Transport and Space

18th December 2024Website Admin

In the Spring term, Zayit and Seorah class worked on an extended project across the two half terms. This focused on the topic ʻTransport and Spaceʼ and was linked with learning related to our big question ʻHow could we journey to space?ʼ In this project, the children designed their own alien friend who came to Gesher to visit us, and in return, invited Zayit & Seorah to visit them in space. We explored the theme of a journey to space and examined the different transport we would need to use to go and visit our alien friends. The different weeks were sectioned into the various parts of the journey. Within this project, the children looked at mapping different sections of the journey, identified different types of transport, wrote descriptive captions, created freeze-frame images of their journey, used a range of materials to create a rocket, and wrote a non-fiction report about space.

Teacher’s Reflections

“I think overall the project went well! I think it worked really well using the iPads for
creating journey maps and planning our space non-fiction writing. The rocket launch and
junk modelling rockets was certainly a highlight. At the end of the project we used the screen screen and I think next time it would have been good to do more learning around what the green screen is, how it works and getting the children to do some filming

– Lucy Robinson

Students’ Reflections

“ My favourite part of the project was making the junk modelling rockets.” Harrison

“It was very good and we had fun making space art” – Seth

“I learned about about different transport.” – Leora

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Natural Disasters

18th December 2024Website Admin

This term, the students in Chitah and Tamar classes will explore the states of matter and
their impact on the world around them. They will consider how natural disasters affect
their environment and the communities that experience them. The students will be
researching and collecting information about a wide range of natural disasters and
reporting in their own newspaper reports about their findings. They will be interviewing
real life journalists to find out how to be a good fact finder and how to write a cohesive
newspaper report. Alongside this they will be exploring ways to present their findings to
their peers and parents with a range of different science experiments that they will present
in a science workshop! Finally the students will be finding ways to raise money to support a charity that helps people who have been impacted by a natural disaster to help them in
their time of need.

Teacher’s Reflections

This terms projects was so much fun and the kids really engaged with having a Science
link to the project. They were able to complete a wide range of projects and deliver their findings to their parents and other students in the school by creating their own science
workshop. It was great to see them pick up on so much new vocabulary and be able to
apply their correctly in their learning. I also really enjoyed seeing them work so hard to
design something to sell and to raise money for a charity of their choice. We did have to
change our original idea as we wanted to create our own newspaper at the start but this
became challenging to fit in around all of our science experiments and teaching them so
many different natural disasters. Overall, I really enjoyed this project and so did the kids!

– Emily Bacon

Students’ Reflections

“My favourite part was The Natural History Museum and ice experiment.” – Efe

“My favourite part of the project was painting the volcanos.” – Olivia

“I would like to go on more trips linked to the project” – Leon

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Journeys

18th December 2024Website Admin

This term Gefen and Rimon had an exciting look at different journeys and what they need
to go on different journeys. The first half term we focused on our school, looking at the
position of places within school and planning and creating 3D maps. We also looked at
famous journeys such as journeys across the desert and Shackleton’s journey to the
Antarctic. In Spring 2, we planned and went on our own trips within the community and
then wrote in our travel journals on our return. The students used life skills such as
travelling safely as well as learning many geography skills like using maps and
compasses. The students really enjoyed this practical and useful project and we were
excited with their learning!

Teacher’s Reflections

This has ended up being one of my favourite projects I have ever done. I think this is due to the fact that all of the skills were so life skills based and therefore I could see clearly how this learning could support the pupils in the future. One of thehighlights was learning to use the 3d printer, the childrenʼs creations using it are amazing and fit perfectly into the lego model of the school. I am excited to see this displayed as a long term reminder of this project. The most challenging part of this project was teaching the pupils how to use a compass, I think if I were to do this project again I would dedicated more time to this and go on expeditions using the compasses. Overall, I have throughly enjoyed this project and I am excited to showcase Rimon’s hard work at the exhibition.

