Stanford Junior and Infant School
Living together - Learning together
On this page you can see updates over the term of our activities and learning.
Pumpkin Class – The Greatest Showmen….and women, that I could ever want! So proud of them! Enjoy!
Pumpkin and Juniper class enjoyed their reading collaboration this afternoon under the shade of our wonderful oak tree.
Another interactive and informative assembly at Stanford.
Our guests gave the children of Stanford a very important message with lots of ‘Top Tips’ and important safety information. Learning about water safety and what we can do to stay safe.
Moving someone into the recovery position.
Laying down flat on the river bank or side of the swimming pool so that we don’t get pulled into the water.
We looked at how many accidents happen in different bodies of water and voted by sitting or standing to predict which place was more or less dangerous.
Look out for your certificate and information sheet and discuss it together as a family.
Have a fantastic and safe summer.
The children have been learning to follow instructions in French.
These are the ones we have been trying…..
If you are not having any luck with English try telling them what to do in French……it works for me!!!
As a part of our learning about parallel and perpendicular lines we have had a ‘line rave’. The children were shown pictures of lines and they had to copy the shapes with their arms and shout parallel, perpendicular and be quiet of it was neither. They only had 2 seconds to choose before it changed.
The children had great fun doing it and really got into the groove!
On a side note Parents, I was explaining about ‘rave’ music and how hands were used and all of the children knew ‘Big fish, little fish, cardboard box’ ! Your secret dance moves are out!!!
We were fortunate enough to have James Kirton visit our school to lead a sponsored circuit training event and an inspirational assembly. James is an Olympic swimmer who represented GB in the Beijing Olympics. As you can see from the photographs, we all had a fantastic time and felt truly inspired listening to James’ assembly about overcoming injury and never giving up on your dreams. Thank you ‘Sports for Schools’ and to James for the amazing event!
As Pumpkin class enjoy learning foreign languages we arranged for a video call to Beijing so the children could learn about China and its language Mandarin. Approx 1 billion people in the world speak Mandarin making it the most spoken language in the world.
The children were able to speak to a teacher called Jining Wang who lives in China’s capital city. Jening showed us what her home looked like and showed us pictures of China’s famous places – the Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China. She then taught the children how to say ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ in Mandarin.
The children were really quick to grasp the language and the teacher was very impressed with them. She tried to catch the children out with a game of Simon Says but the children were too clever to be caught out!
This was a fantastic opportunity for the children, some of whom have never had video calls before, and they really enjoyed it. They were talking about it all day they were so excited.
见 (zài jiàn): See you again!
As a part of our studies we have been learning about the parts of a plant and their role in the reproduction process.
Charlie was a 'busy bee' literally. To help demonstrate how pollen is transported from one plant to another he pretended to be a bee looking for nectar. He ended up being covered in 'pollen' (glitter) and as he moved around to other 'flowers' he left traces of glitter/pollen behind. The children thought this was really funny but it got the message across. Who thought science could be such fun?
In ‘Escape from Pompeii’ the citizens make up poems about earthquakes from the past, not knowing what is about to happen to them. First the children were given the word ‘shake’ and were asked to use a Thesaurus to find different synonyms for this word. We then looked at the text to find examples of words describing the earthquakes. The children were given the task to use their synonyms and incorporate them into a poem about the earthquakes. The children then worked together to perform their group poem. Their poems were amazing, I am sure you will agree!
We had lots of fun on our hook day. Both parents and children have worked really hard in putting together some amazing costumes. The children really enjoyed dressing up as citizens, soldiers, gods and goddesses. Don’t they look amazing?
The children enjoyed taking part in the different activities and more importantly learning about the Romans.
The Romans liked to wear laurel wreaths on their heads. It was a symbol of victory and honour. The children made their own laurel wreaths using paper plates and paper.
Another activity was preparation for a Roman mask. In the theatres the Romans played lots of different parts, they used masks to show different characters and emotions. Today we started to make the base for the masks by using papier mache and balloons. We are going to work on these and produce masks for our very own Roman tragedies.
The romans used tiles to make pictures which they called Mosaics. The wealthier the Romans were, the more intricate the mosaics they had on their floors. The children designed their own tiles and then created them with tiny paper squares. It was quite tricky getting the tiny pieces in the right places. Some children helped with larger mosaics which we will put outside our classroom for everyone to see.
