Starstones 2 Celebrate Chinese New Year

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Miss Wittman

Week two of our ‘Around the World’ topic – we met “San Hannah” from China! She brought in a box of very special objects from her country that we were allowed to explore. We then used her objects to help us role play a visit to China.

We tried to use chopsticks but it was very tricky!! Instead we sorted out objects using lolly pop sticks.

We went back in time with Barnaby Bear and found out all about the ‘Great Wall of China” and used the wooden blocks to build our own.

We used a variety of media to make Chinese lanterns.

We discovered all the ingredients that make a Chinese stir fry:

We even tried ‘Green Tea’ ……

…… and learnt about measuring capacity at the same time!

We looked at Chinese symbols and practised writing on our creative table.

Finally we read a story all about the festival ‘Chinese New Year’. We talked about how they celebrated this festival and decided to have our own because we had worked hard to fill up the treasure chest. So we made a dragon to parade through Foundation and performed a dance to Moonstones. Then we played pass the lucky pouch before eating a special snack of fortune cookies

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Teddy Bear’s Picnic!

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Mrs Cook

If you go down to the woods today, be sure of a big surprise! As part of our “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” topic, Moonstones held a teddy bear’s picnic. All the children brought in their own teddy bear and we enjoyed a yummy snack in the sunshine. We talked about healthy food and we all designed placemats with fruit and vegetables on them to help us to remember what is good for us.

A huge thank goes out to all the parents who donated food for our picnic. It was a proper feast!

We cant wait to eat them!!

The children also made Teddy Bear biscuits at the end of the week which were DELICIOUS!

Yum yum!!!!

We all have a turn at stirring the bowl!

Even our teddies had a lovely time!

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Friday Marble Treat for Pearl Class.

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Mrs Glester

I love our marble treats!!!

Pearl class had worked hard for their Friday marble treat. The class had voted on 4 different treats and having Hot Dogs was the favorite, so on Friday afternoon we cooked up some hot dogs and made cheese rolls for those children who didn’t want the hot dogs. I think the photo says it all really as to how much the children enjoyed their well earned treat.

Here’s to the next treat which will be decided on Monday.

Well done Pearl class you really deserved this treat. Let’s get the marble jar filled up ready for the next treat!!!

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What A Wet Day!

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Mrs Hudson

Well here we are on day 3. The combination of a busy day yesterday and a late night at the campfire made for a much better nights sleep. Night patrol for the staff was much more relaxing with even the chance of a cup of tea and some sweet treats.

Bright and early this morning, we all got dressed and showered ready for our room inspection and breakfast. We all scored well on the tidying and enjoyed a tasty meal of sausage, egg and beans. After breakfast, we had to get ourselves prepared for water sports activities.

Filled with excitement, we all hot footed it up to the water sports chalet to meet our instructors and get all of the equipment. With a wiggle and a squeeze we made it into our wetsuits (with only one split bottom seam!) and listened to the safety talk carefully.

The beach was a little walk from the centre along some twisty paths; very tricky to manouvre an oar or padel through these but we all made it in one piece. When we arrived at the beach, we used our excellent listening skills again to make sure that we all stayed safe and had fun. Miss Surman had one final check that she had the correct footwear on and then it was time to take to the water.

Everyone really enjoyed their time in the canoes and kayaks even if we needed a little helping hand at first. Miss Bairstow even lost a shoe in the quicksand and had to borrow Miss Surman’s to walk home. Thank goodness for the emergency high heels in Miss Surman’s rucsack!

Back at PGL, we all warmed up with a hot shower then enjoyed a lunch of burgers, chips and salad. I hope we will have enough energy to enjoy our afternoon activities and of course, the disco!

Tight squeeze!

OOOOPS!!!

“Thisis great fun!”

