This half term our topic has been ‘People Who Help Us’. We have been very lucky and have had some visitors come into school to help us learn more about the different jobs that people do to help us.
To introduce our topic, KonectBus in Dereham, kindly sent a bus to pick us up from school and took us for a drive around Dereham Town. We saw many familiar places in our local environment such as Planet Zoom, Toftwood pond park and Dereham leisure centre.
Before we went, we came up with some questions to ask the bus driver to find out about his job. When our journey had finished, we all went to the top of the bus and asked the driver some questions. They learnt that there are 8 drivers that drive the number 8 route, there is a big car wash that washes the buses and you have to be 18 and take a test to drive a bus.
When we got back into school, some of the children made their own bus and enjoyed looking at the timetables that the bus driver gave to us.
“I’ve been on this bus before with my sister. I know it goes into town.” Toby
“My house is down here. Look on the right and it will be there.” Hunter
“Down there is where you go to my Sister’s nursery.” Cole
“I’ve been on a double decker before.” Harry
“You need to be 18 to drive a bus.” Eliza
“He takes the bus through a giant bus wash like the one for cars but bigger.” Isaac
We also had a visit from the firefighters from Dereham. They told us about their job, some basic fire safety and explained that they don’t just put out fires, they rescue people and even animals too. They showed us their uniform and we learnt that they only have 2 minutes to put it on. We also go to look at a thermal camera and used it to look at our friends. We then went outside and got to look at the fire engine, we were shown all the equipment, tools where they sit and learnt how they get water from the truck to put out fires with the hose. We all had a turn at spraying the hose, which was very fun!
We spent a week learning about Vets. We learned that vets help animals that are ill or injured and can look after lots of different animals, not just cats and dogs. We had lots of fun in the role play pretending to be vets, working out what was wrong with the animals and then giving them the correct care. We practised our phonics to write out medical slips for the animals.
We then looked at what the RSPCA does and how they help to make sure that animals are being cared for properly. Our special visitor from the RSPCA, Leanne, told us lots of information about the work of the RSPCA and we enjoyed asking lots of questions to find out more! We each had a toy animal and had to decide if it was wild, a pet or lived on a farm.
We had a visit from Chloe, a dental nurse. She told us about why we need to go to the dentist and we found out that they check to make sure that your teeth and gums are nice and healthy. We discussed how to brush your teeth properly and when we should brush our teeth. We also looked at healthy and unhealthy food and drink and how unhealthy items that contain lots of sugar could affect our teeth. We had lots of fun practising brushing Marley the monkey’s big teeth!
In the last week of term, we met a police officer! He showed us his police van and told us about his uniform and some of the equipment he uses, such as a taser, radio and camera. He told us about what he does as a police officer and also answered any questions we had about his role. We learnt that the police keep us safe and if there is an emergency, to call 999. We also learnt that dogs and horses work for the police force.
Thank you so much to all of the visitors that were able to make this topic so exciting for the children, including Kieran from KonectBus, the Firefighters from Dereham Fire Station, PC James Jarvis, Chloe the Dental Nurse and Leanne Neave from the RSCPA.