Privett
Sound Map – by Charlie
Whilst we were at Privett we made something called a sound map. A sound map is a map where you listen out for lots of sounds and copy what they’re called onto a map. While we made our sound maps everything was quiet and all you could hear was birds tweeting in the trees. We heard birds from all different directions like North, North East, East, South East, South, South West, West, North West. On my sound map I heard an aeroplane, a blue tit, a crow, two other birds and a couple of cars. Finally we came into a circle and all said what we had heard.
Miko’s Story, Water Challenge – by Finley
At Privett we played a game called water challenge. Penny, our teacher told us a story about an old lady called Miko. Every day Miko woke up at 4 o’clock in the morning. She lived in a farm and she came back at noon having been to fetch water. Penny put us in groups and we lined up behind each other. There was a bucket of water in front of both groups and an empty bucket further ahead. You had a cup and one person at a time filled it up and ran to the other side and poured the water into the empty bucket. The object of the game was to save the most water not to be the quickest.
Tree Spirits – by Johnathan
At Privett we made clay models. My model it looked like a sphere with an x and a hole for eyes and a hood and a sword going through his head and his body was a clay square with a stone in it.
My tree spirit’s name: I thought of Wenamblade or Snake Monk or Grim Monk or Serpent Snake and then I thought of Death Dust.
How to do it: You squeeze the top of the body into a head and get a stick and use it to make the eyes.
Decomposing – by Sebastian
On Wednesday Penny came to tell us about environmental ways to use food and water. While she was there, she told us about decomposing (how long things take to decompose). Like a nappy takes 600 years to never to decompose! But fruit takes 3 weeks. A fishing line takes 600 years compared to a beer can which takes 60 years. Basically decomposing is rotted things after they have been used or died.
Rhythm Game – by Thomas
On Wednesday, Penny from the Sustainability Centre came and we played a game called the Rhythm Game. What you do is; think of something you have done that you like and clap it to a rhythm. Then you get into a circle and one person starts and carried on going while others join in round the circle. Buy you do your own rhythm not the other person beside you. It is a really fun game to play. My rhythm was ‘I liked the water race.’
Privett – by Kai
We climbed on the climbing frame. I built a den with my friends. We made a slug from sticks. We looked for bugs.
Telescope – by Jack
On Wednesday, Year 4’s went to a place called Privett. We were there for three days and two nights. It was very fun. On the first night we all got into bed while Mr Stapleton was setting up his telescope. It was a bit cloudy so I didn’t think it was going to work but surprisingly it did! Everybody got a turn and we were all fine until it got cloudy again. It was my go next and I was wondering how far away Jupiter is. Then it was my go. It was still a bit cloudy but I still got to see Jupiter. Then the clouds went away and I saw two of Jupiter’s stripes and two of Jupiter’s moons. It was very cool. I have seen lots of other planets like Saturn and Mercury. I have even seen the moon!
Den Building – by Amanda
One of the activities at Queen Elizabeth Country Park was Den Building.
Becky, a park ranger, told us we had 1 hour to build a waterproof den. We got ourselves into groups of 4 and then we set off.
Each team found a tree to build their den around. We were only allowed to use natural materials to build it. The den we were to build had to be spacious - so the team could fit inside, strong - so the den wouldn’t collapse and last, waterproof – it was our objective.
After 30 minutes Becky called everyone in for a cup of hot chocolate and a snack. Afterwards we carried on with our den.
After 1 hour Becky called everybody in again. She told us to go to Corey and his teams den. Mr Stapleton ordered Corey and his group to go inside their den, Becky splashed water over the den (the group was inside), to check if the den was waterproof. Becky repeated this action with all of the other dens.
Minibeast Hunt – by Joe
At the Queen Elizabeth Park we went minibeast hunting. Becky gabe us a pot that had two tubes in it and a normal pot. We sucked the green tube and put the white tube on the bug. The bug flew up the white tube. If you sucked on the white tube you were done for because the bug would go in your mouth! We had to go deep down and dirty for the bugs and all the ones I found were small. Other people found earwigs, beetles and slugs! We got really dirty finding the bugs. Some of us had to push the logs to find the bugs. After we found the bugs we put them in a tray and then we looked at them and tried to name them.
Woodland Sculpture – by Carys
One of the activities we did at Queen Elizabeth Country Park was ‘Woodland Sculpture’. We had to think of an insect and find natural things to make our insect. Olivia and I did a bee. The head was not in the correct place but it was still really good. For the yellow stripes we used moss, wet yellow sticks and small white leaves. The place Olivia and I used was covered in moss so we scrapped it off with our boots and it came to mud and that was blackish so we used that for our black stripes. For the eyes, we used two layers of moss and little pinecones. We used five little pinecones for the centre of the eyes. Olivia and I used some branches that had no leaves on and they looked really webby. Ruben, Sebastian, Jack and Kai did a spider it was very realistic. They had semi circle like branches for the legs. I did not have a real look at it so I cannot describe all of it. I did not get to look at everybodies but the ones I did get to see were all bees or wasps and they were all very good.
