All Posts By

Adi Widdop

Geography fieldwork month

By Geography

October was “Geography fieldwork month” in St.Alban’s. Fieldwork is where you go outside the classroom and find things out for yourself. Over the last month, our students have had the opportunity to explore the local area and learn in a more practical, hands-on way in geography.

Each class was given a different enquiry question that they had to try and answer using a variety of progressive fieldwork skills. Children across school completed maps, surveys, time sampling, tallys, pictograms and digital mapping linked to their enquiry question. Children then used the information that they had gathered to draw their own conclusions. Many years groups were able to compare results with the data collected last year and carefully considered possible reasons for any changes.

Yesterday, each class had the opportunity to present their findings to the rest of the school. Children were very adept at explaining what they did and what they found out. I will post again with pictures from each classes fieldwork tasks once I have collected these from staff members. Well done St.Alban’s- we are all geographers!

22/11/2024
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Y2 D.T- Food

By Design Technology, Year 2

Year 2 have designed, made and evaluated their own fruit smoothies for other children to encourage them to eat more fruit. In science, we have been learning about the importance of a balanced diet and know that fruits and vegetables are a very important part of this! Their smoothies needed to: have a catchy name, have at least 2 fruit in and be sweet and tasty!

First, we did a sensory analysis to help us decide which fruit we wanted to include in our smoothies. We considered taste, texture, appearance and smell. We practised cutting techniques like the bridge and the claw.

Then we designed our smoothies, thinking about the name, packaging and ingredients.

Next, we were on to making. We chopped our fruit and measure the juice and yoghurt before combining these in a blender.

Now onto the best part- the tasting! There were some mixed reviews but lots of children thought their smoothies were delicious. We evaluated our products considering whether they met our product specification and what we might change if we did the project again. Well done Year 2!

18/07/2024
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Y2 Science – What do plants need to grow?

By Science, Year 2

Year 2 have been investigating what plants need to grow. Each child picked one the of the three enquiry questions to investigate:

Do plants need sunlight to grow?

Do plants need soil to grow?

Do plants need to water to grow?

Each child grew cress seeds in two conditions to compare results. We made predictions about what we thought might happen to the cress seeds in each condition. We discussed how we could make the test fair and what we needed to change/keep the same. The results shocked some children, as they were surprised that the cress seeds without soil and without sunlight still managed to grow! However, we noticed that the cress in these conditions did not look as healthy.

18/07/2024
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Maths- Telling the time in Year 2

By Maths, Year 2

Learning to tell the time can be very challenging for children to grasp. There is so much information needed to be able to tell the time on an analogue clock and this can cognitively overload children. At St.Alban’s, we break this into tiny steps.

First, children only focus on the hour hand in a linear number line. Children practised using their hour hands to show o’clock times on the number line. We then also looked at where the hour hand would point for half past the hour, noticing that it no longer pointed at the number but was halfway between two numbers.

Then we moved our numbers into a circle like a real clock face with the hour hand in the middle pointing to the o’clock and half past times.

After, we started to think about the minute hand as well. We used two clock faces for this: one to show the hour and one to show the minutes. We noticed that the minute hand points halfway around the clock face to represent half past.

We discussed how people don’t wear two watches but have to look at the hour hand and the minute hand on the same clock! Finally we tried to show o’clock and halfpast times on one clock face by moving both the hour and minute hands. We will repeat these steps with quarter past and quarter to times tomorrow. Well done year 2, you will be telling the time in no time!

15/07/2024
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Y2 Picasso Collages

By Art, Year 2

Year 2 have been learning about the artist Pablo Picasso. In particular, we focused on his use of cubism and abstract portraits. The children loved trying to emulate his unique style in their own fragmented collages. Well done Year 2!

15/07/2024
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RSE in Year 2

By PSHE, Year 2

Today Y2  had their first Relationship and Sex Education lesson. This largely focused on considering similarities and differences between girls and boys and challenging gender stereotypes.

