Creature Features

Animal Classification

Animal Structure

Animal Groups

Animal Diets

Legacy and Impact

Science: Camley Street Natural Park

Partnerships: Ecologist Visit

Engineering: Constructing B&Bs

Science: The Big Schools' Birdwatch

Artist Workshop:Becky Baur

Art and Geography: Clementine Hunter-Folk Artist

Maths: Counting and Statistics

Science: Animals including Humans

Animal Structure

We described and compared the structure of a variety of common animals (including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, including pets)

We also identified, named, drew and labeled the basic parts of animal bodies which informed our non-fiction writing inspired by the book 'Funny Bums, Freaky Beaks: and Other Incredible Creature Features'.

We loved generating interesting adjectives to describe creature features!

Animal Groups

We learnt about 5 groups of animals - birds, mammals, reptiles, fish and amphibians.

We used this learning, and our understanding of animal structure, to write non-fiction texts explaining how we knew robins were birds, frogs were amphibians and foxes were mammals.

Animal Diets

As part of our science learning, we identified and named a variety of common animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. We specifically focused on the diets of the animals who live in playground. We used this knowledge to inform our engineering projects later on. Understanding the diets of animals was key because it helped us make important decisions, such as knowing where to hand our bird feeders and what food needed to go in them to attract a variety of wildlife.

Legacy and Impact

Having read the book 'Greta and the Giants', based on the work of Greta Thunberg, we thought about how animals should have rights just like humans. Teachers suggested closing off part of the playground so that the animals could play there. Although children thought this was fair, and were happy to give back their environment, they counter argued that they also needed a place to play as they have the right to be healthy. This got us thinking about the different ways we could share our environment with animals. We decided to investigate the needs of animals more closely by asking questions about what exactly animals need to survive. After careful reflection and deliberation, with lots of children building on and challenging arguments, a consensus was agreed that all animals need homes, water, food and shelter. Once we agreed that animals have rights, we decided to become conservationists by imagining ways we could rewild our playground to make it more sustainable. We decided it would be best to engineer Bird B&Bs and Bug Cafes. We put this plan into effect by carefully following our Art and Design process. This prompted us to think deeply about what questions we needed to ask, such as 'How do animals get food and water?' or 'Where can animals find shelter?', and imagine how we can ensure animal rights and needs are met in our playground as part of our legacy and impact.

Science: Camley Street Natural Park

We were conservationists and zoologists as we visited Camley Street Natural Park. We spent the day delving into the world of urban wildlife, pond dipping and discovering the importance of conservation within an urban setting. We reflected on our roles as conservationists, finding out the ways we can help sustain and increase urban wildlife populations. This helped to inspire the work we did as documentary film makers, documenting the wildlife we found in the local area.

Partnerships: Ecologist Visit

Ecologist Eoin O'Keefe joined us via Zoom to tell us abut his work protecting animals' habitats. He explained how he helps engineers and architects to re-home animals when they are building new houses. He also explained how an ecologist advises builders to consider building extra homes for creatures within new developments.

Engineering: Constructing B&Bs

We were very lucky to work with Jim the Artist on our engineering project, making homes and shelters for the birds in our playground. Our creative children first considered who exactly owns our playground, us or the animals? They decided that we should share the area and that the birds should have as comfortable a life as us humans. Following a planning meeting where the children sketched thier ideas and considered where exactly the bird homes should go the children came up with the idea of Bird B& B's (BB&B's!) and cafes. They put their ideas on paper and then built the structures with Jim using found objects and wood. We were very impressed with their carpentry skills and they quickly got down to sawing and hammering the raw materials for the project. Our young birders are looking forward to welcoming their feathered friends to their new homes and will keep a watchful ornithological on the different species visiting.

Science: The Big Schools' Birdwatch

The annual Big Schools' Birdwatch creates a unique snapshot of how a range of birds are faring in school playgrounds across the United Kingdom. We became citizen scientists and ornithologists for the day to help us learn about conservation and the changes we could make to create more natural space for animals in our school grounds. We asked children to think carefully about the wildlife in our playground while carrying out observations over time. This required children to use their local and personal knowledge to think about how we could increase bird populations and improve bird nesting and feeding conditions in our school playground.

Whilst taking part in the challenge, we created posters to inspire other pupils to be curious about the natural world around them and informed about how to protects birds and other wildlife. We also used our food technology skills to make 'Mud Pie' or more commonly known as bird food.

Artist Workshop:Becky Baur

Following our playground observations, we invited artist and illustrator Becky Baur into share her wonderful wildlife drawings and to show the children how she designs her wonderful urban animal landscapes. Together they worked to create their own urban, Kentish Town landscapes including the animals they had observed in their local area. The children first sketched their foxes and birds using pencil and paper, refining their designs with Becky's expert help. They then worked in small groups to enlarge their designs on to cardboard which they then painted using acrylics.

Art and Geography: Clementine Hunter-Folk Artist

Our artist study of self-taught folk-artist and landscaper, Clementine Hunter (December 1886– January 1, 1988) led to some extraordinary outcomes during our STEAM project. Hunter was born into a Louisiana Creole family at Hidden Hill Plantation near Cloutierville, in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. She started working as a farm laborer when young, and never learned to read or write. In her fifties, she began to sell her paintings, which soon gained local and national attention for their complexity in depicting Black Southern life in the early 20th century. Inspired by these paintings, we created our own observational and fieldwork drawings using lanscape techniques to focus on sky, horizon and foreground in the same manner as Clementine. We then refined our ideas and painted them using water colours. We painted these pictures in order to show where you can locate birds, frogs and foxes in our school playground.

Maths: Counting and Statistics

Combining our work on the RSPB Big Birdwatch, we collated data on the birds, mammals and amphibians that were observed in our local area. We found there was an incredible number of birds in the environment with plenty of tree cover to rest in, however the supply of food and long term shelter was less apaprent. We translated our tally chart data into clear and precise bar charts.

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