Stansfeld day 3
Stansfeld Photos from Day 3
paganel's posterous
Stansfeld day 2 pics
Stansfeld Pictures Day 2
Stansfeld Photos Day 1
Year 5 Arrive Safely at Stansfeld.
The news from the Year 5 residential was great today. Not only did the children arrive safely but they went about enjoying the fine weather in the best way possible, as you can see in the photos.
Let's hope they have a great night's sleep tonight ready for a full day of adventurous activity on Tuesday.
Mr Strong: The stongest person in the world
(download)
It was with some admittedly 'hammy' acting that we kicked off our World Book Day today. Having considered some different books, big and small, Mr Shufflebottom turned his attention to the smallest book on the stage - the 'Mr Men' story Mr Strong. Joined by Mr Harwood and Mr Philp in role, the short drama was highly amusing and entertaining.
Shortly after this the 'Unfortunately / Fortunately' challenge was set. Mr Shufflebottom started a story that the children in Key Stage 2 continued. Even Reception helped by adding some of their own illustrations. Each child contributed their own line onto the story, which you can read here.
Embedding Photos in Google Earth
As part of the Switched on ICT scheme of work we have been following we embedded some photos from around the school in Google Earth. The Year 6 children took their own photos, uploaded them to Picasa, then used the URL link to embed them into Google Earth in (pretty much) the right location.
As the pictures show, this mainly worked although there was a problem with the height of the photo - Google Earth stores a height for each photo and we haven't worked out how to predict this, so often the photo got embedded and then the student couldn't see it because for some reason it had been placed higher than their current zoom level. The students learned to zoom out a little way, find their photo, then edit it's properties so it was back to the correct height.
Teaching Year 3 to blog
Today I am teaching Year 3 how to blog. We will be using the Chromebooks to write our first post later on.
New Birdbox
We're all very excited here because we have a new birdbox that's actually hooked up to a webcam. You can see it on the big TV just outside the school office.
Roll on the Spring to see whether any real birds arrive and lay some eggs...
Successful Jigsaw
Two pupils were very pleased with themselves this dinnertime. With the playground a slushy write-off, they completed this map-of-the-world jigsaw.
A trip to Selly Oak Park
On Friday 27th January Year 6 visited Selly Oak Park. Although only a mile or so from the school, many of the children had never previously been there and had only first heard of the park when Local Historian Chris Upton gave a lecture about his 5 local heroes back in October 2011. In that lecture, Chris Upton had cheated slightly, because his final hero was not a person but a tree - the original Selly Oak.
Cut down in 1909, the stump of the tree still sits in Selly Oak Park, hidden behind a bush, with a secretive plaque that declares its significance. If you watch the photopeach presentation below you will see the plaque in one of the photos we took.
A visit to Selly Oak Park on PhotoPeach
The children had a great time, not only because of Selly Oak Park, but also the walk down there along the newly constructed Bournbrook Way, a path that takes you through some really rather picturesque scenery, considering it is the middle of Birmingham.
In Selly Oak Park, the children attempted the Nature Trail Quiz designed and made by the Friends of Selly Oak Park. You can find out more about the Nature Trail here, although you're best off downloading the quiz from the link above, as we were sent a more up-to-date version of the quiz.
The children thoroughly enjoyed the trail, learning about some of the wildlife in the park and discovering that its history stretches back further than Victorian times (when it was first created), as there are two ice-age boulders in the Park. The playground was fun for all too (including Mrs Reading as you can see in the photos), although for two boys the highlight was when they heard, and then saw, a greater spotted woodpecker. For us the next thing will be to plot the journey and the significant features on a map, and then look towards creating our own trail. Although the visit itself was not directly 'ICT', it forms part of Year 6's 'Switched on ICT' scheme of work in the unit 'We are Explorers.'
