On Friday, we were visted by our local MP, Sally Jameson! She came in as our Expert on all things Doncaster for our current expedition Diverse Doncaster. She talked about her role as an MP and what that entails. She also talked about some of her personal favourite things about living in Doncaster. It was wonderful to see them recall some of the information they had learned on Parliament Week!
The children asked her such a huge range of questions like “What’s your favourite colour?”, “Where are your favourite places to visit?” and “Do you enjoy being an MP?”.
We then encouraged the children to think about suggestions for Sally, that they could make to help make Intake better. They suggested fixing the roads, more grown up play equipment on the park and more bins so people don’t litter.
This morning, we were visited by Geoff Hewitt from XP, who is our school’s XP Pilot. Geoff came to show us his drone and explain how drones can be used to take aerial view photographs. This links closely to our current expedition and is something we will be learning more about as our work continues.
Geoff demonstrated how the drone works and shared some of the photographs he had taken. Together, we explored the aerial footage and discussed what we could see from above, noticing features that look very different when viewed from the sky. The children were fascinated by this new perspective and asked lots of thoughtful questions.
It was an exciting and engaging visit that helped bring our learning to life and gave the children a glimpse into how technology can be used to explore and understand the world around us.
To kick-start our expedition, we threw a fabulous Fiesta right here in Doncaster! Our mission? To learn all about Doncaster and compare it with the vibrant town of Tulum in Mexico. To set the scene, we went head-to-head with a Doncaster vs. Mexico theme – and the competition was fierce!
Round 1: Music Madness! We listened to artists from Doncaster, including Louis Tomlinson, Tony Christie and Yungblud – who even sent us an amazing video message (huge thanks to Mrs Bubb for that surprise!). We then compared these tracks to the lively sounds of a Mariachi band and some of Mexico’s most well-known artists. Yungblud’s video was a total game-changer and helped Doncaster take the win in the music round!
Round 2: Language Fun! Next up, we grabbed our backpacks and learned some Spanish with Dora the Explorer. We practised simple greetings and had lots of fun giving them a go. This round was too close to call, with the votes split evenly!
Round 3: Taste Test Challenge! It was time for a food-tasting adventure. The children sampled English favourites like Yorkshire puddings, liquorice, celery and mustard, before moving on to Mexican treats including lime, mango, tortilla chips with dip… and even chilli! Everyone was incredibly brave and tried something new. The tortilla chips and dip were the clear winners, giving Mexico the victory in this round.
With the scores tied at 2–2, it was anyone’s game!
In the afternoon, we turned into artists. We listened to a story about the life of Frida Kahlo and her beloved Animalitos. Inspired by her work, we explored the art technique of pointillism, studying famous examples and discussing our favourites. Using the Animalitos as inspiration, we then created our own colourful pointillist masterpieces – and they looked fantastic!
What an exciting and creative start to our expedition!
Thank you so much for coming last Thursday to our Celebration of Learning. We know you are just as proud as we are of how brilliantly the children presented their work. We have absolutely loved this expedition and are incredibly proud of the final product.
It was wonderful to see the children so enthusiastically sharing their favourite parts of the expedition with you—showing off their books, demonstrating their knowledge during the quiz, and proudly explaining what they had learned. We can’t wait to display the lovely things you created together.
Today we are delighted to showcase the children’s beautiful Poppy artwork. They approached their creations with such care, focus, and pride; choosing colours, exploring different materials, and talking thoughtfully about what their poppies represented.
Each piece is unique, and together they make a stunning display. We are so proud of their creativity and the meaning they put into their work. What a lovely way to honour and remember through art.
This week we have been working very hard on our painting skills. We learned about the different parts of the paint brush (the toe, the ferrule and the handle). We then talked about Primary and Secondary colours and how they can be made. We then created our own colour wheels.
The next day we talked about how colours can represent mood; talking about warm colours and cool colours. We painted a sun and moon; deciding which colours would be most appropriate.
Today we have created a final piece of art to end our journey, learning about the Great Fire of London. The children talked about the warm colours representing the fire. We used a sponge to create an ombre effect for the background, making sure to dab to make it appear textured. The children then used their best cutting skills to cut out a design to represent the houses.
Our beautiful gallery deserved a post of its very own. The children worked so hard to create the finished piece; they look wonderful! They were so proud of their work and we are so proud of them! Well done 1C.
To summarise our learning of the Great Fire of London, we created our own timeline of events. We talked about Chronological Order and why the events had to be in time order. The children challenged each other and debated the sequence of the events. The looked at the dates on the cards as well as thinking about reasons why, for example “they can’t shout for help and fire if the fire hasn’t started yet.” By the end, we had made an accurate timeline of events. The children were very proud of themselves!
In 1C last week, we became Architects! We learned all about Christopher Wren; was tasked to resign London after the Great Fire. When designing the new streets of London, there were important things for us to consider. The children labelled their plans specifying that the buildings must be made of “brick or stone” and that there must be space between the houses. They could explain why they had made these design choices!
Today we became History Detectives! We examined evidence to predict what we thought the pictures were before they were burnt in the fire. We also explored the different tools used to put out fires and learned how they worked.
