Pupils at Northdown Primary School, Margate, are exploring different history and geography based topics this term as part of their wider curriculum.
The youngsters in Reception Year have been focusing on the magical world of fairytales, sharing stories of the Three Little Pigs, the Billy Goats Gruff and Goldilocks. They have so far painted their own pigs, re-enacted the Billy Goats story with puppets and made porridge for the three bears.
Meanwhile, Year 1 have been learning all about Great Britain. Reading the popular picture book Katie goes to Scotland, they made shortbread biscuits to share with their parents in the afternoon after performing an Irish dance they had been practising. To learn more about England, they looked at Buckingham Palace and made crowns and then made Welsh dragons from paper plates as they journeyed through Wales.
Dawn Parsons, Year 1 teacher, said: “The children were so excited to make shortbread to share with their adults. They served their parents and were so polite. Our focus this term is on remarkable manners, and they certainly showed these in abundance in their role as hosts.”
Geography has also been the focus in Year 2. Their topic covers wildlife and culture at the North and South Poles as part of their “Poles Apart” theme. Leo, aged 7, explained some of their activities: “We made igloos out of paper bowls and a map of the school so we could travel around like explorers.”
An expedition for penguins led them to the school’s forest school area before they headed back in for story time and hot chocolate around a pretend campfire.
As part of their topic, the children also got the opportunity to visit the Blue Reef Aquarium in Hastings to see the marine life they had been learning about.
Meanwhile Year 3 have delved into Egypt this term as part of their history topic on Ancient Egypt. Making Egyptian head dresses, mummies from modroc and writing their name in hieroglyphics, the eight year olds explored the traditions and practices of the ancient world, also making their own canopic jars out of papier mache.
Sophia, age 8, loved making the Egyptian headpieces best whilst Melissa enjoyed the modroc mummies the most. However, not every activity has been met with such enthusiasm – after some food tasting of traditional foods from the time, pupil Jack was adamant: “I really don’t like olives!”