Step 1: What can I find out about my school site?

17/09/21 I can explain about and identify physical and human features.

We began our new unit by carrying out our 'Cold Tasks'. Reflecting on our parents' visit, we identified our strengths when showing them around and areas we need to develop to deliver a site tour. Then, we drew maps of the school site and assessed one another's with 'grow and glow' comments to inform our project sessions.

Next, we moved onto discussing the difference between human and physical geography. Travelling across the globe, we took a look at examples of human and physical features in Asia, Europe, South America, the U.K. and Africa. Then, taking a look closer to home, we set off across our school site and took photos of human and physical features that we may include in our site tour. Discussing the importance of considering our audience for the tour, this shaped our decisions as to what was snap-worthy! Our PicCollages are a colourful display of our research and understanding of human and physical features.

24/09/21 I can find out about physical features.

This week we have taken a deeper dive into the physical features of our school. With great excitement, we got out the atlases and took a detailed look at the rivers around the UK, locating where the source and mouth were. We noticed that different colours on the maps represented land above sea level and that many rivers originate from mountainous areas. It was interesting to realise that some rivers began in one country and ended in another, within the UK and so we were able to recap the country borders too. Then, we zoomed in a little closer to home and conducted online research to find out about the features, location and history of the River Wandle.

Moving onto discovering more about the flora of the site, we learnt about the six common features of trees that can be used to classify trees and the variations within them, ready for next week's identification work!

1/10/21 I can share information about trees.

Taking a closer look at the trees around our glorious school site has been a lot of fun this week - even in the rain!

We designed an informational poster, with illustrations, to show our understanding of the different features of most trees and some of us even looked at the different types within the features.

Next, we took to the grounds, with our new understanding of features, to classify trees. Using the Woodland Trust, British Trees ID app on our iPads, we found and identified many unfamiliar native trees.

As we really want to share our tree research and knowledge on our upcoming site tour, we decided to create our own 'LWS Tree Guides' to record all of the fascinating facts we have found out about the trees here. We discussed which subheadings to include and explored different examples of tree guides to inspire our own magnificent designs.

08/10/21 I can explore the history of the local area.

We began the week with adding the final touches to our tree guides; we took photos of our chosen focus trees to add to our information pages and designed our front covers to be engaging for the readers.

Excitedly, we welcomed Peter, our local historian, who took us back in time for two of our project sessions this week. He shared a variety of primary and secondary source information with us to help us understand about both Morden and the school site area, through the ages. We looked at how the land had changed and was represented through a range of historical maps, then comparing them to more recent satellite images. It was fascinating to learn about the different people who have owned and rented Morden Lodge and how they had developed and repurposed the land.

To organise all the information we had collected, we first ordered key events chronologically to show the historical story of Morden Lodge and then we collaborated to build a timeline for display.

15/10/21 I can identify excellence in a site tour.

This week, we reflected on tours that we had experienced and shared the different components of them and what made them memorable. Using these as a model, we decided on what our site tours need to include and formed a success criteria for excellence!

Next, we spent some time discussing the mapping process with Leia and using watercolours to softly created different areas on our maps of the school site. Developing our geography skills, we looked at a range of different maps of the local area and identified similarities and differences. Then we looked at what a sketch map is, it's purpose and then made one of our school site. Our maps will be a vital part of our site tours next week!

22/10/21 I can create and carry out a site tour.

Our final week began with a strong sense of excitement, motivation and determination as we knew we would be reaching our End Goal! We put the finishing touches to our maps that will help guide our parents around the site, during the tour.

Using the map, we took ourselves around the school site to plan an efficient route. This then created the structure and sequence for our tour script. Before we began writing, we took a look at the features of the introduction, main body and summary and discussed the tone and ideas for interactivity with the tour. A key focus that would allow the tour to flow coherently was the use of well-chosen sentence openers, so we created a huge bank of words and phrases to be used by all. Feeling inspired and empowered, we wrote our fantastic tour scripts, incorporating historical, geographical and scientific facts that we have learnt through our enquiries in this project.

Once the scripts were written, we read and edited them using our green pens until they were perfect, then practised our site tours, ready for Thursday's visitors.

With the sun shining down on us, the final day couldn't have gone any better! We proudly lead our parents around the school site, sharing stories from the past, encouraging our parents to feel the barks of the trees and following our stunning and accurate maps.

After the tours had been completed, we regrouped to share some of the feedback comments from our parents and write our own personal glow and grow reflections. What a journey we have been on this term with such fantastic results!