Session 1 - Strange Traditions, Weird Rituals and Crazy Customs

In our first SHINE session, the girls learnt about the planets in their order of distance from the sun. They then learnt about how the rotation of the Earth during the year led to the summer and winter solstice. The girls enjoyed watching the videos of people celebrating the summer solstice at Stonehenge and how the people of Antartica jump into the freezing water to celebrate the winter solstice! The girls then designed an invitation to a mid-winter party and some very creative designs were produced.

After a well-deserved break of homemade cookies and juice, the girls learnt about the structure of volcanoes and tectonic plates. They then applied their knowledge to the true story of how a volcano emerged in a farmer's field in Paracutin, Mexico in 1943. The girls watched an amazing video on how the volcano continued to erupt for 9 years. The people in the village thought that they were being punished by God and all members of the community had to leave the village and their descendents continue to pray to God in the hope that the volcano will not erupt again. The girls then acted as volcanologists and wrote a letter to the people of Paracutin to persuade them that the eruption was not their fault.

For the final part of the session, the girls thoroughly enjoyed the YouTube 'Tectonic Plate Disco' led by Mr Butt where they danced actions to the different types of tectonic plates - Destructive, Constructive, Collision and Conservative.

Thank you very much, Mrs Hames for leading such a wonderful and fun-packed session!

Our next SHINE session is on Saturday 24th November.

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