Harvest Festival 2015

Last Friday, (16th October) was Robin Hood's Harvest Festival. The day began with a Harvest Hunt in the school playground. Pupils brought a food donation in return for an entry sheet into the hunt. The children taking part searched the playground with great enthusiasm for hidden fruit and vegetables from our Harvest stories, Stone Soup and The Special Apple. 4 lucky winners from across school received a gift card to Farmer Copley's Farm.

The hunt was followed by a whole school assembly based around the theme of 'sharing', which was attended by Reverend Mandy Rhodes, from Christ Church in Lofthouse.

The huge amount of food donations from the Harvest Festival will be shared with the local community.

Artclub and KS 1 Art on display at Tropical World

On display at Tropical World in Leeds is Art designed and made by Robin Hood Primary School pupils.

Two large paintings and models of animals have been made by the Artclub, an after-school club of sixteen pupils at Robin Hood Primary School, Leeds. Since November, the children have been designing and making the artwork.

Alongside these are three panels of paintings made during the “Animals” topic by Key Stage 1 children.

The children learned all about animal’s habitats and why different animals are suited to different parts of the world. In addition to producing a painting depicting an animal of their choice, they also sewed their own bookmarks.

To see how the Artclub made their models and paintings visit

http://artandcreativityrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk/

Pom Pom Owls at Lotherton Hall

The pom-pom owls made by Robin Hood Primary School are now permanently based at Lotherton Hall.  They are displayed in an exhibition case in the Education Rooms which are set in the Bird Garden.

It is particularly fitting that the owls have been allowed to “live” there as it was “Gazza”, or Gascoigne, the hand-reared barn owl at Lotherton Hall, that the owls were based on.

I would like to say a huge thank you to Rob Driver, the Education Officer and Richard Wardell, Gazza’s keeper, at Lotherton for arranging this.

The Education Rooms are open when there are workshops taking place, so you can see the pom-pom owls on full display.

To see how we made the owls visit

http://robinhoodartinthecommunity.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Pom-pom%20Owl

Children’s Centre, Lofthouse

Today, I put up a display of painting and collage made by our Nursery children made during our “Animals” topic.  It is inspired by the song “Old MacDonald had a Farm and features the animals in the farmyard.  Our Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday morning children made the landscape and foreground and our Wednesday afternoon/Thursday/Friday children made the animals.  It is on display in the main corridor, next to the Reception desk at the Children’s Centre in Lofthouse where it will be seen by many of its’ visitors.

Operation Christmas Child 2014

Robin Hood has once again supported the Operation Christmas Child appeal. This year, we collected 82 shoeboxes filled with lovely gifts, which will be distributed to disadvantaged children in Europe.

On Tuesday, our school captains Lewis and Lia helped carry and load all the boxes into the collection van.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the appeal.

The Big Draw 2014: Community Afternoon

On Monday 13^th October Robin Hood Primary School took part in The Big Draw.  The 2014 Big Draw runs from 1 October to 2^nd November across the UK and in twenty other countries, with 280,000 people expected to join in over 1000+ events. This year the theme is “It’s our World” and is a celebration of our environment – of urban, rural and coastal landscapes.

The children invited their family and friends into the hall to see their amazing drawing.  The hall was filled with people and many had a go at drawing their own pictures to add to the celebration of the world.

Pupils visit Rothwell Library to see Dinosaur

Pupils from Robin Hood Primary School were invited to see the dinosaur they had made which is on display at Rothwell Library.  The children, who are now in the Reception class had made the stegosaurus in the summer term of last school year, when they were in the Nursery.

Spike, as he is called by the children, was made as part of the topic on Dinosaurs.  He measures 1metre tall and a massive 260cm long and was made over two weeks.  Jan Chin, who made the dinosaur with the children said “I was given a roll of sheet wire and told to make a big dinosaur with the children.  I knew it had to have a solid base to support it, so I looked for an old chair.  The dinosaur’s legs are built around each chair leg, and the chair back supports the highest spike.  The wire is then shaped to form the body.  As the wire has sharp edges the children could only watch how the dinosaur was being built, and they were fascinated – asking lots of questions.  They then helped me to put masking tape over all the sharp bits which we called “bandages”.  Then, they were able to paper mache it.  They then painted and collaged it, all the time, using lots of lovely rich language to describe what they were doing.  Spike has sat with us, in Nursery at carpet time until we broke up in the summer!

I am very grateful to Rothwell Library for displaying our artwork.  The children have loved bringing their families along to see Spike and they have been treated to a story by Librarian, Caroline Higson-Blythe.  I am sure every time they pass the library, they will now want to go in.”

Koinobori Fish on display at Tropical World, Leeds

These fish have been made by the children in Years 5 and 6 at Robin Hood Primary School during their recent topic on Japan.  The fish have been made from fabric and are hand painted. The topic took place over three afternoon sessions (five hours).

 

The fish are on display at Tropical World in Leeds.  Three fish appear to be swimming along the top of one of the walls and as you turn the corner you are greeted by ten more.

 

 

During their topic on Japan, the children first looked at Koinobori flags (carp kites) which are flown on Children’s Day which is a festival and public holiday in Japan which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month. This provided some background knowledge around the concept of Children’s Day.

This is a festival which celebrates the future success and health of Japan’s children.  Carp kites symbolize success and are believed to represent strength and determination of spirit in the same way as the koi carp swims against the current.  As the koi carp has a long life span it is considered a symbol of success whilst the bright colours are believed to drive away evil spirits.

 

 

Beautiful Koi carp swim in the pools in the butterfly enclosure at Tropical World which is why I thought of Tropical World as the obvious place to display the children’s artwork.

 

Each pupil brought in a pillowcase and working in pairs, they cut it open and drew around the koi carp template. They then stuck down the edges and let it dry for the next session.

During the next session they looked at some examples of koinobori flags and concentrated on painting the intricate pattern using fabric paint.