Fire - Session 1 (Yr1 Class)

This is a log of the Mantle of the Expert Sessions which took place in the Autumn term 2006.

Learning Intention:
· To work as part of a group, contributing and sharing ideas.
· To use children’s existing knowledge of a ‘city’ and ‘London’, to identify

geographical features and a 3D plan.
· To establish that we will be ‘stepping into another story’ (this is how the

children referred to our last MOE work) for our new topic and provide

some ‘givens’ which will link the curriculum work together.

Steps within session:
· Use Tim’s technique of beginning to draw on the board (a fire engine), whilst children suggest what it might be. Explain “Well in our story there is a fire engine… we’ll come back to that later.”
· Create a 3D plan using children’s suggestions of what might be found in a city, based on their experience. Place a large piece of blue material to represent the Thames (a given). “The city is London…” – add anything else the children might come up with in connection with this e.g. The Eye or The Tower. I place a toy fire engine on the map to indicate where the fire station will be (another given) – not far from a lane called Pudding Lane.

Links with other curriculum work:
Historical Enquiry session based on an etching of the Great Fire of London.

Review of session:
The children responded well to creating a map of the city. They established that the blue cloth was a river and the wooden bricks a bridge. All were keen to go off and draw what we might find in a city (even bigger than Norwich!) and they were very focused during this task. Significant acheivement for 2 children with SEN, for attention. We brought the ideas back to the plan and the children placed them. Suggestions included houses, shops (we established there would be many), a castle, a church, people (including dog walkers) and cars. We established how busy the city would be with many people and vehicles. 2 children drew tractors and we placed them outside the city in fields. I stated that of course our city had a name, which was London. Many said “I’ve been there!” so we added from their knowledge The London Eye, Tower of London and the Underground.

Additional curriculum coverage:
· All of the children created an ‘icon’ to represent something in the city. (N/B no reluctant mark-makers!)

Ideas for next moves:
· Establishing the ‘company’ of ‘fire-fighters’.