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A fun filled afternoon

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Mrs Hudson

What a busy day! Thank goodness for a rest, cup of warm tea and a chance to blog. After a carb filled lunch (to recharge our batteries) of wraps, spicy chicken or beef and nachos, we have all taken part in 2 more fantastic activities. Mrs Hudson was particularly excited about the aeroball activity as we had told her all about it this morning and she eagerly listened to the instructions before smashing the ball in the goal.

What good listening skills you have!

Some of us learnt some great survival skills today. How to build a shelter and start a camp fire using flint. It was a tricky and physical task that needed a lot of team work and concentration but we got there in the end. I’m not sure I would want to test the shelters out in the bad weather though!

Smile!

You can do it!

We better go now and catch up with Mrs Hudson and the others at the campfire, singing songs and enjoying toasted marshmallows. (I hope they saved us one) Pictures will follow tomorrow. Fingers crossed for an early night tonight. Miss Surman and Miss Bairstow

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Up Bright and Early!

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Mrs Hudson

Well we thought it must be too good to be true when all the children were fast asleep (or at least quiet and settled) by 11:30pm and we were right!! We hadn’t quite bargained on a 5am wake up call but there you go, Y6 are always surprising us!!! After a quick reminder about the times we should be waking up, they settled back down again until room inspection. There were not many surprises on this front with the girls clearly beating the boys to the tidiest (and slightly nicer smelling!) rooms. Then it was off to breakfast . . . bacon, mushrooms, spaghetti, toast, cereal and a few even had their first taste of porridge to earn a few room points back!!!

Then we were onto our activities. The groups spent the morning doing Aeroball, Zip Wire and Archery and fantastic fun has been had by all. There were a few nerves and tears on the zip wire but once Miss Surman composed herself she was ok!!!!! All of the staff participated actively and Mr Pearson was lucky enough to secure himself a knife, fork and spoon to eat his dinner with due to his archery precision!!! Aeroball was a new venture this year and has so far proved to be the most popular.

We are off to lunch now and we will blog again as soon as we can.

Getting kitted out for the Zip Wire.

Some people are just far too excited!!

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Night Hike

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Mrs Hudson

Apologies that the blog posts are not going up as quickly as we would like. The PGL centre have us on a very full and very strict timetable and I am not getting as much time to blog as I would hope for! I will post the blogs at every available opportunity!

On Friday night we took off on a night hike around the country lanes that surround the PGL centre and we had great fun. The PGL staff made sure we were kept nice and safe as we had to be aware that there were drop spiders and drop bears lurking in the trees. We also saw some houses that belong to the rich and famous and by the time we got back we were all ready for a hot shower before bedtime.

Beware of the drop spiders!

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And they’re off . . .

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Mrs Hudson

Well at long last, the day finally arrived. After working their socks off all week on the SATs tests Y6 have set off on their well-deserved holiday to the Isle of Wight. After a calm and steady morning, it was time to get on the coach and we were a little excited to say the least!!

After a short coach journey to Southampton, it was time to get on the ferry. We quickly settled ourselves on the seats outside and enjoyed waving goodbye to the mainland as we set sail for the Isle of Wight. It was avery calm journey and the sun even made a brief appearance for us.

It was only a short distance from East Cowes to the PGL site and, before we knew it, we were checking in and meeting our leaders. Scott, Connor and Georgie explained all the rules to us and we listened really carefully.

THEN . . . it was time to unpack our belongings and settle into our rooms. Interestingly, the boys made short work of getting their rooms spic and span and the Room Points were allocated accordingly.

It didn’t take us long to unpack and then the time we had all been waiting for . . . DINNER TIME!!!! The options were roast pork or battered cod, with potato wedges, peas, carrots, salad bar and waffle with toffee sauce. DELICIOUS. Many of the children had seconds or thirds and there was even a ‘fourths’ for one person!!! At the end of our meal we sang Happy Birthday to Jack and we are looking forward to sharing his birthday cake after our night hike. We are off on that at 7:30pm and we’ll update you with more pictures from that later. We are missing you all lots but having LOADS of fun!!