Where in the world?
For the past three weeks, we have had a mini topic of “Where in the world?”.
The children have been learning all about the world around them: which town they live in, which country their town is in and the names and locations of the continents and oceans.
They have enjoyed listening to a song about the continents to help learn their names and a song about the oceans, too. Today, we put all of that knowledge together and labelled both the continents and the oceans.
This lesson linked in with our homework – “I know some Where in the World facts”. Here are some facts that we knew.
- Eliza – ‘I learnt how to say hello in Spanish “Ola”.’
- Ellie – ‘I learnt the 5 oceans – the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, the Southern and the Artic.’
- Jack – ‘I learnt how to say good afternoon in different languages – Buenas tardes (Spanish) boa tarde (Portuguese) bonne après-midi (French) guten nachmittag (German).’
- Daisy and Emilija – ‘We learnt the names of the different continents – Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, Antarctica, North America and South America.’
Living and Learning: I take a safe risk. I take responsibility for my own learning
There were some excellent contributions this week during our ‘Living and Learning’ session. We explored both this week’s ‘Rs for learning’ with maturity and insight.
Firstly we asked, what do the statements actually mean? One group concluded that taking a ‘safe risk’ is ‘when you do something that might be a bit scary but you’ve thought about the worst that can happen and it’s not that bad-like putting your hand up even when you’re not sure it’s the right answer.’
When we strive to get better at something we often have to come out of our comfort zone and challenge ourselves. We talked about how we can better prepare ourselves for taking ‘safe risks’ by making sure we’re ready to learn and by knowing the specific areas we need to work on.
Being in charge of and responsible for our own learning led on brilliantly from last week’s discussion about being ready to learn. We talked about the word ‘independent’ and how it is up to us (not an adult at home) to make sure we have the things we need for school!
Everyone agreed children have a right to a good education. We thought about how our ‘rights’ link to our responsibilities. As Lily commented, “It’s my responsibility to make sure I’ve got my reading book and PE kit”.
We used the trigger statement ‘It’s my responsibility to…’ and wrote our responses on post-it notes. We then came to the front of class (taking a ‘safe risk’ if we were slightly nervous) and shared our ideas.
- “It’s my responsibility not to lose my reading book so I can get better at reading.” Jessica
- “I take responsibility for my learning, for pride and presentation in my work.” Emily
- “We have a right to the equipment on the table so it’s my responsibility to look after school equipment.” Amber
Several people noticed how the 8 Rs often link together, meaning we need to remember the discussions we have had in previous sessions.
I’m looking forward to another lively discussion next week. Well done, Year 3/4.
Our apple harvest
You may remember all the apples that we collected last week and did lots of maths around. Well, this week it has continued and we’ve been very hands-on making food and using some interesting machines.
We were lucky enough to have an apple press brought in by Mrs Richardson and we used it to make apple juice. The press was quite tricky to use but we all enjoyed using it and seeing how it worked.
The apple juice we made didn’t look that nice. However, after trying it, a lot of the children couldn’t get enough of it.
After this, we made the the leftover apples into a crumble whilst learning about where different foods came from around the world.
Grid references
We’ve been mixing up our maths and topic work by using 4 and 6 figure grid references to locate places quickly in an atlas.
Baking Bread
Today, we’ve been busy baking bread.
- “It tasted delicious and it had a very soft texture.”
- “Mine was a bit salty, I think I added too much!”
- “I gave it a 7/10. It needed less salt.”
Living and Learning: I can take a safe risk and be responsible
Apple pressing
We are so lucky to have delicious apples growing in our very own playground. This week, we’ve used the fallen apples to make our very own apple juice using a fruit press. We also looked at the variety of apples that grow around the world to link with our topic.
Making Moves!
Here in Foundation, one of the prime areas of learning is physical development.
The learning in this area focuses on a child’s independence with regards to their own health and safety and has important links to other areas of learning. Here are just a few of the lovely examples from this week of how physical development is supported and enjoyed in our classroom and outdoor area:
Well done, Foundation- another busy week with great examples of independent learning.
Fantastic Creative Homework
This week, year 1 and 2 were given the creative homework task: I can show what I know about a country. They could choose any country they wished and present this in any way. Here are a few of our creative homework with a wide variety of countries represented.
Living and Learning: to be ready and to respond
This week our living and learning statement is “I can I am ready to learn and I can respond to feedback“.
We talked about how we can show we are ready to learn.
Jack said, “We need to look at the teacher, have your book out and get a pencil ready.”
Dexter said, “We follow instructions.”
Willow said, “We are ready by listening, looking at the teacher and doing whatever they ask you to do.”
We talked about feedback and how we use it to know what we did well and how to improve. The things that help us improve are our next steps in our books.