We learnt about how the Romans wrote their numbers as letters. It is very tricky working them out as they have to be in a certain order and they work from the largest value to the smallest
We learnt a way of remembering the order and value of the letters by using a mnemonic.
The children enjoyed using Roman numerals in different ways using them to work out shopping lists, break codes and simple addition and subtractions problems. Roman numerals are also handy for telling the time.
The children looked at the different costumes that the Romans wore, depending on their social status. They chose an appropriate outfit for a Roman citizen or soldier.
The Romans had a place called a Forum where they discussed important matters of the day. At the end of the day the children were split into 2 teams and took part in a discussion. We looked at an important matter – Recycling first from a Roman point of view where they didn’t consider it important and then discussing how recycling is far more important today considering the polution of the oceans and its harm to the environment.
In science lessons we are now learning about plants. Today we recapped on the different parts of a plant: the flower, the stem, the leaves and the root, and what their role was. We then went to look more closely at the flowers. Miss Perrin brought in some daffodils and tulips for us to dissect and identify the different parts. It was really interesting seeing what is beneath the petals. Soon we will learn what the role of these different parts are.
We have been having fun practising our spelling skills.
First we split into table teams then the competition began.
In round 1 we had to choose a person from our team to spell a word and come to the front with their word written on their wipe boards. We had to choose which person would be the best person for each given word as they could only be chosen once.
In round 2 we had to choose either consonants or vowels, like ‘Countdown’, and then we were asked to find as many words as we could using those letters.
Round 3 was the quick spell buzzer round, the children were so quick it was often difficult to say who had buzzed first.
The children had lots of fun scoring points for their table team.
Today we were investigating the different properties of rocks.
Density: will it will sink or float?
Permeable: does it allow water to pass through it?
Durable: does it wear away easily?
Hardness: can it be easily marked?
The children also researched the different rocks to find out how they were made to see if that explained the different rock’s properties.
After this the children tried to group the different rocks together according to their properties. We had lots of fun with all the different investigations.
As part of our continuous drive to raise awareness of diversity at Stanford, we held an assembly to support World Down Syndrome Day.
We enjoyed this video clip of some children singing with their parents.
They are singing alongside using Makaton, we had a try at following the Makaton signs too.
We learned that Makaton is sometimes used to help people with Down Syndrome to develop their communication skills alongside their development of speech.
At Stanford we believe that this image illustrates our attitude to diversity very well.
One pupil was already supporting World Down Syndrome Day by wearing a pair of odd socks in recognition.
Mrs Groves has been teaching the class about djembe drums which originated in Africa. To play the drums it takes good listening skills and the ability to maintain a beat. To help with this Mrs Groves has taught children to think of phrases to go with the different beats e.g. macaroni, macaroni, macaroni cheese. The children have really enjoyed these musical sessions and loved showing their skills to their parents.
The theme for British Science Week was ‘Exploration and Discovery’. We chose to investigate a project called “Squashed Tomatoes”. Farmers in Nepal have to transport their crops across mountains and rivers so they need a way to transport as many tomatoes as they can without them becoming squashed.
The children were put into teams and were set the task to develop, make, test and evaluate their own transportation system.
The children devised their own criteria for what their product should have and were told of the challenges they had to face:..
Then they were left to it.
In addition to this they had to market their product to our very own ‘dragons’ and say why their design was the best.
The children had lots of fun and loved working as a team. Their bags were not only stylish but they managed to hold up to 75 cherry tomatoes. Well done children.
This year the children were asked to be creative and bring their favourite book ‘to life’ by creating a story sack which they could use to tell their stories to a friend. The children really enjoyed this project and they have been really creative. They were truly amazing!
As well as sharing their books with each other they spent time with Barley class. It’s always good to share a book!
We have started to read the book ‘The Iron Giant’. In the book the giant falls down a cliff and breaks into many pieces. The pieces manage to find each other and put themselves back together.
To celebrate World Book Day Miss Perrin dropped robot parts on the floor and we had to figure out how we could pit the giant back together. Doesn’t he look wonderful?
Barley Class celebrated World Book by transforming a plain white bag into an exciting bag showing our favourite books! There was a range of books that were our favourite, from David Walliams and Alex Rider to Jaqueline Wilson and of course Harry Potter! We then joined with Pumpkin class to share our favourite books and share the stories with them.
