A Palace fit for Pigs.
This year, 2019, we celebrate the Chinese year of the pig. We hope that our pigs are enjoying their year; over Half Term a veritable Pig Palace was constructed for them and the pupils in the Nursery certainly enjoyed celebrating Chinese New Year in February and made the most of their celebrations.
Mrs Van der Merwe, Form Teacher for the Nursery tells us that ‘We started the week with a visit from a parent who, with the help of Theo, explained the traditions of the festival of Chinese New Year. We learnt about the story of how a monster was scared away on the darkest night of the year by loud noises, the colour red and fire. We learnt about red envelopes and how to use two hands when we receive them to show respect to our elders. The children were delighted with the red envelopes they took home containing chocolate coins.
We then enjoyed a delicious Chinese lunch cooked up by the kitchens.
During the week the Nursery pupils learnt a great deal which was connected to the Chinese New Year celebrations. In Maths we learnt about Chinese numbers and in Science we looked at how noodles changed as they were cooked and explored them using all our senses. (Particularly the sense of taste)!
In Computing we played a dragon Maths games. To develop our language and vocabulary we dressed up and role played a Chinese feast. In English we wrote our names on our Chinese dragons and read stories about China and the New Year. In Art we designed our own red packets using symbols from the traditional stories.
We learnt about Lion and Dragon dances and made our own Chinese dragon. We painted it red and gold and covered it with glitter. We then attached a long piece of fabric to create the body and rounded off the week with our very own dragon dance in the grounds.
In further pig-related news the Head of Science and pig supremo, Mr Kane, and his colleague Mr Stylianou spent half term building a wondrous palace for our three micro-pigs, Cow, George and Peppa.
The pigs have a lovely area but the mud was getting a little too much to cope with for the pigs and the Farm Managers. Pigs love mud, but not at this level. The new shelter also provides our porcine friends with shelter during the winter and will provide them with protection from the summer sun. Pigs can get sunburnt, just like us.
The guttering system, to be installed over the next few weeks, will top up the pigs’ water supply and will increase the sustainability of the project. We will install a water storage system using water butts.
Our farm is south facing and provides an ideal location for a portable wind turbine and some solar panels, thus providing electricity to power the chicken door opening system and the system used to log the jobs completed by our staff, Farm Mangers and volunteer parents.’
Pigs rule in 2019!
If you would like to see the evolution of our porcine paradise, please click on the films below.
Categories: Nursery Priory Post Whole School