Welcome to Explorers
Explorers is taught by Mrs Mason.
In Explorers, children will be immersed in a theme providing them with opportunities to lead their own learning, apply previously taught skills and learn new knowledge about the world.
We went out on an autumn walk and looked for signs of autumn. We built homes for hedgehogs and have put up a wildlife camera hoping we might be able to see some hedgehogs entering our homes to hibernate for the winter.
We have had a fabulous half term in explorers learning all about 'David de Rothschild'. He sailed across the Pacific Ocean in a catamaran called 'Plastiki'. The hull was made from recycled plastic bottles as he wanted to raise awareness of pollution in the oceans that is damaging our sea life. We designed and made boats from plastic bottles. We are continuing to work on more of his adventures.
September 2019
The Victorian Seaside The Victorian Seaside The Victorian Seaside
Explorers are baking a tasty surprise for our grown ups tomorrow Shhhh !
25.04.19
Welcome back! Our topic in Explorers this term is the Victorian Seaside . We have started by looking at different pictures of St Annes, Lytham and Blackpool and comparing the similarities and differences. The children have also designed, made and evaluated a hand puppet so next time they can perform their own puppet shows.
On Safari On Safari On Safari On Safari On Safari On Safari
14.03.19
Teamwork
This week we have focused on teamwork both within our year groups but also with others from different classes. The children were fantastic! it was great to see the year 2 children working with receptions.
07.03.19
Giraffes Can't Dance
To celebrate world book day we explored the text Giraffes Can't Dance.
We used water colours to paint Gerald and then created a collage to show the night sky. In our PE lesson we thought about the movements Gerald could do and choreographed our own Gerald the Giraffe dance. Whilst groups performed their dance the other played the African drums.
28.02.19
Over the last few weeks we have been focusing on the physical and human features of Africa. The children have made their own salt dough to produce 3d maps with a key to identify the different features. Extending our knowledge of herbivores and carnivores we have started to create food chains. We have learned about the role of the sun and key terminology such as producer and consumer.
31.01.19
This week we have all created some art work for the Seasiders competition. We used giraffes as our stimulus. Reception and year one used a mixture of oil pastels and water colour, we were shocked to see that the water colours just ran off the oil pastel. Year 2 used some Andy Warhol contrasting and complementing colour techniques to produce a team repeating giraffe art work.
24.01.19
Meet Phoebe the phonics crocodile.
She enjoys been feed but she will only eat the things that match her sound of the day. We have also made more progress on our explorers giraffe. the children have all learned that using papier mache around the joins will help to strengthen them. Our favourite book this week was 'Don't wake Lion, the reception and year 1 children enjoyed it so much that they wanted to write their own stories on 'How to wake the lion'. They had many ideas including, pulling funny faces, tickling him with a flower and using an elephant to spurt water at him.
18.01.19
Once again our Explorers have produced some fantastic writing. Take a look at year 1's lion texts below. We have also build a junk model giraffe and we are hoping next weeks explores will help to finish him.
This term in Explorers we will be learning all about African Safari.
We have started our journey by exploring different animals found in Africa. All of the children have created fact files. Reception described animals where year 1 extended this by writing about their habitat and what they eat. Year 2 researched an animal they knew little about this included wildebeest, antelope, spring bok and vultures. Using their research they created a non chronological report to share with the other explorers. In addition all of the children have practiced their cutting skills to create a tribal collage, this has been used to help build a safari lodge.
Our animation station has been a popular area of provision this week, the children have created story boards and animated their own stories and documentaries.
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01.11.18
In Explorers we have being learning all about Diwali. We learned the story of Rama and Sita through: role play, story telling and mapping. We used our knowledge of the story to make our own books. Reception children used images to help sequence the story and made Diwali cards.
18.10.18
What is the difference between an African and Asian elephant? Our year 2 children will happily explain to you. As a result we have built a large elephant head using papier mache, designed our own patterned elephants , cut out pieces and are ready to stitch our own Asian elephant with our grown ups on Friday afternoon. Year 1's have drawn elephant posters including some of the facts they have learned and year 2 have written a non chronological report filled with subtitles and pictures to support their writing.
11.10.18
This week we have being learning all about Buddhism. The children have looked at images of Buddhist temples , designed there own and considered why people go to the Buddhist temples. We were surprised to learn that Buddhists don't pray to Buddha but respect him and follow his teaching of meditation. Our reception children have recorded the things that make them happy whilst year 1's were keen to learn about Chinese dragon dances. In P.E we copied some movements and choreographed our dances. Next time in Explorers the year ones would like to build a Chinese dragon and continue to work on their routine.
