On Friday 8^th September, Merlins and Ospreys discovered their colourful new topic “Global Gourmet” with a fantastic WOW day. The first stop on our culinary tour of the globe is Mexico. The children, dressed in colourful fiesta outfits, enjoyed a carousel of activities including: cooking salsa, playing Latino music using boomwhackers and using their ICT skills to create their own sugar skull masks.

We made the most of the sunshine, spending the afternoon outside playing Mexican themed games, such as Pass the Sombrero and Mexican Beans. Everyone enjoyed the chance to sample our freshly made salsa with tortilla chips. The excitement didn’t stop there; having creating their own piñatas in the morning, the children took turns to burst open their designs and reveal the hidden treasures within. We couldn’t resist ending the day with a giant Mexican wave!

The Mexican Bean parachute game was a firm favourite. Ollie told us “It was really fun. If you were a Chilli you had to swap with another Chilli. The best bit was when Mr Tweed shouted, “Chilli Burrito!” it was great.”

Reece also enjoyed the outdoor games, “It was good to go outside and try different things.”

“Making our own salsa and trying it was really good. It was yummy!”  Ava and Alanya agreed.

Ava also enjoyed the piñatas “Making piñatas was great. When we bashed them, loads of sweets came out and we ran to get them.”

Alanya summed up the day perfectly, “I really enjoyed all of it and the rest of the class did too!”

On the afternoon and evenings of Monday 3^rd July and Tuesday 4^th July, the Key Stage 2 children from Anston Greenlands Primary School put on a stunning performance of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

As you know, this year, our production was a bit different: all aspects of the performance were turned over to the children. It started back in February when the children voted to put on ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ from a selection of plays. They also made the decision to set the performance in modern times, rather than producing a traditional version of the play.

Since then, they have taken over every role in the theatre – as well as acting, singing and dancing, the children have been in charge of choreography and directing. They have designed and created props, make-up, scenery and costumes. Musicians have composed and performed tracks to complement the acting. Another group have focussed on creating blogs about our project for the school website. Our sound technicians, lighting technicians and stage hands were all KS2 pupils. Marketing, including ticket and programme design and sales, has been carried out by the children. Additionally, a group of pupils were in charge of catering during the interval.

I hope that all members of our audiences would agree that all that hard work paid off. The staff team were thrilled with the quality of the performances from our musicians, actors, singers and dancers. There are definitely some future stars of stage and screen in our school! All of our behind-the-scenes crew worked maturely and with terrific independence to make sure that the play ran as smoothly as possible.

A huge thank you goes to our parents, carers, grandparents, family members and friends for all of your support with learning lines, providing costumes and finding props. You made a fantastic audience – thank you for laughing and clapping in all the right places!

On Tuesday 27^th June, the Y3 and Y4 book club met up with the Y5 and Y6 group for an exciting celebration event.

We started with a final vote on the books which we have been reading over the last few months. The winner of the Y3/4 award was ‘Android in the Attic’ by Nicholas Allan. In the Y5 and Y6 book group, ‘Car-Jacked’ by Ali Sparkes topped ‘The Giant Beard That Was Evil’ by just 0.25 points!

Next, the children worked together in mixed-age groups on book-based charades and Pictionary games. Then, there was a chance to enjoy some refreshments whilst the teachers judged the competition entries.

Finally, we had prize-giving, with some very happy bibliophiles receiving books signed by Sir Tony Robinson, Adrian Edmondson and recent Children’s Laureate, Chris Riddell.

Finally, after all their hard work, the musicians have finished creating the music for the play and have joined the actors and other students. They are now busy joining in with the rehearsals and adding some life to the play!

Also the next big thing is painting the scenery because who can have a play without a backdrop? Lots of the children are working hard at bringing Eloise’s scenery design to life.

Although most of the props are complete, there are still some finishing touches to be made; some of the prop designers are now busy making posters to advertise the play.

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Thank you for all the help with costumes so far; soon we’re going to be taking pictures of the children in their costumes before the big night.

By Katie and Louis

Today we have spent the morning with the prop designers. They have also started some prop creation, including a throne and paper balloons, which will be decorations for the wedding scene.

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Additionally, they told us some interesting facts about William Shakespeare. For example, he was the oldest surviving son of Jonathan Shakespeare. Did you know that William Shakespeare died on his birthday?