We have had fun in maths today. We have been counting the hidden woodland creatures around the classroom. Great counting skills 😁🔢
Class Two Field Work to Squirrel Wood
Today Class Two completed their field work at Squirrel Wood. The theme of the visit was one of our favourite stories, The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. This is a key text in our current expedition case study titled ‘What do you see if you take a stroll through the deep dark wood?’
Here’s what we got up to…
We started the day with a short bus ride to Squirrel Woods. It was very exciting sitting with our friends. Once we had arrived we walked to a clearing in the woods where we would complete our activities.
Our first activity was a scavenger hunt. Our task was to search for things that could be the body parts of the Gruffalo such as his ‘terrible tusks, terrible claws or terrible teeth in his terrible jaws!’
Next, we discussed the different habitats of the animals in the story. Our challenge was then to recreate them in the woods. Look at our fantastic Gruffalo dens, treetop and log pile houses.
After that it was time for a snack break with warm popcorn and apple juice. We circled up around the fire pit and watched as the flint and steel created a spark to light the fire. It was very exciting watching, listening and waiting for the corn kernels pop.
While we were eating our snack some children volunteered to have a go at using the flint and steel to make a spark.
After this it was time for our final activity which was the one the children loved the most… using clay to make our own woodland creatures! Some children decided to press their clay against a tree to create a face which they then added features too. Look at our amazing work!
Before we knew it, it was lunch time. So we finished off our fieldwork with a picnic in the sunshine.
What a lovely day full of great memories, happy children and fun in the woods.
Sharing our Stories: 29/09/2023
Beautiful Work This Week (…and last week!)
XP Outdoors: Campfire Training!
A Visit from Ron Berger!
We’ve been very lucky since XP first opened and as the Trust has grown over the last ten years, to be able to welcome Ron Berger to our schools. Ron, the CAO of Expeditionary Learning (EL) in the US, has visited us several times, sharing with us his knowledge, energy and wisdom.
Always supportive and inspiring, Ron has now, after a two week stay, just returned home. His time here has included visits to all of our schools, a well received and inspirational talk with our staff and chatting with our students and hearing their stories.
He also travelled to Scotland to visit our brilliant partners at The Wood Foundation and the educators they support in the Aberdeen area. Their school teams have been regular visitors to XP Doncaster on our delegate days for the last four years.
Last but not least, Ron joined colleagues on their induction in Derbyshire, sharing moment by moment with them the experience of developing Crew and fellowship.
Renowned as an educator and catalyst for innovation and compassion in education all over the world, we hope it won’t be long before we can welcome Ron back again.
Beautiful Curation at Plover
Top of the Blogs
Let’s get critical… critical! @ Comms
Year 2 Music – playing tunes on the Glockenspiel @ Carcroft School
More beautiful work in the community from Elyse and Brody @ XP Gateshead
Our Ambassadors run their first Macmillan Event @ Plover
Rainforest Research @ Norton Juniors
Drama Hut Visit in Class 6 @ Green Top
Let the children march @ Norton Infants
Food Bank Fundraising @ XP East
Share your stories with us!
We now have a new dedicated news email so that you can send your stories, updates or ideas about potential news articles directly to us in Comms.
It might be something you or your students have achieved, a charity you’re supporting or anything at all that deserves a wider audience.
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
Class 1 went to Squirrel Wood 🪵 🐿
Our new key text is ‘The Gruffalo’, so it was perfect having a visit to Squirrel Wood. We went on a Gruffalo treasure hunt…
We used our team building skills to build habitats for the animals in the Gruffalo…
We used clay to make some Gruffalo art…
We had fun around the fire pit. We ate popcorn and drank warm apple juice. We were amazing at following the fire pit rules…
The children behaved impeccably and we are very proud of them! A fun time was had by all! 😁🐿 xx
KS1 expert visitor
Today we were very lucky to receive a visit from Mr West, our local Baptist Minister. He came to speak to us about harvest time and also to speak about the local heroes who work at the food bank in Askern. It made us think about all of the things that we are grateful and thankful for.
We had a great morning and thank Mr West for spending time with us.
Silent Conversation
This week we completed a silent conversation where we thought carefully about how we might have felt, what we would have heard and seen if we were about to take part in the march we have been reading about in our core text – Let the Children March.
Let the Children March
In Class 6 we have been exploring our new core text ‘Let the Children March’. We solved the front cover picture puzzle, looking for clues and made some great predictions about what might happen in the story.
Community Meeting
We are so proud of all our crew champions this week. It was lovely to hear about all the wonderful things they have been doing in crew the have led to their friends and crew leaders nominating them for our special award.
Marvellous Mathematicians
In Year One we have been working really hard in maths. We have been counting sets of objects and representing one more in different ways. We have also been solving problems and working through reasoning activities…..we have been amazing.
Sunflower Fun 🌻
The children have loved picking the sunflower seeds from the head of the flower. It was great for our finger muscles! 😁 We are keeping the seeds and will plant them in the summer term 🌻☀️
