Alnwick Class 2023-24
Once we were all set and ready to go we walked all the way to the rock pools. We checked some identification guides to see what we might find and talked about how to stay safe whilst exploring the rock pools. We then grabbed out buckets and nets and headed out. I wonder if you can tell your grown ups some of our discoveries? We saw lots of periwinkles and sea snails as well as some hermit crabs and shore crabs. We returned them to their rock pool homes before heading back to the beach to create our own rock pool models on the sand.
After this we headed to Hindmarsh Hall to give our hands a good wash ready for lunch. After lunch Bridie read Alfie’s Out of Doors storybook which talked about find your own very special bonting (a pebble that fits perfectly in your hand). When we went back on the beach we searched for our own bontings.
We also made a necklace out of the limpet shells we collected and created sandscapes with our friends - there was a pirate ship, a rock pool, a police station, a castle and a magical fairy garden! They have such fantastic imaginations and explained their ideas in lots of detail!
We have had so much fun on our beach days together this year. Well done Alnwick Castle Class for representing our school so wonderfully in our local community.
It was a wonderful way to celebrate how our current Reception Class have worked hard on beach days over the year and are soon to hand over to Preschool as the new Alnwick Castle Class.
We set off on our adventure in our Crew teams for the day and were quick to spot some wildlife along the way and pay special attention to the level of the River Aln as we crossed the bridge. Once we were at the beach we had a good warm up of our team skills by making a castle in our Crews. They were most creative and we worked hard on on our collaborations.
After a story break and reading the story 'The Snail and the Whale', we then collected shells for our whale on our way to lunch.
The afternoon was spent as pirates as we made our pirate ships - they had so many features and thought; it was a great display of work which we followed with making treasure bottles!
We were rewarded with a lovely play in the park and returned home with happy smiles and tired legs ready for a good rest.
Well done, Alnwick and Warkworth Castle Class - great Receptions and Reception class to be!
We hadn't set off far before we were identifying all our plants, flowers and bugs on route. We talked about their features and how to spot them and the names of different species. Once down at the beach, we created different bugs in our Crews to talk about and show the rest of the class. We then went off into the woods for a bug hunt and learnt how to identify different species of bugs and insects whilst hunting. We explored the woodland and considered how creatures have adapted to where they live.
We also thought about the life cycle of a butterfly and bee and were lucky enough to spot so many different types of bees.
We finished the day thinking about birds and thought about all the different types around the world. There was so much imagination and creativity as we made images of them on the beach.
It was yet another wonderful day full of so much wildlife and wonder - lucky us!
We started off our day with a walk along to Alnmouth Friary. We stopped to observe and learn about lots of different types of plants on the way, and spotted some wildlife such as geese and jackdaw's too. It was a great experience exploring the Friary gardens, there were new fruit trees beginning to grow and lots of colourful flowers. After sharing the story of Leaf whilst having our snack, we headed to the allotments to see what vegetables were growing. The children were very knowledgeable about different types of vegetables - especially about the types they like to eat!
We headed back to school for our picnic and spent the afternoon exploring our school's outdoor areas. Bridie went pond dipping and found lots of tadpoles! Can you remember how they moved? Some of our friends thought they looked like tiny mice as they whizzed around. To finish off our adventures we went on a scavenger hunt to find some outdoor treasures such as leaves, petals and pine cones. We then used our treasures to create some beautiful mini gardens in teams. It was lovely to hear the children describe their creations to the rest of the group.
We are all very proud of everyone who joined us today, they walked to and from our school very sensibly, listened to instructions well and represented our school brilliantly in our local community.
We started off our day by heading to the wild woods to think about Goldilocks and the Three Bears. On the way we spotted some frogs in the pond and geese flying up above us. Once we arrived at the woods we listened to the story before acting out our own mini Goldilocks drama. There were some great storyteller voices used!
We then headed to the beach to build some houses for the Three Little Pigs. We used the natural resources around us to build our houses - there were grasses from the dunes for the straw, lots of driftwood for the sticks and lots of different stones for the bricks. They really used their imaginations, adding shells for decorations and fantastic moats and trap doors to stop the wolf! One group even made their own "piggy town!"
We headed to Hindmarsh Hall for our lunch and shared some stories. One story was about the three little wolves and a big, bad pig! We also sang our 3 Little Pig song for the grown ups with lots of dance moves and actions.
After lunch we put up our hoods and headed back to the beach to build our favourite fairytale in the sand before heading back to school.
It was lovely to see how the class worked together in teams to complete their challenges and how kind and supportive they are to one another. A huge well done everyone!
WOW, just WOW! Well we were SO grateful for the glorious sunshine and despite it being Winter, we were so lucky and our beach day felt like a tropical Spring Day.
We made our way along to the beach taking note of the River Aln tide, spotting spring flowers of snowdrops and even the first daffodils as well as listening and spotting birds. Once at the beach we had lots of activities that helped us to explore and cement some of our dinosaur knowledge. We made our very own Dinosaur Worlds on the Beach and thought about what Dinosaurs would have needed and the geography of their land. After a little break we worked in Crews to create our very own dinosaurs thinking about the features they had.
On the way to lunch we came across the local sand artist 'Claire' from 'Soul2Sand' and got to see the early stages of her enormous sand art. We were incredibly lucky as after lunch we got to come and see the finished piece, even have a little go and then the best bit was getting to see it on the drone! What a treat.
Our focus for the afternoon was to understand local rocks and fossils. We found that there are different types of rocks and that they are made in different ways. We worked in our Crews to collect, gather and investigate rocks and fossils. Then finished our thinking by making a rock museum. Super geologists in the making!
Well done, Alnwick Castle Class.