This week's Hub focus will continue to link in with the theme of Japan and the 72 micro seasons inspired by this culture. Children can expect to continue with lots of the activities they started last week such as origami, haiku poetry writing and Japanese line multiplication. Our Science focus this week will be pH testing substances to measure for acidity or alkalinity. To do this we will be learning how to make a pH indicator using red cabbage.
For our community lunch this week we will be making a vegetarian soup and soda bread to go with it. We invite all children to get involved in the cooking and eating but of course all are welcome to bring additional lunch if they prefer. We provide light snacks such as biscuits during the day but it is advisable to also pack enough snacks for the day as we have noticed the children do enjoy to snack throughout the day!
By popular demand we will also be exploring the local church once again to find out more about this historic building.
As well as continuing activities from last week, we will also be exploring the Celtic Ogham calendar and focusing on the Birch tree as our source of inspiration in nature. Activities will include identifying different types of birch tree, writing on birch bark and crafts inspired by the Ogham calendar. By popular demand we will also be working on a risk assessment together which we hope will enable us to feed the squirrels in Christchurch park. As always we will continue to offer art, crafts, music and games alongside all of the other activities. We started work out on the Hub's logo last week and the children's designs will be added to the website over the next few days but we are still keen to encourage the children to add more of their design ideas over the coming weeks.
Please note that on Wednesday's and Thursday's access to the Quaker Meeting House is through the side door to the left of the building.
Each child will be given a book for journalling and we will encourage them to journal every session - this could be sketching, sticking, photographing, story writing, general reflections, poetry, song writing. It will be different for everyone.
We will be making the most of the facilities at Framsden Village Hall by cooking our own Burns' Night inspired lunch with the option of meat or veggie haggis with neeps and tatties (swede and mash potatoes) and other seasonal veg. We will be looking at the poetry of Robert Burns and using it to inspire creativity, whether this is illustrations, writing our own poems, writing a tune or a story. We will also be exploring traditional scottish folk songs, stories and music. We will be combining this with a walk through the community woodland to examine the natural world at this time of year and take photographs for our diary and to use this as inspiration for future work.
We are planning to explore nature through the lens of a Japanese philosophy relating to the seasons. We will be going to Christchurch park to photograph nature and take it back to inspire sketches and haikus. We will be learning how to use a microscope and prepare slides to experience the natural world in a different way. We will make and drink matcha tea. We will do sashiko stitching and calligraphy. We will also be learning the Japanese line method of multiplication and comparing it to column multiplication. We will be trying origami (as well as being a beautiful creative process it also has the potential to be used as a basis for exploring geometry in future weeks). We will also be playing a Japanese building game and reading or listening to Japanese stories.
These activities are invitations and will be led and guided based on observations of the children. Throughout the three days we will also be asking the children to design a logo for hub which can be used on the website.
Trial days will be charged a rate of £50 per day. Please let us know via email if you would like your child to attend.