New Beginnings

So here it is...the last day of the Summer holidays. Back in July this day seemed so very far in the future as we began packing away our treasured possessions from our well loved classrooms. Our wooden bowl and basket addictions became more apparent and less easy to hide as box after box was piled high with an assortment of sizes!!

The children were asking us why we were putting their resources away, why we were changing their loved environment. Our classrooms were always changing, never staying the same for too long, always adapting to the children and their fascinations...but this was different. This time the children felt the finality of it. We would find hidden letters placed carefully in areas the children knew we would look..tucked under the corner of our keyboards or lovingly folded and placed in the top of our bags. "I wish I could stay."

Now we find ourselves setting an alarm for the morning and messaging each other imagining we are meeting back at Lister tomorrow. With our normal, predictable routine of a cup of tea and a morning chat with Mrs Gill before being the first on the big playground to greet the otters and foxes to a new day at school.

Tomorrow is nearly here. This day has loomed over us this holiday; at times feeling safely ensconced in that faraway "next month". With stretches of beach holidays, new homes, theatre visits and Dartmoor walks keeping it an abstract thought, never letting it linger too much before being pushed away with the lazy luxury of Summer holiday days. "Next month" is here. It is here with no more lazy luxury is to keep it away. It is here and we are ready for it. Excited for it! New classrooms have been set up and wooden bowls and baskets are out in their new homes.

We find ourselves thinking about the Foxes and Otters. About all of them, one by one they pop into our minds as we remember our final fantastic year at Lister. One by one we see each smile, each boundary overcome and we think about how they might be feeling today. Are new school uniforms laid out for Wednesday morning? Fluffy new jumpers ready to leave bobbles on crisp white t shirts? Polished shoes and matching, complete PE kits not yet muddled with the child's who got changed on the next seat! Bookbags without the tatty corners, yet to be dragged along the playground in the mornings?Bookbags without the historic stains of that time the water bottle lid hadn't been put on properly?

We like to think that we are all prepared. We were a team last year, all of us learning and growing together. We will take some of the resilience and determination we saw in your children and keep it with us tomorrow as we walk into an unfamiliar school. We will remember the kindness and laughter and keep our team mantra in my mind, " we don't say I can't do it, we say I can't do it...yet!"

None of us wanted 'us' to end. We each carry a piece of 'us' with us. I know your children will thrive in their new environments they will continue to question, enquire, create, explore, befriend, care, move, stretch, excel and so much more.

Each Otter and Fox will be on our minds this week. We are full of excitement for the next year. We can all take a little bit of Lister's irresistible learning with us and learn and thrive in our new schools.

Have a wonderful first week at your new school Otters and Foxes, enjoy year one!

This will be our last blog post but it will still be here for you to look back at and remember the fun you had with your friends at Lister school. There are so many good memories in these photographs. They certainly make us smile when we look back over them.

Lots of love Miss Sullivan and Mrs Lewis.

Camp Catastrophe

Our Deconstructed Role Play Area has been many things this year but this term it has proudly been turned into an expedition basecamp by our intrepid FS1 and FS2 explorers .(With a handful of reversions back into Arandelle for our Frozen Superfans!)

Whilst your children were busy with their phonics and funky fingers learning something catastrophic happened to 'Camp Lister.'

A tropical storm had hit and destroyed our homely base. All of our treasured building materials were strewn across the playground. Tents were flung atop mountain peaks and the much important pegs had been tossed to different corners of our outdoor classroom.

A plan had to be made! Lucas was quick to bravely search the playground and compile a list of the materials scattered from the main base.

Finlay drew a picture of what he thought happened. ''It must have been a hurricane. it only hit one part of the school and we didn't notice.'' His circular scribbles and spirals showed the damage.

Not one to rush into anything, Lucas drew a design for the new base. It needed to be ''stronger and waterproof.''

