March 3rd 2023
Activities in the Prep School
The Big Read
The ever-popular Big Read took place in the theatre on Wednesday, with the boys from Years 3 to 8 having the opportunity to read together in the theatre whilst relaxing on beanbags, sleeping bags, cushions and duvets! It was lovely for the staff to be able to enjoy spending some time quietly reading with the boys too.
Bananagrams
This week, the annual Bananagrams Final took place for Years 3 to 6 run by Mrs Scriven and Mr Smart. Having played the preliminary rounds in lessons and semi-finals in break time, the wordsmith warriors took to the fray in a friendly yet competitive manner. Congratulations to Jamie B (Year 3), Gabriel E (Year 4), Jasper D (Year 5) and Sam A (Year 6) who was also crowned overall champion.
Book Swap
This year’s Book Swap caused great excitement once again with the children from the Pre-Prep up to Year 4 all getting involved. It was fantastic to see them all recommending books to friends, discussing plots and sharing their own reading experiences. Mrs Rees would like to thank all of the parents and boys who brought books in to take part in the Book Swap.
World Book Day Assembly
As well as having a chance to see everyone’s costumes, the annual World Book Day Assembly once again celebrated all of the fantastic literary activities that take place within school. Assembly started with Edward P singing ‘Pure Imagination’ from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' before Year 8 performed a brilliant sketch about the importance of reading. Edward G then performed a hilarious Declamation about the goings-on in the Staff Room! The winners of the class poems were announced with 4S taking the Junior prize for their entry ‘Rama and Sita The Epic Poem’ and 7N winning the trophy for the seniors with their poem ‘A Desolate Bog’. We celebrated the Word Millionaires and Reading Stars and our Assembly closed with the Extreme Reading video. It was a great way to kick off the day.
World Book Day Workshops
Our theme for World Book Day this year was ‘My Favourite Book’ and staff spent the morning running workshops with the boys based around this theme.
This term, the boys in Year 3 have been studying ‘How To Train A Dragon’ as part of our Viking topic. The boys spent time on World Book Day, learning more about the author, Cressida Cowell and her writing room. They created factsheets about her and also designed their own writing rooms. Finally, they had the opportunity to decorate dragon biscuits with icing, with the added bonus of being able to sample the fruits of their labour later!
In Year 4, the boys took inspiration from the story of The Three Little Pigs to get out into the garden and make their own piggy dwellings which became part of an entire village!. They used lego, lolly sticks, pieces of wood, cardboard and lots of tape!
As well as their extravagant garments, Year 5 donned their creative thinking hats and adapted individual squiggles into collective storyboard masterpieces. These storyboards were developed into Oscar worthy performances.
In Year 6 the boys have been learning about Norse Gods, Odin and myths and legends and used this as the basis of their workshop and designed their own mythical worlds on pop up pages.
The Year 7 boys focused on favourite characters from popular books that they have read. The morning was split into two activities, with an opportunity to film a ‘reenactment’ of a key scene involving favourite characters and then a chance to either draw their key character, storyboard their journey throughout the book, or to design their own book cover. The boys engaged really well and much fun was had by all!
Year 8 used Roald Dahl’s short story, ‘The Hitchhiker’, as inspiration for some varied workshops: a Quentin Blake illustration session; a hitchhiking and pick-pocketing PE game; and some Roald Dahl kahoot quizzing.
