What a fabulous half-term we have had settling into 2022! The children have loved our brand new theme, ‘Keys to the Castle’, and have thoroughly enjoyed learning all about Welsh castles, Kings and Princes of Wales and the different jobs available during Medieval times.

LLC

We started the half-term with a bit of a problem…a dragon was spotted soaring above St Julian’s Primary School. Not to worry though, the children were on the case by producing some beautiful ‘Dragon Spotted’ posters, informing the public on what to if they were to come in contact with the St Julian’s Ridgeback Dragon. Following this, the children produced a dragon world and created their very own dragon passport in preparation for their amazing Eisteddfod stories about the day they met a dragon. It will certainly be a hard choice as they all put in tonnes of effort into their stories- they are most definitely authors in the making!

Theme

We kicked off theme with a castle escape room, which then moved on to learning about the different parts of a castle and the spectacular rooms found inside. We have explored the different Welsh Kings and Princes, from Llywelyn ap Gruffudd to Owain Glyndwr. We then went on to learn about Llywelyn the Great and partook in an activity where we used the iPads to research the Welsh castles he had built. We learnt about the rules Henry IV imposed in Wales and as a result, the children were given an envelope containing their rights and ranked them in order of importance to them. The children also had the opportunity to plan and design a factually accurate Minecraft castle, paying particular attention to what features and rooms their castle would need.

Expressive Arts

We have particularly enjoyed art and music this half-term! We used two-dimensional shapes to create a castle inspired by abstract artist, Paul Klee. We also put our super learning powers to the test by following a dragon eye draw along. They looked absolutely incredible and we it’s fair to say, Professor Resilience was extremely proud of us! In aid of Chinese New Year, we learnt a traditional Chinese New Year song and used body percussion to recreate the music.

Overall, we have had an amazing start to our theme, ‘Keys to the Castle’ and we cannot wait to continue with this after half-term!