Exciting delivery to start off our new topic..

Today we were very excited to receive our pack from Essex Agricultural Society and Writtle college as part of our new topic of Food and Farming. We were very lucky to be one of the schools allocated to receive such a generous donation of plants, seeds and and other farming goodies.

Planting sunflowers and Potatoes

We have all planted a sunflower seeds and we will be monitoring them weekly before taking them home to repot and hopefully grow up to 1.5m tall! Prizes for the tallest.

We have also planted a pot of seed potatoes at school and sent one home with all the children to plant and nurture themselves. Please plant and take care of your potato plant at home and send us photos of your progress. We will add them on here as we receive them. Prizes for the largest crop of potatoes.

Thank you to everyone who entered the Food and Farming competition. We have taken something from all your entries. Thank you to Mrs Maidment who created this stunning poster for us. The top 3 schools will be invited to the the Essex Young Farmers Show on Sunday 22nd May and will get to meet "Cheeky Charlie" from Clarkson's Farm. Fingers crossed that we get chosen. UPDATE 13.5.22 We are in the top 3. Please join us at the Young Farmers Show at the Essex Agricultural Society stand at 2 pm to hear the final judging and meet Cheeky Charlie.

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: 22nd May 2022 - We won!!! Edward Francis Primary School are now the proud owners of a shiny, new wheelbarrow, a spade, a fork and £50 of gardening vouchers thanks to the super effort and high quality work brought together by Mrs Maidment. The Essex Young Farmers Show was a fantastic event, attended by some of our Year 4 children. We had a wonderful time, looking at livestock, watching the displays and shows (such as Essex police dog handlers and a motorbike display) and experiencing all of the delights that the farming community has to offer. We then went to the Essex Agricultural Stand at 2pm where Cheeky Charlie and Kayleb from Clarkson's Farm, announced the winners. We were shocked and surprised. Well done EFPS - we are so proud of you! Take a look at our photos and videos to see what a great day it was.

Photos from home - Potato and Sunflower progress

Please send us your photos. We would love to see how your potatoes and sunflowers are growing.

Planting our Trug

Today was Trug planting day. Luckily the weather was kind and we were able to plant our seeds and seedlings outside. We now have a trug containing tomatoes, peas, nasturtium, basil and marigolds and another containing lettuce and carrot seeds. Keep an eye on this blog to see how they are progressing or have a real life look - they are outside the Year 4 classroom doors.

Little Red Hen - Persuasion

This week we have looked at the story of the Little Red Hen and how the farm animals refused to help her until it was time to eat the freshly baked bread. We decided that Little Red Hen needed to be more persuasive. We looked at a letter to convince the animals to help with the harvesting of the wheat. We used actions to help us to learn each paragraph by heart. Can you hear the persuasive techniques in our letter?

Mixing and stirring and kneading....

In preparation for our bread making next week, we have been practicing our dough making skills be making salt dough and shaping it into different styles of bread rolls. We have learned how to follow a recipe and all about the consistency of the mixture by balancing the amount of flour we used to the amount of water. Look out for our bread designs, coming soon!.

Baking Bread

Year 4 took over the Children's kitchen today to refine their bread making skills. We followed the recipe to mix, knead, prove, shape and bake our bread rolls. The best bit was the tasting! We evaluated our rolls for colour, texture and taste. Thank you to Tiptree Jams and Essex Food and Farming for a little pot of strawberry jam to enjoy with our rolls - Delicious!

Our Mini Gardens

Thank you to our team of parent helpers who have been helping the children to prepare the ground. Each group has now designed their garden. Hopefully we can get them planted before half term so that we can watch them grow during our last weeks of Year 4. Watch this space for updates or have a look yourself (outside 4R door)

Radio adverts to persuade you to buy Fairtrade goods...

Do the catchy jingles appeal to your senses? Have we persuaded you with our language choices? Would you buy these items?

Jubilee Fun

To celebrate the Royal Jubilee we dressed in red, white and blue, had a picnic on the field and made some themed art for the school Jubilee garden.