Wilbraham Primary School

Year 4

Debdale Park Trip

On Wednesday 4th February 2009, both year 4 classes went on a day trip out to Debdale Park activity centre. It was quite a cold day but the sun was shining. The children were there to experience first hand canoeing, rock (wall) climbing, absailing and orienteering.

The children had an early start as we had to be at the park for 9:00am. When we arrived at the centre, we all went into a meeting room to be given a talk on some of the activities they would be doing. They were also given a talk on all health and safety rules which must be adhered to. The children were also shown how to put wet suits and life jackets on correctly.

We then split up into two groups. The first group went off into the park to try their hand at orienteering. The children were learning new skills on how to read a map and look for clues which were left around for them to find. The children had to work in teams and help the other teams when they were struggling.

The second group went to collect wet suits, fleeces, jackets and life jackets as they were going canoeing. The children all got changed into their suits and then went outside to the instructors. They were told they were going to build two viking ships working as two teams. The instructors asked the children to vote for a team leader for each team. The children had to get two canoes for each team, then they had to get some wood and join the two canoes together. The instructors showed them how to make the special rope knots. They let the children have a go to try and do this then checked everything was right (correcting any mistakes the children had made.) The children then had to build a mast on their canoes once again they were given instuctions how to do this. They did not quite get the hang of this and the poles keep bending over.

After this it was all systems go, the two sets of canoes were taken to the water, the children got in with their instructor. Then they were off all paddling their oars to see who could get to the yellow buoy first, then paddle round it and get back to shore. There was a safety boat on the lake just in case anybody got into difficulty. The children had a brilliant time when they were all back on dry land, their faces were all smiling and telling us how they really enjoyed it. The children were then given a ride on the lake in the speed boats, some children said this was the best thing they had ever done. The children then got changed and we went to meet the other group for lunch altogether.

Over lunch all the children were talking about what they had been doing and how they had enjoyed their morning activities.

Congratulations

Some of the children in Year 4 wrote and produced a short 5min film which was entered into the Greater Manchester Schools Film Festival 2008. There were 19 other entries in this competition from other Manchester Primary Schools.

Our film was called 'An Alians Guide to School' and Wilbraham Primary School are proud to be the winners of the Best Primary Film.

World War 2: Our topic this term

This term year 4 children have been learning all about World War 2. They have been out on two trips to support their topic.

Trip to the Imperial War Museum

The first one was to visit the Imperial War Museum North, The Quays, Trafford Park. M17 1TZ.

The day was divided into two halves.The first group of children went into the musuem school room, the second group of children went round the museum.

While in the school room the children were shown items from WW2, a slide show and then it was a hands on experience. A lady who had been evacuated during WW2 came to talk to the children about her experiences.

After lunch the groups swapped round.

Trip to the Peoples History Museum

The second trip was to visit the Peoples History Museum, The Pump House, Bridge Street, Manchester, M3 3ER.

The first group of children were taken on a guided tour which was very hands on and learned a lot of valuable things. The second group of children were in the school room and were designing the start of the wonderful banner which you can see in the picture above.

After lunch the groups swapped round and the second group cut out all the designs and stuck them together to make this banner. The banner is hung up in our downstairs hall for everybody to see it.

Visitors in School

The children also had a visitor in school to talk about his experiences in WW2. This gentleman is called Fred Hirst and he gave a fantastic talk to the children and answered all their questions. Mr Hirst has written a book on his experiences called "A Green Hill Far Away by An Infantry Soldier Private Fred Hirst". Mr Hirst left a signed copy of his book for the school. At this present moment we are reading this book to year 4 and we have had some great discussion work.

Here is a list of some websites you might like to visit:-

www.iwm.org.uk (Imperial War Museum)

www.phm.org.uk (Peoples History Museum)

www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/manchester/museum