Unaware of Lucas' design plans, some of the other children got to work on constructing a new tunnel that would keep them dry. Fabric was draped over the willow tunnels and securely pegged in place. An escape route was expertly built. A commando crawl through the willow tunnel and a quick scurry underneath a balance toy would keep any camping survivors safe when the next storm hit.

While all this was going on, some of the children noted a critical design flaw. Although the expertly draped fabric would keep the children sheltered from the sun and dry in a light drizzle it was terribly exposed for the more tropical of thunderstorms. A removal team were elected to safely transfer the structure to underneath the covered area.

 Being under the covered area meant closer proximity to the remaining building materials. This access to the tarpaulins and building blocks was all that was needed for Jack, Kerron and Chloe to put their structural engineering skills to good use and creatively attach a clean and cosy camp to the escape tunnel.

The camp builders remembered what Bear Grylls had told them about keeping a clean and tidy camp to deter any unwanted animals and set to sweeping the whole base camp.

A door for visiting adults was kindly built by the designers and tested by Miss Sullivan.

After a good sweep through, the children got to making it homely and practical. Bookshelves were fashioned out of blocks laid on their sides and an upturned block was turned into a most stylish broom holder.

As with all of our Deconstructed Role Play Areas the children's base camp will continue to evolve and change as new children decide to take their play that way. Having these open ended resources and giving the children the freedom to direct their own play has led to some fascinating role play and quality talk.

Keep an eye on the camp as you come into school...play a game of spot the difference.

We never know what direction the children will take their learning. What we do know is that it is always purposeful and directly linked to the children's own interests.

Mission Survive...Never Give Up, Never Give In.

Mission Survive ----Lister Style!

After a team talk about staying hydrated and the importance of sun safety when surviving in tropical conditions, our little explorers bravely made their way out to the field. Waiting for them  under the shade of his shelter was none other than Bear Grylls! As he directed us to sit around him we eagerly anticipated the rousing team talk we had come to expect from the motivating, positive survivor. We were not disappointed.

We were reminded of the importance of team spirit and working together to survive the challenges ahead. We were taught what to do if we were the victims of a surprise bear attack. Ask your children if they can remember what to do!

Bear taught us why he was called 'Bear'. It is an acronym for:

B - Bravery

E - Enjoyment

A - Adventure

R - Respect

All essential elements of survival.

Just like Bear, we had to learn how to blend into our surroundings just like our Dads' do when they go on exercise. To do this we carefully applied cam cream to our noses and cheeks. Mrs Lewis and Miss Sullivan were used as examples of how NOT to apply it! (Thanks to Mrs Cox and her over enthusiastic face painting skills!)

After being introduced to Bear's team of survival experts, we were ready to get going and face the challenges that lay ahead. We knew that a true survivor tackled challenges with determination and a 'can do ' attitude, if we felt unsure or uneasy we would let our friends words of encouragement help us but we knew we wouldn't be forced to do anything we didn't want to .

Crossing the shark infested waters.

Balancing across fallen trees to traverse a rocky ravine.

Testing our balancing skills further...could we balance across just one tree?

Working as a team to lift vital supplies off the ground to prevent the real bears from getting their paws on them.

Words of encouragement were given freely by the survival experts. We felt proud of our achievements and celebrated them with lots of high fives.

Some of the children decided to commando crawl to their next challenge!

Honing our orienteering skills and listening to a safety brief. Look after the team and the team looks after you.

Water is a vital necessity for survival. It is important to keep hydrated at all times. We had to work together to move our precious supply from one camp to another avoiding deadly obstacles and a very hungry crocodile.

Learning mountaineering skills with one of Bear's trusty survival experts. He told us to never look down and taught us the importance of knot tying.  

Look at that hand over hand action!

All the while we were keeping a careful look out.

Next, we navigated our way across many tricky terrains. Our balancing skills were put to the test on the wobbly bridge.

