This half term, Tamar class explored rivers through the big question of ‘what happens on, and in rivers?’
To do this we visited the Iver Environment Centre and became ‘River Detectives’. We wrote a non-chronological report about river wildlife and designed and built our own riverboats. For our final project, students raced their own boats in Gesher’s first regatta! This took place in the penultimate week of term, with parents and other classes being invited along to watch.
Teacher’s Reflection
“Overall I believe the project was a success with the students being engaged throughout. In addition, this was the first time we had incorporated a trip into our PBL sessions and this provided an excellent real-world experience. It still remains a challenge to adapt the projects to meet the range of needs within the class. However, the more projects I am involved with the more skills I am developing to be able to do this. If I was repeating the project again I would like to have had a larger audience (including parents and other students).
What did I find challenging?
– Weather during the trip meant we weren’t able to fully explore the river.
– Incorporating meaningful literacy lessons into the sessions – we wrote a non-chronological report about beavers but this could have had greater links to our topic.
– Lower-achieving pupils found the technical vocabulary related to the rivers to be challenging.
– Exhibiting the project – only our class were able to visit the river to test the boats.” – Sam Dexter
Student Reflection
“My highlight was going on the trip to Iver Environment Centre and catching creatures with the net. It also taught me how to recognise what fish are.”
– Gadi
“It taught me that projects are more useful than normal lessons.”
– Yitzi
