We were lucky enough to be visited this Week by Viggo's mum, Rose, who is a secondary school physics teacher. She ran a special interactive session for Class 6 all about static electricity. We started out by finding out about what static electricity is through some discussion, demonstrations and online simulations. After that we used gold leaf electroscopes to measure the amount of static electricity we could generate by rubbing plastic rods and other objects with a fabric cloth. Finally, we had great fun experiencing the hair-raising power of the Van de Graaff generator. We had a brilliant afternoon and can't thank Rose enough for coming in to work with us.
Class 6 had a super trip to the Royal Engineers museum in Gillingham. In support of our First World War History topic, we took part in three workshops. In the first we learnt about life in the trenches on the Western Front, visiting the replica trench and handling real First world War trench artefacts to try and work out what they were. In our second workshop we made two poppies, one to bring home and one to place on the memorial inside the museum, before holding our own two minutes silence. In our final workshop, we learnt about local WW1 flying ace James McCudden and the medals he was awarded. The children used clay and craft materials to make their own version of one of James' medals. We also had free time to explore the Museum's many exhibits.
Ending our our term on Earth and Space with a bang, we launched two rockets from the school playground. The first flight went perfectly and the rocket was easily recovered from the school car park. For the second flight, we foolishly used a more powerful rocket motor, and we are still looking for our rocket! If you find it, could you please drop it into school.
We have been learning how to program two micro:bits to communicate with each other using BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). Once we'd learned how to do it, we were able to use one micro:bit as a remote control to operate a motorized vehicle that which had a second micro:bit activating the motors. The children had to decide how the inputs on the first micro:bit would affect the robot and then write all the code themselves. Finally, we raced the robots through a predetermined course. We held a series of heats, two semifinals and a final to find the winning team. All the groups did brilliantly and there were some very close races!
Photos courtesy of Mrs Hatswell :)
It’s all over! We had a wonderful final day. We had to drag the children out of bed this morning after the previous day’s exertions! After breakfast and packing up our things we started with a mini-beast hunt. We built a bug hotel and one group found a newt! Next, the boys’ group smashed the camp record with their amazing teamwork in one of the problem-solving challenges. The other two groups tackled the obstacle course. After lunch, we visited the shop to make some deliciously irresponsible impulse purchases, before heading to the zip wire to end the trip.
We still have lots of fun activities left, but this morning we had to pack up all our things ready for our departure at 4:00pm!
It’s amazing how much you can fit into a day if you all get up at 5:30 am! We’ve done climbing, archery, orienteering, aeroball, the 5g swing, a scavenger hunt and an obstacle challenge. News that we had not been scheduled a disco put some of the girls in a mutinous mood, until Mrs Garrett managed to sweet-talk one of the administrators. I type this, wallflower-style, from the corner of a darkened room as the children bounce around whilst chanting along to Livin’ on a Prayer. After the disco, we are competing in a Scrap Heap Challenge! It has all been amazing - but thoroughly exhausting. Surely they’ll sleep beyond 5:30 tomorrow! 🤞🏻
We’ve had a great first day and have packed lots in already. We played a game of rounders when we arrived and a few games of Werewolf. We found all our rooms and made our beds! One group had a go at the climbing wall, while two groups tackled some fun problem solving activities. We had a lovely meal earlier, before a friendly game of basketball, and we are now doing a mini-Olympics featuring some crazy relay races. After all this, I’m certain that all the children will be asleep as soon as their heads hit their pillows!