All Posts By

Adi Widdop

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
Love0

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
Love0

Music in Year 2

By Music, Year 2

Y2 are loving playing the recorder in their music lessons. Children have learnt to play B note, A note and G note on their recorders and are beginning to be able to transition between notes. We are also learning to read music and can recognise/play crotchets (lasting 1 beat) and quavers (lasting half a beat.) While it is quite tricky to teach 31 children an instrument simultaneously, I have been very impressed with the children’s patience, listening skills and resilience. Well done Y2!

IMG_2693

21/02/2024
Love0

Y2 Writing- The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark

By English, Year 2

Year 2 have loved reading books by our author of Autumn term Jill Tomlinson, including The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark. We used this book as a starting point for writing our own reports about owls. First, we found out lots of information about owls including what they look like, what they eat and what they do. Children were very adept at using scientific language in their reports and they included lots of interesting facts. To accompany our writing, we sketched our own owls based on the images from the story. We used skills learnt in our art lessons and our “pencil dictionaries” to add different patterns to our owls. The children worked extremely hard on their final pieces and I am sure you will agree that the end result is amazing! 

23/01/2024
Love0

Sinai House leaders Bible Reading

By Collective worship, House Sinai, Religious Education, Year 6

Our lovely Sinai House leaders Annie and Preston visited our EYFS and Key Stage 1 classes this afternoon to read the children a bible story. The house leaders did an excellent job using their “story teller” voices to engage the children. All children listened attentively to the stories and answered questions well. Children in Year 2 were able to read along using their own bibles. Well done Sinai leaders!

23/01/2024
Love1

Geography in Year 2

By Geography

Year 2 have started learning about the 7 continents of the world. We practiced locating these on our very own balloon “globes.” To help us do this, we first added the equator around the middle of the balloons to use as a reference point. We also located the North and South Poles, placing Antarctica at the bottom of our “globes”.  Some children decided to colour in the different continents with the flag of one of the countries within that continent! The children had fun learning about the 7 continents and their locations in a hands on, practical way. 

12/01/2024
Love0

Y2 D.T- Mechanisms

By Design Technology, Year 2

This half-term in Design and Technology, Year 2 have designed,  made and evaluated a Christmas card for their parents using either a slider or a lever.

 

First, we investigated existing products that have sliders and levers. Next, we created a product specification detailing what our Christmas needed to be successful.

We decided that our Christmas cards needed to:

  • have a mechanism
  • be bright and coloured neatly
  • be Christmas themed.

Then, we did a practical task where we had a go at making our own sliders and levers. After looking at lots of other Christmas cards/images, we designed our own products using either a slider or a lever. We then made our Christmas cards being careful to colour very neatly! Finally, we evaluated our products discussing what we like/dislike and what we would change if we had the chance to do the task again. Well done Year 2!

 

21/12/2023
Love0

Year 2 Geography Fieldwork- “How do Children at St.Alban’s travel to school?”

By Geography, Year 2

Fieldwork is where you go outside the classroom to find things out for yourself. Year 2 have been doing lots of fieldwork this month linked to our enquiry question- “How do children at St.Alban’s travel to school?”

To answer this question, we conducted a transport survey where we went to the other classes in school and asked the children how they came to school that day. Children recorded their findings using a tally.

When back in class, we combined our results for the 6 classes into one table showing how many children at St.Alban’s come to school in a car and how many children either walked, cycled, scootered or caught a bus to school. 110 children came to school in a car but only 70 children walked, cycled, scootered or caught a bus to school. The children presented these results in a pictogram using a key where each symbol represented 10 children.

We discussed the negative impact that cars have on the environment. Year 2 think that, as a school, we could improve our environmental impact by walking if possible! They shared this conclusion with the whole-school during our fieldwork assembly.

Children have also been working hard on DigiMaps. Y2 created a digital map measuring the distance between their house and school. We discussed that the distance they walk/drive may be further as they cannot travel in a straight line through houses and other obstacles. Well done Year 2!

24/11/2023
Love0

Whole school Geography Fieldwork month!

By FS2, Geography, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6

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.

Today, 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. Well done St.Alban’s- we are all geographers!

24/11/2023
Love0

Year 2- Remembrance Day

By History

Today, Year 2 visited the cenotaph in Wickersley to pay our respects to the local soldiers who died in WW1. This concludes some work that we have been doing in history lessons over the last few weeks on Remembrance day and WW1.

Each child was given the name of one of the individuals remembered on the cenotaph with some extra information about them. We found it very sad that some of the soldiers who died were only teenagers while many others had their own children waiting for them at home. Children had to find the name of the soldier they were given on the cenotaph.

At 11:00am, we had a two minutes silence as a sign of respect.

10/11/2023
Love0