As we have been learning about how the rocks are formed we thought we would look at water. The water we have now is the same as when the Earth began and before life was created. It moves in a continuous cycle call The Water Cycle.
We watched a video to show this amazing process.
We then tried to make it rain in the classroom.
We got a sealable bag, water and food colouring. First we labelled the bag with the different processes: evaporation; condensation and precipitation, then we added the food colouring and the water.
We then attached them to the classroom window. As the classroom warmed up the water levels dropped as the water had evaporated. When the classroom cooled, or the warm air touched the side of the bag neat the cool window the water vapour condensed to form drops of water which ran down the side of the bag back into the pool of water at the bottom of the bag. It was really interesting to watch.
As well as making our own characters we looked at moving characters around the screen to reach a specific location. There is a fantastic site to use to play these games. It’s called www.code.org if the children would like to play at home.
In our reading book The Pebble in my Pocket we learnt about how rocks were formed through volcanoes. In science we have been learning about the other ways rocks are formed and what these types of rocks are called.
Igneous rock - Formed from magma or lava
Sedimentary rock – formed under the sea from layers of sediment that has been compacted until it cements together.
Metamorphic rock – when heat from lava/magma heats up existing rock and changes it.
We were given different examples of rock and we tried to figure out which type of rock it was and whether we could group them together. It was quite tricky!
Last year we learnt about how directions can be given using compass directions. This year we have learnt to increase the accuracy of our directions by using 8 compass points.
We went outside and drew a large compass on the playground. Then we played games where we had to run to different parts of the playground following the compass directions given. After that we went inside and used this knowledge to find our way around a map of a town finding places of interest and giving directions of our own.
The whole school were involved in an archery competition between the different houses. The classes went in turn to practise and score points then they were all totalled together.
In Pumpkin class Knight came first with 103 points, then Field with 91, Whitgift had 88 points and Stanford scored 71 points. The children really enjoyed the archery and working together in their houses
Well done to Stanford house who managed to score a tremendous 562 points across the different year groups!
Mental Health and Well-Being of children and staff at Stanford School is very important to us.
As part of Mental Health Awareness Day, each class participated in activities that were age appropriate to discuss how we can help to look after ourselves and each other. FS looked at people who we can talk to and look up to as role models, KS1 discussed different feelings and how 'It's Ok!' to feel certain ways. KS2 discussed different types of mental illness and how we can support one another.
We presented our work and ideas in a whole school assembly, the key theme that we are going to continue to focus on is "It's Good to Talk!".
In Science today we learnt some new scientific words.
We were given a challenge to design curtains for a baby’s room so that the light does not go through during the day and allows the baby to sleep.
We shone light at the materials to see if there were tranparant, translucent or opaque. We then decided which material blocked the light the most and would be the best material for the curtains.
Today we have all been learning about how to be safe on the internet and most importantly to be SMART
PCSO Marc Ireland came into school and lead an assembly about being SMART, social media and the sites that we should be very careful of using. It is really important that we take care when using the internet and it is used sensibly and responsibly.
As we have learnt that the moon is actually reflecting light rather than making light itself, we thought we would investigate reflective surfaces further.
We were set a challenge to investigate which materials would be best to use for reflective strips on a new school bag.
First we made a reflection tester. We made a hole in some paper and placed a torch in the hole. If the light is reflected it should reflect back onto the paper for us to see it.
We predicted which material would be best and then we tested the materials to see if our predictions were correct.
We found out that the best reflective materials were shiny and smooth.
Carl Wheatley from Radio Humberside visited school to speak with the pupils about all the exciting learning that goes on at Stanford. As always, the pupils did us proud and were very articulate, as you can hear in the radio broadcast:
We have been learning about the names of different animals in lots of different ways.
First we gave each animal an action to for us to do as we say the name, then we played a game of pairs and animal bingo. They children loved practising this language in lots of different ways
We had a lovely Community High Tea Thank You Event yesterday – we wanted to let all the volunteers who help our school know how valued and special their contributions are. Thank you to all the pupils and staff for making and serving the refreshments. All the guests enjoyed the performances and entertainment. Special thanks to the year 6 helpers -Joe, Jessica, Lucie and Harvey who helped make sure the event ran smoothly.
