Messy Maps

This term the Year 1 children are going to be developing their knowledge of their local environment preparing them for their understanding of the world. This week they started off by looking at the bigger picture and thought about some of the different place they had visited on holiday. They had all been to some amazing places, including Madeira, Italy, Spain, Nigeria, France, England and India!

They then looked at photographs of building in Cricklade and talked about what they were and what they were used for.  Year 1 were all able to recognise at least 3 familiar places in our local area. We all had a go at learning the school address and most of us were able to have a go at writing it down.

As a class they had great fun learning about a compass and what it is used for. We then went into the hall to put our learning into practice and played a North South, East and West game. By the end we were all very good at remembering the different compass points. A good way we found to remember the points was, Naughty (North) Elephants (East) Squirt (South) Water (West).

Looking at an aerial photo of the school was revealing as we tried to spot the different features. They talked about a birds eye view and then used our knowledge to try to draw our own plans of the classroom. Mrs Bunn challenged them to use a ruler and she was very impressed with how hard we all worked.                  

They then used their plans of the classroom to make a messy map which is a 3D representation. Mrs Bunn was delighted with how well the children worked together to use a variety of art and junk modelling materials to produce  a very creative map.

One Child brought in a map and was able to talk about it for Show and Tell. Another class member knew that the map helps us to know where to go!

Year 1 are all really motivated and keen to encourage each other to learn! Well done Year 1, Keep it up!