Y2L visited The Oriental Museum to learn about and explore the culture of China, including Chinese New Year, symbolism, shadow puppets and the Chinese Zodiac. We even took part in a dragon dance. We also discussed the similarities and differences between China and the UK.
Last half term, Year 2 enjoyed learning all about the continents and oceans. We learned songs to help us remember the names, we identified where the hot and cold areas of the world are and we were able to find them on maps and globes. We particularly enjoyed going outside and using chalk to draw world maps on the school yard. 
This half term Year 6 are learning all about ‘The Americas’. Last week the children looked at South America and developed their map skills to find the locations of different countries in South America. We also located some capital cities and have been developing our vocabulary to describe the location and characteristics of different countries across the Americas.
In Year 4 this half term we are learning all about settlements. We thought about what early settlers would need when finding a new place to settle. We looked at the names of different places around the UK and discovered that many of their names come from Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Viking words. We used our map skills to identify these places.
We enjoyed an Autumn Walk around school! We followed directions and looked for signs of Autumn.
This week we have been celebrating Black History Week. We have been talking about what makes us special and learning about different cultures. In topic, we learned about Africa. We found out many facts about the country and compared Africa to the UK. We made some African necklaces and took part in some African dancing.
Our topic in Geography this half term is ‘Our School and Locality’. We have been exploring the features of our school and local area and have even learned some simple directions!
We were so excited to be able to show off our knowledge and put our skills to the test. Our visitors helped us explore our school grounds.
First we used a compass to find North, East, South and West. Then we used these directions to give our partners instructions to find treasure hidden in the yard. We had to take photos of what we found and had so much fun!
Our next challenge was to use maps to navigate around a maze, following instructions given by our partners. We used directions including ‘left’ and ‘right’.
Finally we were challenged us to use maps of our school to find objects hidden in the grounds. We had a great time exploring and made some super observations.
This week Y3 enjoyed a drama workshop with One Day Create all about Volcanoes and Earthquakes!
We explored the key aspects of the physical geography of volcanoes and earthquakes and examined current natural disasters and significant historical incidents though quizzes and being intrigued by the descriptions of different earthquakes and volcanoes around the world. We acted out and discussed what life would be like if natural disaster occurred in our area and expressed our ideas and feelings through voice, movement, role play and drama!
We also had a visit from Prime VR’s Richard who took us on a journey around the world to explore the different volcanoes! We were amazed how close up we got and it was fantastic to see active volcanoes erupt!
We have been looking at human and physical features of a landscape, focusing on beaches the surrounding area. In groups we looked at and discuss the different features we could see, named them and identified if they were physical or human. 
We visited St. Mary’s lighthouse in North Tyneside to explore a range of coastal habitats. We identified different living things that live in a coastal habitat and discussed why they are suited to their habitat. We investigated rock pool habitats, which are a unique habitat, and identified how it provides the basic needs for the different kinds of animals and plants that live there.
We also identified lots of physical and human features of coastal areas, such as cliffs, lighthouse and ocean.