One visitor commented," A lovely event. Pupils were very welcoming and friendly – they entertained us with a wonderful variety of well-rehearsed, interesting and fun performances. A very special afternoon."
Premier Sports came in and delivered an assembly on tolerance and what should and shouldn't be tolerated. Pupils used different coloured cards to represent how they feel about different aspects and scenarios.
A sprite is a character from a computer game, some famous ones being Super Mario or Sonic.
We used a program called Scratch to make our own. It was really tricky as it takes great mouse control to draw on the screen but the children made some fantastic characters.
As an introduction to our topic of light we thought about what items create light and what objects actually only reflect light, or allow light to pass through. A lot of us were amazed to find out that the moon does not give off light, it just reflects the rays from the sun like a big mirror in the sky.
We thought about what it would be like if there was no light and how difficult it would make our life.
We had several items in feely bags and we had to guess what they were. We were then able to look in the bag and see if we were right. It was quite tricky.
As we are learning about volcanoes in our reading book ‘The Pebble in my Pocket’ and in our science theme of ‘Rocks and soils’ we thought we would have a ‘volcanic’ experience. In the morning we made a model of a volcano using newspaper and paper mache. We also looked at some ‘eruption’ simulations by mixing different household items together. The children were fascinated by how everyday objects could cause such a reaction!
After reading about the beginning of the word and the erupting volcanoes we decided to look at the structure of the world, the structure of volcanoes and why volcanoes erupt.
We discovered that volcanoes are named after the Roman God Vulcan who people believed lived in a volcano. He was the God of fire and the Romans believed that volcanoes erupted when he was angry.
We then looked at the structure of the Earth and the many layers which make our planet. These hot layers of molten rock and magma cause pressure within the Earth which escape through gaps in the crust of the Earth. As the lava cools on the surface of the Earth it turns into rock again. With each new eruption the volcano grows with a new layer of rock.
The children then used atlases to find the sites of the 10 most explosive volcanoes in the world. They had lots of fun finding new countries, some of which they had never heard of before.
We read about the world before creatures lived and how volcanoes erupted turning lava into rock formations. We chose words and phrases that helped us to mentally picture this event. The children then worked in pairs to draw the images they had created in their minds and labelled them with the wonderful imagery and phrases we have discovered. They produced some wonderful pieces of art linked to the text and enjoyed working creatively as a team.
The children were introduced to the book we will be studying called 'The Pebble in my pocket'.
We took it in turns to find words to describe a pebble and then we thought about things we could do with pebbles and any memories or experiences we have had involving pebbles.
We brought all these ideas together to create a class poem. We hope you like it.
Bouncing, jumping, skipping,
Quickly skimming across the clear, blue water.
Dirty, buried, hidden,
Secret treasures in the brown, thick mud.
Pointy, sharp, painful,
Walking across a rocky beach.
Chilling, relaxing, calming,
Cooling stones on a hot summer’s day.
Plopping, splashing, sinking,
Throwing pebbles in the smooth, peaceful lake.
Glittering, shimmering, shining,
Pebbles in a rushing, gushing river.
Beautiful, colourful, symbolic,
Pebbles of peace.
We hope you have a lovely and peaceful break everyone.
At last 'Mac' was ready to finish his time mummifying in his bath of salt and move on to the Afterlife. It has been 40 days since we first placed him there and he hasn't changed much. He lost 68g of water and apart from that he was perfectly preserved. The children have loved watching the mummification process in a real context. The Egyptians knew what they were doing when they preserved bodies. No wonder they lasted for thousands of years!
The children loved making our Christmas cards and calendars this year. We decided to get our hands dirty by printing with our fingers on the cards and with sponges on the calendars. Don't they look effective?
Today the children became travel agents. They used their knowledge of Egypt to highlight on a map places of interest then they planned a route for the tourists to follow so they could see all the exciting things Egypt has to offer. After this some children made posters to advertise their tours and travel guides that the tourists could take with them giving them helpful information about the weather, what to pack and what they could see on their travels.
As a part of our Enterprise scheme to raise money for Pumpkin class the children have been making Christmas decorations out of lolly sticks and pegs. The children loved making something creative out of ordinary items. The children worked hard and their decorations were beautiful. The money we raised will be mostly spent on wet play equipment to brighten up those miserable rainy days.
