Monthly archives: July 2022

Exploring the work of Henri Rousseau

 in Art / Class Three by

Class 3 have been enjoying experimenting with colour, shape and pattern through the incredible work of French artist Henri Rousseau.  His work reminds us of the Amazon landscape (a link to our geography studies during this term) although the places that he painted do not actually exist.  Each of his compositions – many of which look like tropical jungles – are actually imaginary places conjured up from the studies he did of plants and animals observed in zoos and gardens in and around Paris.

We have been using a range of media, including watercolour, ink pens and pencil crayons to create our own studies and details of foliage.

We then developed our learning further by exploring Rousseau’s use of colour, line, pattern and texture in details of his inspirational work.

Wheels and Axles

 in Class Two / Design and Technology by

Class 2 have ended the year in style with a fantastic design and technology unit called ‘Wheels and Axles’. During this unit we have learnt about the parts that make a wheeled vehicle move and then experimented with ways to create axles, wheels and axle holders and how to attach them to a chassis. Finally, we designed and made our own moving vehicles. This project has been a great way for the children to develop their resilience and problem solving skills.

Scrawlers!

 in Class Four / Class Three / Design and Technology by

What can you make if you have a cup, some sellotape, felt-tip pens, a motor, a rubber, a battery and some crocodile clips? That’s exactly the question which was posed to class 4 last week! It wasn’t much to go on, but then they were given a prototype of a “Scrawler”

A Scrawler is an automatic drawing robot! A motor on top of the robot spins with an offset weight, causing it to vibrate. As it vibrates, the pens making up the “legs” of the robot wobble across the page and draw patterns as they go.

Class 4 wasted no time in taking the prototype to pieces to discover how it worked. With no further instructions, just some reverse-engineering, small teams got to work building a Scrawler of their very own!

Once we had perfected and tested our own versions, we took them apart for a further challenge. Was it possible to teach Class 3 how to make one of their own, without using our hands? That meant no pointing or touching, and no getting frustrated when somebody else was doing the wrong thing! With only 20 minutes to complete the project time was not on our side, but I think the gallery below proves our success!

Electric Posters in DT

 in Class Three / Design and Technology by

Class 3 have been bringing together this year’s history and science knowledge in producing a special electric poster for a museum display to inform visitors about the Romans. They considered where to place a light bulb to draw people’s attention to an aspect of their poster – some are on the titles, others incorporated into their illustrations and others by their facts. It was great to see pupils helping each other to problem solve when circuits didn’t work as expected – this is certainly an important aspect of the job of a designer and engineer.

 

Musical Extravaganza

 in Class Four / Class One / Class Three / Class Two / Music by

After missing performing for two years, we were delighted to be entertained on Friday morning by our marvellous pianists  and violinists. We enjoyed solos, duets as well as small group performances introduced and supported by our first class instrumental teachers Mrs Rainbow and Mrs Hurley.

All year 2 pupils have learned to play the violin this year and the group who have been keen to continue presented a selection of pieces showing many different ways to produce sound on the violin including pizzicato (plucking the string) and arco (bowing). Our year 3 violinists showed their beautiful smooth bowing action that produced a lovely mellow tone.

The pianists all played different tunes, solos and duets that really got our feet tapping and produced smiles all around the appreciative audience. Well done to all performers and those who have supported and encouraged them this year – the fruits of that labour were clear to see thi

 

 

Police Visit to Class 4

 in Class Four / History / SCARF / Whole School by

As Class 4 arrive at the end of their learning journey on Crime and Punishment this term we were all treated to a visit from the rural police.  James and Pete spent the morning in School describing what it is like to be a police officer in 21st century Britain; and this enabled our pupils to make some interesting comparisons with the first police known as the ‘Peelers’ or ‘Bobbies’ after Robert Peel.

The children had pre-prepared some interesting questions…….

Q: Have you ever been frightened?

Q: Do you think there are more crimes today than in the time of the Peelers?

Q:  Would you recommend a career as a police officer?

Q:  Do you have to always abide by the law?

Q:  Have you ever used your taser?

They explained and demonstrated the uses of their equipment and described the types of rural crimes or incidents that they might be called to.

A thoroughly interesting and informative morning.  Huge thanks to our visiting ‘Bobbies’ for talking to us this morning.  We learnt lots, but let’s hope it’s the first and last time any of us are put in handcuffs!!

 

Reception go wild!

 in Class One / Geography / Science by

Reception have had a wonderful time at the Wildlife Oasis in Milnthorpe today. We enjoyed learning about some less well-known creatures and their habitats. The first workshop was about conservation and fitted in nicely with our topic about Sir David Attenborough. We learnt about the habitats of stick insects, millipedes and the fascinating leaf insect! All these animals originate from the Amazon Rainforest and we thought about why they were suited to this habitat. A tower of Jenga blocks all being removed at the same time was a great visual representation of what might happen to these animals when the trees in the rainforest are cut down. A second game of Jenga, which involved replacing blocks as well as removing them, showed us how planting a tree for each one that is cut down can help sustainability. We also learnt about everyday products which come from the rainforest and were very surprised at some of them! We then enjoyed getting up close to a blue tongued skink, leaf cutter ants, meerkats and lemurs to name just a few!

Patterdale Field Studies

 in Class Four / Geography by

Since our residential trip to Patterdale, we have revisited the experience in our geography lessons. While at Patterdale Hall we created a field sketch of the local area to explore the geographical features we could see. We’ve also looked at the area on an OS map, linking the places we have been to regions on the map, and identifying the key features that can be seen in real life and on the paper. Contour lines have also been an area of study, thinking about how these 2d lines show us the shape of the landscape.

All of our work has been presented on a large poster – take a look at some of the brilliant examples below!

End of Term Treats!

 in Class Four by

Wow, what a busy week! All sorts of things have been happening at school this week to celebrate the end of term and make some final memories for Year 6 before the big transition to secondary!

Monday evening was the Leaver’s Tea. A true Levens tradition, to send off our year 6 in style we ask Year 5 to prepare, cook and serve a full meal to Year 6, who are waited on hand and foot! Year 5 certainly had their work cut out for them this time with so many people to cook for!

On Wednesday, we went to Brockhole on Windermere for the Year 6 to participate in their leavers treat and for Year 5 to practise their orienteering skills in a much bigger environment! While Year 5 were off hunting for the checkpoints, Year 6 were high above in the trees on the treetop nets! New this year was a leap of faith from a tiny wooden platform into a giant airbag!

Super Sporting Morning

 in Class Four / Class One / Class Three / Class Two / PE by

What a fantastic morning we had on Thursday! Our sport’s day this year started with a race for nursery and their teddies. Then the rest of school were split into four teams to complete a carousel of activities, for which they could win points for their team. During the second half of the morning, the children participated in more traditional events such as balancing races and running. Throughout the whole event, they supported and encouraged their team mates wonderfully. The morning concluded with the always entertaing Year 6 novelty race, adult races and not forgetting particiption from the youngest members of the audience in their race. It was a brilliant morning full of fun and exercise, made even better by the support and encouragement of parents, friends and the Levens community.