The UK is a wonderful country in our world. Imagine for one minute, if you can, that Mumble, a brave, curious and friendly dancing penguin travelled to the UK for his world tour.  What would you show him? Where would you take him? Where would you start? How would you explain our country? What would a penguin write in letters back home to friends and family?

Mumble loves to travel! We will explore how we use transport to travel across our country. We will learn about the earliest forms of transport to the present day. We will learn how early engineering has influenced Britain and impacted how we live today. 

As we progress on this learning journey, they will discover the joys and challenges of being a tour guide for Mumble and his ‘happy feet!’

Week 1

In English we have been learning about noun phrases. We went on a scavenger hunt and worked as a team to find natural objects (treasure)  in our playground. We then wrote noun phrases (using our phonic knowledge) about the treasure that we found in the playground. We the displayed our findings on a discovery table in the classroom and labelled our exciting finds. Lots of groups found amazing pieces of ice ... we soon discovered that ice was best left outside because it melts back into water when it gets hot. 

In Maths we have been practising our addition skills. We have been learning about number bonds to 20 and we have been looking at how we can put our numbers in any order and we will still find the same answer!

In Science we learned about night and day. We learned about how the Earth spins o it's axis and that the sun and the moon give us night time and day time. We have also been learning about hibernation and which animals might hibernate.

In geography, we looked at a map of the world. We looked at the 7 continents and which continent the UK was apart of. We looked at a map of the UK and the 4 countries within it - Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales.

Week 2

In English we have started our 'Talk 4 Writing' over the next few weeks will will be learning about wishing stories!  We had a special message from Mumble himself! His wish was to travel to the UK! We discuss what a wish was and wrote our wishes on stars and hung them around the classroom, hopefully they will come true! We mapped our wishing story 'Mummy, can I have a penguin?' We ended the week by using drama to act out the story in small groups.  

In Maths we have continued to practise our addition and subtraction skills. We have been subtracting a one digit number from a two digit number. We have then applied those skills to reason and problem solving questions. 

In Science we looked at the seasons and what type of weather is associated with each season. We drew and labelled pictures to represent the different seasons.  We also used our artistic skills and worked together as a class to create art for our learning journey display in the corridor of the school.

In geography, we continued to look at a map of the UK.  We learned about the 4 capitals cities of the UK. We identified each countries flag. 

In History, we were presented with  picture of a man but we didn't know who this man was - we were curious. We used a question matrix to write questions we wanted to find out about him. Who are you? What's your name? Why are you wearing those clothes and a top hat? When were you born? How would you get to work/school? We watched a film about him, we discovered his name was 'Isambard Kingdom Brunel'. He was an engineer and born in 1806 (a long time ago!) and built 'The Great Western Railway' - the first passenger train from London to Bristol!

Week 3

We have had such a busy week in Ladybird class!

In English, we continued to look at Mummy, can I have a penguin?  Our 'Talk 4 Writing' story. We used our senses to help us create a word bank for what we think Antarctica would be like. If we were there; what would we smell? Be able to taste? See? Touch? Hear? We then used our word banks to write descriptive sentences about Antarctica.

In Maths, we have just started looking at numbers 1-50, following the White Rose scheme. The children explored numbers to 50 by counting along a number line, finding numbers on a hundred square and  counting forwards and backwards from any given number. 

In history, we have continued learning about Isambard Kingdom Brunel. We study what was significant about his ships. We looked at  a picture of the SS Great Britain (secondary source- print of a painting by Joseph Water c.1843). We used this picture to try and imagine what it would of been like to a worker on a boatyard, on the launch day back in 1843, watching this new ship set sail. Following this, we compared trains from the 1800s to the trains we use today, we came up with a list of similarities and differences. 

In geography, we revisited human and physical features of a landscape and applied this  knowledge to help us identify features in the capital cities of the UK.

Week 4

In English this week we have been innovating  our 'Talk 4 Writing' story. The children all chose different animals to replace the penguin in our original  story. We have also just started to look at starting our sentences with references to the time of day eg. in the morning or later than evening.

In Maths, we have been continuing to look at numbers 1-50. We are very confident counting forwards to 50. We have been looking at one more or one less than a number from 1-50 and we just started to look at comparing numbers and objects to 50.

In history we are looking at how transport has changed over time. We looked at comparing old cars to more modern cars. We discussed changes we could see in the pictures and why cars have changed over time. We made a timeline of how cars have changed over the years.

In geography, we looked at identifying different clothes which are worn across the UK. We identified different types of weather and used our science knowledge to help us to understand these changes in the weather. We also identified suitable clothing for Mumble to pack in his suitcase to wear in the UK for all types of weather.

In PE, we got the apparatus out in our PE hall. The children were able to climb on the apparatus and ropes. We also had balance beams in the hall and we continued to travel various different ways on these apparatus.

Week 5

A very exciting week in Ladybird class. We went on our first school trip to Milestones Living History Museum! It was very exciting getting on the coach, when we got there we explored vehicles and objects from the past through a range of activities, which enabled us to closely study a variety of historical travel and transport.

We then went on a transport hunt. We compared the museum's vehicles collection with modern vehicles of today and identified similarities and differences between transport and travel throughout the different time periods. We even got the opportunity to climb aboard a 1935 Portsmouth bus and a fire engine, which was great fun!

Our return to school was very quite on the coach ('zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz') but the next day we loved sharing our learning and what we liked about the trip. We discussed that a lot of the transport we saw was powered by steam. We then learnt who made the steam engine and how it is powered! 

The rest of the week we have enjoyed being maths wizards and reading investigators during our class quizzes.