Adventures from long, long ago
Our Reception children kicked off the New Year with a topic called 'Long, long ago'. The aim of this topic is to weave traditional tales into historical learning. Some of their favourite stories this half term include The Princess and the Pea and The Emperor's New Clothes.
These stories led our children to ask a variety of questions: what is an emperor? Where does a princess live? The text The Castle the King Built gives a valuable insight into all of the different people who work inside a castle and what they do.
One such castle dweller is a farrier. The children were delighted to welcome Jamie Henney, a real-life farrier, and a beautiful horse called Zebra into school to demonstrate some of the skills involved in changing a horse's shoes. Our pupils found watching the process fascinating and they were amazed to learn that this work still goes on today.
"Does it hurt the horse?" was the main question posed by the children. Their loud sighs of relief could be heard from the Prep School when they learned that it was not at all painful for the beautiful horse! “It’s just like having your nails clipped,” Mrs Lewis explained.
Experiences such as these have made the children eager to take their learning into their play. They created their own castles complete with moats, turrets and a drawbridge in the deconstructed role play area, as well as using the mud kitchen to create a banquet fit for royalty and galloping around their play area like horses. What fun they’ve had!
