Eco at Boundary: Blog items
Year 5 - Mastering Practical DT Skills
Date: 10th Feb 2025 @ 5:13pm
Today, pupils in year 5 have begun construction of their DT products. They are making eco-friendly 'bug hotels' which are constructed from a frame structure. In this lesson, pupils practised the skills of measuring, sawing and sanding to make the pieces of their frame structures from wood. Next we will start to contruct the frame, before adding sides and some shelter for the insects. Come back for more updates over the next week.
School Council- OPAL Primary Play ideas.
Date: 30th Jan 2025 @ 2:28pm
The School Council had an important meeting with Mrs Webster regarding new sustainable play ideas for KS1 and KS2 to improve the quality of play at playtime.
They looked at lots of ideas for messy play, physical play, construction play, ball play etc and gave their ideas of what the children would like to use on the playground during playtimes.
This will help support and develop children's physical,social and emotional wellbeing as well as their mental health. They were all very excited about the prospect of a range of new and recycled equipment to use during their playtime.
"I'd love to role play, dress up and dance- it would be fun!" Izzy.
"I'd like to build with Lego" Elliott.
"Maybe we could have bikes some days or scooters..." Lewis.
"I like playing with small world figures" Jack.
Date: 30th Jan 2025 @ 1:04pm
Year 4 took part in their first Forest School of the year today.
The children built dens, an musical theatre, played in the mud kitchen and spotted creatures. The children really enjoyed their time outdoors despite the mud!
Date: 8th Jan 2025 @ 6:03pm
Today we began to discuss our key question in RE, ‘How might beliefs about creation affect the way people treat the world?’ Our lesson involved learning about how we should treat the environment, why it is important and whose responsibility it is. We did this through looking at images and real life nature examples. We went on a nature walk to collect lots of natural resources and we then used these natural resources to create transient nature pictures. After this, we looked at a number of images and decided which are examples of looking after the environment and which are not. We sorted them together, verbally discussing and justifying each example.
Date: 29th Nov 2024 @ 11:16am
This week Acorns have been exploring habitats. We have engaged in a variety of multisensory activities to develop our curiosity and understanding.
We have enjoyed our tuff tray of different environments, singing the habitat song and looking at the different animals and where they live.
Date: 22nd Nov 2024 @ 10:49am
This week was the start of Switch- Off Week!
It was launched on Monday with an assembly reminding children of the of how to save electricity and the reasons why.
The Eco Warriors read the electricity meter on Monday and they will be monitoring the number of lights and plugs that are switched off around school.
"We need to switch off electricity to save money- electriciry is expensive" Hannah- May.
"I will make sure we don't boil the kettle with too much water in it" Lyra- Rose.
"I will switch off my Play Station when I've finished with it" Logan
Eco- A Micro Wood on Grange Park.
Date: 22nd Nov 2024 @ 10:16am
This week, the Eco Warriors were invited to take part in planting trees to create a micro wood on Grange Park.
They planted various different young trees with other local schools and members of the community.
Jenni from Treescape, Lancashire explained how the micro wood was for everyone in the community to enjoy over the years. and the Eco Warriors were excited to discover that some of the trees planted were the same as the names of our classes in school, such as Oak and Hawthorn.
"I will come here with my mum and look at how they have grown" Lyra- Rose.
"I have an oak tree in my garden- it grows acorns" Lacey
"I planted about twenty five trees this morning and then I lost count. It was really good planting them near our school" Damien.
" I hope that hedgehogs will find a home in the woods" Hannah- May.
Date: 13th Nov 2024 @ 9:44pm
Today, the Eco Warriors had the chance to visit the Blackpool waste vehicle- Dennis to the Rescue!
They learnt about local issues, such as litter, dog fouling, beach waste and recycling. They then had the opportunity to plant a pine cone which will hopefully, over time, grow into a tree.
Date: 5th Nov 2024 @ 4:09pm
Mrs McAllister's Gardening Club have been busy tidying the school grounds to get ready for Winter. They have also been planting bulbs for Spring and learning about the lifecycle of a flower and that flowers can grow from bulbs. It is also important to enhance the school grounds so that they look neat, tidy and pretty and attractive to pollinators and wildlife too.
Eco- Welcome to our new Eco Warriors.
Date: 4th Nov 2024 @ 5:43pm
It was the first meeting of the school year with our new Eco Warriors.
We chatted about how we can have an impact on the school with our environmental action and learning and that we need to keep thinking about new ideas to discuss at our meetings. In November, there will be Switch Off Week to get ready for and also planting trees at @thegrange with Treescape to create a micro forest.
Watch this space for more environmental work and ideas.
Date: 18th Oct 2024 @ 10:40am
On Thursday, Reception visited Forest School with Jenna and Emma.
We had a great time listening to a story, searching for bugs and making homes for them using leaves and twigs that we found. All the children worked together, helping each other and sharing what they had found.
"I can't believe we have found slug eggs!" Kevin.
"Worms come up through the soil" Dennis.
"Look! I've found a bug under the log" Harley.
"I made a house for my bug from leaves and some mud" Hazel.
"I've found a secret path in the trees" Harry.
Year 2- Forest School Fun Part 2
Date: 3rd Oct 2024 @ 10:43pm
This week in forest school we had another fantastic session and managed to enjoy some sunshine! We started by discussing who can help us in case of an emergency on a mountain side and made ourself an emergency shelter before exploring the areas. We said we wanted to focus on frogs so we discussed a frogs habitat, life cycle and food chain before going pond dipping to see what wildlife we could find. We found: water beetles, worms and even a dragonfly nymph that was wrapped up, keeping warm in the pond weed.
