Creative Curriculum Day—Shelter
Some of the children have described the Creative Curriculum Day on Tuesday as "the best CCT day ever"—high praise indeed!
It was certainly enhanced by the additional facilities we now have available to us; in particular St Saviour's Church, where the children enacted a role-play drama about refugees, and the revamped pond area, where they made shelters, and toasted marshmallows over a campfire (under very strict supervision). They also learnt about, and made models of, sukkah: temporary huts constructed for use during the week-long Jewish festival of Sukkot. Many of them also found the session on World War Two very interesting, particularly imagining how the Hilden Oaks children who remained in Tonbridge, would have taken shelter from the air raids. (A special thank you to Travis Perkins who kindly donated the sand for the wartime sandbags.) Forms 1–3 focused their day on how various animals find shelter, including bears, hedgehogs and insects. Mrs Hartley very kindly brought her 60+ year old tortoise, 'Boris' into school and the children helped prepare his shelter for winter hibernation.
Reception thought about and made different types of shelters inspired by the story of The Three Little Pigs.
Overall it was a fantastic day with a wealth of learning opportunities, and it was particularly lovely that the children shared their experiences with each other during Assembly on Wednesday. The day also inspired the Form 6 children to write some excellent and very
Form 6 were each asked to write a poem, with the aim of linking our 'Shelter' CCT day topic to National Poetry Day, which was on Thursday, 3rd October. Here are three of the poems.
Frightened to my heart,
Tears came along,
We lined up one by one,
Setting off slowly and cautiously on our frightening adventure.
Labels hanging by our dusty blazers,
Heavy suitcases hanging by our cold frosty hands,
We were scared forever, no matter what.
“We are not safe!” I said to myself,
Striding across the damp glossy grass
On the search for others’ homes.
—Tillie
I hear the alarm that chills the bone
I run to seek safety in the garden
The warden patrols the streets and dims danger
The air raid has started
—Thomas F
Scared from crashing bombs
Frightened, fear and emotions
Crying for help
Love thousands of miles away
from my precious loving heart
Sounds beating all around me
as I turn around the dangerous
homes, once alive
As I look around, happiness fades
away from all the smiling roads
—Amber