This half term the children in Early Years have been using Dinosaurs as a theme for their learning.

The children started their topic by discovering a dinosaur egg in our sand pit. The children worked together to make nests for the dinosaur egg.

The children have learnt about the different types of dinosaurs and what environments they liked to live in. The children created representations of different dinosaurs using their colour mixing skills to create the colours they wanted.

The children have finished the topic with a Dinosaur Hunt in our school woods. The Dinosaurs were hiding in a variety of different places; behind the tree, under the bench, next to the tree, in the flowers, in the tree.

The children have really enjoyed the learning through Dinosaurs!

This afternoon, Year 6 were finishing their coding unit and used Python to create some incredible pieces of work! We looked at various pieces of Islamic art and identified the features that we could recreate on the laptops using Python coding.
Brilliant work Year 6!

We have been learning about volcanoes as part of our topic and as part of Art we have painted a background and painted a volcano which we will cut out and mount on the background. This is a process called layering.

Earlier in the year the children at Marlfields were challenged to capture a photograph based on the theme ‘buildings in harmony with nature’. Two representatives from the Rotary club came in to award the children for their amazing effort and every child who participated was given a certificate. Three pieces were chosen and they won some amazing gift vouchers to spend! Thank you again to the Rotary club for organising such a wonderful competition and we look forward to welcoming you back to our school.

In Year 2 we all love books. Children have been bringing in their favorites from home for us to share. ‘The Book with No Pictures’ was very, very funny !

As the children have been learning all about China and this Saturday being Chinese New Year we have enjoyed a small festivity this afternoon and had an artistic style Chinese New Year celebration.

The children have been reading about the origins of the Chinese New Year where the 12 animals of the zodiac had a race to see who would lead which years. We then looked at the celebration for the end of the Year of the Rabbit and welcomed in the Year of the Dragon.

To celebrate the children then created their own Chinese dragons as well as creating a zodiac wheel (we found out some of us are the Year of the Horse and some are the Year of the Ram.

We then created our own good luck charms using our calligraphy skills to create the word ‘luck’ in Chinese.

To finish off we had our usual Friday Celebration and finished with a fortune cookie.

Year 4 continued into their journey into the past of ancient China by exploring the tomb of the first Emperor of China and his Terracotta Army. After exploring the 8000 soldiers and near 1000 horses and chariots the children then spent some time making their own terracotta soldiers.

We began by practicing the art of manipulating clay to make smaller designs and intricate makings on a smaller piece before creating our soldier.

Once we had practice using different tools and techniques to model and manipulate the clay the children were then given a larger piece of clay which they would use to begin moulding into their terracotta soldier.

Once the children had created and added details to their soldiers they were then ready to be left to dry and become the Year 4 Terracotta Army.

Today we tested different materials to see if they were magnetic or not. We tested tissue paper, felt, string, paper straws, metal cutlery, wood, aluminium foil and play doh.

The children have been learning about the festival of Passover which the Jewish community celebrate each year. They sit down and eat from the Seder plate which represents the story of Exodus and the 10 plagues of Egypt.

Each of the food represents different parts of the story of Exodus:
Egg – New birth and new start for the Hebrews future.
Charoset – The bricks and mortar which the Hebrews had to build for Pharaoh.
Bitter Herbs – Represent the tears of the slaves.
Lamb Shank Bone – The blood put above the doors to save the first born.
Horseradish – The suffering and the pain of the Hebrews.
Unleavened bread – The bread cooked under the heat of the sun as the Jews escaped Egypt.

The children were given their own Seder plate to try the different foods in our own Passover festival.

Years 3 and 4 took part in a football tournament on Thursday after school. They all made their way to Congleton High and played 8 matches against other Congleton primary schools. Although we didn’t win, the team spirit shown was inspiring!

There was SNOW way we were going to miss out on having fun in the snow today!

Today we used toy cars and measured the distance they travelled on different surfaces. We could then compare the force needed.