Maple

Welcome to Maple's Class page

Maple Class is home to our Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 learners at Langdale. We enjoy learning in lots of exciting ways through our bespoke and enriched curriculum.

This year, the adults in Maple Class are:

Teachers: Mr Morgan and Mrs Turley

We learn PE on Mondays (with Mrs Turley) and Tuesdays (with Mr Morgan). All children should keep PE kits in school for use in the Monday PE session.

To find out more about life in Maple class, please see our ongoing learning blog below. We hope you enjoy exploring our experiences of learning!

March 2024

March brought an expert visitor into our class. Nick Greenall (organiser for the Windermere Science Festival) provided an engaging learning experience for Maple class that started with exploring states of matter and resulted in the children designing and building hovercrafts. With demonstrations of steam engines and melting metals, the children took part in an investigation of all things 'change'. They went home equipped to share their learning with family and friends, as well as with instructions to build more hovercrafts at home!

Year 5 and 6 travelled to St Mary's Church in Windermere to take part in an Experiencing Easter carousel of activities.

They began the session in the streets of Jerusalem, awaiting Jesus' arrival on the donkey before following the events of Holy Week to his eventual death and subsequent resurrection. 

Maple class kicked off their British Science Week by exploring the role of Natural Disasters on the lives of dinosaurs. Linking their history, geography and science learning together, the children designed dinosaurs they felt could withstand the impact of a natural disaster.

The twist? The children didn’t know which type of disaster would strike!

After much consideration for their dinosaur’s anatomy, the children took their models and placed them strategically, adding various defensive structures we have explored.

There were one or two worried faces when the disaster was named as a tsunami and yet those who designed water-dwelling dinosaurs let out a brief sigh of relief.

Their enthusiasm as the water cascaded was wonderful and the celebrations even more so. Great job, Maple children!

February 2024

Maple headed to The Lakes School to experience a Cricket skills session. Taking part with many other schools, the children thrived when working with other children and schools as a team. Great fun was had by all and the children have seized the opportunity to apply their skills during break times and P.E. lessons

Throughout our learning of the Ancient Maya Civilisation, the children explored the culture and music that existed (and began) during this time. They expressed that they'd love to create instruments in the style of Ancient Maya instruments and so we set off along that road. The children researched religious and cultural influences as well as common patterns and colours in artworks. Armed with this information, the children created prototypes (and ultimately final products) of their instruments. 

Alongside this, we explored the key factors that historians believe led to the collapse of the civilisation. The children then formed groups to debate which factor they felt had the greatest influence over the ancient Maya Civilisation.

January 2024

This half term, we are studying a unit of yoga in our Monday PE lessons.

We have begun looking at different poses (both held individually and with a partner) and taking part in several yoga sessions. 

As part of our learning, we have also been looking at ways to encourage mindfulness. 

In our science learning this week, year 5 and 6 created models of our solar system with specific focus on the position of Earth and the moon. Then we explored how we could create the appearance of Earth orbiting the sun and the moon orbiting the Earth. With creativity at the heart of their thinking, the children created models using Knex, food items, water and connecting construction pieces.
 

On Wednesday 10th, the whole school had a very enjoyable trip to the Theatre
Royal in Newcastle to watch the pantomime, ‘Pinocchio’.

Maple reviews:
‘The best part of the pantomime was the fire throwing and the sparks that came from the people and the stage!’ – Anik
‘At one point, Pinocchio was singing songs depending on what Stromboli said. It was hilarious!’ – Lydia
‘Pinocchio was funny. His laugh made me laugh every time!’ - Joel

During the coach journey, we explored our previous learning around pollution by observing the changing scenery on the approach to Newcastle, identifying an industrial park and discussing the impact of this on air pollution.
 

December 2023

On the last day of the Autumn term, we joined together with the whole school community to take part in our yearly Christingle Service. This service followed on from our learning about the meaning of Christingles.

Did you know: each element of a Christingle has a special meaning and helps to tell the Christian story:

• The orange represents the world
• The red ribbon (or tape) symbolises the love and blood of Christ
• The sweets and dried fruit represent all of God’s creations
• The lit candle represents Jesus’s light in the world, bringing hope to people living in darkness.

ZooLab visit

On the 8th December, we had a visit from ZooLab. This learning opportunity brought together the science topics for both Y3/4 (food chains) and Y5/6 (habitats). We got to meet some amazing animals and learn all about them!

