SHOBNALL PRIMARY SCHOOL

MULTI-CULTURAL WEEK 17TH MARCH – 21ST MARCH 2014

NURSERY

Multicultural Week – Nursery

Nursery children had a wonderful time during our multi-cultural week exploring the Arctic. The children engaged with a variety of activities which also covered the 7 areas of learning. Lots of fun was had as children became ‘Polar Explorers’ and explored the Arctic in our role play area. They had a fantastic time using their imaginations to talk about what they could see and enjoyed sitting in the igloo mark making and drawing pictures about the adventures.

The children were very interested in learning about Arctic through stories and pictures and looked at aspects including: animals, Inuits and igloos. The children got very excited when watching some clips of real animals in their Arctic homes and all shouted out when the Polar Bears and Walrus were shown!

The Polar Bears were asked lots of questions when children used their mark making skills to write letters to them. Children’s creative skills were used when they created pictures of Inuits and they were very surprised when the Inuit’s faces were revealed!

NURSERY

We are all very excited about our igloo (thank you for your support) which you will be able to view during our open evening. The children were eager to add their milk bottles to create the igloo and are very much looking forward to going inside to share their books.

RECEPTIONMulticultural Week – Reception

Reception children have been learning about life in the Arctic. Our topic began with a powerpoint story of a Polar Bear cub who guided us around his home in the Arctic. We got to see pictures of very cold wintery lands and what it would be like to live there, we met some of his Arctic friends and found out about the people who live there. The children decided they were glad to live Burton.

We wrapped up very warm and set off on our own adventure in our Arctic role play area. The children used binoculars to search for different animals and made lists and drawings of their discoveries.

Learning about how people live in the Arctic, travel around and hunt for their food, inspired lots of creative activities, including collaging their own Inuit and making a shape Arctic animal mask. 2D shape names were re-inforced and children used mathematical vocabulary to describe them as they arranged and assembled their names.

RECEPTION

To bring our fun packed Arctic week to an end, the children were all enthusiastically contributing their ideas to tell a story of an Inuit man going hunting for food. Awe and wonder filled the room when real ice bergs were presented when suddenly disaster struck!

The weather had turned particularly nasty and some poor Arctic animals had been frozen in the ice! How could they be rescued?

We decided that the kindest thing to do for the animals involved was to wait for the ice to melt and so we placed it in different locations around the classroom. The quickest way to melt the ice was in our hands ….what fun!!

Children suggested……“Drop the Ice” or ‘”Smash it open”

YEAR 1Multicultural Week – Year 1

During Multicultural week, Year 1 completed lots of different activities to help them find out about Japan. The children answered the register in Japanese. Here are some useful phrases:-

Good Morning = Ohayou GozaimasuGood Afternoon = KonichiwaGood Evening = Konbanwa

The children found out how to count to ten in Japanese. We listed to a rap and made up actions to help us learn to count to ten. The children really enjoyed finding about Origami and all got to make an animal by folding paper. They created ducks, cats and dogs. Look how fantastic their art work is! The children looked at a map of the world and found out where Japan is. Then the children collaged a flag using red tissue paper.

YEAR 1The children learned about clothes Japanese people wear. They then got to decorate a Kimono using flowers and simple patterns.

Another activity that the children particularly enjoyed was making Koi carp kites, The fish were so beautiful in the end.

Mrs Taylor, our Chair of Governors, showed the children some cherry blossom and asked them to collect some from outside. They all got the opportunity to do some printing using polystyrene printing boards. Have a look at our fantastic art work!

YEAR 2

Multicultural Week – Year 2

During Multicultural week, Year 2 children have been learning about St. Lucia. They looked at the St. Lucian Flag, talked about the symbols and what they meant.

One of the main crops grown in St. Lucia is bananas. The children enjoyed making banana and coconut trees.

The twin mountains in Soufrieres are call the Pitons. The children made a model of the Pitons using papier mache and then painted them

YEAR 2

Using their research skills the children found out lots of facts about St. Lucia and then recorded them on a fact sheet.

A great deal of enthusiasm was shown when we looked at how chocolate was made. All the beans that Hotel Chocolat use to produce their chocolate are grown on the island of S. Lucia. The children sequenced the process by writing about the individual steps taken to make this delicious and luxury product

We had a busy but exciting week!!

YEAR 3

Multicultural Week – Year 3

During Multicultural week, Year 3 children studies the country of Italy. Firstly we found out where Italy was and located it on a map. We then went on to find out about the landmarks and architecture by carrying out independent research using the internet. We created posters to show the rest of the class what we had learned.

We also studied the language, learning how to count up to ten and introduce ourselves to others; before creating name plates using the foods italians are most famour for; PASTA! This took a lot of patience and care as we had to carefully shape the letters of our names.

