Friday, 29 January 2016
Our Crest Crazy Classroom!
We were so inspired by our visit to the Lady Chapel of Westminster Abbey, that we have been designing and making our own crests ever since! As part of our work learning about Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table, we designed and made our own banners to show our heraldry (we had the House of Dulwich and the House of Clare amongst others!) to hang in our classroom.
We worked in teams to design and make them from tissue paper.
Next, we planned and created our textile heraldic crests. Following some research on existing crests, we looked at common features before drawing our own designs. Next, we selected our fabrics and cut the pieces out carefully.
Finally, we used our sewing skills to complete our crests.
Our third crest project was for homework. We have been learning about our diocese in R.E. with Mrs Hopkins, so we combined our learning from different areas of the curriculum to create a new crest for Southwark Diocese. We had to consider which images or symbols would best represent the diocese.
Here are the marvellous results:
HOORAY!!!
Fabulous news just in! We have been shortlisted for the finals of the UK Blog Awards!
All of your hard work (and all of the voting!) has paid off- well done!
We are officially one of the top ten education blogs in the UK. You should all be very proud of yourselves- I am very proud of you!
Labels:
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well done
Sunday, 24 January 2016
Voting closes TOMORROW!
Voting for St. Clare's Class Blog in the UK Blog Awards closes TOMORROW! We need one last push to give us the best chance of getting into the finals.
Please vote today and tomorrow- ask all of your friends and family to do the same!
Click on the picture or link below to vote for us- wouldn't it be marvellous if we won?! You will need to do this with an adult at home, as you will need an email address.
We would love to be recognised as one of the best education blogs in the UK!
Click on the picture or link below to vote for us- wouldn't it be marvellous if we won?! You will need to do this with an adult at home, as you will need an email address.
We would love to be recognised as one of the best education blogs in the UK!
Friday, 22 January 2016
A Day in Camelot!
Today, we have spent much of our day in Camelot! We created our own knights and wrote letters from King Arthur, to explain why they had been chosen to join the Knights of the Round Table and to tell them about the quest they needed to go on.
By Darcy
By D
By Jack N.
Later in the morning, we read the fourth and final part of 'The Lady of Shalott'- it was a tragic but powerful ending. Mrs Parrott was blown away by our poetry analysis- we identified that the song she sang linked to the funeral songs she heard in Part One. We decided that her white robes had lots of connotations (our new favourite word!)- they made us think of purity, innocence, religious robes, an angel or Jesus- because he was also an innocent person who was killed. We also made a connection to the Bible by noticing that when she died the skies turned black and there was a storm, just like Good Friday. We thought that the darkening skies were definitely a clue that something bad was coming.
The Lady of Shalott, Waterhouse. Source: wikipedia
Then, we looked closely at the structure of Tennyson's 'The Lady of Shalott'. We counted the lines in each verse and noticed the rhyme patterns and repeated phrases. Next, Mrs Parrott challenged us to identify how many syllables or beats were in each line.
We found that the general pattern was:
8
8 The first four lines rhyme.
8
8
7 Ending in 'Camelot'
8
8 The next three lines rhyme.
8
6 Usually, 'The Lady of Shalott'
We used this structure to work together to write our own verse for the poem:
The tower
beneath a clouded coat,
In the
mirror she spied a boat,
She ran
down to the willow’d moat,
Upon the prow,
her name she wrote,
She floated to tower’d Camelot.
With her
dying breaths she started to sing,
Her
mournful song, heard by the King,
She died
without a knight or ring;
The Lady
of Shalott.
By St.
Clare’s Class
Finally, we had a try at writing our own verses-
it was a very tricky challenge!
By Francis
By Elizabeth
By Mina
By Finn
Labels:
camelot,
King Arthur,
kings and knights,
Lady of Shalott,
letter,
poem,
poetry,
writing
Tuesday, 19 January 2016
A New Blog!
Source: animationpanda
Here's a post from the editors of 'St. Anthony's Writes':
Do you like writing? When you sit down to write an essay, letter, diary entry- whatever it may be- what is your first reaction? Do you enjoy yourself, or silently groan? Maybe you think you can't do it, or maybe you just get bored.
Whatever it is, our Digital Writing Team are aiming to change that.
Through fun events and competitions, we will work to change your writing experiences for the better. It could be anything from a story, to a poem, to a comic strip, or even a joke- we want to hear from you! You can submit writing that you have done at school, or at home.
Every week, we will update our blog with our favourite samples of writing from St. Anthony's. With the help of our Talent Finders, we will find the best of your work, giving you the chance to have it displayed on the blog for the world to see!
So get informed, get inspired and get involved- because the reality is, everyone can pick up a pen and write!
A Wonderful Trip!
Source: wikipedia
Yesterday, we had a fantastic day at Westminster Abbey. We felt very privileged to see areas of the Abbey, including the tomb of Edward the Confessor, that ordinary visitors do not get the opportunity to see! We truly were VIPs for the day!
Source: wikipedia
Source: the tablet
Source: kingholiday.wordpress
We saw where Edward the Confessor was originally buried, then the tomb where he was moved to when the Abbey was rebuilt.
Source: The Tablet
Source: Britannica
Source: Britannica
Source: essentialhotels.com
Source: overseasattractions.com
Labels:
Art,
church,
Edward the Confessor,
history,
kings and knights,
news,
RE,
topic,
trip
Sunday, 17 January 2016
An Exciting Day Tomorrow!
Source: visitlondon.com
We are off on an adventure tomorrow! We will be heading up to Central London to visit Westminster Abbey. At this historic building, we will be learning about Edward the Confessor by taking a special guided tour.
REMEMBER!
You will need a healthy PACKED LUNCH, a drink and a WARM COAT. It will be cold tomorrow and the Abbey is a very old building!
