Maths Escape Experience

Term 5 Week 6

On Tuesday this week we had a fantastic time solving shape problems in our maths escape experience. The children were asked to solve a range of puzzles and problems together using flat shapes. We were so impressed with the teamwork and problem solving skills. 

Signs of Spring

Term 5 Week 3

In Science we have been looking at Seasonal Change. As part of our learning we went for a walk around the school grounds to look for signs of spring. We then discussed these further in class.

Some of the things we spotted were:

• tadpoles in the pond
• wildflowers growing in the grass
• a nest in a tree
• green leaves growing on trees and bushes
• flowers starting to grow

We have also been observing the weather daily so that we can discuss the spring weather patterns. 

Transport Through Time

Term 5 Week 1 and 2

We started our topic by looking at air travel and how it has evolved over time starting with the first hot air balloon to take to the sky in France. The children discussed and ordered the different transport. They then matched the facts to the different types of transport in groups. 

Pop-up Day

Term 4 Week 5

As part of our Design and Technology this term, the children created a pop-up page linked to the story 'Three Billy Goats Gruff'. First they explored a variety of pop-up mechanisms and decided which would work best for their pop-up page. They then tested levers before creating the final one for their page. After that they attached the lever to their story backgrounds. Finally they attached their trolls to the lever. The children analysed their pop-up pages afterwards and discussed what they liked about their designs and what they could have done better. 

Leeds Castle

8th March 2023

Year 1 had a fantastic time at Leeds Castle this Tuesday! Although it threatened rain all day (and we did get caught in it a little) it didn't spoil all the fun that we had. After being drop at the venue by the coach, we rode the land train up to the castle gates.

During the day each class took part in:

• A castle tour - the castle was decorated in a 1920s style as Lady Baillie would have had it. We learnt about the different rooms in the castle and what they would have been used for. 
• Cyril the Swan workshop - we learnt about the history of the Castle and what it looked like up to 900 years ago and how it has changed over time. We also took part in the retelling of a traditional tale, where we all dressed up as different animals. We learnt all about different animals and also had a very special visit from Louie the owl!
• Creating our own noun phrases - we had a competition to write as may noun phrases related to features around the castle as we could in our groups. For example, 'a magnificent, brick castle'.

Little Red Riding Hood Mystery

Term 4 - Week 1

Last week the children were very excited to discover that Little Red Riding Hood had left her basket of goodies and a letter for us in the Year 1 classrooms. The letter instructed us to follow instructions and go on a hunt around the grounds to find her map to Grandma's house. 

This week we have been using the map to write instructions for Little Red Riding Hood so that she can finally find her way to Grandma's house!

Scrumptious Sandwiches

Term 3 Week 6

For our Design and Technology this week we have been designing, making and evaluating sandwiches. 

On day 1, the children designed our own sandwiches. choosing from a range of ingredients. We discussed the equipment that we would need too. 

On day 2, they then made their sandwiches.
During this session, we focused on:

• how to handle a knife safely
• learning and practising how to spread butter or jam onto a slice of bread
• cutting the sandwich safely

The children then tasted their sandwich and evaluated it. They gave it a star rating out of 5 and then discussed one thing that made it a great sandwich and what they could do to make it even better. 

We're Going on a Lion Hunt

Term 3 Week 4

Our key text for this week is 'We're Going on a Lion Hunt'.

This is a retelling of the familiar tale 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. The children have listened to, read and learn the story, focusing on story language and adjectives (describing words). They have also learnt actions to help them to remember the key events and retell them in order. 

Marvellous Maths

Term 3 Week 3

In maths we have been looking at 'Place Value within 20'. The children have been counting, ordering and writing the numbers between 11-20. They have explored a new manipulative this week too, dienes! They have been using the dienes to partition numbers into tens and ones. This has help to consolidate their understanding of what the teen numbers represent. 

Africa Day

11th January 2023

We all had a fantastic day with our African visitor, Anna!

The children took part in African storytelling, a few children even took part in acting out the character parts of the story. They loved the African drumming and were able to drum along to the rhythm using different parts of the drum to create tone, base and slap sounds. Our African dance session involved us dancing along to the sound of the African drum, this brought out some great dance moves!

