Local Area Topic

[lmf1983]

Hi all,

 

Am doing a local area/village/school topic next term, and am looking for some more inspiration! So far have thought of (only rough ideas!):

walks in the local area - recording what we see, follow up maps, large scale model map

visit to the post office - writing our own letters to post

post office role play area

Reading The Jolly Postman

Bear Hunt in school grounds/woods

Reading We're going on a bear hunt

looking at photographs/postcards of the village now and then

 

Has anyone done a topic similar before and got any good ideas?

 

Help very much appreciated!

X

[Cait]

Hi, We're Preschool so a bit different but didn't want to read and run.

 

We have looked at maps, as you say, and talked about the directions we walk to Preschool (If you've got online access you might find Googlemaps really good, especially if your street level has been done!)

 

We made models of houses and made street scenes - the idea was that they'd make their own house, but that didn't work, they just made lots of houses which we stuck onto big pieces of paper on which we'd drawn roads..

 

Now we HAVE done bear hunt - I did a blog here which might give you a giggle or two!

 

Old postcards is a great idea!

[Fredbear]

Hi do you have a village church, our pre-school and the local school often visit ours.

Do you have any named roads worth investigating, or even what your village is called and why.

Do you have a village shop, what do the children think it should sell, that might bring some interesting answers.

Does your village have a crest or monument at all.

Are the children old enough to explain what they would like to have in the village if they had one wish.

Not sure any of these ideas will be any good.l

[Rufus]

When i did this topic with year One we started off with the school grounds, went on a Dora exploration following clues and made maps for others to follow. Discussed how we would change our playground and made models and pictures - some interesting ideas, like a slide that went from the dinner hall all the way to the playground so that they didn't have to walk!

Wrote letters to each other using our addresses and then went to post them. Followed maps around the school grounds and local area. took photos along the way and then used then back in class to retell our route.

A nice activity we did, was sent them on an exploration to find 'the greenest thing.... the prettiest thing...the smallest thing'. each pair had a different criteria and then they shared their findings at the end.

We conducted a traffic survey outside the school, data handling,

 

We also looked at their homes and bedrooms - they had to draw their bedroom with mum and dad and then use the plan to make a lego model at school. Looked at birds eye views and stood on ladders and tables to draw from a different perspective. They also got to design their own repeating pattern wallpaper, which we then covered the classroom with.

 

The role play became a moving house situation and we also wrote 'new home' cards on the writing table. Then it became an estate agents and we wrote house details etc.

 

We also moved on to look at homes in the past and animal homes.

 

We used the books - ORT the Secret Room, Jill Murphy On the way Home from school, Michale Rosen this is our House, for inspiration.

 

Some stuff may be too advanced for reception but you may be able to do some of it.

[lmf1983]

Many thanks for your replies and your ideas!

[Guest]

Could you get visitors who have lived there a long time to talk about the changes? Maybe who could bring in some photos of them as children in the local area?

[Guest]

To fit in with your post office you could go to this site- http://www.teacherspost.co.uk/ and order some of their free resources. I ordered mine and they came within a week. I've not had a proper look at them yet but there looks to be some really nice things. There's a DVD with a cartoon about a letter being posted and things to go with the DVD, sequencing pics etc.