Let's Explore - Autumn Term 1

Our project this term is called 'Let's Explore'. Within this project the children will learn about the environments that they share with others, including their homes, school and places in the local community. We will explore, make and use maps in our play, create dens and homes and go on adventures. 

All of these wonderful learning experiences will help us to answer the

Big Question: Where will we explore today?

WOW event

Today our grown ups joined us for a treasure hunt WOW event. The children used their maps to search for gems all around the school to unlock a treasure chest with pumpkins inside! We enjoyed decorating our pumpkins and joining in with lots of other Halloween or pirate themed activities. Thank you so much for joining us!

Week 7

This week we have been pretending to be pirates! In preparation for our treasure hunt WOW event the children drew maps to show where the gems would be hidden. Some children added extra locations to make their map more exciting.

We were very impressed with the super mark making and how their representations of places and objects have developed over the term.

Week 6

This week we have been on a camping adventure. We explored pictures of campsites around the UK and talked about the different animals we might see. The children decided whether they would like to camp at the beach, in a field, in a forest, or by a mountain. We then travelled to our campsite on the story bus, with Mrs Knight as the driver, before recreating our campsite and bus outside in our play.

The next day we shared photos of holidays that we had been on. We spent time talking about what we did, what the weather was like and how we travelled there.

Finally, the children discussed where they would like to go on holiday. We learnt that places around the world have different weather, animals and environments. We explored world maps and globes before creating a postcard to send home using pictures from travel magazines.

Week 5

This week we have been exploring our local community. The children started by taking a walk around Gipsey Bridge and hunting for a range of features in the environment. We looked at maps of the area to create a small world using different resources. We then used pictures from our walk to draw a map of our journey. Finally we talked about how Gipsey Bridge has changed over time and compared modern maps with maps from the past to help us to talk about the features that changed or stayed the same.

Week 4

This week we read the story ‘Iggy Peck the architect’. The children loved looking at all of the wonderful creations Iggy made out of unusual objects. We particularly liked the tower made of stinky nappies!

We then worked in small groups to design and build a house. We thought about the features of our own houses and used the pictures of our homes to help us. We tried to think of different objects that we could use to complete our buildings rather than just bricks.

We were very impressed by the reflections the children made as they adapted their ideas and the resilience they showed.

Finally, the children shared the things that they were proud of and thought of something that they might like to do to make it even better.

This group discovered that there weren't enough purple bricks so they used green and other colours too.

Week 3

This week the children have been exploring the story of the 3 little pigs. We read and retold the story using our story sack and the children helped to join in with repeated phrases and actions. We investigated what materials would make a good house and learnt about the different jobs involved in making real houses.

The children then worked as a team to create a house outside. They took it in turns to drill, dig, build, hammer, pour cement (mud), design and manage the project.  Finally we drew our own houses. We learnt about the different types of lines that we could use to draw and discussed the different elements that we might need to include. 

Week 2

This week we have been exploring the story “We’re going on a bear hunt.”

We started by reading the story and creating a large map with objects in the classroom. We then explored our story sack and used our senses of touch and sound to explore different parts of the story.  Finally, we created our own maps and took them on a real bear hunt outside.  At the end of the week we talked about habitats of different bears and looked at the creatures living in our outdoor area. 

Week 1

This week we took a journey around the school.  We used a map to plan our route. We put on our imaginary boots, backpacks and set off! We enjoyed visiting each classroom and saying hello to the teachers. We loved visiting Ms Moffat's office and taking giant steps around the outside of the building. Throughout the day the children enjoyed making their own buildings with cardboard boxes and creating maps to show a journey.