Let's Explore! 

During this project children will be exploring their class environment and school grounds, so that they feel happy and settled in their new surroundings. They will also learn about the local environment and find out about places they have visited on holidays. We will also explore, make and use maps in our play, create dens and homes and go on adventures!

All of our learning opportunities and exciting activities will help us to answer our big question: 'Where will we explore today?'

Ideas of how to support your child at home during this project: 

*Have a look at Google Earth together, discussing interesting things they notice. 

*Go for a walk around your local community & discuss interesting things they notice. 

*Encourage your child to talk about activities they have enjoyed at school. 

*Share & discuss the useful documents below. 

Week 7- Wow event!

To complete our topic of: Let's explore we made our very own treasure map of our school this week, ensuring all of the important parts of the school we are familiar with are on it and deciding on a place for the treasure to be hidden! We then planned our route and went on our treasure hunt using our treasure maps, navigating around our school and coming across obstacles along the way that we had to decide whether to go under, over or through! We were so excited to find the treasure chest in the library and even more excited to find it had chocolate coins inside! We sorted them into size and shared them out equally to take home to enjoy. 

Week 6

This week we have been looking at holidays and days out we have had with our families and using maps and a globe to look at different countries we have visited. The children have also been looking at and painting different locations around the world, such as rainforests, deserts & seas and comparing how the weather and animals differ to our country. 

Week 5

This week we went on a virtual journey around Gipsey Bridge! We spotted lots of things in our village, including the bridge, the shop, the bus stop and the preschool- which lots of us recognised! We have also been looking at and creating our very own maps of regular journeys we take, such as coming to school. 

Week 3 & 4

For our companion project: Build it up! We have been reading the story 'The three little pigs', retelling the story using props, as well as thinking about the building materials the pigs used and which material was best! We have been thinking about the different jobs on a building site, including builders & architects and have had a go at them too- drawing our own houses and building them! 

To continue, we have designed our own den to build in our outdoor area, using different building materials- including our very own homemade mud bricks! Once they had dried we used them to practise our brick laying skills. Along with other resources from our outdoor area, we worked as a team to design and create our own enclosure- which included walls and a door!  

Week 2

This week we have been reading 'We're going on a bear hunt!' The children have really enjoyed this book, retelling it, going on their own bear hunt around school and also creating a map of the journey the family take in the story! 

We have also been thinking about different types of habitats and which animals live in them! Reception have enjoyed exploring our outdoor area to find different animals living in our grounds! 

Week 1

We have been very busy this week getting to know our school, including our classroom, our outdoor areas and the rest of the school too! We created a map so we could go on a journey around the school, visiting the library, hall and the offices upstairs! We particularly enjoyed going upstairs and finding Miss Moffat! We also had great fun using cardboard boxes to recreate our school!