November 2023

Maple's Visit to Lingmoor Fell

Maple set off on the expedition with the aim of assessing the natural and human features of our local area. Upon their journey up Lingmoor Fell, the children identified the tricky weather conditions and collectively, devised a plan to still walk the majority of the route but with safety and learning at the forefront of their decision making.

Despite the many challenges, the children embodied the school values of perseverance and aspiration whilst navigating the route using their map reading skills and identifying a range of plants and animals from their Skill Tree Passports. The children then applied this experience when creating sketch maps of the landscape, producing graphs in maths (and computing) detailing the range of steps counted and of course in our conversations about achievement, aspiration and resilience.

Maple have been exploring the storytelling and artwork of Indigenous Australian people. With the expertise of The Lakes School's art department, the children have designed and made wonderfully clay bowls. The children incorporated traditional imagery and symbols to represent key features of the Australian landscape and lifestyle of Indigenous Australians.

This half term our topic is 'Indigenous Australians'.

As part of our learning, we have been studying the picture book, 'Birrarung Wilam' by Aunty Joy Murphy and Andrew Kelly. We explored the river's journey as it meandered from the jungle into the city by sequencing the pictures before studying the language of the Woiwurrung. 

Our next task is to create our own version of the book by creating new illustrations and writing sentences using a mixture of English and Woiwurrung vocabulary.

October 2023

As part of our whole school day, 'Teddy Bear's picnic', we spent time making our own rag-teddies. We worked in pairs to design, draft, cut and sew our teddies before adding final details. This task required team work and perseverance as it didn't always go according to plan.

We are enjoying practising our Young Voices songs with Miss Storey each week. They are quickly becoming real ear worms!

September 2023

Year 5 and 6 turned their theory into practice this week. Using hearts, the children set off to find the key features they learnt last lesson. After the initial wonder, the children carefully dissected the hearts and quickly identified the four chambers. We discussed how exploring an actual heart is very different to labelling a diagram. Thinking about the wider world, we considered how challenging it would be to be a heart surgeon with this new realisation!

Axe testing

This morning, we headed outside with Mr Pegg to witness some axe testing. We pitched the stone age axe against a modern day metal version. We were very impressed with the capability of the stone age axe, which feathered the wood well and even cut some sections of kindling.

Our English, topic and art learning has all been brought together through an impactful Stone Age workshop. It was wonderful to see the children demonstrating their understanding of the 3 Stone Age periods throughout the session and how they were able to use this in their discussions with the facilitator – a true ‘proud moment’ for all.

Westmorland County Show

On Wednesday 13th September, we attended the Westmorland County Show. We had a great time visiting all the different stalls and seeing the different animals that were being shown. It was amazing to celebrate the best of our local area and also show off our brilliant school!

July 2023

As part of our learning on World War Two, we were tasked with researching Anderson and Morrison shelters. Once completed, we used our knowledge of properties of materials to design and create our own life-size versions. A lot of laughter could be heard when testing the waterproofness of the shelters!

We always enjoy our yearly Cumberland Wrestling session and the opportunity to show of our prior learning in a safe and controlled environment. Some of us have been selected to represent the school at Ambleside Sports soon and we can't wait! 

June 2023

To enhance our learning on World War Two, this year's four day residential was based in York and saw us visit the Yorkshire Air Museum and Eden Camp. We also got to experience lots of other exciting things, such as surfing at Cayton Bay, watching Mamma Mia at Scarborough Open Air Theatre and visiting Jorvik. Lots of memories were made!

May 2023

Maple meets Windermere Science Festival with Nick Greenall

March 2023

The Skill Tree Passport is an integral part of our learning here at Langdale and links in with a lot of our learning. Following the half term break, we spent Monday helping Mr Pegg maintain the woodland and paths around our school forest. This involved us clearing away fallen branches and storing them so that they could dry out and be used on future fires. We also helped peg the larger branches to the ground to secure them in place as clear pathways for everyone to use. 

February 2023

13/14th February - Cyclewise

Everyone in Maple class got the chance to complete their Level One Cyclewise training on Monday morning. Year 5 and 6 then continued their learning out on the roads and completed their Level Two award. To pass this award, we had to show the instructors that we could safely navigate our way around Elterwater and Chapel Stile, pausing and signally at junctions and being aware of our road positions. The instructors said that we all did really well!

January 2023

31st January - Young Voices Concert

After months of rehearsals, years 3-6 travelled to Manchester's AO Arena to take part in the Young Voices Concert. It was amazing! 

In the afternoon, we spent time rehearsing with all of the other schools and hearing what the songs sounded like being sang by that many people. We also got chance to practise singing 'Proud' with Heather Small.