Today Pumpkin & Juniper Class were lucky to have Rachel McWilliam, a sculptor, come to school to talk about her work and her creations. She has created many sculptures and she showed us pictures of her work. Some of them the children recognised from Cleethorpes sea front.
She spoke about how she got her inspiration, how she makes mock ups of her designs with pipe cleaners and how she makes the finished product. Rachel has been making things out of metal for many years and now helps others who want to become artists.
The children had lots of questions to ask, and so did Miss Perrin.
Daisy - How many years have you been making things ?- 15 years approx
Ryan - What was the first thing you made? - a candlestick
Azem - What was your favourite piece? - a statue of the Princess and the frog
Miss P - Why metal and not wood? - I like the way it twists and turns
Tilly T - Where do you work? I used to have my own forge but now I use a friend's one if I want to make something
Miss P - How did you get into this line of work? I went to do art in college and then did a degree. I learnt about being a blacksmith there
Debbie from The Ryan Smith Foundation came to talk to pupils about the importance of wearing a helmet. She spoke about Ryan and how his life has changed dramatically, all because he didn't wear a helmet. She used eggs to demonstrate what can happen if a helmet is not worn. It was a very informative assembly and the pupils really enjoyed this.
Tangrams can teach children about spacial relationships and develop stronger problem solving skills. The children enjoyed working together to make the different shapes. They had to use teamwork and communication skills as well as problem solving to do this.
If you would like to have a go at this with your children there is a printable Tangram sheet and there are lots of puzzle ideas on the internet. Have fun!
As a part of our activities during the day we had a 'Mix it up' lunchtime. The tables were given names using words that encourage tolerance such as: peace, happiness and love.
The children had to pick a card and sit at their chosen table. This was to encourage them to socialise and share lunchtime with different children and to give them an opportunity to make new friends.
The children enjoyed this change to the normal lunchtime routine.
Charlie (Y1) 'I met a new friend called Azem. We chatted together.'
Oscar (Y1) 'It was exciting to find out which table I was going to go to.'
Betsie (Y2) 'I met a new friend and we talked about friendship.'
Anthony (Y2) 'I was excited to sit with someone new.'
Ryan (Y3) ' People were nice on my table.'
Amelia (Y3) 'I enjoyed talking to someone new.'
William (Y5) 'We interacted with new people and made new friends. I think we should do this every day.'
Rebecca (Y5) 'It was really fun. It was good to sit with people we don't normally talk to.'
The children were introduced to 2 new ‘classmates’ Bramley & Russet. They were nervous because they were different to everyone else in the class. They were then put in a bag and were passed around the class. The children were told to say unkind things about them and give them a slight knock.
We looked at them when they had been around the class. Apart from a few ‘juice tears’ they looked fine. We then left them to fend for themselves for the rest of the day and ignored them.
At the end of the day we looked at Bramley and Russet again. They were still smiling and seemed the same but when we looked under their skin we could see the bruising that our knocks and unkind words had caused.
The children were able to see that although people can look OK on the outside they can secretly be hurting when others are unkind.
The children then took part in a competition. In their teams they had to see who could be the first to empty out a tube of toothpaste.
The children found this really easy and could empty out the toothpaste very quickly.
The children were then given the second part of the competition. In pairs they had to put all the toothpaste back into the tube using lolly sticks.
The children found this impossible as the toothpaste would not go back into the tubes, instead they got toothpaste everywhere.
The children were then told the names of their toothpastes - Calling Names, Unkind Comments, Unkind Laughter, Lies and Unkind Jokes.
As a class we were able to discuss how it was very easy for these to come out of the ‘mouth’ of the tube but once the toothpaste was out it couldn’t be put back and all the children were left with was a mess for them to clean up.
The children were then asked to link this with things they could say to each other.
Now the children knew what the toothpaste represented I asked them what they should do in future if they wanted to say these kinds of things and they decided that they should keep the lid on ‘the toothpaste’ and not say anything at all. Well done class!
This week we have been looking at anti-bullying with the theme "All Different, all equal". We looked at a jigsaw with some pieces missing and the children saw that every piece has to be in place for it to be complete.
They were then shown a jigsaw piece with the words 'Pumpkin class' and asked how could we complete this puzzle. The children were all given the same jigsaw piece and were asked to write on it all the things that made them unique. We put all these pieces together to show our how we all fit together to make something wonderful - our class.
