Spring 2 - Castles and Dragons

This half term we have been learning all about castles and dragons!

We have been reading the story The knight who wouldn't fight, where Leo reads stories to the mythical creatures he meets instead of fighting them. We wrote our own stories that Leo could tell the creatures using our fantastic storytelling skills! We used our imaginations to come up with some amazing things that the creatures may have done. In the next part of our English journey, we had a go at some non-fiction writing, but making a leaflet about the different jobs that people may have had in castles. We thought about which of these jobs we might like to do, some of us wanted to be knights, some wanted to be blacksmiths and some of us wanted to be the court jesters!

We learnt all about the different types of castles in History and why castles were built, some of us thought it might be to keep out dragons, but we discovered that it was to keep out attackers. We looked at the different features of castles and how they helped to defend the people living there.

We had a brilliant trip to Portchester Castle to give us a better idea of what it would have been like to live in a castle and how big castles actually were! We saw some of the features that we had learnt about, such as the arrow slits and the keep. 

Spring 1 - The Secret Life of Animals

This term we have been learning about the secret life of animals.

In English, we have been looking at the Tiger who came to tea. We used our persuasive writing skills to tell the Tiger why he should come to our house for tea. We also had a go at writing our own riddles after reading Monkey Puzzle, and using our descriptive language to help us to describe animals without giving away what they were, some of our riddles were quite tricky!

In Maths, we have been practicing our money skills, by identifying coins and notes, as well as beginning to be able to make certain amounts of money using different coins. We have also been practicing our addition and subtraction skills, using number lines to add ones and tens, and solving missing number problems. 

In Art we looked at Brian Wildsmith, who painted snails, and we used these as inspiration to design out own snails to make out of clay. We had a lot of fun making our snails with the help of one of the art teachers from Cranbourne school who then put our snails in the kiln. Once our snails had come back from Cranbourne we painted them with patterns and lots of bright colours.

In DT we have been designing our own pouches, we talked about how they needed to have 3 sides closed and 1 side open, as well as being able to hold a few small objects. We followed a design brief to design and make our pouches, and learnt how to sew overhand, using small stitches to ensure that our things couldn't fall out of the sides of our pouch. This was tricky, but we all worked really hard and were very proud of ourselves.

Autumn 2 – Hot and Cold.

This half term we will be looking at Hot and Cold. We will be learning the names and locations of the continents and oceans of the world – including recapping where the UK is in the world and the continent that we are a part of. We will be  using atlases and globes to support our learning of key features, such as the equator and the North and South Poles. We will be looking at the different features of the Polar Regions, the deserts and the rainforests and using this knowledge to understand how animals that live there have adapted to their surroundings.  

Autumn 1 – Playtime!

This term we have been learning about Playtime! We have been looking at maps and aerial photos of our local area within Basingstoke and used these to identify some of the human and physical geography features, such as Black Dam Pond and Festival Place.

We then created our own maps of our school, and directions, to show Old Bear how to get to our favourite places to play.

We have been learning about historical toys, and we interviewed some of our teachers about the toys they played with when they were young. We used the answers they gave us to create a non-fiction book about toys during out English lessons and we also thought about the toys we play with in the present, and what toys might be like in the future, some of us thought they might be powered by our brains or be able to fly on their own! We also looked at the differences between toys now and in the past during our history topics, and why we think they might have changed.

We took a trip to our local park and thought about the ways in which it could be improved, we thought that it might need some more exciting equipment and maybe a repaint. Whilst we were there, we analysed the features of the park to help us design our own parks in DT. We learnt how to join different materials together and how to build strong structures by making a swing out of art straws. We then used these skills during our DT day to create our own parks, this wasn’t easy and we had to be very resilient, but we all made parks that we were proud of!

Summer 2 - Ni Hao!

This term, we are learning about Hong Kong. The children will use world maps to locate where Hong Kong is in the world and look at how we get to Hong Kong from our location in Basingstoke. Through photos and research the children will understand the different modes of transport that people in Hong Kong use to travel around the different islands and they will plan a route within Hong Kong using maps of the islands. Using their knowledge of human and physical geography, the children will learn about things they could see or do when visiting Hong Kong. They will also learn about weather patterns and the way people live. The children will use this knowledge to help them compare how Hong Kong is similar / different to Basingstoke.

In Science, we will be learning about the classification of animals including humans. The children will learn to name and identify a variety of common animals, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. We will also learn how to identify animals by their features and their diet.

In DT, we will be learning how to sew using the overstitch. The children will design and make their own stuffed animal. They will then evaluate their results and compare their final result to their original design.

