On Wednesday the 26^th of February, we held a whole school Lent Reflection Day. The day began by discussing the importance of Lent and how Ash Wednesday marks the start of an important time in the Christian calendar.

We attended a special mass at St Mary’s Church led by Father David. He marked our foreheads with a cross of ashes to commemorate the day. As Christians, we used this time to reflect on things we have done wrong so we can be better people in the future.

In class, we looked more deeply in to why we celebrate Lent, discussed how Jesus must have felt in the desert, what he sacrificed and how he found the strength to carry on. We talked about what we could choose to give up or how we could give our time to someone else during the 40 days. We wrote Lenten promises on people and decorated them to look like each of us.

We then looked at the 8 Beatitudes. Each table looked in depth at one Beatitude; we wrote them in their own words and drew a symbol to represent them. To end the day, we read a special Lenten prayer and thought about why we made our promises.

YEAR 4 marked the start of Lent on Wednesday (February 26) with a day of reflection. As well as attending mass at St Mary’s to receive their ashes, they also took part in a class discussion before penning their Lenten promises and prayers.

On Thursday February 27^th, Year 2 had a visitor called Heather from Asda. She brought ingredients for all the children to make a bread dough because we wanted to be just like Thomas Farriner, the baker who started The Great Fire of London. First, they had to weigh out the ingredients and mix them together in a bag. Then each child kneaded their dough inside the bag. The dough was taken home to be baked and shared with the children’s families.

On Wednesday, February 26th, it was Lenten Reflection Day in school to coincide with Ash Wednesday. The whole school joined with the Parish in Church to receive their ashes at the morning service. We then spent the day enjoying learning more about Lent and how we should prepare for Easter, making our Lenten promises, decorating crosses for our display and praying together.

The Great Fire of London

On Tuesday, February 25^th, Year 2 enjoyed a History day focused on The Great Fire of London. In the morning, we welcomed The Partake Theatre Company. The children learned lots of interesting information about The Great Fire of London. They all wore costumes and re-enacted the events of the fire of 1666.

As part of our Egyptian topic, Y3 spent the afternoon making Egyptian bread in class. After reading the instructions carefully, we measured out the ingredients, then flour, natural yoghurt, sea salt and baking powder was combined to make a dough. We then rolled out the dough before cooking it on a hob in a hot pan. Then we sat down to try our handywork with some tasty hummus!

After learning lots about forces and magnets, we designed a game using magnetic force. In small groups, we decided whether we wanted to make a maze, race track or fishing game. Each game used the same principle – a magnet would be used to move an object that is attached to a magnetic material.

After making and painting our games, we made up the rules, tested them out ourselves and then let the other groups try our game. We evaluated our game and decided whether our game was successful in using magnetic force.

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On Wednesday February 12th, Year 2 visited Hyson Green Library in Mary Potter Health Centre. They enjoyed singing and listening to stories with Ian from the Library and then we were able to read books and relax for a while. We chose some picture books to bring back and share in our classroom.

To celebrate our passion for reading, St Mary’s invited in a children’s author, M.P Robertson, to share his work.

After gathering in the hall, Mark read us some of his fabulous books, showed us some dragon eggs and even showed us a video of a dragon running havoc in our playground!

He then showed us how to draw our very own dragon by giving us a step by step guide. What do you think?