Year 5 - Children’s Literature Festival
On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to walk down to Darwen Library to participate in Blackburn with Darwen’s Children’s Literature Festival. We had the privilege of talking to Sarah Surgey, author of books such as Subject Society, Jumping Hurdles and The Heavy Bag. She gave us a great insight into the process of writing and the business of publishing, before reading some of her latest book. The children asked some really interesting questions and we all enjoyed this rare opportunity to gain advice and understanding from an accomplished professional.
Refugee Week: Year 3 Bubble Collection
As part of Refugee Week, Year 3 asked everyone to collect bubbles to support DARE. The bubble donations were picked up yesterday by the Darwen Asylum Refugee Enterprise (DARE). Year 3 is so proud of the fantastic response, and these items will now go directly to bringing joy and smiles to the children and families supported by DARE.
English-Year 3 Celebrate Refugee Week at the Global Tea Party!
As part of their learning this week, Year 3 have been exploring what it means to be a refugee or an asylum seeker. The children learned about some of the real challenges these individuals face, including the fact that asylum seekers are often given just under £37.00 to live on for an entire week. Discovering this really brought home the importance of our community efforts, helping the children see firsthand how much of a difference the bubble donations will make for families budgeting on so little. The children were also invited to a wonderful global tea party, where they experienced diverse cultures by tasting food from Greece, Palestine, Africa, Kurdistan, Sri Lanka and Italy. Year 3 were absolute superstars at the event, they represented the school exceptionally and truly sang their hearts out! As a special treat, the event organisers handed each child a small bag of sweets. Year 3, now fully appreciate how far our community's generosity will go in bringing joy to the children and families supported by the Darwen Asylum Refugee Enterprise (DARE). We are incredibly proud of their maturity and enthusiasm today!
Year 6 - Darwen Literature Festival
Today, the children visited Darwen Library as part of the Darwen Literature Festival. During their visit, they had the exciting opportunity to meet author Ben Davis, who shared some of his stories and spoke about his experiences as a writer. The children thoroughly enjoyed listening to his engaging tales, learning about the creative writing process and asking thoughtful questions. It was a fantastic experience that inspired a love of reading and storytelling among the children.
Year 1: Darwen Literature Festival
Year 1 were lucky to visit Darwen Library Theatre this morning. The author, Dommy B, told us lots of the poems from his book ‘The Dinosaurs are Back!’ The children loved joining in with the rhymes and sound effects. Some children were even invited onto the stage to say tongue twisters and dance. We couldn’t wait to read the rest of the story when we got back to school.
Year 3 Trip to the Darwen Children’s Literature Festival
Today, Year 3 walked to Darwen Library to celebrate the Children's Literature Festival with author and poet Dommy B! The children were completely wowed by his high-energy poetry performance of The Dinosaurs Are Back. He had the entire class up on their feet, joining in and dancing along with him. We were also given a copy of his book to keep in our classroom. It was a brilliant day.
Year 1 English: Making Predictions
Today, we came to school and found out that a wolf had been sighted on our school grounds! We had a video from Mrs Ham asking Year 1 to help look for clues and eyewitness reports from Mrs Thompson, Miss Kachwalla and Mr Bloomfield which gave us a trail to follow. We found some clues such as a bin bag, packed lunch, honey, a cup, glasses and a red cloak. When we came back to class, we saw the front cover of our new book The Last Wolf and wrote a prediction for the story.
Year 3- English- Writing in Role: The Beetle's Complaint
In English this week, the authors have been putting their persuasive writing skills to the test. They have started writing a formal letter of complaint to the Spider, taking on the creative perspective of the Beetle. The children are writing to firmly argue the Beetle's case, claiming that the object in question rightfully belongs to all the insects. It has been wonderful to see the children using expressive vocabulary to express the Beetle’s outrage and make his complaints as convincing as possible. We cannot wait to see how their final letters turn out.
Year 6 - Emotive Poetry
This week, Year 6 have been exploring emotive poetry writing, focusing on expressing their feelings about SATs and how these assessments do not define who they are. The children reflected on their own journeys throughout the process, including the challenges they have faced, the progress they have made and the importance of recognising their wider strengths beyond test results.
Year 2 - English and Oracy - Generating speech for characters
In Year 2, we have been working in talk partners to generate speech between Kevin The Koala and The Woodpecker. We had to speak clearly and listen carefully to create the conversation.
Year 3- English- Prediction and Discovery
Today, our classroom was transformed into a mysterious moonlit garden, complete with a nighttime insect soundscape and dimmed lights to help us immerse ourselves in our new story, It Fell from the Sky. The children discovered a display of pebbles, moss, and flowers surrounding a "mystery object", a glimmering crystal orb that appeared to have landed in the centre of the room. After exploring the display and the book's front cover, the children practised their grammar skills by using 'a ' or 'an ' to describe the "extraordinary wonder". To finish the session, they used these clues to write their own predictions about what this object is and where it might have come from.
Year 4 English - How to be a Viking
Today we began our new English unit which uses the text - How to be a Viking by Cressida Cowell. Our objective for the lesson was to predict events. We first explored the front cover, title and blurb to predict what the story might be about. After this we read the first part of the story which introduced the main character Hiccup the Viking and his father Stoick the Vast. Following this we predicted what would happen next as they set off to sea for the first time.