For the actual performance, lots of our family members had travelled to see us and we were really excited to perform for them. Miss Storey said that she was very 'proud' of us! 

This half term our learning question is, 'Were the Vikings as ferocious as we think?'

We have chosen to read 'Loki' by Louie Stowell as our reading for pleasure book. So far we have found it to be very funny!

December 2022

Nativity

This year we performed our nativity, called 'It's a party!'

We acted, sang and danced our hearts out and had a ball. We loved showing off all of our hard work to a packed audience.

November 2022

Three day river study

To round off our learning about rivers, Mrs Turley and Mr Pegg planned an epic three day river study.

Day 1 - Walked up Langdale Combe to witness the source of the river (a boggy marsh). We also saw some small tributaries, meanders and an oxbow lake. On the way back down the hill, we stopped to sketch the landscape (in the style of Beatrix Potter).

Day 2 - Drove up Red Bank to see a stunning cloud inversion over Elterwater. Next, we travelled down to Skelwith Bridge to look at the waterfalls before continuing to Clappersgate to see the confluence of the rivers Brathay and Rothay and we observed them going into Lake Windermere.

Day 3 - Travelled down the side of Lake Windermere to see the rivers join the estuary at Ulverston. The river was wide and fast flowing at this point as further confluences occurred. A trip to Bardsea Beach let us see more examples of oxbow lakes as well as erosion and deposition. Finally, we travelled down to Roa Island in Barrow to see the mouth of the river. 

Forces investigation

Maple class enjoyed an afternoon in the forest to test their knowledge about forces. Mr Morgan set them the task to plan, develop and then make a floating vessel - the winner would be the vessel that would float holding the most weight.

Much fun was had testing the vessels!

October 2022

Harvest carousel - Ambleside Parish Church

As part of our learning about Harvest, we joined together with Ambleside Primary School to complete a carousel of activities, led by adults from the church. The different stations that we visited taught us about a different aspect of harvest, including the harvest of the earth, the grain, the ocean, the garden and the flock.

Paddle boarding fun! Session 1

Our OAA lessons continued, this time on paddle boards. We got kitted up before venturing out on our individual boards - knees first. As we paddled between the two sets of piers, we played different games to build our confidence before getting to our feet. Lots of fun and laughter could be heard from miles around. It also got very wet for some people! 

September 2022

Sailing with Windermere Outdoor Adventure Centre

As part of our PE unit, Outdoor and Adventurous Activities, we jumped at the chance to take part in a sailing taster session on Lake Windermere. 

It was incredibly windy as we took to the water in our 'Pico' boats. In our pairs, we were pulled across the lake (almost to Wray Castle) before being set free to sail back to Millerground. We had to work hard together in our teams to compensate for the strong winds and ensure we got back to the right place (and not the other end of the lake). This was a great taster and we look forward to working through a sailing certificate later in the year.

This half term our learning focus is the Ancient Egyptians.

We kick-started our work by studying a film called 'Tadeo Jones'. We spent time looking at ways to develop our descriptive writing and then wrote some brilliant setting descriptions before moving on to writing first person narratives. Our final task was to create a diary entry from the point of view of Tadeo. 

Summer Term 2021-22

Bewerley Park residential

On Monday 13th June, we set off for 3 exciting days away from school at Bewerley Park for our residential. Lots of fun and laughter was had and many fantastic memories made! 

Langdale Ducklings

We were all very excited when Oak class had some eggs delivered so that they could study the process of hatching. The whole school waited patiently as the ducklings finally decided the time was right to hatch. We really enjoyed our time with the ducklings - it was very therapeutic.

PE with Graeme

We really enjoy our weekly PE lessons with Graeme. This half term we are focussing on athletics. So far we have tried different activities, as well as taking part in a lot of running! 

Spring Term (second half) 2021-22

This half term, the children have been busy working on lots of exciting projects. Some highlights have been; World Book Day, making Mother's Day focaccia, partaking in Comic Relief, enjoying specialist PE workshops, attending the Mountain Film Festival, learning about Easter, tapping Silver Birch trees and celebrating Mrs Fearnyough's long awaited retirement.

We are hugely looking forward to some of the incredible things we have planned for the coming summer term. We hope the Easter holidays provide a well earned restful time for everybody.

Spring Term (first half) 2021-22

Cross country 

A group of children from Maple class took part in a cross country competition for the Cumbria Athletics Association. 
The children had a fantastic time and the atmosphere was inspiring. Well done runners! 