Summer 1 - The Great Outdoors

This term, we have been learning about plants and trees in our amazing world. We have developed our knowledge of the basic structures of plants and trees and the conditions that plants need to germinate and grow. We enjoyed our trip to Queen Elizabeth Country Park, where we worked with the park rangers to learn more about the outdoor environment including making dens for hedgehogs.

In Art this term, we have learnt about the artist Andy Goldsworthy. We went out into our woodland area in the school grounds and collected the resources we wanted to create our own Andy Goldsworthy inspired artwork. On our trip to Queen Elizabeth Country Park, we worked collaboratively to create large scale nature inspired artwork using patterns and textures.

In Science this term, we have looked at different types of seeds. We have grown different seeds to observe the germination process. We grew cress seeds and discussed the changes each day. We then set up an experiment with bean seeds and observed what happened when you gave different amounts of water. Although all the plants germinated and grew, the plant that had been given the most water was stronger and healthier in the stem and leaves.

Spring 2 - Where do I live?

This term, we have been learning about the town of Basingstoke where we live. We have developed our knowledge of human and physical geography in the town and have used this knowledge within our English writing to both persuade and inform. We visited Basingstoke town centre on a field trip where we looked to answer the question 'What is Basingstoke town like?'. Our field trip activities included completing questionnaires with members of the public to find out how they travelled to the town centre, why they were there and their thoughts on the town of Basingstoke. We also competed a Streetscape activity looking at how the buildings are using within Winchester Street, comparing Church Street to a picture from the 1960s and a sketching and soundscape activity.

In Science this term, we have been continuing our learning on materials. We have been conducting simple tests and experiments with materials. We learnt about Charles McIntosh, who invented the waterproof material for the Macintosh coat. The children used wax crayons to try and create their own waterproof fabrics.

We visited All Saints Church and took part in some Easter Prayer Stations with Eleanor from Rising Generations. We completed three Easter Prayer Stations; The Cross, The Darkness and The Tomb. The children also had the opportunity to see how the church prepares for the arrival of Easter and learnt more about the celebrations of Easter at the church.

We enjoyed a cricket coaching session with Coach Vic from Chance to Shine Cricket. The children enjoyed learning the different skills of; throwing, catching, fielding and batting.

Spring 1 - Titanic

This term we have learnt about the Titanic and why this is such a significant event in history. We have learnt about the ship and how it was the most luxurious ship built at that time and why people thought it was unsinkable. We have learnt about the different class of travel on board and have looked at some interactive images of what the ship looked like within each of these sections of the ship and the differences between them. The children learnt about the events on the night of the tragedy and placed these events in chronological order. From their learning, the children decided who they thought was to blame for the disaster and have learnt about how regulations have changed as a result of this tragedy to make sailing on passenger ships safer.

As part of our learning this term, we visited the Titanic Museum in Southampton. The children enjoyed a full day of exploring the museum and taking part in a learning workshop to learn about different aspects of the Titanic. This included looking at historical artefacts that have been salvaged from the ship and can tell us about what life was like in 1912 on board the ship.

Autumn 2 - Into the Unknown...

This term we learnt about significant explorers in history and we considered who was the most significant explorer and why we thought this. We started our theme with an Explorers Day where we took part in an explorers workshop with Amelia Earhart teaching us about many different explorers through time. We then learnt about the explorers Neil Armstrong, Amy Johnson, Matthew Henson and Captain James Cook. We learnt about where and how they explored and how all of them completed dangerous missions on their explorations. At the end of term, the children used their learning to decide which explorer they felt was the most significant and they had to explain why their reasons for this choice using facts that they had learnt throughout the theme.

African Drumming Workshop

The children had a special visit and enjoyed an interactive session in an African Drumming Workshop. They each had a drum where they enjoyed making some music to songs and interactive stories being told.

Autumn 1 - Welcome to our World!

This term we looked at what it is like to live in the United Kingdom. We found a visitor from outer space in our school grounds - Beegu! We taught her about the 4 countries that make up the United Kingdom and the physical and human features that we can visit in each of these countries. Beegu is an alien who looks very different to us and through our learning in Science, we learnt about our body parts and senses and we compared these to those of Beegu and how her senses might be different due to the differences in her body parts. The children enjoyed having Beegu to visit their school and classes and were very sad to see she left at half term.

KS1 Visit to the Discovery Centre in Basingstoke

Each class got to visit the library to learn about the different types of books they could read from the library and where they can find and locate them on the library shelves. The children enjoyed an interactive story of Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson.