19 January 2024
Orcas
A fresh beach school today, the Orca children did a great job at being good role models for the younger children on the walk down.
We began our day with Worship by the Waves with Mrs Popay leading. After that, we moved to find more beach as it was very high tide today - which fit nicely with a lesson we were doing later on in the morning.
We started with science and discovering the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. The children then worked together to make their own model of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, next the children then wrote diary entries as if they were an astronaut on the Apollo 11 mission - they were able to use their senses and their imagination to ensure that their entries were clear and specific. We then had a discussion about the moon and if we were on the moon would we write a message, the children then wrote inspirational messages on the sand pretending that it was as if they had landed on the moon!
A quick break and we began discussing how the gravitational force of the moon affects the tide and the different moon phases and what it means to the tide.
Lunch at the golf club and then a brisk walk back to school, we completed our encyclopaedias based on Antarctica and then another hip hop dance session.
Well done Orcas!
Following this, we ventured down to the beach to collect different types of rocks and stones. The children eagerly searched for a variety of specimens, comparing their shapes, sizes, and textures. They thoroughly enjoyed the thrill of discovering an assortment of rocks. Back in the classroom, we counted and recorded the number of each type of rock we found. We then used the rocks to create a rock wall and investigated whether it was permeable or not.
After our scientific exploration, we made our way back to school and engaged in a vibrant hip hop dance session. The children learned a new part of the dance routine and recapped what they had learned last week. The energy and enthusiasm were infectious!
To wrap up the day, we focused on reflection and documentation. The children wrote down the questions they had about our science experiment and noted their findings. It was amazing to see their curiosity and understanding develop as they shared their thoughts and observations.
It was a bit chilly today so we went in the dunes for our story. Our book at the beach today was ‘The Paper Dolls’ by Julia Donaldson. In this story a string of paper dolls go on a fantastic adventure with a little girl through the house and out into the garden. They soon escape the clutches of the toy dinosaur and the snapping jaws of the oven-glove crocodile, but then a very real pair of scissors threatens……The paper dolls then become a memory and when the little girl grows up and has a little girl of her own she makes paper dolls with her.
We acted out the story and did some dancing, jumping, hopping, singing, sniffing and then laid down just like the paper dolls did. After all that exercise we had snack and some warm juice.
Each of us had some paper dolls of our own. We gave them names and decorated them. We took them on an adventure like the girl in the story did with her paper dolls.
We walked back across the golf course and stopped for short while to practise writing numbers and shapes in the air using scarves.