The Egyptians liked to wear necklaces. We looked at examples of necklaces found from this era and discovered that most of them were collar necklaces with eagles and beadwork on them. To make them we used a paper plate to create the collar and then we cut out an eagle. We painted our designs and used pasta to represent the beadwork. When we had finished we thought about whether our finished product looked like our designs, what we liked, what we weren’t happy with and what we would change if we did this again. We were really proud of our designs.
The children have been looking at the properties of 3D shapes including pyramids and prisms. They were given a table showing how many long & short straws and pieces of blue tack they needed to make a shape. The children then had to use their knowledge of 3D shape to figure out which shape this would make, then they had to construct it. They really enjoyed this challenge.
The Egyptians used to write on paper made from papyrus. They would tear it into strips, weave it together, beat it to make it flat and leave it to dry for several days.
We tried to make our own papyrus style paper. We tore paper into strips and dipped it into glue and water so it would stick together. We laid the paper out in strips and we had to do several layers to make it thick enough to write on. We left it for 4 days to dry then we painted it so it looked like ancient papyrus.
We researched Egyptian gods and found out that they were half human and half animal. We designed our own gods and drew them on our paper. Some chose to colour theirs in felt tips and others chose paint.
Don't they look fantastic?
Today we were looking at different types of magnets. The children tested them to see which was the strongest. We decided to do this by seeing how many paperclips the magnet could attract in a chain. The children had lots of fun investigating the magnets and found out that the size of the magnet did not indicate its strength.
Our local PCSO Mark Ireland came into school to lead an assembly on respect and how the police deal with bullying behaviours in the community. The children listened to how bullying can affect the community in many different ways such as through anti-social behaviour, and how bullying can not only impact on the victim, but their friends and family too.
In RE we have been considering what Peace means and how this can be achieved.
The children were asked to design a Peace Pebble as a positive symbol that could be placed in a Peace Garden.
On Remembrance Day we had a little ceremony where we placed our pebbles around our little garden. As each child placed their pebble they said the word they had chosen and we thought about how, if we remember and use these words, we can make the world a more peaceful and positive place to live in.
When researching the mummification process we have found that the Egyptians used Natron. This is found in dry lake beds in Ancient Egypt and is not readily available. Web pages suggest different types of soda or salt as a replacement. We decided to investigate which type of readily available sodas and salts would be the best replacement for Natron.
The children were shown the equipment and were asked to discuss what they could do to investigate the salts. This meant they had to use their problem solving learning powers to think about what they could do and find all possible combinations of the salts.
The children weighed the fruits and meats first so they could see how much water had been removed from them by the salts. They plan to check on them over the next 2 weeks to see how they have changed.
To ensure it was a fair test the children decided that everything in the investigations should be the same except for the variations of salts used. They also had a control cup where the fruit and meat was left with nothing to preserve it.
The children enjoyed developing their own investigation and taking control. They even took the pictures to record this investigation.
After practising the mummification process on a doll we have moved onto mummifying creatures. Miss Perrin found Mac, the mackerel, ‘chilling’ at a local supermarket and decided to save him for posterity….or at least for the next few weeks.
We filled his inside with a combination of table salt, Epsom salt and Bicarbonate of Soda salt and covered him with the rest of the salt. He initially weighed 268g.
He will be left for 40 days and then we will see how much he has changed.
The Ancient Egyptians believed that when they died their soul went on a long journey to the Afterlife. They also believed that their soul could return to their bodies when they wanted to visit Earth. They needed to make sure that their body was preserved for their return and that it looked its best for the Gods.
Unfortunately there was a ‘death’ in the classroom.
Cleopatra needed our help to prepare her body for this great journey and as we are so helpful we just could not refuse.
First the body was washed with Palm oil and water from the Nile.
Then a metal hook was pushed up the nose into the brain and the brain was scrambled so it could be removed. The brains were thrown away as the Egyptians didn’t think that they were important. The skull was then filled with sawdust.
After that the body was cut on the left hand side so the internal organs could be removed.
The intestines,
...the stomach,
...the liver,
...and the lungs.
All the internal organs were placed in canopic jars to be kept with the body. The heart was left inside the body as they believed that people think, feel and act through their heart.