We also looked at African tribe jewellery and masks, before creating our own and also learnt lots of new facts about Africa. 

Protect Our Planet Day

10th November 2022

The children took part in a variety of activities during our 'POP' Day. 

We were lucky enough to join a live broadcast from Antarctica where the children were able to see what the landscape was like and listen to scientists who were actually living out there currently. In our main science lesson we posed the question 'which works best to melt the ice?' referring to a range of different materials. The children were encouraged to predict what they thought, before investigating and discuss their findings with an adult in order to draw conclusions.

We also created a whole class piece of Arctic artwork using our hands (see photo below).

Guy Fawkes News Reports

9th November 2023

As part of our history this term, the children have been learning all about Guy Fawkes, who he was and what he did that made him significant. After watching and listening to real new reports, they then created their own news reports all about Guy Fawkes and what happened on 5th November 1605. They were all superb news reporters!

Purple Mash Computing

Term 2 - Week 1 

During this week the children took part in 4 computing lesson. They learnt how to access using the Purple Mash program using their own usernames and passwords. Which was fantastic! They changed their avatars, accessed their 2Do list and completed a range activities that had been set for them. All the children experienced adding images and text to different programs. They also were able to change, the size, colour and font of the text that they typed. 

Diwali Day

19^th October 2022

For our whole school Diwali celebrations, the Year 1 children attended an assembly lead by a lovely Hindu woman from our local community. They were able to ask her questions about Diwali and they enjoyed listening to the stories that she had to tell them about Rama and Sita and also her own experiences of Diwali.

In their classrooms, the children learnt about Rangoli patterns and were able to create their own design using coloured rice. The children also learnt how children, who celebrate Diwali, prepare for the celebrations, they joined in with some Diwali rhymes and songs and some even took part in a Diwali dance.

Fabulous Family Picnic

18^th October 2022

It was amazing to see so many of you attend our ‘Family Picnic and Celebration of Learning’ on 18^th October. Thank you for making it such a special afternoon. We enjoyed meeting lots of you and hope that you enjoyed looking at the learning that your children has been doing this term. We know they were very excited to show you all their classrooms.

Wonderful Weather

Term 1, Week 6 and 7

For the last two weeks of term, we have been keeping a class record of the weather each day. This is part of our science learning. We will used this data to create class pictograms to display the autumnal weather patterns. We will discuss these further in term 2.

Below is one of our charts for week 6.

Hedgehog Art Collages

Term 1, Week 5

This term in art, the children have been learning how to manipulate and use materials in different ways to create artwork. They have learnt the vocabulary ‘tear’, ‘crumple’, ‘overlap’ and ‘fold’. They have been practising these different techniques using tissue paper.

Here are some examples of the wonderful hedgehog collages that the children created using these techniques.

Awesome Autumn Walk

Term 1, Week 4

One of our science topics this year is ‘Seasonal Change’. We revisit this throughout the academic year especially when one season is changing into the next. We went for a walk around our school grounds to look for the signs of autumn.

The children observed many signs of change; including fallen acorns, different types of fungi, berries, falling and fallen leaves and an array of autumn leaves on the trees. Some of the photos that we took are shown below.

We recorded our findings in our class ‘Seasons’ books which will be displayed on our science boards in our classrooms.

Fantastic Forest Schools

Term 1 - September 2022

Our Year 1 children have all now had the opportunity to experience forest schools with Mrs Chapman (our forest school teacher). They have enjoyed the range of different activities that they have taken part in so far, especially drinking hot chocolate. As you can see in the photos below there are activities linked to many different areas of the curriculum including maths, science, art and English.

Splendid Storytelling

W/C 26th September 2022

This week, in our English lessons, we have been learning the story 'How Tortoise Got His Shell'. The children have added their own actions to help them remember the story. They have also created a class story map with their class teachers to remind them of the sequence of events. I have attached these below (these are in alphabetical order - Darwin then Earhart then Goodall). 

Please show your child their class story map and ask them to retell the story to you. Remind them to show you the actions for the different story language. 

Learning in 2021 -2022 

The learning below is from the previous academic school year. 

After discussing what Queen Elizabeth looked like between 2000 and 2010 we created painted portraits of her. We tried to take our time and make our brush strokes as accurate as possible. See our examples below.