Immersive Days

As part of our new writing scheme, we plan in Immersive days. These may be practical, sometimes drama-based or may involve watching and discussing some high-quality videos related to their writing. They really bring the topic to life for the children, help them to imagine being somewhere else or someone else and enable them to use the strong language we would like them to use in their writing. When children are sparked and enthusiastic, it is so much more fun to write!

In our recent block based on a book called Whale (by Ethan and Vita Murrow), one of our immersive days involved discovering our main character Lucy’s rucksack. What might be inside?  Children took it in turns to take out and look at the contents, which included a map, compass, screwdriver and a mysterious letter. What might Lucy be doing?  Where?  And why?  Everybody was very excited!

Another immersive lesson involved watching some awesome Blue Planet footage on whales at sea. The children loved hearing the expert voices of Sir David Attenborough and Steve Backshall. Quite a few of them came in the following morning with even more whale facts! By now, everyone in the class understood why our character Lucy was so passionate to go out to sea and spot a real-life whale. 

Our next immersive day involved a team effort to create a boat from scratch using recycled materials. The challenge?  It needed to hold a 200 g weight and stay afloat for 20 seconds. The children werable to empathise with Lucy after her boat was damaged in a terrible storm. 

The children are now really excited about writing their own whale-spotting stories. Watch this space!

Advent

What a great Advent we have had at Fressingfield. As well as chocolate calendars (yummy) and an awesome Christingle celebration, we have really enjoyed the benefits of our MAF UK calendars – both online and as large posters and stickers. MAF UK is a super charity, which uses pilots to carry out missions all over the world. From delivering dentists to poorer countries to taking off-road wheelchairs to rugged rural areas in Africa, the people at MAF UK do amazing things. Each day, our classes opened a virtual page of their Advent calendar and listened to a story about another MAF UK adventure. We also heard bible stories and quotes which linked in to the MAF UK mission. We felt as if we were being entertained each day, as this was such a great resource. To find out more about this charity, take a look at the MAF UK website below. 

https://www.maf-uk.org/

Anglo-Saxon Houses!

Children in Congo Class have been rounding off their recent history topic by using authentic building techniques to create their own Anglo-Saxon houses. Using different methods such as weaving willow twigs and mixing ‘wattle and daub’ from damp soil and straw, children used their plans to create cosy homesteads fit for any Anglo-Saxon!  And then the roof of each involved designing, measuring, sawing and glueing. What a great architectural feat it was! Whilst we’re pretty sure the Anglo-Saxons didn’t have glue guns, we all agreed this project was great fun.

Maths SHARE Morning

What a fabulous turnout from so many of you for our maths SHARE morning.  It was great to see so many faces, especially a good few Dads. We are very lucky to be working with the team from Multiply Suffolk Project, and it was fantastic to introduce Lisa Gilson, as part of the team. Lisa and her colleagues have funding to work with parents/carers, organising free flexible courses and training, and we are able to use our school as a base. 

If you were not able to attend our morning, you can find out more and get in touch with the team on the link below, if you think you might benefit from some training. Courses include helping your children with maths homework and ‘back to work’ maths for the jobs market. 

https://infolink.suffolk.gov.uk/kb5/suffolk/infolink/service.page?id=RAJbS9_g1qs

But, if we’re inviting you into school, we can never resist getting you into your children’s classes!  We had a range of activities to show you, with a bit of a sparky, Christmas theme. (Well, it is December next month!). It looks like we had a lot of fun, and a chance to get those maths brains working again. Many thanks to everybody who attended.