The Burrow 2013-2019

Welcome to The Burrow!

This is our class page showing you what we have been doing at school. We hope you like it and if you have any thoughts, comments or suggestions for this page, please get in touch.

Spring 2019 - Italian Adventure

Our term began with a fun-filled day including a trip on a plane to Italy (at least our hall was transformed into a very realistic looking aeroplane) as a Stunning Start to our topic. For the first half term, we will concentrate on modern day Italy looking at key landmarks and places in the beautiful country. As we move into the second half term, we will venture further back in time and look at where the Romans originated from.

Italy has presented us with so many opportunities to produce fantastic artwork whilst also learning about the geography of Italy.

We've learnt all about Venice, finding it on a map and locating important places linked to the Venice Carnival. We've designed and made Venetian masks and we're so impressed with how they turned out!

After looking at modern day Italy, we began to move back in time to think about famous Italian people in the past. We've focused on Da Vinci, looking at his art and his inventions. We've started to think about how different vehicles are powered and made our own rubber band powered vehicles, designing them in the same style as Da Vinci! Here's a prototype to demonstrate how our vehicles will move.

Once we made a prototype, we really got stuck in to designing and making our own rubber band powered vehicles! Here's what our final products looked like.

Autumn 2018 - Remember, remember...

In The Burrow this term, our topic considers the past, both that can be remembered by the older generations of our families and that beyond living memory. For part of the term we will particularly be remembering World War I as we look back 100 years later.

We have started this term looking at our families, particularly our grandparents. We have thought about the impact that they have had on our lives and the importance of memories. Our first text, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, gave us the opportunity to create our own 'baskets of memories' that are as precious as gold and make us feel warm inside.

Summer 2018 - One Moment in Time

For our topic this term, we will be looking at the 'moment' that the Romans invaded Britain. As it is also summer, we will also be considering the perfect 'moment' when plants start to grow in our science lessons. As a stunning start to this science topic, we visited Harcourt Arboretum and had a smashing time! Here's some highlight for you to enjoy.

Over the last week, we have been learning about the Roman Invasion of Britain, considering how it must have felt for the Celts who were living in Britain at the time. Where's the worksheet? I hear you mutter.

Take a peek at our marvellous video highlighting the plight of the Celts and the terror they would have experienced watching the Romans arrive!

Hold your noses, there's a real stink in The Burrow today! We have put on our archaeologist hats this afternoon and dissected some poo to figure out the foods that Romans ate.

This week, we have been making the most of the lovely weather and undertaking some real life statistical research. We have collected data on the number of birds we can see visiting Culworth throughout the day and then make pictograms which we will be analysing and using to answer some questions.

We've been doing lots of cross-curricular learning in The Burrow this week, linking our Roman topic to maths, science and DT! We've built different prism shaped Roman columns and tested which shape is stronger and would, therefore, be the best shape to use for Roman buildings.

Spring 2018 - Frozen Worlds

This term in The Burrow, we have all been finding out about different Arctic and Antarctic animals. Our challenge was to present some information about the habitat of one Polar animal and explain why it is suited to that environment. We have had lots of different ways to present the information. Here are some of them for you to enjoy and, hopefully, to learn a few things!

Autumn 2017 - Me and My World

This term we have been focusing on Me and My World. Over the summer holidays, we collected photographs and mementos that represented our memories and have been writing about our lives. We have been thinking about our location in the world and what life is like in the UK.

We are weather forecasters!

We have been learning about compass points and linking them to our knowledge of UK weather. We hope you enjoy some of the fruits of our labour!

Autumn 2015

This term, our topic is called 'Where my wellies take me'.

The main focus is on farming and what better way to introduce this than the mobile farm visit to school? It was a huge success and both animals and children were extremely well behaved!

The children wrote recounts about the visit and facts about the animals. They have labelled particular features on animal pictures. In Literacy we will be learning more about the features of non-fiction texts, making notes as we research, reading and writing poetry and writing stories. We have some great fiction and non-fiction texts connected to farming, which will be used as models for the children to work from.

We will be thinking about the meaning of Harvest. Why do we celebrate Harvest? What does Harvest mean for farmers? These are some of the questions which we will consider.

Summer 2015

Our topic this term is called 'Our Watery World'.

As always, Mrs Taylor has been working hard to create a fantastic environment in the outdoor area. If you should have any snorkels, flippers, toy boats, toy fish or sea creatures and beach towels which you are happy for us to use in the outdoor area, they would be most gratefully received!

We thought it would be nice to have a dinghy in the reading corner in which children could sit and read, so again, if anyone has one which we could loan we would be delighted!

The children have already been surprised to learn that there is more sea than land. The topic started with a Geography focus. We have established that the United Kingdom is surrounded by water, and consists of several islands, which is why we are also called the British Isles. We have learnt the names of the seas which surround our island and will also learn the names of the main oceans of the world.
Please encourage your child to locate any places you may visit on a map.

Spring 2015

Our topic this term is called 'An African Safari.'

We were most surprised to discover that a monkey has made his home in The Burrow classroom. As he is friendly and has promised not to make any more big messes in our classroom, we have decided to look after him for a while.

Mrs Taylor has been working hard to create an African environment in the role play area. If you have any books or artifacts from Africa which you are happy to share or loan to The Burrow, they would be most gratefully received. Likewise if you know of anyone who has spent time in Africa and would be happy to share their experience with us, please let us know.

We have started the topic with a focus on African wildlife. The children will be using books and the Internet to research facts about monkeys and will then make a monkey fact file. We will also finding out and writing about elephants. We will be looking at the features of non-fiction texts to help us with the organisation and presentation of our work. Please read some non-fiction books at home, looking at the contents, index, glossary and reading the captions and labels too. Practise looking up a specific piece of information by using the contents and/or index pages.

Autumn 2014

Our topic this term was entitled 'A Basketful of Memories'.

The class have been thinking about their own memories and considering how they have already changed in their short life time.

There are many opportunities here for cross-curricular work as we think back as far as one hundred years ago. We will be comparing and contrasting various aspects of life long ago with the present day – clothing, food, homes, schooling, daily life and touching very briefly and sensitively on the First World War.

The children will be making time lines of their own life.

We will also be making simple family trees. If any grandparents are willing to share a game/toy/skill which they remember from their childhood days, we would love to hear from you.

Summer 2014

Our topic this term -

Buzz! Buzz!

Up until now we have been concentrating on growing things but we will move on to learning about the visitors to gardens and in particular, bees, to take us up to the end of the summer term.
There have been many areas of Science covered so far. The children have learnt about the parts of a seed. They have watched broad beans growing in a jar, making observations of progress in a Bean Diary. They have dissected plants and learnt the names of the different parts and their functions. Mrs Clouston has kindly taken children to help do the gardening around school and Mr Perkins has also offered his expertise.
Thank you so much for the many donations of gardening items. The children are busy growing seeds and learning more about how plants grow. We hope the paved area outside our classroom will soon boast a host of flowers and vegetables.
You can help your child by growing some seeds at home, gardening together and learning how to identify flowers and weeds.