The Otters: Project Site

Our Blue Planet

LWS Spring Term Project 2025

Project Overview

Water is the world's lifeline and is absolutely vital for so many reasons - from fresh drinking water, to supporting all flora and fauna. Therefore it is important for us to commit to restoring and preserving the wonder of our water on Earth, in order for humans and wildlife to thrive.

Research has shown that promoting awareness of environmental issues while strengthening the connection to the planet's water is fundamental in school curriculums, as children are the citizens of the future and as changemakers will feel empowered to influence positive action.

Through inquiry and hands-on experiences, our children will explore, with awe and wonder, how important water is in our beautiful environments around the world and gain a compassionate view of water problems, promoting responsible attitudes. By forming and deepening this connection to our beloved waterways, we will use a critical mindset to consider how to make a meaningful change to both our use of water and local wild water ways in order to raise awareness amongst others.

'It is our collective and individual responsibility to preserve and tend to the environment in which we all live.'

Dalai Lama

Project End Goal - Our Big Exhibition

We can appreciate and care for the water in our world.

Steps to Success

Step 1: Where is all the water?

Step 2: Why is water important for living things?

Step 3: How can we care for our water?

Step 4: What can we do to inspire people to make a change?

This project was co-designed with the members of the Otters class.

SAVE THE DATE - SAVE OUR FUTURES

This project culminates in our very special exhibition that is open to the LWS Community and the public in the hope that our celebration of learning can help raise awareness, deepen gratitude and inspire people to make a real change.

We hope you can all join us there!

The Key Areas of Competence (KAoC)

This term's cross-curricular project will develop the children's skills in the following curriculum areas:

ROOTS: PSED

TRUNK: Communication and language; Creative Tech and Digital Communications; Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Working Scientifically; Environmentalism

CROWN: Understanding the World

Project Introduction

Jan' 25: I can co-create a project

To land ourselves into the Spring Term project, we discussed our experiences from this time last year and took a look at the Bumblebees Google Site thinking about the themes and the positive impact it had.

Activating our gratitude mode, we shared some of the things that make our Earth special and what we know we can do to look after it. The flow of conversation moved towards the water on our planet.

As a class, we read some of the wonderful book 'Old Enough to Save the Planet' and realised that anybody can take action to make a change to look after our Blue Planet!

Then we started to think about why water is so important to everything and realised this was the perfect area to focus on for our project and exhibition! To show what we already know about water, we completed our raindrops of information and shared all of our current knowledge!

Questions to ask your child...

What is your new project about?
What are you looking forward to learning about?
Why should we look after the environment?

In connection with our project during Environmentalism, we have been looking at the stages of the water cycle to get an understanding of how the water moves arounds our planet. We are busy making 3D diagrams to show this amazing process!

Step 1 - Where is all the water?

Exploring water on our planet is fun! We watched different information videos and read books and online information together to discover that natural forms of water come in all shapes and sizes!

We now know that bodies of water are made with fresh or salt water all over the world and include:

river
stream
pond
waterfall
lake
sea
ocean

Using our construction skills, we have begun to make models of the different bodies of water to display for exhibition. We had to think carefully about the materials to use and how these represent different parts of the land and water.

Next, we asked the question 'how do we know where the water is?' We looked in atlases and could see there was lots of blue all over the world, but how can we tell what it represented? Zooming into the UK, we looked at maps of smaller areas and pointed out rivers, lakes and the sea, justifying how we knew what they were there.

As a class we used Google Earth and Maps to jump into our local area and spotted lots of water nearby. We labelled our maps to show that we know how to identify different types of bodies of water.

Questions to ask your child...

Can you name the different water bodies?
What can you tell me about a river, lake and stream?
Take a look at a map/atlas - How can you identify water on a map? How might it look different?

Step 2 - Why is water important for living things?

With a good understanding of the water on our planet, we have now taken a dive under the surface to find out why water is so important for living things.

