Summer 1 Fire! Fire!
Fire! Fire!
We are becoming historians this term and stepping back in time to 1666, using a range of sources and texts to investigate the events of the Great Fire of London. We will be looking at how it started, why it spread so quickly and how it was stopped. Along the way, we will learn of individuals that played a significant role at the time, such as King Charles II and Samuel Pepys, and those who have shaped the rebuild of London, into the city we know today.
As part of our history lessons, we are using an educational game developed by the Museum of London and partner organisations, to follow the story of the Great Fire and view primary evidence and artefacts from the time. If you would like to explore further at home, it can be found at The Great Fire Of London - The Great Fire of London
Linking to our history topic, we will be using fiction and non-fiction narratives to inform and inspire our writing of poetry describing the fire, and then a news report, retelling the events of the four days as they developed.
In design and technology, we will be using our knowledge from our Fire of London research and Camo day last year, when we got to climb on a real fire engine, to design and build a fire vehicle of our own. Some clean junk modelling will be needed for this! (small boxes, cotton reels, straws, small yoghurt pots, cardboard tubes). Thank you in advance for your donations!
Finally in science, we will be looking at uses of everyday materials, and how some solids can be manipulated. We will be applying our knowledge of the features of different materials, to compare their suitability for building houses and making firefighting equipment.
At the end of term, we will be presenting an assembly on our topic and would love to invite parents to attend, so that we can share some of what we have learnt about the Great Fire of London. This will be on Wednesday, 22nd May, with more details to follow nearer the time. We hope you can make it, the children are going to have a lot to share!
VIP visit from a real-life fireman!
Thank you so much to Mr Weeks for coming in with his uniform to talk about what his job as a fireman, fire safety at home and letting the children try on his uniform and helmet. They loved having a visitor in and linking their learning to real events. There were lots of questions!
RAF Benson Pride Day Colour Run
Well done to those children who joined in with the Pride Day colour run this morning. You looked fabulous in your medals!
The Great Fire of London - assembly!
Thank you to everyone that was able to join us, it was so lovely to have a full house for the children to share their hard work with. They have learnt so many facts about this point in history this term and have loved getting stuck into the books in class. Here are their final pieces of writing, shared at the assembly, for anyone that wants to take another proud look.
Sorting out the Recycling!
We applied our science knowledge about materials, to investigate how we might be able to separate different solid objects from each other in a recycling factory, based on their same and different properties.
The big build!
In design and technology we were given the challenge of designing a vehicle to cope with future fire service needs, including of course, getting large amounts of water to a fire quickly. The only rule was there had to be working wheels and axels. The children put so much attention into their specification and designs, showing true creativity. Followed by awesome problem solving skills to put together and test their models with moving parts, especially when their teacher refused to give them any tape!