Year 5 - Wellbeing and Mental Health
Date: 26th Sep 2024 @ 10:19am
In this lesson we looked at the words Mental Health and Wellbeing and we defined them in our own words.
In small groups we discussed and recorded what these words mean to us; we took part in a quiz to help us understand that our emotions, thoughts and feelings (and the choices we make) can affect our Mental Health and Wellbeing.
We watched a video that suggested some great ideas about the type of things we can do to improve our own Mental Health and Wellbeing and finally, we came up with our own top tips for ourselves and others!
Date: 19th Sep 2024 @ 7:40am
This week in Geography we have used fieldwork to identify the features of our school grounds. We went out into our school environment to explore the main features we could see and identify them on a birds eye view map.
Date: 15th Sep 2024 @ 7:52pm
This week, Year Two continued their learning of Living things and their habitats by going into our School grounds and forest school area to find what microhabitats we have around us and the minibeasts we could find in each habitat. We looked under logs and wooden objects, in the long grass as well as looking at the pond. We found: a ladybird, slugs, snails, woodlouse and spiders. We then discussed the conditions in each of the microhabitats that made it suitable for each of the minibeasts.
Date: 6th Sep 2024 @ 10:53am
This week year 5 pupils have been back at forest school. We picked loads of fruit from the trees and found plenty of young frogs in the forest area. Pupils made ridge-line shelters, chopped wood and played a variety of games.
Date: 13th Jul 2024 @ 2:06pm
Thoughout the year, Gardening Club have been busy developing our school grounds.
They have collected and planted seeds from the flowers, planted bulbs for the Spring, planted vegetables and fruit and cleared weeds. They have met every week, for most of the school year, and have not stopped.
"Not as much grows in Winter as it is too cold" Connor
"We take the seeds off the Sunflower in Autumn so we can plant them in Spring to grow in the Summer" Neel
"We need to weed so we can plant the seeds" Charlotte.
"The plants need the sunshine as it is warm and then the strawberries will grow. We will water them if it doesn't rain" Lauren
"We picked the strawberries and ate them at the end of the club- they were so juicy and sweet" Gracie
Eco Warriors- Let's Count - Waste Week.
Date: 8th Jul 2024 @ 2:46pm
This year we participated in the Eco School's Waste Week- Let's Count!
It was launched with a whole school assembly where we looked at the amount of plastic we were able to recycle and what we weren't able to. It was quite astonishing only a very small percentage is actually able to be recycled- the rest goes to landfill.
As part of our BLT (Boundary Learning Together) each child took home a tally sheet where they counted the amount of different plastics they had in their house and compared how many items they were actually able to recycle.
We decided that, as a school, we needed to be mindful of buying items in a plastic container and, where possible, try not to use single use plastics.
Year 4- Congratulations Albie!
Date: 4th Jul 2024 @ 5:24pm
Earlier this year, Albie was entered into a creative writing competition called 'Once Upon A Dream- A Collection of Fantastic Words!' He wrote a poem which was about the dangers that our planet faces and how we can save it. This week, we recieved the fantastic news that Albie has been selected for his work to be published in a book! We are so proud of you Albie and we look forward to buying some copies of the book for our library!
Date: 4th Jul 2024 @ 2:29pm
In Geography, we learnt all about pollution that affects the coast. We considered how it this pollution happens and what damage it causes. We then thought about how we could solve our pollution problem and decided to go on a litter pick! We were shocked at how much we found and made a promise to keep our school clean!
Acorns - Supertato and Health week
Date: 30th Jun 2024 @ 5:40pm
Acorns have been celebrating Health & Well-Being week this week through a variety of activities. Firstly, our very successful interactive sports session which we all loved. Our sensory story was Supertato. We loved listening to the story and exploring the Superveggies!! We had a selection of vegetables to touch, smell and taste before matching them to the correct cards. We also made fruit kebabs and loved tasting a variety of fruit and strengthening our fine motor skills, threading the fruit onto skewers. We counted potatoes and vegetables during maths and even made our own Supertato art work. We finished the week off wearing bright and sporty outfits and developing some turn taking skills during our activities.
Date: 27th Jun 2024 @ 4:36pm
As part of the whole school Health Week, Nursery read the story "Handa's Surprise" and talked about all the deliccious healthy fruit Handa has in her basket. We then tasted pineapple, mango, avocado and pomegranate (Mrs Welch couldn't find a passion fruit in Aldi!). The children loved describing the fruit and said "It's so sweet". "It's juicy" "It's slimey" and "Yuk! I don't like that" when they tasted avocado!
Date: 27th Jun 2024 @ 2:53pm
This week the children in year 5 were visited by the School Nurse. She spoke to the children about the importance of exercise, sleeping and having a healthy diet. SHe also gave us some advise on how to brush our teeth and look after them properly.
Date: 19th Jun 2024 @ 5:01pm
Today we visited Martin Mere Wetland Centre as part of our Science consolidation. We got to explore the wetlands and see the different animals that habit there and looked at some of their features. We also completed some activities to help us connect with nature and become friends with it and value the things we have in natural environments.
Date: 13th Jun 2024 @ 2:29pm
Coats and rain in June! But it didn't stop our Forest School fun this week. We have four sessions this half term. Today we did some activities to show off our listening skills before some free time fruit picking.