04.10.18
We have explored Willow Patterns in explorers this week. The children have role-played the story and researched it's history. We were surprised to learn that the story did not originate in china but from Stoke as a ploy to sell more willow pattern pottery.
We have sketched ideas from the Chinese landscapes and practiced our colour mixing by making different shades of blue. we finished the week by painting a willow pattern on to plate. Some will be displayed whilst others are going to be used in our restaurant.
27.09.18
This week in Explorers we have worked on different painting techniques. We used drawing gum to draw our names in Chinese and used water paints. The water paints were easy to blend and once dry the draw gum rubbed off to leave a print behind. We then used our painting and folded the paper into a fold able fan. We also used poster paints and folding to create symmetrical Rangoli inspired patterns.
19.09.18
Everybody has settled well in Explorers. We have started by learning all about the 7 continents of the world. We have looked at different maps and globes and used them to locate the continents as well as thinking about the unique features of each one. We have used Rangoli as inspiration for art. We have used large foam shapes and discussed symmetry within in the patterns to colour and design our own.
Each Explorers group will have the opportunity to cook traditional Sri Lankan food. This weeks group made a Dahl , Curry and rice. The children had the opportunity to chop and peel the veg and different herbs and spices.
28.06.18
King Arthur
Throughout the week we have explored the story of King Arthur. We learned that there is not just one version but many all with similarities and differences. All of the children then wrote their own version of King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone. Some of our children also enjoyed retelling the story using play mobile and shadow puppets.
Our Bayeux tapestry that we started last week has continued to grow and we cannot wait to share our finished product.
21.06.18
This week we have continued to learn about The Battle of Hastings.
14.06.18
What a busy week in Explorers!
Throughout the week we have learned all about the Battle of Hastings. We have looked at images of the Bayeux tapesty to help us learn about what happened. We asked lots of questions and year 2 have used search engines to search for the answers. We looked at key figures involved in the battle and held debate on who we thought was the rightful king. All of the children worked particularly hard on their sketching of a Norman soldier and we cannot wait for you to come and see them.
Here are some animations made by year 2 showing the events of the battle.
10.05.18
This week in Explorers we have learned all about Motte and Bailey castles. We used the sand pit build one as a group before making our own models checking that we had all of the features including: motte, bailey, keep, palisade and a ditch. Year 1 and 2 children have drawn a detailed picture and labelled the features as well as stating why these features helped to protect the castle. Outside we have looked after the new royal baby and constructed large castles with bricks.
03.05.18
This week all of the EYFS and KS1 children enjoyed a visit to Clitheroe Castle Click here to view our visit.
Our year 2 Explorers made power points to present their experience on the visit.
27.04.18
Teamwork!
This week in Explorers we have worked hard in teams. Everybody had a job to do to make our learning a success. It was great to hear all of the kind words of encouragement between team members.
We have learned all about St George and the Dragon. Reception children worked with others from year 1 and 2 to thinks of some describing words. They then painted a dragon and used the words to write a sentence. Year 1 wrote their own posters. They used some fantastic vocabulary to describe the dragon.Here are some examples from Daniel and Finley ' He has blazing blood, red eyes and wet dribble drips from his mouth.' ' Be careful his fiery breath can kill you instantly' We have also designed our own shield and selected our own media to decorate it.
20.04.18
This week in Explorers we have learned all about knights. We have found out about the stages of becoming a knight and what kind of training you would do. Did you know that knights begin training at age 7! Year 1 and 2 wrote information texts explaining each stage. The reception children thought about the qualities of knight and the things that they do, they also wrote a knights promise together. We have practiced our cutting skills by creating a split pin knight. However our favorite part of the week was when we worked in mixed aged teams to draw a knight and label the armour accurately.
We all helped Miss Timmins build a castle in Explorers. It is that big that we have used wallpaper to create a brick effect. Hopefully by the time we come back to Explorers the castle will have further additions such as battlements and turrets.
13.04.18
We have made a fantastic start transforming the Explorers classroom into a castle. Our reception children enjoyed selecting different paint brushes and rollers to paint the role play area and they used charcoals to shade bricks. They all agreed Explorers would not be a castle without a drawbridge. With the help of Miss Fewings they collected the things they needed to make one. We have also explored stained glass windows and the stories that they might tell. We all designed our own and had a go at making a stained glass window biscuit.
We have thought about the parts of a castle and new vocabulary such as battlement, turrets and moats and how these elements helped to protect the castle from invaders. Year 1 and 2 created their own dictionaries and the reception children enjoyed building castles and using stick labels to label the parts.