Labels:
Edward the Confessor,
history,
kings and knights,
RE,
reminder,
trip
Monday, 11 January 2016
Kings, Knights and the Lady of Shalott!
Last week, we began our new topic- we have started our adventure in Camelot!
We read the first two parts of Tennyson's 'The Lady of Shalott' and considered what the Lady's life is like. Here is some marvellous writing from St. Clare's last week (remember to click on the pictures to make them larger and easier to read):
By Francis
By Harry
By Amelie F.
By Amelie M.
By Rory
We even did some drawing, using a mirror to look behind us. We wanted to see how it must feel for the Lady of Shalott...
There are many more adventures to come this week!
Labels:
camelot,
English,
history,
kings and knights,
Lady of Shalott,
Literacy,
writing
Saturday, 9 January 2016
VOTE FOR US!
Our blog has been entered into the UK Blog Awards! Hooray!!
Click on the picture or link below to vote for us- wouldn't it be marvellous if we won?! You will need to do this with an adult at home, as you will need an email address. YOU CAN VOTE ONCE EVERY DAY IN JANUARY! Ask your family members to vote for us too!
We would love to be recognised as one of the best education blogs in the UK!
Thursday, 7 January 2016
A Fabulous Philosophy Session!
Source: amazon.co.uk
We discussed the questions and decided whether they made any assumptions. Can you remember any that we spotted today?
The question we voted to discuss was, 'Why do some people want to live forever?'
It was a lively and constructive discussion, with lots of interesting ideas raised. We soon began discussing the pros and cons of living forever, then some children questioned whether, if you did live forever, it would be better to be frozen at 10 years old or get progressively older.
What were your final thoughts from today's P4C enquiry?
Perhaps you could continue the conversation with someone at home!
New Year, New Books!
To welcome us back to school this week, we revealed a fantastic selection of new books! Everyone was very excited!
This week, Mrs Parrott and Mrs Cook have been selecting children who have been working exceptionally hard, or those who are being particularly kind or well-behaved, to have the opportunity to choose a book.
Are you reading one of our new books? Would you recommend it? Why?
Tuesday, 5 January 2016
Highlights of 2015!
As we begin a new year, we look back at our achievements in 2015. Here are just a few of our favourite moments:
In January, we met Doctor Who for the first time and designed fabulous ink maps of new worlds for him to explore in his TARDIS:
We also worked with Mrs Herrera on this fascinating experiment, to make our own clouds!
In February, we made our Barbie Weeping Angels, as part of our Doctor Who topic:
We then began our adventure into Epic Citadel and made wonderful Animoto film trailers:
By Darcy
In March, we celebrated World Book Day with costumes and Extreme Reading:
We performed our marvellous Easter play, 'The Selfish Giant':
And, we designed and built our own Anglo Saxon model village:
In March, we celebrated World Book Day with costumes and Extreme Reading:
We performed our marvellous Easter play, 'The Selfish Giant':
And, we designed and built our own Anglo Saxon model village:
In April, we began to learn about the Titanic:
We wrote this incredible poem as a class, inspired by 'Kaspar, Prince of Cats':
Shock
What's wrong?
Could it be true?
Shock hits me like lightning,
Falling off a cliff,
A thought as deep as the sea.
Heart pounding,
Jaw dropping,
Stomach churning,
Throat burning,
Brain bursting.
My blood freezes,
Unstoppable pain,
Attacks me like a tiger.
Surrounded by darkness.
By St. George's Class, 2015
And, we used pedal power to make scrumptious smoothies:
In May, we made some enormous underwater artwork:
Held our own General Election (won by the Vision Party, after campaigning and a Question Time debate):In June, we began to learn about the fascinating country of Togo. We had an African adventure at the Horniman Museum:
Did some delicious cooking with Mrs Cook and Mrs Herrera:
And created some beautiful artwork in the style of Togolese artist Joseph Amedokpo and lanterns with designs inspired by the landscape in Togo:
In July and August, we ended our school year with a trip to the new East Dulwich Picturehouse, which has been built on the original site of our school:
We had a very special visit from Monsieur Davi, a Togolese teacher, who came to tell us all about life in Togo:
And we spent some time playing our favourite maths games:
In September, we began Year 5 and loved learning about inventors and inventions. We read the wonderful 'The Templeton Twins Have an Idea' and learned about famous inventors throughout history.
We wrote persuasive letters:
We went on a fantastic trip to the Horniman Museum:
And had an incredibly successful first Cross Country competition, winning all of the medals for Year 5!
In October, we continued to learn about inventors- and became inventors ourselves!
We 'wore it pink' to raise money and awareness for Breast Cancer Care:
We wrote a marvellous poem about being kidnapped, inspired by the Templeton Twins:
And had a great time visiting the M.C. Escher exhibition and permanent collection at Dulwich Picture Gallery:
In November, we began to learn about World War One:
We started our 'free writing' project and learned about Wilfred Owen's 'Dulce Et Decorum Est':
We were very fortunate to visit the Dulwich Picture Gallery again, to design and make some WW1 medals:
In December, we visited the Imperial War Museum:
Our trip inspired some more marvellous free writing:
We enjoyed reading and writing about 'The Silver Donkey' by Sonya Hartnett, and even made some silver donkeys of our own:
We ended the year by celebrating the end of the war, with an Armistice Day party, with dancing, speeches and toasts with "champagne"!
Finally, Christmas arrived in St. Clare's!
What a wonderful year! These are just a few of our many highlights of 2015.
We are now looking ahead to 2016 and our new topic, 'Kings and Knights...and the Lady of Shallot'...
Labels:
2015,
celebration,
highlights,
new year,
news,
St. Clare,
St. George