton of willow logs! Sean spotted these precious trees being chopped down last week and managed to convince the workers that we could put them to good use. Make sure you watch out for these in future photographs or around our grounds in a few months time!!

Den Design!



Wow...what an exciting day for year 3! Foraging about in the trees around school was how our morning began. In small groups and pairs, we searched for a variety of natural materials before arranging them creatively on a long piece of fabric Sean laid out on the playground.

Sectioned into three main areas, we set to work displaying our findings in pretty patterns, den shapes and marking out the plan of our school grounds, complete with snail mound and minature tree island!

Sean used spray paints to highlight our work which created shadows once we removed them from the fabric. Our natural materials had acted as templates which we coloured in with oil pastels with a seasonal theme.

Once Sean had cleared some of the low branches and Rose bushes from the patch of land we planned to use for our den, it was safe to walk and play on! We set to work stamping some wooden posts into the ground which was great fun!

We used these posts to attach our fabric and create walls and divides around the trees. We all got so excited about what we were creating that we began playing before it was complete!

It was very interesting, mostly the boys wanted to play hide and seek or hunt around the den, and the girls wanted to collect leaves and twigs to make home furnishings! What fun though!!

We quickly reaised with all the playing that this area would get muddy very quickly, so Mrs Edwards and Sean collected wheel barrows full of wood chip from the buidling site around school and covered the entire den floor. What a great play area, built by working as a team! 

Working Together

Wellies, coats, hats and scarves were the order of the day yesterday when Sean came back into school and we spent some time around our school grounds working together, just like we plan to once the Island Project is complete!

We began our day by talking about the latest developments and the changes to plan so far. As it is a working document, the plan has changed to suit our needs and we've moved on from the 'wiggly path' idea and are now looking at a straight path with some 45 degree angles in! The teachers have been talking about the many different possibilities for art, maths and fun writing projects if we were to use concrete flags to create the path.

It was after that discussion that we all went out as a class and walked around the grounds following the path that will eventually be around the edge of our grass. We walked through Tree Island and around to where we plan to make a 'snail mound'. This will be a small hill formed into a snail shell shape which we can walk around and climb up!

At the end of the path which will come from the centre of tree island, we are planning to have a performance area made from India stone surrounded by logs where children can sit to watch. It will be great! We held hands and imagined what it would like like from the sketches Sean drew. 

The main aim of this project is to create a learning space which will help us to communicate, problem solve and work together as a team. We tried to solve a few problems which was very interesting..it proved that we do need this space to help us out!

 

Sean asked us to create a human version of the snail mound which took quite a while! Some people had great ideas of how to make it but although we were good at shouting our ideas out - it proved we need to learn how to listen to each other a little better! Molly Livesey thought we could line up in height order and walk around in a spiral until we coiled into a snail's shell shape. We set about following her instructions...although it took a while as we were all arguing over who was tallest!

After playtime we were given a mixed up sentence to rearrange. Stood on benches in the hall, we had to get ourselves into the right order without falling off! This was tricky and we had to really think, talk and support each other whilst moving across the apparatus. Whilst figuring out how best to solve our problem, we learnt that the person with the loudest voice isn't always the one with the best ideas.

Problem Solved :)

The Planning Continues...

Happy New Year to all our readers!!

Well yesterday was a very important day, not only were we all back at school ready to begin our new term in 2011, but Sean popped into see us too. It was very exciting as he showed us the plan he had drawn for our school grounds based upon all the ideas we came up with in class before Christmas.

After some discussions with Mr Dixon, we decided that a path that was too wiggly would not be best because people with prams and wheelchairs might have to use it to walk across our grounds in future. We talked about a curvier path that had islands now and again with activities on which followed the hedge and shape of the grassy hill.

In class with Mrs Edwards we all sketched some designs and talked about where the path would go and how it would look. We were happy with our designs and displayed them outside our classroom
for everyone to see. Sean took all our ideas and combined them to create a design we all loved!

Jay, Alfie, Sophie Wilkinson and Elise all went out with Sean and Mrs Edwards yesterday afternoon with a trundle wheel to measure the length of the path. 198 meters long was the total once Alfie had added up all the sections! Now it is Mr Dixons job to decide what to make the path out of! At the moment the decision is between Tarmac, Eco Scape (recycled car tyres!) or concrete and gravel.

Marking the Path

Well the next step in our project was to plan a pathway around the edge of Tree Island and the surrounding grassy area. Although the snow fell and the outside temperature was well below 0 degrees C, we set to work!!

At first we decided the path should be very wiggly and have many smaller islands in between, however after lots of discussions with many people, we realised that would be too much work.

Wearing some very warm clothes and our wellies, A group of six children and Sean used some wooden stakes and red tape to mark out where the path should go. Mr Dixon has to speak with some very important people and decide what to make the path out of, but once it has been decided and built, we will be able to start designing some structures to build along our route!