Watching a short documentary, we marvelled at the wildlife that can be found in our UK rivers. We learnt about different species names and some interesting characteristics. We are forming a riverscape with our drawings of the species and will be creating some fun fact-files to share the information we have learnt.

Questions to ask your child...

Can you name some of the animals that live in UK rivers?
What interesting facts do you know about UK river animals?
Explore a map together - Where could we go to see some of these UK river animals? Which rivers are we close to?

Step 2 - Why is water important for living things?

To help us build our understanding of water as a habitat, we enjoyed two school trips to different water based habitats to find out more.

We visited the WWT Wetlands Centre and discovered how many birds and mammals rely on the wetlands for their homes and as a source of food. We loved seeing the otters and the graceful grey heron share their habitat and compete for food. Meandering around the wetlands, we were blown away by the amount of different bird species we could see living in the water and trees. Some of us drew beautiful sketches of the birds, others kept count of the amount of sightings using and a table. Our session with the staff 'Wetlands and their habitats' was fascinating - we discussed the animals that we had seen so far, how the wetlands had changed over time and how important a habitat it is. We were then given the challenge to find the perfect locations to build habitats for the different animals that can be found in the area. Thinking carefully about safety, food sources and shelter, we used a range of scavenged natural materials, just like the animals would do, to build their homes. It was so interesting to hear about each others' designs and a great day out!

Next, we headed to Beddington Park and met with a member of the South East Rivers Trust to explore the lovely River Wandle. We took part in a river walk to spot the different features of a river, both in the water and on the riverbanks and checking them off on our lists - we loved looking out for the dragon-back (where the water runs over the stones and creates shimmer in the water). Luckily, we got to spot a beautiful wagtail perched by the river! Wading into the water, we all took turns to do a 'kick-sample' using the net and our feet to see what we could find living in the river. Working as teams, using the ID sheets, we identified lots of shrimp, mayfly nymphs and molluscs that call the river their home. We finished up the session with a game that got us thinking about how different uses of water can have an impact on river water levels and how we must be really mindful of our water use so that all these little living things still have a home to live.

WWT Wetlands Centre

River Dipping @ Beddington Park

Questions to ask your child...

Can you name some of the birds you saw at the Wetlands?
What causes the water level of the River Wandle to rise and fall?
How might have rivers and the Wetlands changed over time?

Step 3 - How can we care for our water?

We have been finding out about some of the issues that can cause problems for our waterways. We watched a CBBC Newsround report by other primary school children who shared some of the issues that their local river was experiencing. We felt very inspired by their dedication to improving the health of their river and had a great discussion around the recent oil spill that sadly affected the Wandle. Diving a little deeper, we learnt about the impact of farming, towns and cities, litter and sewage on the quality of water and created information pages about this to spread awareness of this. Then, we read some stories and learnt about some of the amazing things that are being done to help our waterways, as well as the tips and advice everybody can do, everyday, to make a difference. We designed and made posters to share these ideas.

Our final experience this term was to have the wonderful EcoActive to join us for a workshop all about water scarcity and what we can do to look after our water. We looked at the different things we use water for in day to day life and share our gratitude for this. Next, we looked at how much water on our planet is usable and this got us thinking about how important it is not to waste any water. We took part in an experience that allowed us to understand how difficult it must be for a duck or bird to try and feed from the water when there are so many microplastics around. Sharing what we had learnt about water conservation and building on this by explaining how these things help, we knew it was time to make a splash and share our top tip for water saving! We can't wait to share all our learning at exhibition and inspire people to care for their water!

Learning Through Story and Play

To allow for exploration and incidental learning (not directly linked to the End Goal), provision is sometimes set up in our outdoor space to promote curiosity and inquiry!

Some of the creations and discoveries we have been making so far:

boat design
investigating waterproof materials
building bridges for animals to cross over rivers
movement of water (waterfalls)

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