This week P2/3F had a very interesting workshop about Fairtrade.  We learned about how chocolate is made from cocoa beans, which is grown in poorer countries in the world.  We were surprised to see what the plant looks like before it is made into chocolate.  Here is a picture of one of the plants and the Fairtrade logo, which we can see on different products for sale in our shops!

 

We learned that cocoa beans are grown by farmers in hot countries.  The beans are picked then sent to factories to be made into chocolate.  The chocolate is sent to different parts of the world to be sold in shops.  The governments and shop owners earn lots of money from selling us chocolate, but we were sad to learn that the farmers, who grow the cocoa plants in the poor countries earned the least!  Fairtrade is about trying to make it fairer for the people who grow food for us.  

Click on The Story of Chocolate  to see what we learned.

Some of us thought that the best part of the workshop was when we got to sample some of the chocolate….Mmmmmmm!! 

On Tuesday we talked about the Moon as part of our Space topic.  We watched clips from the BBC website about the first landing on the Moon back in the 1960s.  It looked very scary as the rocket was just about to land because it looked as if it was about to crash!  Fortunately, the rocket landed safely and we learned that the first man who walked on the Moon was an American called Neil Armstrong.  We thought it was funny to see him and the other astronaut Buzz Aldrin walk on the surface of the Moon.  It looked like they were bouncing on a trampoline!  There is lots of information about travelling into space on the BBC website.

This week we also learned more about the life of another saint – Saint Francis.  We watched a short dvd about him and learned that he lived about 900 years ago in Assisi, which is in Italy.  We checked on our globe where Italy is…..it’s a long way from Dundee!  Francis came from a rich family but gave up his wealth to become poor and help other people.  We think he must have been very brave to do this.

 

Next week we are going to learn about Pancake Tuesday, Lent and Ash Wednesday.

We have been active in the gym hall this week playing games.  We had fun ‘tidying the garden’ and playing team games with balls and beanbags.  For drama this week,  we acted out the story of the Boy who cried Wolf, and learned about following stage directions.  We also practised some more of what we are planning for our assembly at the end of this month…. it should be fun!

We did some baking this week with Mrs Thomson….but somehow most of the goodies were munched before we went home!  On Friday we helped Miss Lawrence to set up a Special Table in the Dinner Hall. 

Here we are having our lunch at our Special Table.