Residential to East Barnby

Last week, the pupils in Year 4 went on their exciting Residential Trip to East Barnby near Whitby. We did lots of exhilarating and fun activities, like rock pooling, skiing, shelter building in the woods and rock climbing. We also learned lots about taking responsibility for ourselves by making our own beds, serving our own food and clearing our own tables. On Thursday night we had a talent show which was great fun! Even Mr Thurlow got in on the act, by playing and singing some folk songs on his guitar, but the competition was won by “Shayla”! Well done Girls!

To find out more about what we got up to, check out the pictures below!

Whitby Tour

We learned lots of interesting historical facts on our tour of Whitby Abbey and the old town, including learning about Dracula and the Victorian history of the area.  We learned that houses were built on steep hills close to the sea so that the local people could easily walk to get water to drink, cook and clean with. We also saw the famous black Whitby Jet in the jeweller's shops which lined the historic cobbled streets. We pretended to be smugglers by hiding down the narrow alleyways between the houses, which were called “Yards”.  We saw, and some of us walked down, a very steep cobbled road which led from the Abbey on the cliff-top down to the historic main street. The houses had very small front doors and low doorways. This was because people had poorer diets and medical care than we have today which meant that they didn’t grow as tall as we grow today.

Residential to East Barnby

Skiing

Some of us learned how to ski on the dry ski slope. Those children who already had basic ski skills had fun helping other children to learn the basic skills. We learned how to walk sideways up the ski-slope, digging the sides of our skis into the hill to give us grip to make sure we didn’t slide back down again! We also learned how to stop at the bottom of the ski slope by making a pizza shape with our skis, and how to do little jumps on our skis. It was great fun!

Residential to East Barnby

Shelter building

We all spent an afternoon deep in the woods. We were split into groups and had to build a shelter out of the natural things we could see around us. In our groups, we planned how we would use logs, branches, twigs and leaves to make a safe and warm place to stay, that would stay up even in the strongest wind. Then we made our shelters! It was super, and very exciting! As it started to get dark, some of us were lucky enough to make a fire and use it to make some hot chocolate for us all to enjoy!

Residential to East Banby

Rock Pooling

On our last morning, we visited the beach to explore the rock pools. With the help of information sheets, we saw and identified fish, lobsters, star fish, barnacles, worms, mussels, as well as lots and lots of other creatures! The rocks were very slippery and the tide was coming in, and so we had to be very careful about where we walked and made sure we were aware of everything going on around us to make sure we got safely back to the beach before the tide came in. It was lots of fun and very exciting!

During our Residential Trip, we experienced lots of things we had not done before, and we also learned and improved lots of skills including personal independence (making our own beds, serving ourselves food, clearing tables, deciding what clothes to wear etc), working with others, listening to and communicating with each other. All of the experiences have increased our self-esteem and confidence and above all, and most importantly, we had FUN!!!!

William Morris Designs

We are very proud of our work. Do you like it too?

William Morris Prints

First we made our printing/stamping tools using string and foam

William Morris Artwork

This week we have been studying the prints of William Morris. William Morris was an artist who designed prints that were fashionable as textiles and wallpaper during Victorian Times. His work is all about the natural world (plants, flowers and animals), and is always symmetrical (repeating patterns).
In class we made our own William Morris-style designs. First we made printing equipment from sponges, string and even potatoes, and then started making our designs.