Children's University

Last school year, the children in Years 3 - 6 had the opportunity to learn and develop a new skill through our exciting Children's University.  Although we didn't get to run the full courses, look below to see what they managed to achieve! 

Wednesday 5th February

First Aid

In this session, we looked at emergency service situations.  We discussed how we would respond in different situations and which would be the best emergency service to call.  We then sorted situations into ‘accident’ or ‘emergency’, before finishing with our tasty hot chocolates!

 

Cake decorating

After perfecting our skills in the previous two sessions, today we began to think about how we could put what we have learnt into practice by designing our own biscuit toppers and planning the steps that we would need to take to make them.  They look fantastic! 

 

Macrame

​​This week we practised a square knot as we are using this knot in the wall hangings we plan to make next term.  After we were competent at the square knot, we started our wall hangings by tying our threads onto sticks that we collected from the playground. 

 

Juggling

This time in Children's University, we considered the need to have quick hands and quick minds when we're juggling. So we played a game akin to netball, where we had to pass a ball around, with only a short period of time to catch, choose where to throw the ball and then release it. 

We continued to try pair juggling and individual juggling, again practising the need to stay on the spot. The need for an accurate throw is also fundamental and the children are getting to grips with this.

The children are becoming more confident with juggling two balls and a few are able to juggle three balls for short periods of time. It takes a lot of resilience and concentration to learn juggling, so well done to all the children for continuing to soldier on!

 

Archery

This term in Archery we familiarised ourselves with the correct technique of shooting the bow and arrow, including all safety aspects and why safe zones needed to be set out. We then went into a fun Archery shooting competition, where each individual child scored for their team.

 

Ceramics

This week, some children chose to make some hanging heart ornaments for Valentine’s Day, designing them in their own unique ways.   Some children used ink and stencilling on plaques they had designed and others made miniature framed paintings, one inspired by their recent visit to The National Gallery (Van Gough, sunflowers).  In addition, one child has designed and made an amazing bowl that they will paint next term.  We are all learning from trial and error and understand that by making mistakes and persevering, we better learn how to succeed in our vision.  All children are enthusiastic and a real credit to themselves.

 

Fashion Design

 In this session, our focus was colourful silhouettes, applying some of our learning in the previous sessions to design an outfit.  Once again, the children impressed with their creativity and attention to detail, particularly with the addition of accessories! 

 

Latin

In this session, we finished off our Latin birthday cards or party invitations and continued reading the story of the Roman birthday party in Latin.  We learnt parts of the verb, to be and greetings to one or more people.  We spent quite a bit of time (because the children enjoy trying to catch me out) on etymology; they only came up with 2 or 3 words out of a dozen or more that weren't clearly Latin.  They're really getting the idea of how heavily based on Latin English is.  Some also worked on Latin adjectives and descriptions of the family in the story.

 

Majorettes

Session 3 saw the girls practising really hard on their routine for the upcoming graduation.  We worked on a brilliant 'ending', incorporating flag and wheel batons.  The girls have amazed me in every session, working together well and just being so enthusiastic!

 

Wednesday 11th December

First Aid

In this session, we recapped our learning about kitchen safety by making hot drinks, using a toaster and discussing safe use of knives.  Then, we worked on emergency care; what would we do in an emergency situation?  We role played situations where the injured person may need some assistance, looking for danger first and making sure we keep ourselves safe.  Then, we learnt how to apply bandages on different types of injury in different situations.

 

Macrame

In our second macramé session, we made a plant hanger.  The children had to learn to knot threads using simple knots but in a particular order.  Recognising where to place the knots was quite tricky but the children all got the hang of it in the end, especially as they were very happy to help one another.

     

 

Juggling

In juggling this term, we continued to learn how to juggle three balls, using a variety of equipment, including the children getting their hands on real juggling balls.  Some of the children are now able to juggle three balls, whilst all the children managed to juggle properly with two balls.  We also worked as teams of two to juggle in groups, each child either acting as the left hand or the right hand.

   

 

Ceramics

In this session, we enjoyed planning, designing and decorating hanging Christmas decorations.  Mrs Sedgemore was very impressed with our ideas , creativity and focus.

