Foundation Magazine 2021-2022 | Mount Kelly

PRE-PREP
YEAR 1
YEAR 2
PRE-PREP
The Summer Term always brings a
wealth of enjoyable experiences
for the Year One children and many
opportunities for exploring Mount Kelly’s
beautiful grounds as well as the amazing
natural areas within easy reach of the
school.
The Forest School week is always eagerly
anticipated. In typical Dartmoor form
the heavens opened but undeterred
the children and teachers donned
waterproofs and wellies and set off over
the style and down to the woods for a fun
packed week of fire building, camp fire
cooking and charcoal making.
Other activities included pond dipping in
our school pond that revealed a wealth of
aquatic wild life much to the delight of the
children. We discovered a thriving newt
colony which caused much wonder and
excitement.
The busy week was rounded off with a
tremendous Teddy Bears picnic which
the children prepared for by writing
invitations, planning games for and
writing descriptions of their Teddies. We
shared fabulous food from the kitchen
with many wonderful Teddy friends of all
shapes and sizes.
This Summer brought the National
celebration of the Platinum Jubilee of
Queen Elizabeth II. The children engaged
in many activities surrounding this time of
celebration, learning about the Queen and
her life and reign. It also provided many
opportunities for decoration making. The
celebrations culminated in a very royal
street party with wonderful jubilee related
food and fluttering bunting while the sun
shone. Celebrations rounded off with
exuberant dancing for all.
The Summer Term always culminates in a
theatrical extravaganza and this year the
Year One children joined forces with the
Year Two Children to produce a wonderful
play.
They threw themselves into learning songs
and lines, finding props, choreographing
actions and making scenery and props.
The children particularly enjoyed making
their own ice monster costumes through
the process of the tie dying. It was
amazing to see such young children
taking to the stage with such confidence.
Especially as due to Covid-19 restrictions
in the past this was the first experience
of this sort for many of the children. They
thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.
The end of the term and indeed the
academic year is always signalled by the
Beach Trip. This year we set off for Bude
with back packs filled with sandwiches,
drinks, buckets and spades, swimming
costumes and sun cream. The day was
spent rock pooling, sand castle making,
playing football and picnicking. The
sun shone down and everyone went
for a paddle in the waves and enjoyed
delicious ice creams before a very quiet
and sleepy return to school. It really was
an amazing day and a wonderful way to
Year 2 class work hard throughout
the year at putting the Mount
Kelly values into action! They
especially enjoy our activities outside the
classroom.
A TRIP TO TAVISTOCK TOWN
A highlight of the Michaelmas Term
for Year 2 was our trip into Tavistock
town. The children enjoyed planning our
route using Google Earth and did the
Meadowlands Challenge to find as many
activities which help us to relax and enjoy
our free time as possible. Many thanks
go to Rosie from St Eustachius, Angela
from the Wharf and Sally who volunteers
in the sensory garden. We are grateful
to the many kind people who helped
us to enjoy our trip and understand our
local area better. After a yummy packed
lunch and a tub of ice-cream we all felt
very lucky to be part of the Tavistock
community.
MOUNT KELLY LIMITED
EDITION ICE CREAM!
In the Lent Term Science Week Year 2
were delighted to find out more about the
states of matter via the IPC topic ‘Freeze
it!’
The week began with the children being
molecules, either zooming around as gas
molecules, acting as water contained in
a huge chalk bottle or standing as still as
an ice cube. They started to see this in
action when each of the class was given
an ice baby to observe. One priceless
question was, “Why do ice babies
get smaller when all other babies get
bigger?”
A real highlight was our Science Week
trip to Princetown. A very excited group
of Year 2s carefully weighed their chosen
ice cream ingredients before leaving.
On arrival, we were treated to a live
experiment which showed the different
freezing temperatures of water, raspberry
sauce, fresh raspberries and ice cream.
They also admired the beautiful artwork
done for the labelling and finally got to
create their own limited-edition tub of ice
cream to bring back to school and eat!
The children also enjoyed a visit to the
Princetown Visitor’s Centre and ate their
packed lunches at the Fox Tor Café.
Huge thanks to all the lovely people who
helped to engage the children and give
them such a super day out. All the adults
we met were all very complimentary about
the Year 2’s impeccable behaviour. It was
a joy to watch them tucking into their very
own ice cream. The fun continued for the
rest of the week with a chance to identify
the mystery substances and making our
own ice lollies with specially designed
labels. We wish it could be science week
every week!
THE CORNISH DRAGON!
The Cornish Dragon Day trip to
Porthcothan was well worth the wait! The
Year 2 children made full use of their time
in the fresh air beside the sea. They were
enchanted by Mr Floyd’s stories of Grogo
the dragon and his family. We even found
some dragon clues near his cave!
PRE-PREP LOTC FOREST
ACTIVITY WEEK
Despite the inclement weather, Year 2
fully entered into the spirit of our LOTC
experiences. All our lessons were held
outside and the children enjoyed al
fresco rehearsals and lunches too. In
English, we collected eyes of newts,
howlet wings, and toes of frogs to
help us to perform part of the famous
Shakespearian poem. Using vocabulary
collected from our day at the beach, Year
2 collaborated to write some sun poetry.
In Maths, a superlative and comparative
challenge was a great way of putting
the mathematical vocabulary linked with
height and length to good use.
In IPC, the class loved drawing maps of
Dragon Island which were then recreated
using natural materials. Geographical
vocabulary such as scale, symbol, key
and compass were discussed and put
into context via this activity. A wonderful
river walk inspired lots of thinking about
Forest School week is a valuable
opportunity for the children to gain
confidence, independence and extend
CONTINUED
their learning by engaging in all areas of
round off a busy Summer Term.
198 | THE FOUNDATION 21-22 THE FOUNDATION 21-22 | 199
the curriculum outside of the classroom.