Educating Hannah

Saturday, 13 October 2012

History Group

Yesterday it was my turn to lead the history group session. We are still looking at famous Victorians, and I thought that Alexander Graham Bell might be interesting. Luckily the children seemed to agree!

We began by reading a short biography - the children took turns to read aloud, and then answered some questions about his life. They did this as a team effort and all took turns to write the answers as well.

Then we had a 'match the sentence' quiz and a word search

and to finish the children all had a go at making a rudimentary telephone with paper cups and string.

They tried making the string shorter and longer to find the best length to make the phone work and Hannah's friend Ellen managed to make hers the whole length of the house we were working in!!

I actually enjoyed leading the session and Hannah said it was really fun and interesting so that was a nice end to the week!

Wild!

On Thursday we spent the day at Wild Group. It was a wet, gloomy day!!

The children began by filling in the weather data in their folders,

and then Hannah did her Magic Spot observations as she had missed doing that last week while we were away.

Then the children worked in groups to make leaf pictures on the trees. We used cocktail sticks (snapped in halves) to pin fallen leaves to the bark in pictures or patterns.

Hannah and Lucy found it quite tricky but enjoyed it with a little help!

After lunch we had circle time when the children shared all their news, and then we made hot rocks to edge the newly dug allotment with.

Hot rocks are great! You just collect a bunch of rocks from the beach (or wherever) , heat them in the oven and then carefully draw on them with old wax crayons. The crayons melt into beautiful pictures and set as the rocks cool.

Maybe next week it won't be raining so hard and i'll get a picture of them adorning allotment!

Back To Normal

This week we've been getting back to normal after our holiday. Hannah has done some work on the computer, mainly maths and also some written work and some art.

She also went to her gym class on Tuesday where she did trampolining, cartwheeling and forward rolls.

This week she is reading Secret Seven On The Trail by Enid Blyton.

Thursday, 11 October 2012

Devon 2012 - We Are Back!!

We're back from a lovely week in Devon! It was wonderful! So peaceful and relaxing, tucked away in a little village by the coast (the village i grew up in). We walked, explored the lanes and the beaches, went rockpooling, visited Pennywell Farm, Plymouth, Totnes and caught up with special friends.

We have literally hundreds of photos, but don't worry, I'm not going to inflict them all on the blog! Here are a few highlights though -

Building sandcastles, rockpooling and collecting shells on Challaborough beach -

Sunset on the beach

A visit to Pennywell Farm on the edge of Dartmoor -

Piglet love!

Hugs

and kisses!

Meeting the hedgehogs

Go-Cart racing

Birds of Prey

Hannah still loves owls and this one was beautiful!

Piggy grand national - they were soooo cute!

'Hup'

Feeding time

A walk around Ringmore - my home village!

I sang in the choir every Sunday in this church as a child

Down the valley to Ayrmer Cove

Showing Hannah around the village and telling her all about growing up there.

Surf watching at Challaborough -

How cool??

And relax!!

A new Build-A-Bear after a trip to Plymouth!

Meeting Sid and Lizzie on stage at the caravan park http://www.sidandlizzie.co.uk/

Hannah absolutely loved them and learned all the songs and dances from their show!

We spent a day with my oldest friend and his family. He was taking care of a neighbouring small holding so Hannah helped him and his children feeding the Ostrich, Emus, Alpacas, Ducks and Chickens.

It was so good to catch up with him and his lovely wife, and for Hannah to spend time with the children (who are equally lovely). It was a really great day.