
Coten End Primary School
Week beginning 22.09.25
Mary Arden’s Farm trip
I will never forget the first time I became a Tudor child. What a fantastic experience that really made me feel like I was in the past. When we first arrived, they told us a bit about how Shakespeare grew up. I remember that they said William had a few siblings, but he was most fond of one of his sisters. Then we split up into our groups to do the activities, and my group went to the herb garden first. I was welcomed to a place of beautiful smells. They started talking about how the Tudors didn’t know what bacteria was, so they had different ways of protecting themselves against germs. They explained how the Tudors thought bad smells made people sick and what they did to stop it. We made pouches that were called a nose gay. I used herbs from the garden, and then we crushed them into small pieces. We used lavender, sage, lemon balm, and rosemary. Most of them had a pungent smell, but I think it really did help with the smells.
In the afternoon, we saw the animals and my favorites were the little piglets. They had a lot of animals, but the most memorable one was the massive pig! We went back to the courtyard to learn a Tudor dance, and I thought it was fun. My partner was Aggie, but I felt like the boys had to do massive steps and the girls (except Mr. Williams) had to do little steps.
All in all, I think everybody LOVED IT!!!!
Sam, 6MC
Christmas Cards
This year, as usual, we’ve started making our Christmas cards early. In Year 6, we’ve taken inspiration from Macbeth (our topic for this half term) and used various shades of red to give our artwork a festive but dramatic Macbeth vibe.
At the centre of our design was a snow globe, which we painted using acrylics. It stood out beautifully against a red gradient background, topped with a layer of snow that we mixed ourselves to get just the right shade. Inside the snow globe, we painted a small house and a few trees to make the scene more detailed and realistic.
The cards took a couple of days to complete because we had to paint in layers and wait for each one to dry. For the house and base of the snow globe, we used different shades of brown, grey, white, and black to give a 3D, realistic effect. Some people added several shades of green to the trees, while others brushed on a little white paint to look like snow. Many of us added snow on the roofs and even some falling snowflakes to bring everything together.
The final result was a collection of beautiful snow globes with striking Macbeth-themed backgrounds, a perfect mix of creativity and Christmas spirit!
Louisa, 6MC