Seaside Day

Date: 22nd May 2023 @ 5:45pm

Well as the song goes ‘We do like to be beside the seaside’ and if this is not possible then a seaside day at school in the sun will suffice! There was great excitement as we gathered in the class today and there was a marvellous assortment of seaside clothes with plenty of accessories like sun glasses, sunhats, inflatable rings, arm bands, buckets and spades and even fishing nets.

First we considered the following questions:

• What do we mean by the seaside?
• Why did some places become seaside resorts?
• Which seaside areas do people visit today and why?
• What is a seaside resort like today?

Thank you to all those parents that added photos and interviews to Dojo or brought copies into school because this information which we shared with class helped us start to answer some key questions. Next, we explained that while we know a lot about our own experiences of the seaside and can talk about them and share photographs we also need to consider what seaside holidays were like in the past:

• How do we know about something that happened beyond living memory?
• Why did people start going to the seaside at this time?
• How holidays changed over time within the last 100 years.

The day focused on a carousel of 5 activities to support enquiry, cause and change questions;

1. Using a gallery of seaside posters/photographs /postcards from Victorian times the children used checklists and an i- spy approach to identify common features such as walks on a promenade, donkey rides and Punch and Judy shows. They enjoyed completing spot the differences between seaside holidays today and in the past.
2. Looking at a Victorian/ Edwardian postcard the children listed the things they could see on these beaches based on what they have seen in photos. They developed their period-specific vocabulary, using words such as parasol, pier and promenade. Children then drew and presented the ‘photo’ on the front cover of what would have seen at the beach and wrote their own postcards as if they were at the seaside 100 years ago.
3. Another station introduced the children to Punch and Judy. We were lucky enough to have sourced several Punch and Judy puppets as well as associated characters, such as a policeman, jester and crocodile. The children loved using these puppets in our theatre to make a Punch and Judy show and they also had the opportunity to try on Victorian bathing costumes including period bonnets.
4. Focusing on seaside clothing 100 years ago the children decorated and constructed their own bathing suits and bathing machines to reinforce the changes over time in seaside clothing and changing areas.
5. Pool time! How could we have a seaside day without some water and great fun was had by all, as the photos show.

To conclude our day we had ice lollies and sat outside under a large oak tree to enjoy a wonderful story called ‘Magic Beach’ by Alison Lester, a favourite story of Miss Sowter’s when she was a little girl.

It has been a day of great learning and laughter – an ideal start to the week!

The Year One Team