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: Can we explore it?

Treasure Hunt WOW event

The children found all of the gems at each location on their treasure map quickly to open the treasure chest.

We then decorated pumpkins and cakes and made pasta necklaces.

Thank you to everyone for joining us for our very first WOW event today.

Week 7

This week, in preparation for our final WOW event, we read the story "We're going on a treasure hunt!" This gave us lots of ideas about how to create our very own treasure hunt at school. 

The children worked together to decide where we would look for the treasure then added these locations to their treasure hunt maps, which we enjoyed tea staining the day before. We have also been busy role playing as pirates and mermaids, creating a pirate ships, making a treasure chest  

To finish our project, we spent time as a class reflecting on our learning and answering the question "Can we explore it?". We then created a floor book with lots of pictures, drawings and quotes to show all of the wonderful things we have done during our first term at school. 

Week 6

This week we became explorers! The children discussed where they would like to explore and learnt that places around the world have different weather, animals and environments. The children then painted beautiful landscapes commenting on the different things that we might see. We also explored world maps, globes, atlas and enjoyed role playing as explorers choosing the important things that we might need to take on an adventure around the world. 

At the end of the week, we used the vocabulary we had learnt to talk about and compare the holidays that we have been on, using photos from Tapestry, and created postcards to post in our class post box. 

We have also been learning about patterns in maths this week and enjoyed creating a range of exciting patterns in our music session too. 

Week 5

This week we have been on a camping adventure. On Monday we explored pictures of campsites around the UK and talked about the different animals we might see at them. The children decided whether they would like to camp at the beach, in a field, in a forest, or by mountains. We then worked as a team to create a class campsite outside. At the end of the day, we sat in our tents and had real marshmallows over our pretend fires.

The next day we travelled to our campsite on the story bus, with Mrs Knight as the driver. We worked as a class to collect props to support our bus role play and then pretended to go each location. As we drove, we talked about the animals that we might see out the window and how these would be different in each environment. We had great fun developing our imaginative group play making the bus move in different ways and pretending to deal with various exciting events and disasters along the way.

Finally, we explored the weather that we might experience at the different sites. The children learnt how to use their bodies, voices and instruments to make sounds like the weather. 

Week 4

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. The children loved using their binoculars and toy phones or cameras to hunt for and take photos of the places that we had been. 

The next day we discussed and named the features that we saw using our photos. We then looked at a Google map of Gipsey Bridge to see if we could identify where we each feature was.

This led to a fantastic child led activity! The children decided to create their own 3D map making using paper and boards to draw roads and then used bricks and other objects to create the features they saw.

At the end of the week we played a game where the children had to use maps in their play to give and follow simple instructions so that their characters could move around a 3D small world. 

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.

Innovate - Biscuit Houses

This afternoon 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 then had a go at designing and building our own biscuit houses. We thought about the features of our own houses and used the pictures of our homes to help us.

We were very impressed by the reflections the children made as they adapted their ideas and the resilience they showed when the delicate biscuit building toppled over.

We loved showing our grown-ups our hard work at the end of the day!

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 around the school field.

We loved stomping in the trays of grass, water and mud, climbing through the forest, crawling through snow storm and finding the bear in the cave.

At the end of the week we talked about animal homes, compared them to the bear's cave and created our own homes on the field. 

Week 1

This week we have been learning about our school and the people that work here. We have also been exploring and drawing maps, talking about our families and getting settled into our new class.

Memorable experience 

Today we went on a grown-up hunt! We planned our route carefully and walked around the whole school exploring areas and introducing ourselves to members of staff. We were most excited to go upstairs, where we found Mr Clarke, who gave us all Head teachers stickers for our first day at school. As we explored we learnt all about the jobs that different grown-ups do at school.

Our cardboard box school

This afternoon we worked as a team to create our very own school. The children organised the boxes and then began to decorate them and decide where they would like doors and windows. We used pictures and a map of our own school to help us. I think they did a wonderful job! Well done everyone.