Viking Day

Monday 16th December we had a Viking immersion day.  We took part in a number of different crafts and activities to learn about how the vikings lived.  Unfortunately it was too wet and windy to have a Viking Fire to cook.

We tried some Viking wire weaving.

 It was very tricky and you had to really concentrate.  The Vikings must have been very clever!

Even though it was tricky we didn't give up.  We were very proud of what we made.

The Vikings also liked to weave their own clothes on a loom.  We made our own looms and wove ribbon on them.  We are going to add these to are garden when they are finished. 

 

One of our favourite activities was making Viking pendents. We used real saws and then drilled holes in them using a hand drill. Then we wrote out names on them using viking letters.

 

 

 We made our own versions of a lucet which the Vikings used to make cords for their pendants or to tie round their waists. A lucet has two prongs and a hole in the middle. 

 

Finally we made Viking Helmets.

 

Did you enjoy Viking Day?

What was your favourite part?

 What did you learn about the Vikings?

Viking play

We took a break from the garden and decided to put on a Viking puppet show.  We have learnt a lot about Vikings this term. We talked about the characters we would include in the show.  Then we started to make them.

Can you guess what Viking Characters we made? 

 

 

Completing the beds

After a lot of digging we finally got the last beds in place.

We found some big roots and worked as a team to remove them.

 

 

These big roots gave us an idea!

We decided to start a beetle hotel. We worked as a team and discussed our ideas.  It was tricky getting the roots to stand up.

 

These pupils found some bricks and decided to develop the beetle hotel already started under the tree. How big do you think they are planning to build it?

 

The girls decided the fence needed to be brightened up so they started weaving a beautiful rainbow.

Can you see the black bin bags in this picture?  They are not for rubbish.  What do you think is in them and why?

Building the garden

This week we have been working hard building the garden.  We had to work together to build the beds. The beds needed borders to protect the plants we will be planting.

We used a stick to mark the centre of the circle. After some thought we realised we could use a metre stick like the hands of a clock to make sure the bed is an exact circle.  We turned the metre stick and place a brick at the end until the circle was complete.  So we know the radius of the circle is 1 metre.

We found lots of interesting things in the garden.  We found this caterpillar.  Can you find out what type of caterpillar it is ?  Do you think it will turn into a moth or a butterfly? 

Yasmina found this green caterpillar.  What do you think it might turn into ?

 

Gurpinder found lots of interesting rocks.  He sorted them into two groups according to their characteristics.

Can you tell how he has sorted them?  Could he sort them another way?

We also found this special skeleton leaf.  How do you think the leaf became like this?

 

 

We had to dig hole to put the sleepers in for the flower beds.  We noticed that the soil was different colours.  We could see a black line of organic matter.  Underneath the soil was very orange as it was mostly clay.  Underneath the clay we found the stones. 

Can you see the different layers in the soil?

 

 

What do you think we are doing in this picture?

Year 4 planning our garden.

This week in outdoor learning year 4 have been talking about how we can develop the garden.  We decided we need to cover the mud to protect the garden and stop us making such a mess. We decided we should add some paths and order some woodchip to cover the mud between the beds.  Before we order the woodchip we had to calculate how much we needed.  We measured the area of the whole garden.  Then some children realised that we will not need woodchip on the flower beds.  We calculated the area of the beds and subtracted it from the area of the whole garden.  This was very tricky when it came to calculating the area of the circular beds.  We put our heads together and used some tricky calculations.

The children are working together to measure and calculate the area of the circular bed.

 The area of the circle was calculated by multiplying pie by the radius of the circle squared. 

We used trundel wheels to measure the length and width of the garden and multiplied them to find the area.

 

Next week we will be adding some beds. As the drainage is so bad what could we put in the beds to improve the drainage for our plants?

We will be planting some bulbs. Where will we plant them to ensure the grow well and are not trodden on?



Year 4 Outdoor Learning

This week we have been testing the soil in our new garden. 
What did you find out about the soil in our garden? 
Did you find anything that surprised you?
What other factors may we need to consider aswell as the soil?
What plants do you think will grow well in our garden?
Which plants would be good to plant at this time of year?

School developments.

Ms Shields has been working with the year 3's and year 6's this term.  If you look out the front near the year 4 classes you will see we have begun to develop a new garden.  The year 3's are planning to plant some Roman herbs in the garden linking with their Roman topic.  The year 6's have been litter picking around the school and clearing grass around the orchard to help the trees grow.
Next term Ms Shields will be helping year 1 to clear their garden ready to plant some new plants in the spring term.  She will also be working with the year 5's to maintain and develop new areas around the school.
How do you think we could develop areas around the school areas around the school? Do you have any more ideas for our new garden? Think about what would make the school a nicer environment for us and also what might attract more wildlife to the school.

Darwin liked to ask lots of questions about the plants and animals he found. What questions can you think of about plants and animals? Darwin would ask an expert, read a book or ask a friend to find out the answer to his questions. How could you find out the answer to your question?

Hi all. Welcome to Chatsworth outdoor learning page. On this page I will be keeping you up to date with all out outdoor learning projects and asking you about what you are getting up to and spotting out and about.

In outdoor learning this week we are following in the footsteps of Charles Darwin and investigating the living world around us.  We are finding and identifying mini beasts.  We were surprised to find four big insect larvae under a log in the woodland walk.  We were not sure what it was so sent it to a friend at Kew Gardens for advice.  We think it may be a stag beetle larvae.  What do you think?  Have you made any discoveries lately?