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KS1 Maths: Y2 Birch

KS2 Maths: Y6 Sycamore 

KS1 Spell: Y2 Birch

KS2 Spell: Y6 Sycamore 

As our final day of residential came to a close, we pushed ourselves to even greater heights by tackling climbing and abseiling.
For some of us, this really pushed us out of our comfort zones but we encouraged each other and managed to show so much resilience and perseverance, often achieving more than we ever thought was possible.
Year 6, you have been absolute superstars during your time at Skern Lodge - well done!

On Monday, Year 5 spent the afternoon exploring how forces could be used to help make life easier.   One of the activities involved the children thinking about how friction can be useful in creating fire!

Every child had a go at using a flint and steel to make their own little fire.  It was great to see the perseverance shown by many of them as well as collaboration when someone was finding it tricky.  The sense of accomplishment and pride when they managed to get the cotton wool to burn was amazing to witness!

Alongside fire-lighting, the children realised that the hammocks used friction when tied to the tree so that the rope didn’t slip down.  They tested how many children were able to sit in the hammock and were surprised at how good the friction was!

The children also explored using objects in the woodland as levers to create a seesaw which doubled up as a catapult. Even with just a small amount of force, they were able to send a ball into the air, and with some careful manoeuvring and teamwork, they tried to balance the seesaw off the ground.

Alongside this, the children used differing amounts of force on mini-catapults to fire at targets and tried making a basic pulley system out of ropes and a tree to easily lift a huge tyre in the air! 

There were lots of scientific discussions, and it was great to get out and about exploring forces in context!

Today was the last of our activity days 😕 but year 6 set out to enjoy themselves as they faced even more new experiences with archery 🏹, curling 🥌 and table tennis 🏓 .

It didn’t take the children too long to develop good techniques so that both arrows and stones were soon hitting and striking the targets. Clear communication amongst the teams meant that tactics and strategies became key to ensuring high scoring results by end of the rounds! Very enthusiastic, very competitive but very positive and supportive too - a brilliant atmosphere! 👏🏻

Some of us had used the zorbing balls at the sleepover, but there were some that had missed out ... fortune and luck were with the group this afternoon, and a great big resounding ‘yessssssss’ was cheered when there was the opportunity to step into them again! It was hot, it was loud, it was hard work, but it was huge, huge fun too! Thank you Mr Watson! 🤩

And have you ever had the chance to create your own music and have it blaring through the speakers? Well, to finish off, year 6 did exactly that! Not sure that the tracks will make it on to Spotify, but it was very impressive nevertheless! Thank you Mr Nicholls 🎶 

There have been so many opportunities, so many experiences and year 6, you have been an amazing group of children to spend this time with ... despite eating all of the biscuits 🍪 and sweets 🍬!! 😂 Well done to you all 🌟

The excitement for today was palpable and it lived up to every bit of the children’s expectations! 🤩
Not only was there a very exciting train journey 🚂 , there was the new experience of canoeing in a boat with our friends at Haven Banks in Exeter 🛶. It was an activity that many of us had nerves and great trepidation about but the children did a fantastic job of supporting & encouraging one another so that, in the end, everyone ended up in a canoe, collaborating together in order to paddle down the canal and back again ... with lots of circular routes taken and many close encounters with riverbanks & hedgerows! 😂
The pinnacle of all the games was when the children were given the opportunity to jump into the canal at the end! Needless to say that some very heavy bags had to be carried a long way back containing very wet & soggy clothes!! 😆
What an absolutely fantastic day full of treasured memories 🤗 and what an equally fantastic group of year 6 children - well done everyone, sleep well tonight 😴

Today saw some brilliant bodyboarding, some superb zip lining, some fantastic high roping and so much fun in the swimming pool! We are all having the best time!!

The excitement for today was palpable and it lived up to every bit of the children’s expectations! 🤩

Not only was there a very exciting train journey 🚂 , there was the new experience of canoeing in a boat with our friends at Haven Banks in Exeter 🛶. It was an activity that many of us had nerves and great trepidation about but the children did a fantastic job of supporting & encouraging one another so that, in the end, everyone ended up in a canoe, collaborating together in order to paddle down the canal and back again ... with lots of circular routes taken and many close encounters with riverbanks & hedgerows! 😂

The pinnacle of all the games was when the children were given the opportunity to jump into the canal at the end! Needless to say that some very heavy bags had to be carried a long way back containing very wet & soggy clothes!! 😆

What an absolutely fantastic day full of treasured memories 🤗 and what an equally fantastic group of year 6 children - well done everyone, sleep well tonight 😴

Today marks the first day of our Year 6 residential where we have already seen lots of brilliant collaboration and some amazing perseverance! Check out some pictures of our kayaking afternoon and our campfire evening! 

All things art awaited year 6 on their visit to the Thelma Hulbert Gallery today. Under the watchful eye of Anna & Keira, the day began with the children learning how to mould clay to create thumb pots, bowls and small plates - easier said than done in some cases, but perseverance was the key and, once they have been fired & glazed, the pieces will return to us to take home. Thank you Honiton Pottery 😊

After making our sketch books using hammers 🔨 , needles & thread 🧵 , we moved onto designing our first lino print. Manipulating the lino cutter was incredibly difficult & we lost count of the amount of mini-plasters that were needed ... but the results were worth it! 🤩

The print making continued as the children learnt how to use the printing press machine which became much harder & needed more muscle power once the thicker lino was being pressed! But success was had!  💪 

The sketchbooks were used for the final task of the day - collage! Pictures & paper of various colours, shapes & sizes now adorn & fill pages the books along with pictures, stories & writing. What a very busy day with a group of polite, collaborative children - well done year 6! 🌟

Last week, Year 6 learnt all about what blood is made up of and what role it plays in the body. We then had a go at making it! We used syrup and red food colouring to represent the red blood cells, milk to represent the white blood cells and platelets and oil to represent the plasma.