Project 247: Spirited Away

 This project ran from Monday 22nd August to Sunday 28th August. As the children had enjoyed the previous week's anime, and Spirited Away was from the same studio and a range of resources were available from Into Film we decided to make the film this week's project.

The film is about a girl who moves to a new home, and the children did a writing exercise about what they would and wouldn't miss if they had to move home. 

In the film the girl meets spirit creatures trapped at an abandoned park, so the children each had to create their own spirit creature. 

Next project: The Phoenix and the Carpet.

Project 246: Manga and Anime

This project ran from Monday 15th August to Sunday 21st August, and was prompted by there being a couple of anime films we thought the children might enjoy. 

They watched Ponyo and My Neighbour Totoro,  which were quite surreal in comparison to most western animations, but the children enjoyed them.

They read a variety of Manga books:

And, most importantly, did lots of drawing as they learned how to draw their own manga figures.

Next Project: Spirited Away. 

Project 245: The History of the Church

This project ran from Monday 8th August to Sunday 14th of August, and was picked to accompany our trip to Virtual Sunday School Holiday Camp which took up half the week.

The children got a brief overview of everything from Pentecost...

...to Henry VIII and the plethora of denominations today:

And explored the reasons for the eventual break with Rome:

That was all promptly forgotten about, however, as they ran around, played games, and ate copious quantities of plums, at Virtual Sunday School Holiday Camp:

Next project: Manga and Anime. 

Project 244: Archaeology

This project ran from Monday 1st August until Sunday 7th August, and was prompted by Monica wanting to attain the archaeology badge for Brownies. 

To earn the badge it was necessary to explore the impact of the natural environment on an object by burying a letter in the earth, which they then had to try to relocate. 

They also had to pick three objects from around the house, and write a fictional backstory of what their history might have been.

The project also involved a couple of trips out. The first trip was an  archaeological trail around the local country park. 

The second trip was to Castle Rising, a nearby twelfth century castle:

Next project: The History of the Church

Project 243: Extinction

 This project ran from Monday 25th July to Sunday 31st July, and was prompted by exhibitions at both Peterborough Museum and Peterborough Cathedral.

The Cathedral was hosting a touring animatronic dinosaur exhibition, which the children all enjoyed.

The museum had a smaller exhibition looking more explicitly at the issue of extinction and some of its causes:

The children used a variety of Twinkl resources to learn about endangered animals, environmental threats, and extinction, and had to create their own posters about an endangered animal.

They also made use of a dinosaur origami book from the library. 

Next project: Archaeology. 

Project 242: Deserts

This project ran from Monday 18th July to Sunday 24th July, and was prompted by the record-breaking temperatures we were expecting in the UK. 

As the beginning of the week was mostly spent trying to keep cool, and there were a few meet-ups during the second half of the week, the project mostly made use of Twinkl worksheets along with documentaries (the links of which we've lost!).

Next project: Extinction

Project 241: 7 Wonders

 This project ran from Monday 11th July to Sunday 17th July.

This project was prompted by Solomon getting a new board game, 7 Wonders, which made us think it would be a good idea for the children to learn about both the original and New 7 Wonders. 

7 Wonders is a fairly quick (about 30 minutes) card development game with some simple building and trading. We played it intensely when we first got it, but it has since taken a bit of a backseat to games that are either more complex or quicker. 

We made use of a wide range of Twinkl resources to learn about each of the seven wonders, and the children had to write an essay about one of the seven wonders. Monica wrote about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Sam wrote about the Lighthouse at Alexandria, and Solomon wrote about the Colossus of Rhodes.

Next Project: Deserts