String Telephones

We've been learning all about sound in in Science. Today, we have investigated how sound travels by making string telephones. The children all had a lot of fun sending their voices down the string in the form of a vibration. We realised that if we were careful, we could even feel the vibration with our fingertips as it travelled from one cup to the other.

Alfred the Great

This week, we have taken a big step in answering our topic question: Just how great was Alfred the Great?

We've learned all about how Alfred stepped out of his brother's shadow to lead the Saxon army to victory, of how he succeeded his brothers as King of Wessex, of how he kept the Great Heathen Army at bay, of how his Christmas celebrations were ambushed by a Viking attack and of how he had to flee to safety on the Isle of Athelney.

The children have explored map co-ordinates through the geography of Wessex; used a budget to plan a feast in order to impress the Viking leaders at peace talks; described how Alfred reorganised the military defences in Wessex; and used reading skills to justify their opinion of Alfred.

Forest School

In forest school this week, we've been up to all sorts!

First, we found that a mysterious message had been left for us in Futhark, the runic alphabet of the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. Children found the hidden runes and the used their rune key to work out the message. Can you work out what it says? Be careful, the runes represent sounds, not English letters.

After that, we imagined that we were the inhabitants of a Viking-era Norwegian village called Ulfsberg. Children entered a drama in which they thought about how they could honour a member of the village who had died. They created a boat shape with what they could find in the forest as we didn't have a boat for a ship burial or pyre. Then, they drew grave goods on whiteboards to represent the objects that would be buried with that person.

On Thursday, the Charlies went out with Ms Travis and completed a scavenger hunt for lots of different types of natural resources.

On Friday, we returned to our Ulfsberg drama and imagined that the village had begun to decline. As winter approached, it was fair to say that the people had seen better days. A stranger entered the village, saying that his name was Halfdan Ragnarsson and he was building a huge army to sail to Britain.

The children took on roles of the villagers and engaged in a debate about whether or not they should accept Halfdan's invitation and move the entire settlement to Britain, send a few people to join the army while the others remained in Norway or if they should refuse his offer and stay in their poor little home.

After deciding to pack up the entire village of Ulfsberg, the children then had to work out exactly what they could take with them and what they would have to leave behind as they set sail for Northumbria!