Toys Through Time 

Our topic started with all the children bringing in their favourite toys. They showed each other how their toys worked and said why they were their favourite. The children then had the opportunity to play with each other's toys and say which they enjoyed playing with and why. They then created a block graph to show the most popular toys. Cars were the winners!  After looking closely at each other's toys, they compared them sorting them into their own criteria such as, batteries and no batteries, made from plastic and not made from plastic. Finally, they created a class book about our toys for other children to look at.   

ICT

We looked at how different toys worked and decided that a lot of our toys needed batteries or mains electricity to work. Toys that needed electricity or battery power often moved, made sounds, lit up or had a screen. 

We learnt how many of our electronic devices worked through algorthms (sets of rules or instructions). We became 'Human Beebots', giving each other instructions, before exploring with real Beebots. We planned instructions and programmed them, making the Beebot move in certain ways.     

PHSE - Autumn 1

This half term, the children have been discussing in-depth about a specific talking point based around a book. The first book focused about rules and how they help us learn how to do things safely. The second book was about kindness/unkind. The children got to role-play some unkind scenarios and turning them into showing kindness. Finally, the third book looked at teasing. Children know that bullying and teasing their friends is unkind. They also know that friendly joking (teasing) is okay if you laugh with them and not at them.

Science

In science we learnt about different materials and their properties. We went on a material hunt around our classrooms to see if we could find objects made from glass, metal, wood, plastic and fabric. We also sorted materials based on their properties. Using our knowledge of materials, we created a block graph to show the most popular material that our toys were made from. Can you guess what is was? ...Plastic!   

Religious Education - Autumn 1

This half term children have been learning to re-tell the Christian Creation Story and they explored how this influences how Christians behave towards nature and the environment.

Children started off by understanding what the term 'creation' means. They used construction material to make their own creations which they shared with the rest of the class and explained how they would like their creation to be treated.

The children moved onto learning about how Christians believe that God created the world in 7 days. Children used the large sequencing posters to order the Creation Story and practiced re-telling the story using signs to remember the order of God’s Creation.

After practicing the Christian Creation Story, children looked at positive and negative pictures of how people treat the world e.g. caring for nature/growing vegetables/dropping litter… and what it means to Christians all over the world.

History 

We have been very lucky to borrow some old toys from Chesterfield Museum. We used the toys to help us find out about the past. The children identified that older toys were mostly made from wood and metal, and were often dull colours. Toys their parents played with were made from plastic and were often very bright colours. Toys they played with were also plastic but many of their toys were electronic or required batteries to work.  We looked at how some toys had changed over time, such a dolls, and placed them on timelines. We built timelines using cubes to help us understand time, and when things happened. 

PHSE - Autumn 2 

Our talking points for this half term was looking into what worry feels like and what happens to our bodies when we feel worried. We designed our own worry bags by drawing our worries based on the book ‘The Huge Bag of Worries’. We discussed how to keep safe and look out for danger. As a class we had to decide if the scenario is safe or unsafe. Finally, we talked about what to do in an emergency. Our task was to decide when or when not to make an emergency call.

Design Technology

We set the children a challenge to design and make an animal puppet that they could use in our class performance. They began by researching different styles of puppets and evaluated which design they thought would be best. They then learnt about different joining techniques, including gluing, stapling, sewing using running stitch and using staples. Next the children designed their puppet and labeled which joining techniques they would use. In groups, they used a template to create the shape of their fabric they attached two pieces following their design. Their puppets were embellished using googly eyes, fabric pens and felt.  The final step was to evaluate our puppets and decide how we could improve them even further if we were going to make them again.  

Outcome 

Our amazing puppets are on display in Mansfield Building Society!