CATCH-A-PARCEL – Mail Delivery Service
W/c 7th September 2020
This term we are a postal delivery service company. A large pile of addressed boxes were discovered in the middle of the room as the children came into the classroom on the first day. As the children settled in on the first few days, we all were wondering what the boxes were there for. What were we to do with them? Together we decided that our job must be to deliver them, and so our company emerged.
We held a vote to decide on the company name – ‘Catch-A-Parcel’. No parcel too big or too small for us to deliver! We have been organising our offices and vehicles, along with learning how to do different company jobs.
W/c 14th and 25th September 2020
As we were developing our Delivery Office, and the different roles, the children began to talk about the various modes of transport used to make deliveries. We worked together to develop a map showing some of the delivery routes. We have also continued to develop and resource our Delivery Office; labelling the boxes and sacks for sorting the parcels and letters, making signs including opening times and the noticeboard, making a till, computer and safe.
W/c 5th and 12th October 2020
A letter was found in our tree. It was quite a large envelope, so imagine our surprise when we opened it and inside was the smallest envelope. With the help of a magnifying glass we were able to read the letter, and we discovered that there are a community of pixies living under the floorboards of the hall. The pixies are asking for our help as a delivery company to deliver a letter to the community of pixies at the bottom of the field, as their leader has been blown away during the building works and they need to know if they have seen them.
Such excitement! We have been listening carefully, ears to the ground for any sound the pixies might make, and have written signs warning people not to step on any squeaky floorboards as this would be far too loud for the pixies below. Close observation around the hall has been carried out for any signs of them, and these, together with places that the pixies may use to come up into the room, have been plotted on maps.
This letter has prompted many questions – which field do we need to deliver a letter to, how did the pixies manage to write on and deliver the large envelope, what size are the pixies, how many pixies are living under our floorboards, would they be prepared to meet us?
We are now writing letters (tiny, of course) asking these and other questions, and are at the design stage of inventing a machine that will shrink us down to the pixies size, and also magnify the pixies. So far there are plans to incorporate tubes, pipes, steering wheels, steam funnels…
W/c 19th October & 2nd November 2020
Work for Catch-A-Parcel continues, and our employees are busy in the Delivery Office. The various size boxes are being used to investigate measuring length. We also continue to correspond with the pixies.
Designs and construction of the Magnifying Machine are complete, and we have had a successful trial run which enabled us to chat with one of the pixies living under the floorboards, called Dryleaf. The children had thought of lots of questions to ask the pixie, including how did the pixies move from the roof to under the floorboards, how old are the pixies, what are the pixies’ names, what is your job, what field do you need us to deliver the letter to? This last question they felt was very important, and using the information provided by Dryleaf this week we have compiled a list of clues to try and work out which field this could be.
The children are all in agreement that the field mentioned by the pixies must be our school field, and so this week after writing a list of clues, we set off to check. There was great excitement when we realised that the ‘massive white sticks with a square pattern in between’ must be the goal posts. The only thing we still need to check are the chickens; Dryleaf was certain that there were chickens on the field. There are no chickens on the school field, though we did find a chicken coop! So it would appear that the field talked about by the pixies, is indeed the school field. Our next job is to write to the pixies, requesting that Dryleaf use the magnifying machine again so we can inform them that we have found the field and can now deliver their letter.
Using the information we have gathered from the pixies we are also beginning to write a field guide to pixies.
