Fabulous Finishes
Each topic ends with a Fabulous Finish. These are opportunities for children to celebrate their topic learning in an inspiring and stimulating way. These can be sharing their learning with others, such as parents, or an experience that they have been working towards as part of their learning.
Spring 2 – 2023 – Fabulous Finishes
Year 1 – Cold Kingdoms
As part of their Cold Kingdoms topic, the children enjoyed an afternoon of crafts with their grownups at our learning café. They used shoe boxes to create a cold habitat box for different animals including, polar bears, penguins and arctic foxes. The children used a variety of resources including cotton wool, ice gems, fake snow, coloured card and of course glitter to create some beautiful habitats.
Year 2 – Here and There
For their Fabulous Finish, Year 2 combined what they had been learning in both Science and Geography to create landscape scenes from Africa. They also included the type of animals that live in this habitat. They used both watercolours and paper silhouettes of African animals to produce beautiful pictures.
Year 3 – Rampaging Romans
Year 4 – Journey into the Unknown
Year 5 – The Maya
Isn’t it amazing what around 1500 years can do to improve the taste of chocolate. After learning about the Maya and their effective farming of Cocoa Beans, Year 5 began the term by experiencing their very own Maya Hot Chocolate. To round of their learning in Maya settlement, culture, religion and invention, Year 5 had the chance to invent their own chocolate bars – I think the facial expression made it clear that we do chocolate much better than the Mayans.
Year 6 – Get into your Genes
To finish our fantastic topic on Darwin’s theory of Evolution, the children competed in Battle of the Beaks! We followed in Darwin’s footsteps as we investigated the different utensils and their effectiveness as bird beaks. We then learnt about the finches that were discovered and how they adapted to life on the Galapagos Islands.
Spring 1 – 2023 – Fabulous Finishes
Year 1 – Magnificent Materials
Year one have been learning about Materials. Throughout the term the children have been identifying the properties and comparing the materials. For their fabulous finish they read the story ‘The Three Little Pigs’, they then discussed the different materials used to create the houses. The children worked in 3 teams to create a bridge. They had to make sure the bridges were tall enough to fit an animal underneath. The children worked extremely hard and made a mess…. Well, a big mess!
But these results were fantastic – it was great to see the children problem solving and working as a team. Afterwards they discussed which was the best building material and why. Well done year one!
Year 2 – Let’s Grow
The children have been learning about plants this term in their topic ‘Let it Grow’ and have explored how to successfully grow a plant from a seed. For their ‘Fabulous Finish’ they invited their adults in to make a greenhouse following the children’s own written instructions. It was a wonderful afternoon and great to see the children using their imperative verbs alongside their shape skills.
Year 3 – UK study
Year 4 – Rise of the robots
To finish off their topic, the children put their learning – from science and DT – about electricity into action. They created wire games which lit a bulb when the wires touched; they needed a really steady hand to be successful in the game! The children enjoyed playing and creating the games.
Year 5 – Cosmic
Do you often sit and wonder just how big the solar system actually is? It will actually blow your mind. Year 5 tried their best to get a strong understanding by creating their own, to scale, plan of the planets that make up our Solar System. After exploring the distancing between the planets and their relation to the sun, they calculated that 1 sheet of toilet paper would be equivalent to 10 MILLION Km. The children needed to all work together to set their planets out to ensure they had the accurate distance between them.
Year 6 – Sandbags and Sirens
Year 6 looked at the impact of WW2 on East Anglia. They discovered that the area in which they live was used heavily by the US air force due to it’s flat landscape being perfect for runways and Germany was within range of their bombers. Pupils ended their topic by designing and creating their own war memorials out of clay.
Autumn 2 – 2022 – Fabulous Finishes
Year 1 – Seasonal Changes
The children have enjoyed learning about the differences between the seasons and using their senses to explore in detail. They wrote poems about winter and Christmas, added actions and performed them to the parents on the stage in the hall.
Year 2 – What’s outside your window?
Year 2 have loved finding out all about nature and the local area of Great Yarmouth. As their Fabulous Finish, the children went on a trip to the Sea Life Centre in Great Yarmouth to see some animals close up. They then used this experience to write an incredibly detailed recount of the day out.
Year 3 – Rockin’ through the Ages (part 2)
The term Year 3 have been focussing on the Iron Age. They have looked at the discovery of iron, what it was used for and how the people of the Iron Age lived. At the end of the topic, the children created a PowerPoint to demonstrate what they had learnt.
Year 4 – Amazing Ancient Egypt
Year 4 have had a brilliant half-term finding out about the Ancient Egyptian Civilisation. From mummifying a tomato, writing a biography about Howard Carter and learning about the different Gods, it has been so interesting. For their fabulous finish, parents joined them to talk about Tutankhamun, look at the wonderful work Year 4 have done and make a Pharaoh’s headdress.
Year 5 – The World Around Us!
Stuck in the Amazon Rainforest? Have no idea how to get out? Fear not, as the Year 5 Woodlands Students are coming to your rescue. After getting word of students trapped in the Amazon Rainforest, we have been busy learning about the different biomes around the world and how human and physical features make up an area. The children wrote imagery poems to really capture the amazing wildlife which make up the Amazon Rainforest. We ended the unit with the sharing of our very own Information texts on ‘How to Survive in the Amazon Rainforest!’. Let’s hope we don’t have to put these to use any time soon ??
Year 6 – All aboard the Empire Windrush
Year 6 have been reading Windrush Child as part of their topic, which is a story that highlights some of the challenges that people faced when moving from the Caribbean to England. They have also learnt about the history of the Caribbean and the reasons why individuals moved. The children created powerful poems about Windrush and performed these to an audience during their Year 6 poetry recital.
