Year 1

All about India

Over the last two weeks, the children have been learning all about India in their Topic lessons. To aid Pirate Pete in burying his treasure, they were set the challenge of finding the perfect place to bury his treasure. They worked in groups to think of questions they would need to ask Mrs Agnel about India, to help them to complete this task.

Mrs Agnel was able to answer all of their questions and provide them with some more information. The children then had the chance to make their own peacocks, the national bird of India, colour in the flag, dress up in traditional Indian clothing, create their own Rangoli patterns and explore books and coins from India.

Many of the children said it was their best lesson ever, and in the follow up lesson could remember all the geographical facts they had learnt about the country as well as the fun practical elements of their learning!

Great fun was had by all!

Pirate Wow Day

On Thursday 25th April, all the children (and staff!) took part in a Pirate themed wow day! There were some amazing costumes and the children really got into the spirit of the day.

Throughout the morning the children took part in a variety of activities ranging from, making Pirate biscuits, pirate small world, cutting and making treasure chests and telescopes from nets and directing the BeeBots across our pirate treasure map.

All the children also took part in an immersive story time with local author Kirstie Watson, who shared the story of 'The Pirate Mouse' with them (which will be available to buy in amazon later in the year!).  The children were then given the chance to create their own version of the pirate mouse. 

In the afternoon, the children received a special message from Captain Orange Beard, who needed help finding his lost treasure! After working out the answers to lots of clues that took them all around the school grounds, they finally found a treasure chest ...filled with golden coins!

The children had a fantastic day all round and seemed very excited to start their new Topic!

Easter Nests

Over the last week in Literacy and RE, we have been learning about the Easter story. The children have explored versions from the bible as well as picture book versions. The have been retelling the Easter story and thinking about how we celebrate Easter. 

We also extended our learning on instruction writing and the importance of bossy verbs and time connectives.

To put our instruction writing into practice, the children wrote instructions on how to make Easter nests. Then on Friday they got to make their own Easter nests! Alongside having to think about the instructions, the children measured out ingredients on the scales, talked about what happened to the butter and chocolate when it was warmed up, and worked as a group to complete their Easter nests. 

The children thoroughly enjoyed this and we hope they enjoyed eating their creations at home too!

Friday 15th March

Local Area and Spring Walk

On Friday, both the Year 1 classes went on a walk around the local area. This was linked to both our Topic of the Local Area, and Science where we are looking at seasonal changes.

During the walk we had three sites to focus on; the shops, the park and the green. At each site, the children stopped, and in their groups, discussed and recorded about the noise level, the cleanliness and whether they thought the area was pretty or not. They also wrote down which human and physical features they could see at each site. We compared the different sites and talked about why we thought they differed in each area, and which their favourite was and why. 

Whilst on the walk we also kept an eye out for signs of spring. The children spotted some blossom and buds on the trees, flowers starting to bloom, daffodils and some bees.

One of the children's most exciting moments on the trip was seeing the robots delivering shopping to local residents! 

The children were all excellently behaved and a credit to the school. 

40 coin challenge for CAFOD

On Friday 15th March, every class in the school took part in the 40 coin challenge. We are pleased to let you know that the Seahorse class collected a huge 111 coins, raising £23 (and 1 euro!).

The children were visited by Cathy from CAFOD on Thursday, who talked to the children about a boy called Rabiul, from Bangladesh. She explained that his village experienced a drought last year and all the fish and water crops died. She encouraged the children to raise money with their 40 coin challenge to help buy resources for children like Rabiul and his family.

Our class alone raised nearly enough to buy 10 ducks!

Thank you for all of your support and generosity. 

World Book Day 8th March 2019

Seahorse Class

The children had a fantastic day dressing up as their favourite book characters.

Our class focused our learning around Australian animals after reading ‘Diary of a Wombat’ by Jackie French.

They spent the morning researching different Australian animals and learning key facts about their favourite one. In the afternoon they all made their own split pin Australian animal, working on their fine motor skills.

We were lucky enough to be visited by Kirstie Watson, a local author, who came and read her book, ‘The Witch’s Cat’ to the children.

A great day was had by all!

At our parent consultations some parents requested some websites they could use at home with their child. 

We hope you enjoy the websites below:

General maths games- https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

Number bonds to 20- http://www.ictgames.com/funkyMummy/index.html

Addition-  https://www.arcademics.com/games/alien

Number fact families- https://www.topmarks.co.uk/number-facts/number-fact-families