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St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Primary School

“I have called you by your name; you are mine.” Isaiah 43:1

Year 1

Map Symbols

Year 1 have been learning to recognise map symbols. We learnt the four main compass directions. We then drew our own treasure maps with symbols and gave directions to our partners to get from one place to another.

Cutting Skills

We have spent time learning about the different cutting methods, such as the claw and the bridge. We practised on cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes. The children were able to cut extremely well and used the skills brilliantly.  

Tasting Indian Salads

Our focus this half term is Indian salads, which links to our Geography lessons on India. We tasted lots of different foods that are in Indian salads. We thought about how we would describe these foods and rated each one. It was brilliant!

Treasures

We started our new topic in RE today and spoke about ‘treasures’. We spoke about God blessing us with this wonderful world to live in and that we should treasure and look after it. We then wrote about what we treasure the most in our lives and put it in our class treasure jar.

World Music

We have listened to some traditional music from India, China, Spain, Jamaica, Africa and Mexico. We talked about the different genres of music. We then danced to some bhangra music. We also learnt a traditional Armenian dance called the Tamzara.

Fruit Salad

In DT we will be making our own tropical fruit salad. Today, we tasted a selection of fruits to decide what we would like to include. We tried pineapple, mango, passionfruit, watermelon, strawberries, orange, banana, raspberries, lime and honey. Some of us were brave and tried something new for the first time. We were surprised by what our favourite fruit was!

Story Maps

This week, we have read the story ‘Class 3 all at sea’ by Julia Jarman.  We used actions to help us learn the story and then created our own story maps

Athletics

Year 1 finished off our athletics unit with a carousel of activities. We worked on our jumping skills, throwing both a ball and a javelin, jogging at a distance and we then worked on our baton passing skills with a relay.

Sunflower Seeds

Year 1 have been learning all about plants. We planted our own sunflower seed at the beginning of last term. We then observed our plants each day and made sure we gave them enough water. We were very happy to see how much they had grown in a few weeks and look forward to them growing even more at home.

Athletic Skills

Today in PE, we worked on our athletic skills. We completed a carousel of activities including jogging, a relay, jumping, speed bounce and throwing both a javelin and tennis ball. We all worked really hard and at the end of the lesson we decided which activity got our hearts racing the fastest!

Throwing Skills

In PE, we have been practising our throwing skills. We practised our underarm throws and aiming a beanbag into a hoop. We then took it in turns to see how far we could throw our beanbags.

Plant Hunt

This term, we are learning all about plants. We learnt about some common wild plants. We then went on a plant hunt around the school. We found some wild plants like ivy, nettles, daisies and dandelions.

The Egg

During the last two weeks, we have been exploring fantasy stories. We read The Egg by M.P. Robertson. We then wrote our own fantasy stories based on the events of The Egg.

Ball Skills

In PE, we are working on our ball skills. Today, we learnt how to hold a racket correctly. We then learnt how to balance the ball on the string of our rackets. We practised our ‘get ready’ positions to help us with our racket control.

Five Senses

Today in Science, we learnt all about our five senses. We then explored each of the senses at different stations.  We learnt that sometimes we need to use more than one of our senses. We decided that when we taste food or drink, we need to use our sense of smell, sight and touch as well as taste.

Creating E-Books

In computing, we discussed the difference between a traditional book and an e-book. We read an example of an e-book and then used Purple Mash to start to create our own e-books. We drew the pictures using the painting tools and we used animation to improve our books.

Class Assembly

Year 1 have worked really hard this term. We have been learning about exploring space and people who are important in space travel. In our assembly, we talked about some of the first people and even animals who travelled into space. We learnt a poem about blasting off into space. We sang two songs about how to be an astronaut and about Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon.

STA Feast Day

We discussed how Saint Thomas Aquinas’ actions helped to ‘warm the world’. We talked about what we could do to help make the world a happy and safe place for all. We then wrote or drew pictures to show how we will ‘warm’ the world. We decided on actions such as smiling at everyone, listening to everyone’s beliefs and looking after others.

Whatever Next

This week in English, we have read the story ‘Whatever Next’ by Jill Murphy. This story is linked to our topic of space. We learnt some actions to help us retell the story. We have also written an independent story based on the front cover before we write our own versions.

Story Maps

In English, we have started to write our own version of Whatever Next. We created a story map to plan our own version.

Gymnastics

We have started our gymnastics scheme of work. We learnt to use a tuck and pike hold and we were able to hold these for several seconds. We practised our gymnastics walks and then we learnt some different balances. We then worked with a partner to work on some different positions and we had to copy the position our partner was modelling 

Space

We started our new space topic and saw lots of images from space and watched some video clips. We talked about what we already know about space and how to travel there. We learnt about how astronauts are people who go into space and we looked at some items astronauts would wear on a journey to space. 

Algorithms

In Computing, we are learning about algorithms. We learnt why it is so important to follow instructions. We talked about building a Lego set and why we need to follow instructions carefully to build the model correctly. After, we worked with a partner to build a simple model. One partner gave the instructions and the other listened carefully and built the model. 

Christmas Jumpers

On Christmas jumper day, we all enjoyed having a whole class photo. We talked about what we liked about each other’s jumpers and that we had Christmas Jumper Day to raise money for Sepo.

Writing Stories

We really enjoyed reading the story of Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. We worked hard on building up our vocabulary and used adjectives to describe the characters. We then created our own version of the story and illustrated our front covers. The new versions of Lost and Found were brilliant!

Stop Ice Melting

We have enjoyed science this term. We have taken part in two simple science tests to find out how we can stop ice melting. We used ice lollies and explored wrapping them in different materials, like foil and paper, to see which material would stop the ice lolly melting.

Waterproof Or Not

Year 1 have carried out another science experiment using everyday materials. We used pipettes to drop water onto different materials to find out if the material was waterproof or not. We had to discuss our findings in response to the question, ‘which material would keep a polar explorer dry?’  We decided that plastic would be the best material to keep an explorer dry as it did not let any extra water in.

Belonging

In RE, we have been focusing on the topic ‘belonging’. We talked about different groups we belong to, and how they make us feel. We used role play to learn about friendship groups and how we can make everyone feel included.

Antarctica And The Arctic

In English, we have been learning about the features of a non-fiction text. Our focus topic has been learning about Antarctica and the Arctic. We learnt lots of facts about penguins and polar bears. We then used our knowledge about these creatures to write our own non-fiction books.

Poetry

Year 1 have been learning about adjectives in English this term. We have been exploring poetry. First, we listened and learnt a poem about Autumn. We then used our own adjectives to write our own version of the poem. Then, we listened to the poem ‘The Sound Collector’ by Roger McGough. We went on a ‘sound hunt’ around the school. We had to listen carefully and use adjectives to describe the sounds we heard. We heard lots during our walk, including birds tweeting, a bee buzzing and lots of other children learning.

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