It was so good to spend extra time with the Rangers this week. We don’t always get time for fun activities after school so we made the most of the week.
Big Sloth
Playing with the Seedlings
Cheeky
Dragons
The Wildlife Rangers enjoyed potting on their seedlings they sowed a few weeks ago. They are already getting big and strong, before we plant them outside we need to acclimatise them in the cold frames.
The Rangers especially enjoyed the junk modelling activities and made some lovely creations. Jacy made a sloth as he says he’s ‘obsessed with them!’ Tracie has suggested he do a project on them as he could find out some interesting facts about them.
We talked about the noises they make Jacy shouted out, “Hey Google, what noise does a sloth make?” and Google said “huff, I don’t have a sound for that at the moment, but ask me again as I am learning more and more every day!” This made everyone laugh.
The children went on to ask Google lots of funny questions, “Hey Google, what sound does a pig make? “A pig says, Oink oink, would you like to hear the sound of a horse?” Everyone shouted “Yes please” it was all very funny.
We had fun this week and it was lovely to see Martha and Ivor. They have grown so much since Christmas. We made the most of the days off packing in lots of activities. Looking forward to seeing them again at Easter.
In July 2013, tennis tables were installed in Stanley Park by Liverpool City Council to celebrate the success of the 2012 Olympics! This picture was taken of Poppy and Chloe when they were just two and three!
Poppy and Chloe 2013
Chloe and Poppy 2020
So in 2020 we returned to take this flashback picture, taken six years later! They still cant play it! Maybe we should have tennis lessons?
This morning, Chelsea, Chloe and Poppy sat down for the first session of SP Politics Half Hour ran by Tatton from Simple Politics. It was the first trial run for a weekly politics session aimed at Key Stage 2 children and our topic this week was ‘What is Politics?’ We hooked Chelsea’s laptop up to the TV in our snug and sat comfortably as Tatton began a 15 minute structured session. Over 200 people were also tuned in and we could comment in the chat box if we had any opinions or questions.
Chloe and Poppy Ready to Learn!
Chloe Holding the Notebook
On his presentation, Tatton asked us three questions, which we had to answer and use our one vote on the poll on the screen. The first question was ‘Which is better: Cats or Dogs?’ Chloe said Cats, Poppy said Dogs and because Chelsea also said Dogs, the majority vote meant we entered Dogs on the poll. Dogs was the winner! Tatton then asked the ‘Dogs’ voters why they chose dogs. Poppy said ‘because they’re protective’ so Chelsea entered this comment into the chat box. A lot of people also said comments like ‘they’re cute’ and ‘you can walk them’. Tatton then asked the ‘Cats’ voters why they chose cats. Chloe said she chose cats ‘for the kitten at Grandma Phyllis”. Some of the other people in the chat said because ‘they’re cute’ and ‘you don’t have to walk them’. Tatton pointed out that this opinion is completely valid and depends on the circumstance of the person, for example some of the people in the chat were in colder areas and it was snowing! Who wants to walk a dog in snow, right?
The next question was ‘Which is better: Pizza or Pasta?’ Chloe said Pizza, Poppy said Pasta and again, because Chelsea also said Pasta, the majority vote meant we entered Pasta on the poll. Pizza was the winner! Chloe was a little grumpy because the winner was the option she wanted to pick, but we talked about opinions and how having a different opinion that wins or loses does not mean you are right or wrong. Chelsea explained that because we only had one vote (one laptop) we had to give the majority vote on the poll. When Tatton asked the ‘Pasta’ voters why they chose Pasta, we typed in the chat box ‘because there are lots of shapes and options.’ Tatton then asked the ‘Pizza’ voters why they chose Pizza and a lot of people in the chat said ‘because there are lots of toppings to choose from’. So it turns out, majority of people chose their vote based on the variety, but we still all chose differently.
Cats or Dogs?
Flying or Invisibility?
The last question was trickier! It was, ‘Would You Rather: Be Able to Fly or Be Invisible?’ Chloe, Poppy and Chelsea all agreed on Flying. So the majority vote was put into the poll and flying was the winner! When Tatton asked the ‘Fly’ voters why they chose to Fly, the group had lots of ideas! Chloe said ‘to go up into the sky, and you can still be invisible in the clouds’ and Poppy said ‘because if you were invisible your parents wouldn’t be able to see you, but if you fly down to the ground they can still see you.’ Other people put in the chat that you could ‘go on holidays’ and ‘flying would be quicker’. When Tatton asked the ‘Invisible’ voters why they chose to be Invisible one person put in the chat ‘you wouldn’t need money’ which is an interesting thought!
Chelsea Asking Our Question ‘What is next weeks session Topic?’
The second half of the session was Questions Time. This was where the chat box got very busy! Tatton answered a number of questions like ‘when can I vote?’ for the UK the answer is 18 years old; and what’s the difference between a Prime Minister and a President, which was ‘countries that have a monarchy (which is a king or a queen) have a Prime Minister to make political decisions, and countries without a king or a queen have a President as the leader.’ This sparked a question from Chloe, ‘do we have a king or a queen?’ and Chelsea explained that we do have a queen and that monarchies are a lineage, meaning the sons or daughters become the next king or queen and that they aren’t chosen by the people.
During the last few questions, we managed to ask ‘What is next session’s topic?’ which Tatton replied would be about ‘Prioritising’, he said ‘there won’t just be two options, there will be some bunnies thrown in there’. We’re super excited to learn more about how to prioritise situations next week and will report back on what we find out!
You can watch the playback of this morning’s session on YouTube here and the link to join next week’s free online session is available here.
Christmas is an exciting month at Tracie’s Treasures. We love doing various activities and making gifts for our families. This year we have had to make changes due to the pandemic.
Father Christmas normally comes to give us gifts and treats but we wanted to keep him safe. We celebrated this year by sending him our photos, emailed him our Christmas lists and he sent Tracie our gifts by Reindeers to pass onto us.
As it was lovely and warm, we all spent the day outside. We looked around the garden and took photos of our favourite flowers of the week.
We noticed that there were hundreds of caterpillars on our leaves. Unfortunately they had eaten all of our cabbages and nasturtiums. Tracie was not happy.
Cornflower
Poppy
Camellia
Martha and the Caterpillar
Sunflower
Agapanthus
The Gang at the Park
Martha was brave and handled the caterpillars but Ivor screamed when he went to touch one! hahah Poppy and Chloe made a caterpillar home so they could study them and see what happens while they are in there! Watch this space…
We had so much fun in the park today. Chloe was supportive and encouraged Poppy to climb high. When it got to Chloe’s turn she wouldn’t do it, which was strange because Chloe loves climbing!
Poppy and Chloe
Climbing the tree gave Poppy lots of confidence and she said she’d like to do more climbing, maybe even go with Chloe to The Climbing Hangar next time!
Tracie's Treasures 