A sneaky poke around Bear's camp. We found his hidden ration packs and cooked them up for a tasty energy boost...much more appetising than the woodland creatures he offered to catch for us!

Taking it in turns on the night watch. Catching up on some well needed R and R.

We survived!!

We have proven that we have the 'Bear necessities' to survive and were congratulated by a Bear handshake, a certificate and a gooey campfire treat of 'Grylled' marshmallow. 

Thank you to 'Bear' and his expedition team, we wouldn't have survived without you all.

What a Bear-illiant day!!

Un - Bear- lievable

A mysterious visitor appeared on our corridor earlier this month. He stood by the door to our outside area with a rope slung across his shoulders and mud on his face. He caused much intrigue and the children were guessing who he might be and how he came be at Lister school. His appearance made some of the children think that he might have been on lots of adventures before he got here. After some careful scrutiny every morning, Mateo announced that he knew who our visitor was. ''It's Bear Grylls, I've seen him on the telly he eats disgusting things and jumps out of helicopters.''

Mateo was right, my friend Bear had been watching the children playing outside and had been looking to see if they had the skills it took to survive in the wild. At the beginning of the month I was not in class for three days, I had received a phone call from Bear to join him on one of his adventures. He needed me to be his camerawoman and learn skills from him to take back to the foxes and otters.

When I arrived back in Herford (in one piece...just!) I had all of our video footage with me. Bear had taken me on all of his most exciting survival missions. We had jumped out of helicopters, abseiled down waterfalls and made our own shelter. The children were excited to watch the footage and keen to see just what this Bear Grylls could do. After all, we had been trying to work out who he was for the past few days!

The children were mesmerised and were soon chanting Bear like mantras to each other before setting off in their independent play. ''Positivity, Positivity, Positivity'' and ''Just get out there!!'' were heard all along the corridor. These mantras became posters, and these posters were soon stuck up on any available wall space...some of the children decided it would be best to place them in the office...''so more people can come on our adventures.''

It seemed that they were recruiting suitable survivors for Bear Grylls. Teamwork, positivity, dedication and perseverance were qualities that the children had picked out from all of Bear's videos and they were soon praising each other for displaying these in their play. Ruth, Iris, Faye and Jack enjoyed playing out scenarios in our very own mission survive camp, they were toasting pretend marshmallows just like Mr Gill had taught them to do in Forest School.

The clip of Bear jumping out of the helicopter (with me steadfastly filming him!!) sparked Lucas's imagination in particular. Using his creativity and resourcefulness he made his very own hang glider ''So I can fly down to see if any of the other mountains have plants I can eat.''

Using her Bear Grylls mini-me Chloe created a mini parachute for him and used him in her small world play. The small world area (soon to be renamed 'Our Bear Grylls Play Set' and expertly labelled by Reese) was all designed and created by the children.

Our recent work on looking at speech bubbles came into its own when the photographs we had printed of Bear, the children and members of staff were independently cut up and arranged into amusing scenarios. The added speech bubbles gave way for some funny and imaginative games at the 'Bear Grylls Play Set' and outside. Have a look at some of them. They are displayed in both Otters and Foxes class...come and have a look at them properly when you are next in school.

This one is made from large photos of Bear Grylls and Mrs Gill and is stuck onto our large blackboard. Mrs Gill looks very surprised to see Bear in our corridor! The children have had lots of fun adding to these photographs and many more by chalking a background to accompany them. They have added palm trees, mountains, crocodiles and sandy beaches.

This one made Mr Gill smile. When asked, Cameron said that in this collage it is Bear Grylls talking to Mr Gill and not the other way round. ''Hey boss, what shall we do today?''

In this one it is Bear Grylls who needs saving...I think with our new found survival skills and ''bags full of positivity'' we could get him off that icy mountain, don't you?

And finally...It seems it is essential that on every survival mission you take a cheese knife! :-)

Watch this space for our upcoming 'Bear Hunt' on the 10th June.

We can't wait!