   

 

Fashion Design

The focus for this session was collage.  We used a range of colours and patterns to design outfits to reflect different seasons, showing great imagination and creativity, resulting in a fantastic calendar! 

   

 

Latin

We read more of the story in Latin of our Roman family in the north of England, asking each other our names in Latin and responding with our Latin names.  We read a genuine birthday invitation from one Roman child to another and created our own Latin birthday cards.

 

Majorettes

This session the children all worked extremely hard!  We put together a routine with music, learning some more new skills along the way.  We learned some struts and dance steps as well as how to dance and twirl together, then spent time practising all this in order to master staying in time with one another.

 

 Cake decorating

This week, we used sugar paste to make Christmas decorations.  We made a mixture of snowflakes, crosses, snowmen, Christmas trees and baubles.  We all used a variety of cutters and were able to colour the fondant independently.  Lots of fun was had…plus a little biscuit eating!

    

 

Archery

   

 

Wednesday 9th October

First Aid

We had a lovely first session!  We began by discussing what the children already knew about First Aid, how important it is and made a poster.  We then looked at a First Aid kit before focusing on dangers around the home, including the garden and kitchen.  We created instructions on how to be safe using a kettle and then we used these steps to go and make a hot chocolate.  Yum!

   

 

Cake decorating

Today we covered the basics of working with fondant and how to manipulate and colour it. We used cutters of different shapes to make a base of a cupcake topper and then the children were free to create a design of their own to place on top. They all had a great time and the time flew past so quickly we ran out of time to get onto the next stage!

  

  

 

Macrame

​In their first session the children learned to do a simple (but effective!) knot and created a key ring decoration.  For the decoration, I first prepared, cut and knotted the thread.  However, after they had finished their decoration, I taught them how to prepare the threads themselves in order that they can make their own at home. 

  

 

Juggling

True juggling is quite a difficult skill to pick up. The children made a fantastic effort and kept persevering throughout and encouraged each other as well. Firstly, we practiced throwing and catching with bean bags, soft balls and plastic carrier bags (which float much slower than bean bags and balls). The children then chose what equipment they were most comfortable with and spent time trying to juggle one ball, two balls and some even got onto using three balls. The key is to get those throws just right: relaxed, at a consistent speed and at the correct height (just above the head). All the children need to keep practicing before the next session, when we will pick up where we left off and hopefully introduce a new challenge.

 

Archery

Today we had an introduction into the history of Archery (when and why was it created and how is it played today).  We then made posters in small groups to show the information. In the next session we will put theory into practice and learn how to shoot the bow and arrow. 

 

Ceramics

Today in ceramics the children researched using the internet to gather inspiration, to create their models/creations.  The children planned their drawings on paper and used different technique when moulding the clay. They have created some amazing works already and we have been so impressed with them all.

  

  

 

Fashion Design

In this session, we began with a lesson in anatomy! We explored the ‘9 head model’ to develop a figure outline. Once this was in place, we could use it create our first designs. The first brief was for a ball gown. The children drew some beautiful designs and created a range of textures using watercolours. You could even get a feeling of the textiles being used! The next challenge was to design an outfit with culottes and Breton stripes.

  

 

Latin

We spent a lot of the afternoon discussing: etymology, Romance languages, the applications of Latin today, why it is useful, why we still study it, its influence on English and other languages  and how it used to be taught.  We also had a quick look at some ancient Greek, being the other language of classics.  We started our book: Minimus, and have given ourselves Roman names and know how to say 'I am...' in Latin.  We have met the family in the book and understand they are a real family, from a real Roman town.  We looked at the Vindlandae website to see the excavations.  We understand the order of verb and subject, gender of nouns and the use of capitals.  We understand inflexion, and how this gives Latin its exactitude.

 

Majorettes

Our first session of majorettes was fantastic!  The children learnt how to march in time with each other and were even incorporating their arms too.  They also learnt some twirls using a baton. They all mastered horizontal twirl (flat spin) and a few even showed off having learnt to do a wrist roll!  Most had a taster of some other equipment such as flag baton, pompoms and ribbons.  All in all a great start!