Year 5 and 6 G&T Super Learning Day
Denefield School
Wednesday 18 May 2011
Reported by Jamie Matthews and Josie Elliott, Year 9
Today a group of 56 Year 5 & 6 students from Downsway, Westwood Farm and Long Lane Primary Schools came to visit Denefield School. They had the chance to experience some of the opportunities and challenges that it offers its students in a series of environmentally themed workshops.
These included subject bases in English, French, design technology and scienceAfter a brief introduction, the pupils were divided into four groups which mixed up the three schools and gave the children a chance to make new friends. Each group did two of the workshops, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with breaks and a quiz in the library in between.
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The English workshop was also held in the library: it was centred around poetry with the theme of the environment and nature in the 21st century. The children listened to music and drew what they heard to get their creative thoughts flowing. They then drew metaphors and similies so that they could learn about imagery. This imagery linked into understanding a small section of poems, for which the children created freeze frames, which ultimately helped them to write their own poems. However, these were no ordinary nature poems. The words were supported by pictures taken from magazines, sounds from instruments played by the children and in one case even a bit of dancing.
Just down the stairs from this, the French workshop on ‘Trashion’ was being held. The children made headbands, bracelets, dresses, tops and shoes, but to carry on the environmental theme, they made all the clothes from pieces of ‘trash’ such as milk cartons, scrap material and other such assorted items. The children enjoyed the freedom that the activity provided and worked hard on providing a commentary to the garments in French. They were helped by members of staff and Year 8 Denefield students. The workshop was concluded by a fashion show catwalk across the tables with the finished French commentary read out by the children. To add to the professional vibe, the lights were turned down and French music was played in the background. The students said: ‘It gave us an idea of what it would be like to be a designer.’
For the design technology project, students were asked to design and create an exciting ‘fun recycling bin’ which would appeal to children. This was the messiest workshop of the four, with a mad rush to finish at the end. The bright and colourful bins produced were well worth the paint sprayed tables and PVA puddles. The students were pleased with the results and said: ‘It was fun because we got really messy doing it.’
Finally, the science workshop was extremely popular as students had to make a miniature car powered by solar energy which could carrying a ping-pong ball. This was an enjoyable challenge. Once the students had finished decorating their vehicles, they raced each other powered by a light over their car’s solar panel all the way to the finish line. In the morning, Team Pongy Ping won with their quick and well-developed solar car with a speed of 0.53 metres per second!
The quiz that took place just after lunch was entitled ‘Are You Smarter Than Homer Simpson?’ and included questions on the environment and current topics, such as ‘Who won the Eurovision Song Contest this year?’ The questions were multiple choice and enjoyed by all, even by the teachers who found it difficult not to shout out the answers! The winning team scored a very respectable 11 out of 12.
Overall, the environmentally themed day was a great success and, if you asked the children, fun came across as the main theme. Their final projects were inspired and original and each child had learned something from the experience whether more information on how we can help the environment or how to manage a team of people successfully. The day was concluded with a prize giving for the best products made and the most innovative students, as well as certificates for all, which left everyone beaming. Adding to this, it made those children who are coming to Denefield in a year or two, look forward to joining the school. Everyone said they would love to come again to another Super Learning Day!