Today, we began building our background knowledge on our solar system and how the planet within it orbit (move around) the Sun. We worked in mini crews to make notes as we watched videos that detailed each of the 8 planets and how they each orbit the Sun. Every time we watched something new, we changed the colour of our pen to build upon the knowledge we had already gained from the previous video. We are going to use this knowledge to write a paragraph of what we now know about how the planets move in our next expedition lesson.
Today, Crew Hamill used their place value knowledge to begin ordering 4 digit numbers to 10,000. We used our place value arrow cards to build our numbers so that we could visually see the numbers we were working with. We then began following the steps needed to decide which order they should go in, whether they be in ascending order (smallest to biggest) or descending order (biggest to smallest). We started by looking at the column with the highest value (our thousands) and then working down the columns until we found the digit that would help us decide whether the numbers were bigger or smaller. We were then able to apply this knowledge to some fluency questions in our books.
Crew Hamill have been developing their dodgeball skills over the last few weeks, focusing on the basic skills needed in order to successfully play a game of dodgeball in two teams. Today, we developed our skills further by working on our deflection – using one dodgeball to block a second that is being thrown towards us. We began by working in 3s with one person throwing the ball to a second person who was to deflect it towards the third person. We then put these skills to the test during some mini games. One person in each team had a ‘golden ball’ which they were not allowed to drop. Their role was to deflect any balls that came towards them. BUT, they had to be really careful because if they dropped their golden ball, they were OUT! We cannot wait to develop these skills further in our next PE session!
Today we continued our expeditionary learning and started to find out about the Blitz and the impact it had. We looked at the areas affected by the Blitz and how British civilians responded. One of the activities allowed us to explore different pictures thinking about what we could see, what we thought was happening and what we wondered about the pictures. We showed some great collaborative working during this activity and all shared our ideas during our whip around.
Today we thought about the people we can ask for help and support if needed. We created an anchor chart of these people in school and thought about how they help us. We then listened to a song and thought about the lyrics and the meaning behind the words. We loved unpicking this together and discussing our thoughts. We then had a go at singing the song 🙂 There were so many happy faces as everyone joined in and had a go. There was even a few hugs happening which was so lovely to see. We then thought more about our families and the people that show us support day to day. We voiced what these people do for us and why they are special.
We have been really interested by the creative area when accessing provision. There have been lots of beautiful pieces of artwork created by our budding artists in Crew McGlone! We have looked at the equipment needed to create a painting and have practise putting it to good use to create our masterpieces.
We became designers in our expedition lesson. We followed Miss Marsh’s instructions carefully to make our castles, then once they were finished we tested their strength using tennis balls.
We came to the conclusion that paper is not a suitable material for a castle and that stone is better because it is much stronger to withstand an attack from an enemy.
We’d like all parent/carers opinions on school dinners, including those who’s children have packed lunches. XP Trust would like as many children as we can having delicious healthy meals so your and your child’s opinions are important to us. Children will be asked about their dinners at school but it would be good to have parent/carer opinions too.
Yorkshire Sport Foundation – Opening School Facilities at Plover
Check out this actively awesome video courtesy of Yorkshire Sport Foundation. The children and staff at Plover were superstars in explaining their positive experiences regarding the OSF funding they secured last year, to provide after school and community clubs! Plover have been lucky enough to secure some OSF funding this year too, so watch this space for Community Clubs starting in October! #LovePlover
Beautiful Curation!
We don’t just ensure our work is made public – it needs to live inside our school communities, too! More beautiful work has been curated at Plover School, celebrating their ‘Pride of Plover’ award winners and recent Expedition products!
‘If we get staff Crew right, we get everything right…’
One of our great friends and mentors, Ron Berger, once said to us that ‘staff culture can never outpace student culture.’ With this firmly at the forefront of our minds we set out last week on our bi-annual outdoor staff induction process with a group of educators from across our Trust.
We headed out into the wilderness to answer the guiding question, ‘What does it mean to be Crew?’ through a number of shared experiences and activities our Crew formed very quickly. We explored the purpose of Crew deeply and considered how we could make Crew even stronger on our return to our respective schools so that we continue to create the culture in which our students grow their character and make our community and the world a better place for everyone.
Below is an immediate reflection from one of our XP educators:
‘This experience has helped me to understand the building of community. The support that other members of our Crew showed this week has been immense. There have been some activities that have been challenging but everybody has been supportive whilst giving positive challenge so that everybody has been able to push themselves in a safe environment where everybody trusts each other and it’s lifted me and made me feel that I can achieve anything I put my mind to with the support of other people.’ – Louise
It was an honour and privilege to support and challenge our adults to reflect on the imperative we all have at XP to become and create great learners and even better human beings!