– Kathleen McEnallay

Students’ Reflections

“My favourite part of the project was learning about maps” – Eli C

“I thought the project was interesting and I learnt a lot about travelling” – Eli F

 

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Olympic Games Project

18th December 2024Website Admin

Our students have been working hard on a cross-curricular PBL project exploring the theme “How Can I Develop Self-Discipline in My Everyday Life?” In humanities, they researched and created Olympic timelines, while in English, they wrote detailed athlete profiles, which were later brought to life through role-played interviews. Building on this, students wrote and recorded narrative videos exploring self-discipline in sports, drawing on their own reflections and storytelling skills. The project culminated in the creation of a Vimeo channel, where their Olympic timelines, athlete interviews, and self-discipline narratives were shared a fantastic showcase of their learning, creativity, and collaboration.

Teacher’s Reflections

“The project was a great success, and it was fantastic to see students engaging so well across different subjects. A real highlight was the athlete interviews, where students brought their profiles to life and developed their confidence in presenting. I was also really proud of how they tackled the narrative videos, especially those who find writing challenging, as it gave them a chance to share their ideas creatively.

The most challenging part was keeping the project’s focus clear as students moved between subjects, and some needed extra support with the recording and editing process. Next time, I’d build in more time to practise these technical skills and allow more opportunities for peer feedback earlier on, particularly during the writing stage. That said, I wouldn’t change the collaborative and creative elements of the project, as these really helped students stay engaged and take pride in their work. Overall, it was a rewarding experience, and the final videos on the Vimeo channel were a brilliant showcase of their hard work and creativity.”

– Aymane Hamidi

Students’ Reflections

“The project taught If I’m having big emotions I can ask some one to help me and we like having good fun and I will might need some help if i need.” – Zac

“The project was great but a bit stressful when the internet was a bit funny and laggy and i almost lost my whole entire work.” – Bobby

“My highlight of the project was making my video because it was incredible and really fun. This is because it taught me a new skill of how to use stop motion which I have never used before..” – Aaron

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Space Project

30th October 2023Website Admin

This term, we had an exciting topic of Space to explore! We looked at different planets and how the universe was made up of more than just our solar system. We thought about what and how humans survived on Earth and how we could create our own colony on Mars. We thought about what humankind needed and how we could implement this into a small space. The students used measuring and construction skills in order to create their own models of their colonies for their exhibition. We also explored art that had been inspired by the universe and created our own images focusing predominantly on tones, shading, and the different colors in the solar system. In DT, we designed and created our own rockets and researched different ways we could make them fly using different mixtures of substances and saw which one worked the best. It was a very interesting topic full of planets, space, and rockets — it was out of this world!

Teacher’s Reflections

“I’ve personally really enjoyed this project as it really allowed the students to develop and promote their independence. The students really enjoyed creating their own Mars Colonies and thought strategically about what humans would need in order to survive there. I loved their enthusiasm when it came to their ideas and how they were able to individualise their plans. The students also really enjoyed exploring how rockets launched and thinking about solutions and chemical reactions to make their rockets fly. I think moving forward the students could continue developing their independence and trying to complete activities without the constant support of adults. This could be by taking the students into different rooms so they could work in smaller groups. I feel the Critique and Feedback process really helped the students understand their next steps and supported their understanding of the PBL process.”

– Emily Bacon

Students’ Reflections

“I really liked the rockets and seeing how the Mentos and Coke made them erupt!” – Ivy

“Next time I’d really like to build something bigger.” – Yitzi

“My highlight of the project was working independently to make my Mars Colony!” – Noah

“This project helped me get new ideas for my next project.” – Jonah

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Why Does The World Need Rainforests? Project

30th October 2023Website Admin

Tamar and Chitah travelled through the rainforest to learn about the plants, animals, and communities that lived within them. They first explored the contents of the rainforest, identifying their locations and unique characteristics. They learned about the crucial role that rainforests play in our planet and why it was important to support their preservation. This linked to their Jewish Studies by examining the formation of the State of Israel from a desert. Their primary focus was on the animals found in the rainforest and the threats they faced. Armed with this knowledge, they planned and wrote their own “Just So” stories featuring chosen rainforest animals. As they journeyed deeper into the rainforest, they researched the ecosystem and the various plant species they could encounter. They made connections to their own lives and discussed how they could help preserve the rainforest and combat the effects of climate change. Throughout their expedition, they engaged all their senses, constructing animal structures from recycled materials, sketching rainforest plants for their glossary, and creating a rainforest relaxation track. We loved inviting others to experience their immersive and sensory “Gesher Rainforest” exhibition in Summer 2 and were very proud to sell our “Just So Stories” book for charity.

