News
Playful Nature Day 21st May
On 21 May, which should have been the next Outdoor Classroom Day, the organisers are inviting everyone to celebrate their connection to the natural world by dressing up in nature! They’ll be sharing lots of ideas in the run up to the day – with a Pinterest board for inspiration, including how to:
- Make a nature crown out of leaves, cardboard or twigs.
- Use a cardboard box and paints to make beautiful butterfly wings.
- Turn yourself into your favourite animal with a simple mask.
If it’s possible or you have the space, children could spend time playing outdoors in their creation on the day. Or they could dress up for their daily walk or hang out on the balcony to make their neighbours smile. Whatever you do, they are encouraging you to share it on social media on 21 May using #PlayfulNature.
We would love to see what you do too, so don’t forget to email pictures in to school.
To find more ideas for activities – https://outdoorclassroomday.org.uk/resources/
Sunflower Growing Challenge
We’re hoping for a ‘sunny’ autumn!
For the last few years we have been getting everyone at school growing, by holding a sunflower competition. Every child has planted a sunflower at school and taken it home or to relatives to grow.
Then we have asked them to send in pictures of how their sunflowers are doing and finally to measure them and send in a picture to enter our tallest sunflower competition. Every entry had a certificate with prizes for the tallest!
This year, we would like to do the same, reinforcing this month’s value of HOPE, even though we are not all in school at the moment. We would like to join in with the ‘Community Plant and Garden Equipment Recycling Group’ who are running a Sunflower Community Challenge aiming to make Woburn Sands and surrounding areas full of cheerful sunflowers this autumn.
Frosts Garden Centre and various individuals have donated seeds and the community group have been distributing seeds around families in Woburn Sands. Some of our lovely children have also been spreading their own grown seedlings around families too. Our Key Worker children have been busy planting seeds for school.
We would love to reach as many of our pupils as possible to be able to grow their own sunflowers. There have been various postings on the PTFA Facebook page to help connect to the Community Challenge and find details of how to get hold of seeds, pots etc. We are hoping that anyone else who has seeds or seedlings may be able to help to spread these around our families too.
We’ve had great success using seeds from our old sunflower heads in the past and some people have with bird seed and supermarket snack packs too! You don’t need plant pots either, any container will do, you could make paper pots, egg boxes, yogurt pots and food trays keep it very ‘eco’. Whilst potting compost speeds growth up, to start the seeds off, homemade compost, soil, sand and other mediums will be fine for a short while.
I’ve attached an updated guide to growing, which may help too. Do get in touch if you need more information.
Happy growing!
Mrs Thomas
Happy Historians House Point Challenge
“Just because Milton Keynes is a new town does not mean it doesn’t have a rich history!”
All of May is Local and Community History month across the UK!
During this month, we want you all to become happy historians. We would like you to read about, research and report on the history of Woburn Sands or Milton Keynes.
We have attached a small quiz about local history for you to complete to give you some ideas. You can email your quiz answers and your historical facts to e.rand@swallowfieldprimary.com by the 22nd May.
House points will be awarded to those children who take part in the quiz and extra points will be given for teaching us exciting historical facts we did not already know.
Happy hunting
Happy Historians-House Point Challenge
Thank you to everybody that has taken part in the challenge so far. I have had lots of children scoring 10/10 on the quiz and I have learnt lots of new facts about the history of the local community. Below are some examples of work I have received. The History Trail Question Sheet was created by The Scouts and completed by Eleanor Lycett-Parry. It has some lovely historical video clips you might enjoy.
Currently Goldfinches are in the lead with 54 house points with Woodpeckers a close second with 50. There are still 4 days to go, it could all change!
History Trail Question Sheet_Word version – Answers (1) Louis Pearce Poppy Pearce
