Gemini Class | Caldecote CE Academy

Welcome to Gemini Class

Welcome to our Year 1 and 2 class. Our class teachers are Mrs Davis (Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays) and Mrs Reynolds (Thursdays and Fridays). Our Teaching Assistants are Mrs Pike (Mondays and Wednesdays) and Mrs Evans (Tuesdays, Thursday and Fridays).

This term we shall be explorers

The children will learn all about intrepid and courageous explorers, such as Christopher Columbus, Neil Armstrong and Ernest Shackleton. They will also be looking at seven continents and five oceans around the world using atlas’s, maps and google Earth to locate where in the world they are. We will investigate who lives in these different parts of the world and we will compare how they live to how we live in the UK. We will discuss what is the Equator: where is it on a world globe and what is the purpose of the Equator.

We will also identify what it is like to live near or far from the equator and how this affects the temperature of those countries & explore what food they produce. The class will observe and record changes to the seasons, gathering & recording data. They will also look at fair testing and carry out simple experiments which they can answer questions about form their findings. They will compare the town to the countryside, looking specifically at their local area and will learn map reding skills and compass directions as cross curricular in maths.

‘We are photographers’ is this terms computing focus and we will be learning about how to take high quality photos and how to edit them. In art the children will learn to be able to paint a space themed picture in the style of famous artist Peter Thorpe, using an abstract art background and space feature in the foreground.

Autumn Term 2019

We had an exciting Autumn term in Gemini class, beginning with going on our exciting trip to KidZania where the children experienced so many different jobs and roles in life. This was an amazing opportunity for everyone to explore the workplace in a safe and exciting atmosphere.

We explored the exciting subject of dinosaurs and their fascinating history to stat the autumn term. The children researched vital facts about a variety of species and have used this information to create a fact file about their favourite dinosaur. The children enjoyed crafting their own dinosaur bones, whilst also modelling their own type of dinosaur using salt dough, and had fun painting them. We explored the amazing life of fossil hunter Mary Anning, learning that being poor doesn’t stop a person achieving extraordinary knowledge and skills, as she became a world-famous Palaeontologist. The class searched for ammonite in fossils and created ammonite using plaster of Paris.

All the children had super fun being an evacuee for the day and truly became their role and they looked amazing. They imagined they were on the train with their gas masks and small suitcase and went to stay for a short while with their countryside family. We tried WW2 food such as spam, paste or jam sandwiches and took ration book recipe of rock cakes. We researched what it would have been like for the children to leave their families and to go to such a different place to live, listening to an actual evacuee recounting her experiences. The children loved our WW2 classroom and thought the games played in those days were fun.

In Art we focused on learning to sketch portraits, especially how to draw the shape of eyes, noses and the mouth. We explored famous portraits such as Leonardo da Vinci and Pablo Picasso.

In spring Term 2 we will be having an Explorers Day! This is where the children can dress up as an a Famous Explorer such as Neil Armstrong, Ernest Shackleton, Robert Falcon Scott, Gertrude Bell, Amelia Earhart or Isabelle Eberhardt to name a few. They could bring in an object used by explorers too. This will be an adventurous day full of explorering and engaging with knowledge about explorers in from the past. The date of this fun day is TBC.