Hug A Tree – by Ryan
One of the activities at Queen Elizabeth Country Park was ‘Hug A Tree’.
First we got to choose a partner and then one was blindfolded. The person without the blindfold on grabbed their partners shoulder with one arm and their opposite wrist with another arm then could confuse the other person as much as they like. So you could spin them round and round in circles and you could go as far as you like in the woods. Just as long as you can see at least one adult. When you find a tree that you want to make your blindfolded partner hug, let them hug the tree and feel it very carefully, my advice would be to check every angle.
Once the person thinks they have felt enough, the person without the blindfold on walks them with as many twists and turns as they like to some park of the wood then you spin them round three times and then take their blindfold off and let them find the way to a tree that they think is right. If it is right then it is the other persons go but if it wasn’t right they keep guessing til they get it right.
If was fun playing the game only we didn’t get any more than one go.
Privett Church – by Olivia
Whilst we were at Privett we went on a walk. At the very start of this walk we went to the Church.
People who weren’t Christians weren’t buried inside of the lych gate they were buried the other side. Christians were buried in the ‘blessed’ grounds.
The carving on the lych gate was exquisite it had such intricate detail. There were two tudor roses on each side of the lych gate and there were crosses lining the underneath of the roof.
The church has an automatic lock and the lights inside turn off automatically.
When you went in through the lych gate there is a path up to an entrance. After about two metres there were two yew trees partly to give wood to make bows and partly to keep cows out when the poisonous berries grew. Another defence against animals in general is a ditch. On one side of the ditch was of course the church, on the other side of the ditch was a forest. There is now a wire fence to stop silly children from falling down.
The church steeple was and is 160 feet. Round the side of the church there are tall grave stones and tombs in those tombs were the Nicholson family (no relation to Mrs Nicholson.) The three Nicholson brothers build the church to say sorry to God for making Nicholson gin, you can still buy it. They made the church so big because a railway was being built through the little village of Privett so they hoped the village would grow to be a town so they’d need a big church and it was a big church.
It had perfectly carved mosaics on the floor. Some were pictures some were different colours chucked on. The Church is called The Holy Trinity. Trinity because of the three brothers. The Holy Trinity used to have long wooden benches like St Leonard’s in our village but now it has individual purple chairs.
At the front where the vicar would be was a sort of tower so everyone could see him when the vicar read from the bible. At the very back of the church there was a compass made of mosaics that looked like the sun. Further back from the vicar were the choir singers benches. Even further behind them was a huge carving of Jesus breaking the bread on the road to Emmaus behind the back of Jesus’ head, where no one who didn’t look properly could see, were carvings of haloes. All around the main carving were lots of angels again with haloes nobody could see.
The stained glass windows were all the same near the back of the church except three which were dedicated to the three Nicholson brothers. There were of St George, Jeffrey of Brion and St Martin. There were three different sets of columns, all Greek, Ionic, Doric and Corinthian.
Village Walk – by James
We went on a three hour walk. We started at Privett and went to the triangle, went up the hill to a gate and climbed over it. While we were walking Mr Stapleton talked as we went over the old train station. My group went and saw the door to it. We went over another gate to the old fairs place. It came once a year. When we went up the road and saw a gate, we climbed over and walked through the field on to the main road. By now we walked for two whole hours. We had a question ‘which is the oldest house?’ Ruben was right and everyone else got it wrong. We saw a building called Juniper Cottage. Then as we were walking back to Privett I saw a red kite (the bird). When we got back everyone was exhausted.
Chores – by Ruben
At Privett we had to do chores every day and the extra chore was room inspection. Year 4’s had room inspection every day, it requires teamwork. If the teacher finds one mistake the boys team or the girls will lose a point. One of the other chores was making your own lunch or pizza topping. We also had to make our bed (sleeping bag), clean our room, table and floor. We also had to hoover our rooms. Before breakfast, lunch or tea we had to set our the table, chairs and food.
Room Inspection – by Corey
While we were at Privett we had to tidy our area of the house. The boys had to make sure we had tidy bathrooms and dormitories (the same with the girls).
Before dinner and after breakfast Mr Stapleton would come in and inspect our rooms. Then he would tell us how we did.
First inspection we both drew by 15 and the last one it added up to: the boys got 85 and the girls got 92.
We lost points for being late. We had to be standing by our beds when the teacher opened the door. Most of the time we were laughing when the teacher came in and that’s what I like about it.
