This afternoon, we continued our expeditionary learning by looking how the earth is split into 7 geographical zones. We found out the 7 zones are: Equator, North Pole, South Pole, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. With our new found knowledge, we labelled a map with the zones.
Working hard on our diary entries 🙂
We are so proud of the children who took part in their SLC’s last night. The children showed courage presenting to their families and spoke with pride about their learning over the last term. I was so proud of you all and I can’t wait to hear the children tomorrow share their learning journey.
Last week, year 5 took part in a fantastic workshop which consolidated their learning on their autumn expedition and also their expedition around the water cycle last year. The children then worked in groups to create a Lego bot which they then programmed using a computer so it would move on its own to deliver much needed water supplies. The children really enjoyed this but it was also great to see them all grappling and working collaboratively.
Today, Crew Hamill continued with their expedition by looking at Doncaster and other cities around the United Kingdom, learning more about their human and physical characteristics. We focused on how some of these aspects have changed over time, looking at images of Doncaster and organising them into “old” and “new”. It was so interesting to see how our city has changed over time! Do you recognise some of the older buildings?
We continued with our expedition where we looked at a topography maps and what they can show. We learned that Doncaster is between approximately 8-24m above sea level whereas the Peak district is around 400m above sea level.
We estimated the population of the world. Most of us estimated around 7-8 billion.
Next we considered the estimation of London based on the size and population of the other capital cities but unfortunately we were nowhere near for this one. We could imagine there were over 7million people in London.
We looked at different areas around the UK and the population of these areas. To help with our estimation for Doncaster we looked at areas similar in size to this area so we could make realistic estimations. Some great estimations.
Finally, we looked at a range of photos from the past and present of Doncaster. It was interesting to see how much Doncaster has changed over time. There has certainly been an increase in the amount of human features in our local area over the years.
A great PE lesson in MI 🙂
Staff do crew too! At XP, we always say, if it’s good enough for the children, it’s good enough for us.
Therefore, just like our pupils, staff also take part in staff crew events. Yesterday staff had to work with small crews they don’t often work with to complete the ‘Great British Bake Off’. The challenge was to produce Mary Berry standards cakes whilst also decorating and presenting their beautiful work. It was a challenge in just 60 minutes!
I’m sure you’ll agree that there were some wonderful creations which the children enjoyed exploring too!
In 1st place was ‘The Gruffalo’ followed by ‘Wonka’ in second place and in third, ‘Mary Beary’.
We enjoyed finding our new vocabulary today whilst reading outloud 🙂 We used a read around the robin and a partner read today whilst reading. Mrs McClare then timed us to see how far we could read in 1 minute but still ensuring we were reading accurately. We discussed the story as we read thinking about our thoughts on the characters and what was happening. We tried to empathise with some of the characters, putting ourselves in their position. We tried to text mark some ideas as we read then shared this with another group. We then explored some questions as a group and even unpicked our green challenge question. We showed a great understanding today 🙂
On Friday, staff across our Trust gathered to launch the first phase of our exciting new Teaching and Learning model, with a focus on our culture of Crew, underpinning principles, deliberate & intentional teaching/learning behaviours at its heart…
Staff from our secondaries and primaries grappled with this exciting new model and took part in a wide range of workshops to develop teaching and learning at XP.
More on this next week…
In Autumn 2023, Years 5 and 6 completed an expedition looking at the impact we are having on the planet and what we could do to make a difference now and for future generations. They held their presentation of learning last week!
Their final product for this expedition was a picture frame made from sustainably-sourced materials. Students then chose their favourite piece of writing from across the expedition to publish in the frame alongside (or behind) a simple piece of artwork reflecting elements of our learning. Beautiful work!
Delicious Recycling @ Norton Infants
Crew Oldridge’s Experiments @ Green Top
Weekly update for families @ XP Gateshead
XP Outdoors – Mindfulness Walk @ XP
Crew Challenge @ Carcroft School
Problem Solving – Square Numbers @ Norton Juniors
We now have a new dedicated news email so that you can send your stories, updates or ideas about potential news articles directly to us in Comms.
It might be something you or your students have achieved, a charity you’re supporting or anything at all that deserves a wider audience.
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
