Crew Godley have been stepping back in time to explore “Toy Box Through Time.” We have been discovering how toys have changed over the years, exploring some fascinating old toys and learning about the history of much-loved favourites, including dolls and teddy bears.
We also discovered a special local connection as we learned about the history of Paddington Bear and the Paddington Bear factory in Adwick!
The children enjoyed comparing toys from the past with the toys we play with today and thinking about how and why toys have changed over time. It has been fantastic to see their curiosity, questions and excitement as they became toy historians!
Today, our classroom became a Mars research and engineering centre as the children began their mission to design and build their own Mars rovers.
We started with a research carousel. The children explored NASA mission photographs, watched footage of a rover landing and investigated the challenges of reaching Mars safely. They measured a wooden chassis, examined rock samples, developed key vocabulary and used non-fiction books to discover more about space exploration.
Next, the children compared four famous rovers: Curiosity, Perseverance, Opportunity and Spirit. They identified features such as camera masts, robotic arms, solar panels, wheels and suspension. Importantly, they considered the purpose of each feature before selecting ideas for their own designs.
During the building activities, the children tackled three engineering challenges. They carefully measured and cut wood for their chassis, created prototypes of possible rover features and built electrical circuits to power a motor. They tested their ideas and made changes when something did not work as expected.
We were particularly impressed by the children’s curiosity, teamwork and perseverance. Like real engineers, they had to communicate, solve problems and learn from their first attempts.
Today’s research, designs and prototypes will guide the children as they continue developing and building their finished Mars rovers. We cannot wait to see where their ideas take them next!
This morning, we began our expedition hook day. We explored Mars Rovers through a range of activities including exploring new vocabulary, reading texts, analysing photos, types of rocks and videos and looking at a rover prototype.
Crew McGlone absolutely loved taking part in Tough Runner to bring our first week in Reception to an end. Thank you to Crew White for helping us through the tricky parts and supporting us with words of encouragement!
This morning we beat the weather to plant daffodil bulbs in our outdoor area. We learned about the life cycle of a daffodil before going outside and planting our very own bulbs. The children measured the distance between bulbs, dug holes, planted bulbs and placed their name sticks ready for our spring time dig. We cannot wait to see the green shoot in Spring after learning about the seasons and nature’s cycles. The children showed great stewardship of our shared space and tidied up after themselves. Well done Crew!
Today in Crew Ramsay, we worked our way fearlessly through the Tough Runner Course. We exercised our courage, compassion and Crew by overcoming obstacles, helping one another and cheering each other on! Here we are enjoying the last day of Crew week!
This week, our learning has been based around the story The Gingerbread Man.
In Writing, we listened to and watched the story before working on putting the events in the correct order.
During Life Skills, we enjoyed making our own gingerbread men. Then, on Friday, we had the big treat of decorating them before getting to eat our delicious creations!
In Maths, we explored numbers up to 10 using a Gingerbread Man theme. We also spent time exploring and enjoying our reading corner.
What a first week we have had in Crew FI. Our guiding question for this week has been ‘How can our crew be strengthened by acts of service to others?’ We began by unpicking what we meant by acts of service and which acts of service we could do around school to help make it a better place. We made posters which we have put up around school. As well as this, we also wrote each other kindness notes and gave them out on Friday to make someone’s day.
In writing this week, we read the book ‘The Lost Thing’ which is about a boy who finds a thing on the beach and helps to find its home. This linked very strongly with how we could answer our guiding question. We wrote a diary from the perspective of the lost thing.
Because this was the first week back, we focussed on expectations and how we can ensure we are following our HOWLs. We really unpicked the work hard HOWL and created our own acrostic poems.
We have done so many crew challenges this week which we have all enjoyed. Our favourite was working together as a team to complete a jigsaw. We also really enjoyed some games of benchball where great sportsmanship was shown.
Focusing on our ‘Courage’ character trait, we all showed great resilience and determination to complete the ‘Tough Runner’ obstacle course. This was great fun!
Our final act of service, which we did as a crew, was becoming reading buddies where we listened to Crew Mcloughlin read. This was really wonderful to see how helpful, kind and respectful the children were towards each other. A great way to end the week. Well done Crew FI! We are looking forward to seeing what other great things you can achieve this year.
