Month: December 2023

Thursday saw our final trip of the week to Jump Maniax. The children, and staff, had a whale of a time on the huge inflatables. Lots of very tired children returned to school after lots of fun.

On Wednesday the children experienced snow play at Chill Factore, they wrapped up warm and had fun in the snow, whizzing down the slopes on the doughnuts, making snowballs and generally having a fab time.

On Tuesday some pupils went to Carnforth to become chocolatiers for the day. They sampled delicious chocolate and made some yummy treats to bring home.

On Monday some children ventured to Ribby Hall to meet Rudolph and feed the reindeers. They had the opportunity to spend time in the Elf Workshop creating an array of Christmas crafts.

We made links in our local community on Wednesday 13th of December when we visited the residents of Cornmill Nursing Home in Garstang. We worked with the residents to make Christmas tree decorations out of air dry clay. They were very pleased to see us and receive our help on their arts & crafts morning. They were very interested in finding out about our school & what we like to do. It’s safe to say they enjoyed our company.

We were also treated to morning tea,where we ate yummy cakes created by their chef & shared a pot of tea or fruit juice.

We had a fabulous morning and made some new friends.

Every year at Calder Lodge the pupils make each other Christmas crafts as presents. Each class makes a particular craft which is then brought together for the Calder Lodge mini Christmas market. On the last day of school before the Christmas holidays the pupils enjoy choosing their crafts and sharing their achievements with each other.

Calder Lodge School had the pleasure of being invited to take part in the Christmas art competition at this years Big Christmas day out in Williamson’s park, Lancaster. The art work was judged by the Major of Lancaster with a winner being picked from each school and an overall winner. Many of our pupils entered with one lucky winner receiving free tickets to the Big Summer day out next year. Big thanks to all the Skiddle team for including Calder Lodge School in a wonderful occassion.

On Thursday 14th of December as a reward for our ‘can you spot me being kind’ initiative, the children who had received the highest number of recognition stars within their class visited Pizza Hut with Mrs Farnworth, Mrs Huddleston & Mr Melville.

The children, and staff, were very excited by this trip and a place was highly sought after by all the staff in school.

We had a delicious lunch where we ate a whole array of pizza, along with some healthy options from the salad bar and finished off with yummy whippy ice cream with sprinkles.

It was a quiet journey back to school as all our tummies were full to the top but I think it’s safe to say that everyone involved had a fabulous time.

Cultural Capital

On Tuesday 5th December, Calder class had the opportunity to visit Vue cinema in Preston.  The class had been creating stories based on an underground creature known as The Wish Granter.  The Wish Granter lived beneath a fountain.  When people throw wish coins into the fountain, the coin travels down pipes to reach the Wish Granters office.  He decides whether or not to grant the wish.

To make links with these English activities, Calder went to watch the new Disney film, Wish.  The main character challenges a wish keeper, who only holds the dreams, but they remain unfulfilled.  

The children got very comfy on the reclining cinema chairs.  They all sat entranced by the film, whilst scoffing tasty cinema treats.

The topic this term has been based on Tremors.  This has included work based on Pompeii, the volcano Mount Vesuvius and the lives of the people of Pompeii. In class we have used clay to create models of the body casts from the excavations by archaeologists.  We continued to use clay on our class trip to Fired 4 U.

The children from Fairsnape travelled to the shop in Higher Walton and were a credit to the school.  They showed good manners and respect.  They clearly enjoyed decorating the clay pots.  The children used drawings and information from their previous learning in their designs.  They added a lot of detail in their designs on their pots

They worked really hard at Fired 4 U and we can’t wait to see the finished product after it has been fired and glazed.