Blue llamas go kayaking!

This week we had the first kayaking group session. Everyone learned how to get in and out of a boat, capsize and empty the boat safely. 

Bobbing about in buoyancy aids - blue llamas get wet!

 After trying to paddle the boat in various ways with hands only, everyone looked relaxed.

Using hands as paddles.

 Then we started using paddles - what a difference!

Time for a relay race!

Getting to grips with paddles.

Gradually everyone began to get a bit more control, until...

getting into position...

 they were whizzing along quite happily!

Whizzing along

Well done everyone - you took on the challenge, persevered and learned lots!

Inuit inspired printmaking

In Art we have been making prints with Mrs Firth. We started by looking at images of birds in Inuit Art. Then we made a printing block and inked it and tranferred the image to paper.

 

How to make a model igloo

Last week there was not enough snow to build an igloo outside so we used John Rae's notes and drawings, and a Ray Mears video, to make a model igloo.

Arctic adaptations

We are continuing to find out about the Arctic and how animals have adapted to deal with the freezing temperatures. This week we investigated how effective blubber is at insulating animals from the cold.

Here we are spreading the lard evenly around the hand of the volunteer inside a plastic bag.

We took the temperature of the hand inside the blubber mitten before it went into the ice water.

The volunteer put their hand inside the mitten into the ice water (1degree C) for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes the temperature of the hand in the glove had gone up!

Then the volunteers did the same with their other hand without a mitten made of blubber. They lasted for 1.5 minutes and the temperature of their hand dropped from 30 degrees C to 8 degrees C!

Finally everyone wanted to find out what it felt like to put their hand in the ice - water... they lasted for 45 seconds and there was a lot of shrieking!!!!!!!!!

We concluded that 4 inches of blubber would easily keep a polar bear warm in sub zero temperatures.

Why not have a look at some of our Prezi presentations about Arctic food chains on our new wiki project pages!
Here is an example - this is Leah's Prezi:

Children in Need

Here are some of the entries from Class 7 for the Children in Need baking competition.

Don't they look delicious!

******double click on the picture to enlarge and see all the yummy detail!******

Tag Rugby

The latest video on our Sports channel shows us playing Tag Rugby at the Pickaquoy astroturf pitch with Liam.

Bakesale!!!

Thanks to all our parents for helping us put on such a sucessful bakesale to raise funds for hiring the pool for our after school kayaking later this term.