Acton Scott Schools Newsletter Summer 2014
As many exhausted gardeners will testify, warm and wet is certainly growing weather! We grow an old variety of wheat here at the farm and recent visitors have been flabbergasted by how tall it is, with some halms (stalks) measuring well in excess of a metre – perfect for making corn dollies!
Harvest Home!
Coming so early in the Autumn term, Harvest Festival often catches teachers on the hop: so why not get ahead and book our Harvest sessions for some outside fun in September/October before the weather closes in? Harvest Home (for KS1) and Harvest Celebration (for KS2) trace the story of wheat from field to plate through practical activity, stories and song.
In one of the activities in Harvest Celebration, children create a corn dolly sweetheart favour as a memento of their experience: these were traditionally made by a young man with straws picked up from the fields and given to his loved one. If she wore it next to her heart when he saw her again, it was a sign that his love was returned.
For more delightful folklore and creativity with straw, why not join Acton Scott’s resident corn dolly maker, Margaret Newsome, on Saturday 12th July for a day-long adult course, Corn Dolly Making? You will learn how to make a Shropshire Heart, Welsh Border Fan and a Suffolk Horseshoe, as well as Acton Scott’s famous Corny Mouse – for further details, follow this link:
New History curriculum: our chronological case study
Look no further for a perfect introduction to the new History curriculum, with plenty of potential for cross-curricular links! Our KS2 session A Farm through Time traces the history of Acton Scott from the first Iron Age farmstead through Roman and medieval times to the Victorian era, investigating and interpreting all the evidence that has been found above and below the ground.
The children are kept busy with hands-on activities which bring Acton Scott’s long history vividly to life: they mill on a quern, card and spin wool, sort Roman finds, pull the plough and lend a hand in the farmyard. For more details, follow this link:
A post-visit presentation for the whiteboard can be downloaded from our website, which provides images and facts to refresh memories, as well as useful internet links.
Crack the crime!
There’s a culprit at large in the farmyard and no clue can be ignored! Grain is going missing from the granary, but can the usual suspect be to blame this time? In our new KS2 session, CSI Acton Scott, we need the help of young detectives with keen eyesight, open minds and razor-sharp powers of deduction. Practical investigations with skulls and teeth in the “forensics lab” and observations around the farm yard eliminate some of the suspects, but what will be the crucial clue?
In addition to supporting science topics, CSI Acton Scott is perfect for developing thinking skills: the children are busy making, testing and refining hypotheses as they pursue their investigations. This session is a great choice if you want to stretch a Gifted and Talented group in an innovative way out in the fresh air. For further information, follow this link:
We hope you have enjoyed catching up on our news. Please forward it to anyone you think might be interested, or if you’d prefer not to receive it in future respond to this email requesting removal from our distribution list. If you have any questions about this newsletter, the web links, or the farm in general, please get in touch, either by email or by calling 01694 781307.