After that the body was tilted so the liquids could drain from the body.
The cavity was packed with Natron (salt) and the body was also submerged in Natron for 40 days. This was so the body could dry out.
The body was then packed with linen, straw or grass so the body regained its shape and looked good.
Then the body was painted with resin to protect and harden the skin. Strangely enough Cleopatra’s skin was already lovely and hard.
The body had make up applied and a wig so that it represented the person in life and so the soul would recognise its body.
The body was wrapped in linen and prayers were said to help the body on the way. This would take 15 days for the Egyptians to complete this process.
Amulets were placed on the body (like good luck charms) to wish the deceased well on the journey and the body was wrapped again. The body also received a parchment called the ‘Book of the Dead’ which contained prayers and directions to help find the soul find the way to the Afterlife.
Rich people had a death mask made of gold to show what the person liked like. The body would then be put in a mummy case and be placed in a sarcophagus.
When the body arrived in the afterlife the heart was measured to see how your life had been led. If you were good and it was as light as a feather you would join the gods. If it was heavy with bad deeds the soul would be eaten by the god Ammit who looked like a crocodile!
If you would like to try the mummification process there is a great interactive game for you to play on. I am sure the children would love showing you this gruesome process.
Pupil Voice is really important to us – groups of pupils led interesting assemblies today in school. The Litter Picker team praised pupils for using the bins and encouraged them to join their team. The Play Leaders led an assembly all about the games and equipment we use at break times and introduced all the Buddies and Play Leaders by name – everyone is there to help make our playtimes fun and engaging. Well done everyone.
We had a great Halloween activity event this week – pupils enjoyed ‘Thriller’ style dancing, pumpkin biscuits, ghost bananas, ‘severed finger’ hot dogs, lego lanterns, craft and balloon games! Everyone was smiling and having fun – the behaviour and atmosphere were excellent. We also managed to raise some funds for school too!
The children were shown an introduction about magnets on a video clip.
They were then given a bag of materials which they had to sort without using their eyes or their hands. The children remembered seeing a magnet being used to sort out materials in a scrap yard so they decided to do this.
The children found it tricky getting all the materials and they were surprised to find out that some things they thought would be magnetic actually weren't.
The children were confused as some coins were magnetic and others weren't. The children looked at the date they were issued and thought that that this made a difference as to whether the coins were magnetic or not. We wanted to see if our conclusion was right so we research this further to find that different materials were used to make coins after specific dates. Well done class you figured it out!!
Juniper and Pumpkin class look out onto a lovely quad area. We decided to work together to give children the chance to experience gardening and make this a lovely area for the children to learn in. The first job was cleaning the weeds that have grown. The children have loved digging and planting and our first crop of onions are starting to grow.
We have been learning about forces such as push and pull. We looked at how different surfaces can slow moving objects and found out that this is called friction.
The children were given different surfaces to feel and they thought about whether they were rough or smooth. The children were then given a piece of wood, a ruler, masking tape and a car and asked how we could test the friction of these different materials. This took a lot of thought and several different methods of testing were considered. Finally we agreed to attach the materials to a piece of wood and put the car on it. We then raised the wood to see how high it would be before the car started to move. The higher the ramp the more friction the material had caused.
The children had lots of fun investigating this!
Thank you for your support for the MacMillan Coffee Morning held at Stanford Centre today. The pupils performed lovely songs and poems. Everyone enjoyed the cakes and refreshments. Thank you for your donations towards this worthwhile cause.
Thank you Mrs Wink for leading the Summer Reading Challenge – so many pupils have impressed you with their holiday reading! The pupils received a certificate of congratulations and Juniper class received a set of books – they were the class who had the most reads. Mrs Wink says 1750 books have been read by Stanford pupils over summer from the Stanford Library - wow! Children at Stanford have a great love of reading and we are so proud of them. Well done.
Councillor Hasthorpe visited school today to lead an assembly about British Values. The pupils listened really well and discussed values, respect, tolerance and equality. Councillor Hasthorpe explained how Parliament works and the importance of us all working together as one big family to make positive changes for the world. Our pupils felt inspired and classes will be doing more follow up learning on this in their SMSC and Philosophy for Children work. Thank you Councillor Hasthorpe for your time and support.