Teacher’s Reflections

“I loved having a whole term as it meant we could explore lots of aspects and engage with learning in a deep and meaningful way. Highlights were learning about the animals and producing our own stories which we published. Trips to the zoo and Kew Gardens were amazing too and got the kids engaged and immersed. We also did an animal workshop which helped to launch the project in an exciting way. The children enjoyed learning how to use Canva as a way of presenting information and as a form of graphic design. I think this was my favourite project so far as it was so rich, and there was so much to engage the kids with. The termly timeline also gave us more scope to do more!”

– Sara Marshall

Students’ Reflections

“I learnt about the rainforest, the different animals that live there, and the different layers of the rainforest.” – Shimi

“My highlight of the project was making my monkey out of paper mache, wire and newspaper and then painting it.” – Ben

“My highlight was going to the Zoo and seeing all the lions!” – Omri

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Minibeasts Project

30th October 2023Website Admin

Our project was all about minibeasts and specifically how we can live harmoniously with them. We focused on different minibeasts such as bees, worms, ants and butterflies and found out interesting facts about them. We also thought about how we could benefit from the minibeasts and what we should do to protect them. The children learnt about the minibeasts through research, exploring outside and through trips where they saw minibeasts in their environments. The children used all the information they discovered to create a collaborative minibeast information books which included their own photos of their chosen minibeast. The pupils learnt how to sort and classify minibeasts, as well as their habitats and life cycles. We grew herbs and vegetables in our outside garden and we will use these to prepared dishes for our guests at the exhibition. We also performed a song we have learnt in music.

Teacher’s Reflections

“I think this was a great project as all the children enjoyed the topic and were able to access the information and show knowledge of the facts they had learnt. The children really enjoyed the practical activities particularly when Wild Fangs came to school and they could hold and touch different minibeasts such as millipedes which they would not see very often. They also enjoyed seeing the caterpillars grow into butterflies and collecting worms to add to our class wormery which they helped to build. All the children were able to find out information on the insects we looked at such as bees, ants and ladybirds through reading information and videos and everybody was able to produce a page about their own minibeasts for the class encyclopaedia. I was pleased that we could use technology that I hadn’t used before such as Canva for their encyclopaedia pages and procreate for their drawings. I think for a similar project it would be good to be able to teach the children photography skills so they could take their own photographs of minibeasts.”

– Stephanie Sungtong

Students’ Reflections

“I found it tricky at first, but now I like holding minibeats and seeing them. The projects helped me and I liked it, When I started it I enjoyed the sensory trays and seeing all of them, and the launch activities!”

“I thought it was good, we had lots of fun and we did lots of things. We grew our own caterpillars and looked after the vegetable garden and we hunted for worms, we also released the butterflies!”

“My favourite part of the project was going to London Zoo and the Wild Fangs visit. I got to hold a big snail, and we grew butteflies!”

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E-Safety Project

30th October 2023Website Admin

Our project focused on the importance of being safe on the internet and making people aware of different dangers that appear online. Our main focus for this project was creating an E-safety online course for both students and adults to educate themselves on digital literacy. The students also made two different types of newspaper articles that featured different E-safety issues. Students made the course fun and interactive by adding interviews, videos and quizzes.

Teacher’s Reflections

“This project was motivating, relevant and catered to students interests. Students collaborated well to make the course look visually appealing and enjoyed making different quizzes to assess learners knowledge. It was great to see students using their own knowledge and experiences as well as having debates about different topics. Time management was much better in this project but it may have been helpful for the students to see how long the course took to complete. On exhibition day, there were too many modules to get through in the allocated time. Nonetheless, exhibition day was a success and it was lovely to see students engaged and retaining information.” 

– Bethany Rentall

Students’ Reflections

“I learnt to be safe online and not to click on any links you are not sure of.”

“My highlight of the project was making a scamming slide to teach people about scamming!”

