Confectionary Folk Tale Inspires Home Building

Hansel and Gretel, a well-known folk tale of German origin, recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 has been the focus of Year 3 literacy this term. Hansel and Gretel are a young brother and sister threatened by a old witch living deep in the forest in a house constructed of cake and confectionery. The two children save their own lives by outwitting her.

The children were ask to create the confectionary house where the witch lived for a homework project. The creations were amazing and in many cases it seems that the whole family became involved in the design and construction of the sweetie dwellings. The children said they really enjoyed the homework but enjoyed eating it even more.

Have a look at some of the images of the children's work and marvel at the creativity that was employed in making their ideas reality.

Ovens and Dragons; A Day of Constuction

Wow, what a DT extravaganza. Bowhill Primary School launched the inaugural design technology activity day 2011. Everybody changed the curriculum from the normal run-of-the-mill literacy and numeracy, to a whole day of designing, making, adapting and recreating. From reception upwards children and adults (including teachers, parents, grandparents and ambassadors from local industry) had fun learning through practical work.

Children worked cooperatively, motivated by the tasks and challenges. The activities ranged from puppet making and shelter construction, to building a 2 metre lighthouse in Year 1. Musical instruments were modelled, and Year 6 took this opportunity to work on building the many props required for their end-of-year production.

It was a tiring but extremely rewarding day and we are all looking forward to the next Design Technology Day when the skills of pupils and helpers can be put to the test once again.

The Return of the Bowhill Blogger

A year has passed and activity from the Bowhill Bugle has been minimal to say the least! But we are back and our wish is once again to document the day to day goings on in our Exeter primary school.

The autumn term has left us with a rich legacy of students' work to draw on and the school's Christingle celebrations are in full rehearsal, ready for the final push in these last weeks.

As the country freezes, yet the snow continues to avoid our small city, we see over the horizon the end of term, and with much yet to be accomplished and work to be completed, children and staff are working hard to fulfil their full potential.

I hope to bring you a clip of the Christingle celebrations and many more items of interest over the next three weeks. Stay posted for our future blogs as the year draws to a close.

Class 3/1 create The Viking Ship

Year Three have been looking at invaders and settlers in their history work.

The vikings invaded Britain around 700 AD. They travelled in long boats from Scandinavia and were ferocious fighters, who took what they wanted and killed anyone who tried to stop them.

Class 3/1 made a long boat collage as a whole class project, and the smaller boats were made by individual children. The raven flags were made with the help of class 6/2 and Mr Mawdesley.

Andy Warhol's Cats by Year 2

Throughout Andy Warhol's life he owned and loved cats. In 1954 he published a book entitled 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy, consisting of a series of cat portraits done with his blotted ink line techniques. Year 2 have done their own cat portraits in the style of Andy Warhol's cats.

Season of the Witch, Lion and Wardrobe

With the end of SATs Year 6 embarked upon a grand project; an abridged version of the children's classic - The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. With less than six weeks to pull the production together Year 6 teachers Mr Mawdsley and Mrs Trevor worked tirelessly to create a performance worthy of the West End. Along with musical director Mrs Mackie the team molded the entire Year Six into a trail blazing theatre troop and musical chorus. The results were absolutely outstanding.

Breaking the story down to its bare bones this piece of musical theatre took us from war-torn London to the childrens' relocation in the country, through the wardrobe to Narnia, their meetings with the faun Mr Tumnus, the Beavers, the White Witch and Aslan, engaging in the battle between Good and Evil and their return to the house of Profesor Kirke and Mrs Macready. A real whistlestop tour through C.S Lewis's allegorical tale.

And quite brilliant it was too. The music, acting, singing, props and scenery cannot be praised enough, and we hope the team will bring us something equally impressive next year. Bedknob and Broomsticks? Winnie the Pooh? Maybe even Phillip Pullman's Northern Lights? Who knows, but whatever it might be we know that if it is even half as good as this years effort it will be well worth the wait.

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf Now?

The final weeks of the summer term for Year 3 have been hectic yet fun, and in science they have been exploring Light and Shadows through the medium of shadow puppetry.

Using their knowledge and understanding of the material properties of opacity (something difficult to see through), transparency (allows light to pass through it), and translucency (allows light to pass through it only diffusely) they created masterpieces of dramatic theatre using a light source, cardboard, lollipop sticks and other pieces of flotsam and jetsam found at the back of the art cupboard.

Using traditional tales the children created narratives to which they choreographed their characters behind the silver screen. Collaborating for the first time on such a grand project, Chy Prout-Poll and Kai Parmeter pulled out all their creative stops to entertain us all with a masterful rendition of Little Red Riding Hood.

The puppetry, voice overs and general production values were worthy of an Oscar. Oh, and a big thank-you to Mr Webber for his cameo as the woodcutter.

Here's a screenshot of the performance below, but the entire thing can be seen on the school website.