YEAR 3

Next, we look at Italian art and found out about famous artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. We focussed on the work of Guiseppe Archimboldo who created faces out of fruit, vegetables, flowers and birds. The children were able to create their own fruit faces, either drawing these faces or using images of fruit and vegetables that we had collected. They had to think really carefully about which fruit or vegetable to use to best represent each facial feature.

YEAR 4

Multicultural Week – Year 4

During Multicultural week, Year 4 children studied Australia. We found out about the different animals that live in Australia.

We carried out independent research using the Internet and then presented what we found out on postcards. These were on display at the Open Evening on 1st April 2014.

YEAR 4In Literacy, we learned about Aboriginal Dreamtime stories, such as ‘What made Tiddalik Laugh?’ We also wrote our own Dreamtime-style stories!

We also looked at Dreamtime art. We created our own Dreamtime pictures using felt-tips to put little dots onto our work! This was very time consuming and involved lots of patience and care.

YEAR 4

Mrs Taylor, our Chair of Governors, came into school to do some printing with us. We used the Aboriginal story “What Made Tiddalik Laugh?” as our starting point. We used polystyrene tiles to complete our frog design on and then we printed our design on black paper

We carried out a challenge in groups which involved us trying to find as much information as possible about Australia. We have to memorise a fact, tell it to the rest of our group and help them to add this to a map of Australia.

YEAR 4

Another activity we did was to create water pattern booklets. Water is an important theme in the story “What Made Tiddalik Laugh?”. We

looked at different patterns of water and discussed the patterns water makes and then we attempted to recreate these patterns in our

own artwork.

YEAR 5

Multicultural Week – Year 5

For this year’s multicultural week, Year 5 studied Russia. The first thing the children learned was where Russia is in the world in relation to the UK and they were able to pin point where on the world map Russia was. We also discovered that Russia is the second largest continent (the first being Canada).

They also looked at the development of the Russian flag and how and why it had changed over the centuries. They then made their favourite flag and wrote about the history and meaning behind it. The current tri colour flag of red, blue and white has been the official flag since the year 2000.

One of the favourite activities of week was when we made our own set of Russian dolls. We of course did the research first, using the new I-Pad’s the school have invested in, they then made and decorated their own version. Some people have reported that the nesting dolls were first a Chinese design that made their way to Russia. But the dolls are definitely linked to Russia and there is even a folk tale explaining what they represent.

YEAR 5

Without doubt the best lesson of the week was when we got to try Russian pancakes! The children looked at the reasons why they had ‘Blini (pronounced BLEE-nee) and found that it was similar to why we celebrate harvest but they held their festivities in the spring. We enjoyed our Russian pancakes with bananas, chocolate sauce, honey and jam but you could have made savoury ones if you were sad enough!

The children also looked at the Russian alphabet and found out that they have 33 letters compared to our 26 letters. We then researched what characters we needed to write our own name in Russian. The children took their name plate’s home to hang on their bedroom door.

One of the fascinating and challenging art lessons we did looked at the Russian currency, both coins and notes. The children then tried to reproduce their own version of the money using pastels to create the blend of colours used by the Russians.

The children all said that they enjoyed finding out about such a diverse country. They enjoyed researching the different areas of the topic and look forward one day to hopefully visiting Russia for real!

YEAR 6Multicultural Week – Year 6

The week began with the children studying the location of the chosen country of Mexico and Mr Yates discovered some fascinating film clips of some of the famous landmarks and sites located in Mexico. The children completed a map study, locating Mexico on a world map before identifying and placing some of the country’s main cities.

To develop the pupils understanding of Mexico, Mr Cruise asked the children to complete a food preparation session where they were required to follow instructions, work as a team and develop their knife skills.

The children were tasked with creating a Mexican wrap using chicken, onion, pepper, chillies, chilli sauce and tomatoes. In addition to this, the children all made their own version of a homemade salsa with tomatoes, onions and coriander.

It was a fabulous session where the children all developed an aptitude in using sharp knives and then they also tried out food which they were unfamiliar with. It was fascinating to see how many of the children ignored the advice of Mr Cruise when he CLEARLY stated that all children need to wash their hands after touching the chillies before rubbing their eyes etc – you could tell the ones who ignored the advice – lots of sore looking eyes!!

YEAR 6

The art possibilities for the children when studying Mexico were exceptional but eventually the pupils settled on creating Death Day Masks and Dreamcatchers.

We discovered that the Dreamcatcher originated in the deep south of America with the native Americans before they travelled south of the border into Mexico where the dreamcatcher idea was quickly adapted by the Mexicans. The children produced some fabulous work and I was incredibly impressed with the weaving techniques that the class displayed.

The final piece of art centred around the celebration of ‘Day of the Dead’ – a festival which reflects on the lives of people who

have passed away but a celebration of their life. The work produced by the children centred around the creation of a mask which is traditionally worn on this day

throughout Mexico.

SHOBNALL PRIMARY SCHOOL

WHAT A FANTASTICMULTI-CULTURAL WEEK