Autumn Term (second half) 2021-22

What a busy Autumn term we have had. The children's days have been jam packed full of exciting adventures over this term.

We have been focussing on Phileas Fogg's adventures around the world and even managed to be a part of a real hot air balloon demonstration. This has been an incredibly interesting avenue of study and the children's enthusiasm has been a great example of this.

We are very proud of the children's efforts with regard to their Christmas production this year. They had a lot to remember and prepare for this time and the success of the event is a testament to how hard they have all worked to make something really special.

Autumn Term (first half) 2021-22

This half term our learning question is, 'What did the Romans ever do for us?'

We have begun this topic by exploring the different invasions that the Romans made from their base in France and looking at how roads and transport systems were developed. 

In art, we have been looking at the history of mosaics. Did you know that it was actual the Ancient Greeks that developed mosaicing? The Romans liked the designs and processes so they continued and further developed this way of working. 

At the very start of this academic year, we welcomed Donna (school nurse) into our class to deliver our RSE lesson. We focused on two different session, one looking at 'Growing and Changing' and the other about 'Human Reproduction'. These were very informative session and we learnt a lot.

July 2021

As part of our adventure sessions, we developed our knowledge of route planning and risk assessing and devised our own self-led journey. We were dropped off in Clappersgate before navigating our way over Todd Crag and Loughrigg and finally ending up back at school. When we returned to school we pitched our tents ready for our overnight camp. 

We were then joined by a friendly Viking who showed us how to hunt wild boar, grind wheat and defend ourselves - Viking style!

Following a good nights sleep, Maple took to the the high course at Brockhole's Tree Top Treks. Lots of laughter could be heard as we made our way over and across all of the obstacles and down the zipwires.

We really enjoyed taking part in our open water swimming challenge at Coniston. We practised our life saving skills by learning how to correctly position ourselves if we were to help someone in danger as well as which pieces of equipment could be used. Throwing the ropes accurately proved to be a challenge but with some practise we all manages to 'rescue' our partners in the end. 

After lunch, we took to the water. It was pleasantly warm and we all enjoyed taking part in the different challenges set for us by Jacqui. 

June 2021

This half term we are taking part in Adventure Mondays! 

Over the last couple of weeks we have been developing our first aid skills and taking part in scenarios with Langdale and Ambleside Mountain Rescue. We have also practised our map reading skills by navigating our way around an orienteering course at Guards Wood in Coniston and taking part in a whole class walk up Lingmoor Fell.

This half term our learning question is, ‘Why do people visit the Lake District?’

To begin this topic we had a very enjoyable day at Coniston with WaterPark. Using rafted canoes, we sailed to Peel Island (otherwise known as Wild Cat Island in the famous book Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome).  It was a brilliant day and we worked well as team to navigate our way there and back. When we got back to WaterPark, we had a go at some kayaking before ending the day very wet after doing some pier jumping! 

May 2021

Maple have been super busy with lots of outdoor learning opportunities being taken this week. We have been looking at Ramadan and Eid in our RE lessons and celebrated them by making and baking rotis on the campfire in the forest. In our maths lessons we have been looking at problem solving and reasoning and took part in some very enjoyable activities which involved lots of teamwork and thinking 🙂🔥🌳

This half term our learning question is, ‘How come the Victorians were so inventive?’

Our class text is The Vanishing Trick by Jenni Spangler.

April 2021

Who doesn't love an Easter scavenger hunt?! 

We had to use our knowledge of coordinates, grid references and compass points to navigate our way around a challenging scavenger hunt. The aim was to find all of our teams coloured blocks, which we could then 'cash in' for treats to fill our Easter baskets. Lots of fun had by all (and lots of brilliant maths on show!)

March 2021

After we had tested our structures against the powers of an earthquake, we finished our learning on natural disasters by simulating a wild fire. This involved us lighting a small area of ground around the structures and watching how wind speed and direction propelled the flames towards the structures. It was amazing how quickly the wind direction could change the path of the fire (and how fast the structures turned to ash!)

In DT we were set the challenge to design and make a structure which would withstand an earthquake. We were given limited supplies and had to use all of the items wisely to make the tallest and strongest structure. We had to work well as a team - as bonus points were awarded for team spirit and perseverance!

To test the structures, they were put under a series of earthquake simulations (Mr Pegg and a tray full of tennis balls!) to determine which were the most structurally sound. All the teams did really well and after much discussion and evaluation it was deemed all structures were successful.

In our art lessons, we have been looking at the artist Hokusai. In particular, we have been studying his work, 'The Great Wave'.