Children had to place the objects into the hoop they thought the item was for: boys, girls or everyone. I picked random children to place the items and the first picture shows the children’s initial perception. I then asked if any child disagreed with where any of the objects were placed and to explain their reasoning as to why they disagreed.  Sophie definitely disagreed with football being for “boys” and she argued her case brilliantly. As a class, children debated where they thought the items belonged and the final picture shows what the majority of children agreed upon.

04/07/2024
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Year 2- Dentist visitor (PSHE and science)

By PSHE, Science, Year 2

Year 2 were very lucky to have two dentists visit and give a presentation on how we can look after our teeth. This linked to some learning we had been doing in PSHE and science. The presentation was very informative and children enjoyed seeing whether their brushing technique was effective or not. I’m sure Year 2 will all take good care of their teeth from now on! Thankyou Dr.Thompson and your colleague for taking time out of your busy schedule to come in and talk to us.

26/06/2024
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Y2 D.T and Art Textiles

By Art, Design Technology, Year 2

As part of our D.T and textiles project, Year 2 have been very busy designing and creating their own tapestries in the style of the artist Henri Rousseau.

First, we looked at Henri Rousseau’s artwork, discussing his unique style and evaluating some of his work. We then created our design criteria for our tapestries. We decided that our tapestries must: be colourful; be in the style of Henri Rousseau; use neat joining techniques and be of a jungle animal.

Next, we looked at a range of different materials and fabrics such as silk, velvet, corduroy, denim and felt. Afterwards, children explored different joining techniques such as sewing, gluing, stapling and taping. Children had the chance to practise using a range of different stitches including overstitch, running stitch and cross stitch. This helped students to decide which stitches they would use when creating their products.

Children then designed  their own tapestries. To do this, they needed to think carefully about how they were going emulate the work of Rousseau and what colours/materials they would use.

Then came the making! Children made paper templates for their animals before cutting their material. We used brusho paint on hessian to make our backgrounds colourful. We were lucky enough to be joined by our grownups to help us complete our tapestries in a parent workshop. They used their own choice of stitches to join the material.

Finally, we evaluated our products as a class, considering whether their tapestries met the design criteria. Children discussed anything they would change if they had the opportunity to do the project again.

I have been absolutely blown away by the end results of our textiles project. Everyone has done absolutely amazing! Thank you grownups for all your help during the parent workshop.

26/06/2024
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Y2 Local History

By Geography, History, Year 2

For our local history project, Year 2 have been learning about Joe Lister who was a significant person in the local area. First, we linked our history learning with the geography of the local area by comparing a modern day map with a historical map of the local area while considering how Listerdale changed over time. Joe Lister built the Listerdale estate in the 1930’s, building affordable housing for many poorer people at the time. This greatly impacted the local area, as its population increased significantly and Joe Lister created jobs for many people at a time when jobs were scarce. We created a timeline of Joe Lister’s life, sequencing the key events within his lifetime. We used cubes to help us think about this with each cube representing 1 year of Joe Lister’s life.

We then went on a walk around the local area and the Listerdale estate where Joe Lister built 40 detached houses and 650 semi-detached houses. We visited Lister’s castle which is where Joe Lister and his family lived. We were lucky enough to be invited into the grounds by the current groundskeeper and he even gave us a copy of Joe Lister’s biography “Joe Lister Master Builder.” When walking around the Listerdale estate, we noticed the different patterns on the buildings and the letters on the houses that were the initials of Joe Lister’s family members.  The children had lots of fun and were excited to find more out about the history of our local area!

26/06/2024
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Year 2 R.E- Islam

By Religious Education, Year 2

Year 2 have been learning about the religion of Islam and what it means to be a Muslim. To support our learning, we were very lucky to have a Muslim visitor come into class to answer some of our questions. One of our Year 4 children who is a Muslim also came into class to share their knowledge and beliefs. The year 2 children asked some very thought-provoking, theological questions which were expertly answered by our two visitors. Thank you so much for joining us! The children loved hearing about your first-hand experiences.

26/06/2024
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