“My highlight was making the booklets for the course.”

“I learnt how to be safe online.”

As part of Gevurah’s e-Safety project, they created an interactive course to teach fellow students and staff how to be safe online. You can complete their course below!

E-safety by Gevurah Class

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Farms Project

30th October 2023Website Admin

In the Summer term, Zayit and Seorah classes worked on their first extended project across two half terms. This was focused on our topic of ‘Farms’ and linked with learning related to our big question: ‘How can I tell a story?’ The Farm themed project enabled us to learn all about farm animals, caring for animals and animal life cycles. One aspect of this was looking after eggs and watching them hatch and grow as chicks. We also explored Scratch Junior to develop programming skills and create farm scenes. The second aspect of our project developed the children’s literacy, drama and expressive arts skills as they participated in staging a performance of ‘The Enormous Turnip’. This was an incredible show for us to share with family and friends, and involved the children acting, singing, developing their costumes and props and improving their confidence and communication with a wider range of people. The children took portraits of each other to use for the show programme and enjoyed reading and writing activities linked to a variety of farm-themed traditional tales as we built towards our performance. We had so much fun in the summer term learning all about farms and stories!

Teacher’s Reflections

“The Farms project was amazing and the children gained so much confidence, knowledge and enjoyment from it. They have matured so much throughout the year and The Enormous Turnip stage show was a highlight of the year for the children, staff and families. As part of our focus on traditional tales, the children created story maps and retold a number of different stories over the term, allowing them to build familiarity and confidence with retelling in small groups, before they started work on learning lines and songs to perform for their Gesher friends across the school and families. Everyone worked together to create costume hats and props for the show and they were all so supportive of each others’ acting and singing skills. The most challenging part of this project was developing stage directions and supporting the children to learn stage presence and be focused on performing to the audience. Luckily we had a number of weeks to focus on the show staging and we were able to enable the children to do their best performance by moving from script read throughs (using visuals), to practising staging in the classroom, then in the hall space and finally on our stage. We also had a number of dress rehearsals for other classes at Gesher, before we performed our final show for the children’s families. The Farms project was a huge success and showed that Gesher has future stars in the acting, singing and entertainment industry!”

– Leigh Kennedy

Students’ Reflections

“I really enjoyed being in the show and going to the farm to see some pigs!” – Eli

“I learned about farm animals and how to look after chicks.” – Zephania

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Anti-Idling Project

13th June 2023Website Admin

Farmington Public Schools

Grade 5

Our fifth graders took action in collaboration with the Farmington green Efforts Commission by participating in a local anti-idiling campaign. As civic-minded contributors, this was a wonderful opportunity to engage in stewardship in our town. Students have been studying how human activities impact the Earth’s sphere, and more specifically, how the burning of fossil fuels impacts the atmosphere.

As part of this project, fifth graders collected and analysed data about idiling in the west woods parking lot before and after school. They learned more about idiling from Ms. Caitlin Stern, an enivronment analyst in the Bureau of Air Management at the Department of Energy and Environmental protection.

Next, in a special appearance on the Wildcat News, Ms. Cate Grady-Benson of the Farmington Green Efforts Commission explained the charge of their committee and its campaign. She invited students to participate in a sign-making contest to promote anti-idling in our town.

In order to learn what makes an effective sign, students used several resources, including a presentation from the West Woods art teacher, Mrs. Lantange. She offered tips and suggestions on how to think like an artist while creating designs (colours that work well together, the right medium, and excellent craftsmanship).

Eight of the signs designed by students were selected by the Green Efforts Commission. Final image edits were done by a Farmington High School students under the guidance of the art teacher. The signs will be professionally printed by DEEP and posted at each of the Farmington schools and the Town Hall.

Learning Targets

As a civic-minded contributor, I can take action to protect the Earth’s atmosphere. I can promote community awareness about idling by collaborating with the Farmington Green Efforts Commission & DEEP.

Students’ Reflections

“I think it’s good to take action because there’s things in the world that we need to stand up for. Before this unit I didn’t know about idling. I’m pretty sure even my parents didn’t, but I told my parents and they haven’t been idling ever since.”

– Jahnvi

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