Autumn 1 – 2022 – Fabulous Finishes
Year 1 – Adventures around the world
Year 1 sang the continents of the world and the 5 oceans of the world songs. They then listened and danced to some cultural music from each of the continents before taking about what they liked about each one.
Year 2 – Panic on Pudding Lane
Year 2 thoroughly enjoyed their fabulous finish which was a sensory experience for The Great Fire of London. All children were very engaged, and they were able to use brilliant vocabulary to describe their senses during the immersive experience which they then shared with the class.
Year 3 – Rockin’ through the ages
This term, Year 3 have been studying the Stone Age and Bronze Age. They have learnt about how people lived during these times – how they hunted, what they ate and where they lived. As part of this topic, they have created representations of Stonehenge, written about the Bronze Age and even learnt how to bath a woolly mammoth!
Year 4 – Where in the world?
For their fabulous finish this half-term the children in year 4 worked in pairs to create an online quiz, using 2quiz in purple mash, which other children then answered. They applied their understanding of some of the areas of geography they have learnt about including lines of longitude and latitude, time zones and polar regions.
Year 5 – Who let the Gods out?
To finish their topic on the Ancient Greeks, Year 5 took part in a series of Olympic events. Children were allocated a city state from Ancient Greece and they competed for Athens, Sparta, Thebes or Rhodes. In the Olympics, the medal table finished with Sparta on 2, Thebes on 3, Athens on 5 and Rhodes was the winning team on 8 medals! The shot putt was a very lucrative event for Rhodes, as well as the throwing and catching game. The children all appeared to get into the spirit of the games and celebrated each team’s achievements.
Year 6 – Say Watt!
In Year 6 this half term, they have focused on comparing three locations: the Lake District, Jamaica and Poland. For their fabulous finish, the children decided on where they would like to visit most using their new knowledge of the weather, landscape, wildlife and location. They then created and filmed an advert for their chosen location to persuade others to visit.
Summer 2 – 2022 – Fabulous Finishes
Year 2 – Once upon a time
This half term, Year 2 have been looking at all traditional fairy tales. The children have been writing their own fairy tale and for their fabulous finish, they made their own fairy tale characters from crafting materials with their parents.
Year 3 – Lighting up the World
For the fabulous finish to their light topic, the children in year 3 made shadow puppets from opaque, translucent and transparent materials. Later, they performed a puppet show to parents and carers.
Year 4 – Norse Invaders
This half-term year 4 have been finding out about the Vikings. For their fabulous finish the children shared their own myths, written about dangerous adventures relating to finding the island of the Gods and the troubles faced along the way. They read aloud to their parents/carers and enjoyed some treats fit for the Gods themselves.
Year 5 – Deforestation!
After receiving the letter from the trust, the students have been eagerly developing their understanding of Deforestation and the impact it has on the globe. To end their learning, they shared their persuasive letters in the amazing woods. Along with this, students planted a tree which they will be able to watch grow and hopefully eventually plant in their own garden.
Year 6 –
Year 6 put a huge amount of effort into their end of year production: Mystery at Magpie Manor. They donned the fringes and feathers, dusted off the spy glass and joined the flapper girls, Inspector Spectre and a whole host of famous guests in a roaring 20’s thriller. They created the props, back drops and costumes themselves alongside learning their lines to put on a show-stopper of a performance.
Summer 1 – 2022 – Fabulous Finishes
Year 1 – Amazing Animals
Children in Year 1 learnt all about the Savannah and David Attenborough. They acted out David Attenborough filming a scene for one of his television programmes.
Year 2 – Into the Rainforest
After learning all about the Amazon Rainforest, Year 2 had a fantastic trip to Amazona Zoo where they looked at some of the different animals you can find in the rainforest. They children had a great time, and found it was great seeing a toucan in real life rather than just in a picture! The children had learnt about how some of the animals adapted to suit their habitats and at the zoo, they could see a snapshot of why these adaptations are so useful.
Year 3 – Revolutionary Romans
As part of their topic, Year 3 have been reading the book ‘Escape from Pompeii’. They finished their topic by becoming news readers for the day. The children were filmed interviewing a person who was lucky enough to get away from Pompeii before Mount Vesuvius exploded.
Year 4 – Journey into the Unknown
As part of their topic looking at the Anglo-Saxons, Year 4 have explored the artefacts discovered at Sutton Hoo and also the Staffordshire Hoard. For their fabulous finish, pictures of the items that were discovered were hidden in the Year 4 area and children had to find them and discuss with their group: what they thought the item was? What was it made of? What was it used for? And what could this tell us about Anglo-Saxon life? The children had fun searching for the items and had some great ideas as to what the items would have been used for.
Year 5 – The Maya and Anglo Saxons
Throughout the Spring and Summer term, Year 5 have been exploring the impact the Maya and Anglo Saxons have had on the world. After building up a fantastic bank of knowledge and understanding, they finished their History learning with a historical debate – ‘The Maya Civilization was far more superior than the Anglo Saxons’. All students contributed amazingly and really showcased their strong historical understanding. In the end, the Speaker found it too difficult to declare a winner, announcing it as a draw.
Year 6 – Monarchs Through Time
Year 6 have spent the half term learning all about the circulatory system. They discovered the four different components of blood (red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma and platelets) and their roles, the difference between blood vessels and finally looked at the function and structure of the heart. They applied their knowledge when dissecting hearts for themselves – finding the four separate chambers, aorta and pulmonary vein.