We began by revisiting the colour wheel and developed our knowledge on tertiary colours and those that can be defined as warm and cool on the wheel. We then used different media (pencils, water colours, wax and pastels) to create our own warm/cool coloured pictures in the theme of the sun and the moon.

After experimenting with different colour combinations and medias, we then went on to recreate our own

pop-art version of Hokusai's 'Great Wave'.

This half term our topic questions is, 'What are the causes and impact of natural disasters?'

We began by researching different types of natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes) before creating detailed information texts on them.

We then moved on to think about what it would be like if we were part of a natural disaster response team. We looked at lots of different pictures as well as making decisions about what our priorities would be when attending a disaster area. We took it in turns to be in the 'hot seat' and questioned by our classmates; this really helped up develop our ideas and vocabulary for when we wrote a diary extract. 

December 2020

To finish off the Autumn term, we have been looked at the all time classic 'A Christmas Carol'. We have explored the reasons why Scrooge felt the way he did about Christmas and made predictions about what the three spirits would show him. Finally, we concluded the piece of work by watching 'The Muppets Christmas Carol' to compare the two tales.

November 2020

We have really enjoyed reading our two class texts this half term. As part of our learning, we have been creating our own 'wonders' taking inspiration from both texts. So far we have written about what would power our own emporiums; a war themed room, in honour of Remembrance Day; added backstories for Sharpe and Mr Silver to the 'Library of Souls' and finally a new city engineered from our imaginations. Over the next few weeks we will finish our books by writing two final rooms: an acorn small world and a Christmas themed finale. 

23rd November 2020

This half term in Science, Year 5 and 6 have been looking at the topic 'Materials'. We have spent time recapping the properties of materials before investigating which materials work well as thermal and electrical conductors/insulators and which are soluble/insoluble. We have had to plan the experiments taking into account the principles of fair testing and revisiting our understanding of independent, dependent and controlled variables. When collecting our results we have created tables and graphs to show our data and analyse our results.

11th November 2020

Today we have been remembering our war heroes by taking part in a Remembrance service and by creating a display of handmade poppies on our school gate. We really enjoyed taking part in a webinar to learn about World War 1 and it definitely made us think about the sacrifices that were made.

9th - 13th November 2020

We enjoyed taking part in Maths Week 2020 by participating in lots of problem solving and reasoning activities throughout the week. We had to work as a team and really dig into our reserves of perseverance and resilience to tackle some of the problems presented to us. 

This half term we will be looking at the question, 'Who else lives in a world like ours?'

We will be studying the texts 'The Nowhere Emporium' by Ross MacKenzie and 'The Strangeworlds Travel Agency' by L.D Lapinski.

October 2020

14th October 2020

In our class text 'The Wild Way Home', the two main characters cooked hazelnuts on a fire... which gave us an idea - what could we cook on a fire? Cue lots of discussions about favourite camp fire cuisine and recipes. We finally settled on making soup and bread - from scratch! The end product was declared 'delicious'. Maple were able to identify lots of different learning taking place - from history and science through to maths and DT. The level of teamwork was brilliant to see and we also managed to tick lots off in our Skill Tree Passport! A very enjoyable morning in the woods!

7th October 2020

In RE, we have been looking at lots of different celebrations from around the world. Today, we looked at Sukkot (the Jewish harvest festival) and learnt about the Sukkah. Sukkahs are traditional made with 3 sides and all the materials used are natural. We decided that we would try and create our own miniature versions using materials found in our school grounds. 

September 2020

We enjoy going outside to complete various activities during the day. We often go outside to take part in problem solving challenges such as the 'Number Circle' and 'Build It Up'.

14th September 2020

Maple enjoyed a very pre-historic day with Ro from WoodMatters. We travelled back to the Stone Age where we discovered how to make Stone Age axes and cord, experienced working with copper, got creative pigment painting as well as developing our hunter gather skills. We also learnt about the Stone Age to Iron Age timeline and how skills and knowledge progressed during this time. A really brilliant day was had by all and it was such a great way to kick start our half term topic.

11th September 2020

In our art lessons, we have been looking at Stone Age paintings. We have looked at where they have been found and the meanings behind what was drawn. 

Using natural resources found within our school grounds, we created our own pigments before drawing hand prints and symbols on to the school building using moss and twigs.

This half term, Maple are studying The Stone Age with our questions being 'What can we tell about the Stone Age from what they left behind?'

We will be looking at the text 'The Wild Way Home' by Sophie Kirtley. Our class reading book will be 'Holes' by Louis Sachar.

Games and activities