The topic 'All Around Us' was planned as a blocked unit of work. We tried one main activity per week, beginning by asking the children to observe and record the area around the school.

We used a digital camera to take photographs of the school. Printing these photographs allowed us to quickly create our own resources, which we used when discussing the school grounds with the children. A data projector would have made this even easier!

The photographs were used to help the children identify buildings around the school and discuss where they are in relation to each other. After this, the children were asked to write about the locations and describe what they are like.

When the children began to describe the school, some chose to draw pictures on the computer. The digital photograph print outs gave them something to work from. With help, some children were able to copy and paste their drawings into a word processor and write about the buildings underneath.

It is also possible to insert a digital photograph into a word processor. This allows the children to combine their writing with the image they are describing.

Children also used the digital camera images to think about how rooms inside the school are used during the day, writing about what was happening in the pictures we had taken.

We also took the digital camera around the area surrounding the school. This allowed us to take pictures of nearby places and discuss them with the children in the safety of the classroom. We discussed features of the local area and how changes have occurred. The pictures helped the children to write about where things are located in relation to the school, and why they thought changes had occurred.