School days

What were schools like long ago?

In the School Days project, your child will have the opportunity to take part in a traditional Victorian class and will learn about the differences between schooling in the Victorian era and schooling today. They will learn about objects found in a Victorian classroom and how they were used. They will research Samuel Wilderspin, an important figure in the development of schooling for young children in the Victorian era, whose ideals are reflected in schooling today. They will learn to describe the passage of time through study of past, present and future tense vocabulary.

Our Wonderful World

Where are we in the world?

In the Our Wonderful World project, your child will learn the meaning of the terms geography, physical feature and human feature. They will use maps, including picture maps, globes, online mapping tools and world maps. Your child will learn to use positional language, such as next to and behind, and directional language, such as forwards and backwards. They will also become familiar with the cardinal compass points, north, south, east and west. They will learn the names and positions of the continents and oceans of the world and understand the terms equator, Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. They will also know the location of some hot and cold places. They will study maps to learn the names, capital cities and positions of the four countries of the United Kingdom and find out the characteristics of a village, a town and a city. They will study aerial photographs and spot familiar areas of their locality from above. Your child will carry out simple fieldwork to find out about local physical and human features.

Memory box

Are you ready to travel back in time?

This half term, we’re taking a trip to the past to discover what life was like at the time when we were born. In the Childhood project, your child will learn words and phrases related to the passage of time. They will explore artefacts to help them to understand childhood in the past and how childhood has changed over time. They will explore the six stages of life and explore timelines and family trees. Everyday life in the 1950s will be explored, including shopping, transport, family life and childhood. We’ll also find out how babies change and grow over time. Thinking about our childhoods, we’ll use photos and objects from the past to help us remember special times including weddings and christenings. We’ll talk about our families and share happy memories of people or pets who are no longer alive. Learning about the days, weeks and months of the year will help us to work out how long we will have to wait for our birthdays to arrive! We’ll decide how objects from the past were used and have fun learning games, songs and dances from bygone days.

We’ll share class memory books, collages at the end of our project and make memories that will last a lifetime.

Help your child prepare for their project
Looking back on the past can be funny, poignant and interesting! Why not get together as a family and share photos from the past, commenting on wacky clothes and happy holidays? Alternatively, visiting a local museum would allow you to see what life was like in the past. You could also play some traditional games from your childhood. Hopscotch, skipping and conkers are all lots of fun!

Dinosaur Planet

Watch out everyone – the dinosaurs are on the prowl. They’re rampaging across the dusty earth, swishing their enormous tails and baring their fearsome teeth. Let’s explore the Dinosaur Planet. Imagine you’re a palaeontologist (that’s a scientist who studies bones and fossils). Dig deep and discover dazzling dinosaur facts. Create a dinosaur museum and invite visitors to see your awesome dinosaur artefacts. You could even do a dinosaur dance or produce some prehistoric percussion. Which is your favourite dinosaur? The Tyrannosaurus, the Brachiosaurus or the Micropachycephalosaurus? Doyouthinkhesawus? Yes, he did. Run!