The children were asked about how the internet works. Although most children could talk about Google and using the internet they could not explain how it works.
We looked at a video about the internet. We tried to send a message on paper and get an answer just like the internet. It took a few minutes and we were still in the same room. We then tried to search the same questions on the internet and compared the time. It is amazing how quickly the internet works when messages sometimes have to go across the world.
We have been reading the book 'The Egyptian Cinderella'. In this story the girl never meets the Pharaoh but because he gets her slipper from the Gods he decides he will marry her. He turns up and tells her she will be his wife and the story ends.
First we looked at various statements about the ending and tried to think about whether they would make the girl happy or not e.g. She will marry the pharaoh and live in a palace. We then thought about the statements and wondered if they would really make her happy - she might not like the pharaoh and she was never asked if she wanted to marry him. We realised that there were positives and negatives to a lot of the statements and it wasn't as straight forward as we originally thought.
We then split into 2 teams and discussed about whether the main character would actually be happy at the end and whether all fairy stories have a happy ending.
In PE the children were set various challenges. First they had to create balances using pointed and flat parts of their bodies. Then they had to work in groups to create balances where they supported and interacted with each other. The children had to use problem solving skills to think about how they could interact and support each other. They also needed to communicate and act as a team. Unfortunately for them every time they met the challenge Miss Perrin added people to the groups to make it more tricky but if you look at the smiles on their faces you can see that they had fun!
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Steve from the County Asset Team visited us to lead an assembly all about the roof building project at school – he talked about the equipment the builders use and the importance of safety. The pupils all listened really well and it seems quite a few family members are working on the roof!
Pumpkin Class were joint winners of the Attendance Cup for the first week commencing 5th September.
Well done everyone! Let's see how many times we can win this cup during the year!!
As we are learning about Egypt we thought we would find where it is. We have a lovely world map in our corridor so we thought we would look for it there. We looked at the different continents and found out that it was in Africa on the northern coast. Azem was surprised to see that it is next to Libya!
We then looked in atlases to find out additional information about the country.
On Thursday 7th September we had a hook day to start off our learning about the Ancient Egyptians. As ever the parents were incredibly supportive and creative with the costumes based upon the theme ‘Egyptians, Mummies and Explorers’. The children looked wonderful.
(Keep the togas safe Mum and Dads as we will be ‘visiting’ the Roman Era in the summer.)
Look at Darcy’s wonderful eye make-up!
This will link into a DT project where the children will design their own canopic jar. The children used kitchen paper towels with glue to cover a plastic cup. The children were full of questions about what these jars were used for, and we will find out about the gory details of the mummification process later this term…..if they can wait that long!
The children learnt about how the Ancient Egyptians invented the earliest paper. They made it from the papyrus plant which is where the word paper comes from. Papyrus was made by splitting the stems of the plant into thin strips and soaking the strips in water. The strips were then placed onto top of each other in a criss-cross pattern. The sheet would then be hit with a mallet to bond the fibres together and then left for a few days to dry with heavy weights on the top. We used strips of newspaper and placed them in a criss-cross pattern. We had to use several layers to make one piece of paper. We then had to leave it until it had thoroughly dried which took 4 days. We are going to try drawing and writing on the paper. What a lot of hard work! Let’s hope we don’t make a mistake as it took days to make 1 sheet!
The children were given a base of 10x10. The children had to first estimate how many cubes it would check. Then they had to look at the base & visualise each layer and work out how many cubes would be in each layer and find the total number of cubes. Finally the children were allowed to get the cubes and check their work. This wasn’t easy as they needed steady hands!! Luckily they had plenty of friends to help.
The children were given paper dolls for them to create Egyptian costumes. The children enjoyed getting creative.
These are just some of the activities we enjoyed. We built pyramids. We tried ‘Walking like an Egyptian’ and we have learnt some Egyptian songs which I am sure you will be hearing the children sing at home.
We had a fabulous day and we had lots of fun!
The school was involved in a project to create a piece of graffiti art promoting anti-bullying. Zoe from Firefly Ceramics worked with the school to create a design and all the children were involved in creating it. Don't you think it looks fantastic? What a wonderful thought that something we helped create will be there for many years for future pupils to see!
The children were really excited to be together as one class and are looking forward to all the wonderful activities ahead of us. We hope you enjoy watching our learning journey in the year ahead!
