Levers and Sliders

We have started our new DT topic, levers and sliders. We learnt what the keywords: mechanism, lever and pivot meant. We looked at some examples of books with moving parts and explored how they move. Then, we learnt how to make a slider based on the story of The Gingerbread Man. We then learnt how to make a lever based on the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. Miss Harrison was very impressed with all the levers and sliders we made!

Easter

This week in RE, we have focused on the cycle of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We listened to the scripture from last term and discussed the main events of Easter. We discussed how Jesus lived his whole life dedicated to doing God’s work for God’s people. We talked about Jesus’ mission and how special the resurrection was. Then, we discussed how we remember that Jesus came for everyone and that we should try to act like Jesus through kindness for others. We know that Jesus put other’s needs before his own. We then shared some ideas of ways we can think of others. We drew and wrote some examples of how we have put other’s needs first. We then prayed for Pope Francis and talked about how he also dedicated his life to putting the needs of others first.

African Art

Year 1 have learnt about the continent of Africa this term. In art lessons, we have studied Tingatinga artwork. We learnt about where it originated and looked at some examples. We looked at the backgrounds in detail and then explored how to create animal patterns with paint. We then used paint to recreate a piece of artwork in the Tingatinga style.

World Book Day

Year 1 have had a fabulous day today. We shared our favourite books and book characters with each other. We then completed some different activities including making a mask of our favourite character, making finger puppets and acting out our favourite story, creating our own bookmarks and some of us created our own comic strip. In the afternoon, we spent some time with our reading buddies, sharing our favourite stories with them and working together to create an origami bookmark. We ended the day with a story.

Tingatinga Art

Year 1 began their learning on Tingatinga art. Today, we looked at where this style of art started and learnt that Edward Tingatinga started creating this style of art in Tanzania. We looked at some examples and discussed what we liked and noticed. We then listened to some African music and sketched animals we know live in Africa.

Peter Thorpe

Year 1 have studied the artwork of Peter Thorpe this term. This has linked with our learning about space. Peter Thorpe’s work includes a rocket and different planets. We drew our own rockets. First, we created a piece of artwork using chalk. Then, we used pastels to create another piece and compared the two to decide which media we preferred using.

Reading Buddies

Year 1 and Year 6D have been enjoying reading together with their reading buddies. Year 1 have been choosing their books for their buddies to read. We always look forward to our shared reading time!

Class Assembly

Year 1 performed their class assembly and were fabulous! We were all blown away by how amazing they were!

Measuring

This week in maths we have been learning how to compare the length of everyday objects. We then used cubes to measure the length of different items before learning how to use a ruler accurately to measure the length of different items using centimetres.

St Thomas Aquinas Feast Day

Year 1 have had a fantastic Feast Day celebration. We started off by learning some information about Saint Thomas Aquinas. We talked to a partner about what we had learnt. Then we looked at the location and website of St Thomas Aquinas Catholic school in Stoke. We explored the website and then we talked about similarities between our learning and theirs. We then created some artwork to send to the school. We were given half a picture of Saint Thomas Aquinas to copy and recreate using oil pastels. In the afternoon we enjoyed Mass and finished the day with some juice and a cake.

Good News

We listened to the scripture from Luke 2: 8-20. We heard how the Angels spread God’s message that Jesus had been born. We know that Jesus is God’s son because the Angels come from God and they spread the news. We then looked at some different artwork to show representations of the light and the Angels. We then used chalk to create reflected light and what the Angels may have looked like.

Testing Materials

In Science, we have been understanding the different everyday materials we use and what their properties are. We have learnt lots of different scientific words such as:  absorbent, waterproof, transparent, opaque and shiny.  We tested everyday objects by understanding the material and then deciding if they were transparent or opaque and bendy or not bendy. We had great fun testing the objects.  

No Pens’ Day

Year 1 really enjoyed No Pens’ Day. We have been learning about Antarctica and the Arctic in our history this term. We have looked at igloos and are designing and making our own. This morning, we went outside and built our own igloos, made out of snow! We worked in teams and used our speaking and listening skills to work together. Miss Harrison and Mrs Kennedy were very impressed with the final results!

Then, in maths we used some cereal to practise counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. We learnt how to identify equal and unequal groups, making sure that we all had the same number of hoops. In the afternoon we learnt how to join materials together to plan for our igloos that we will make in school.

We finished our day by performing a poem and dance about penguins.

Cinema Trip

Year 1 had a fabulous time visiting the Odeon cinema to watch the ‘Smeds and the Smoos’ and ‘Superworm’. All children were very excited and sat very smartly in their seats in the cinema! We were all really proud of Year 1!

Mary's Story

In RE this term, we have focused our learning on Mary. Last week, we listened to the story of the Annunciation. This week, we listened to the story of the Visitation. We used role play to act out the main events and discussed how Elizabeth knew Mary was special and loved by God.

Non-Fiction Books

In English this week, we have created our own non-fiction books about penguins and polar bears. We wrote some factual sentences, wrote some captions for the pictures and included a contents page in our books. Ask us what we know about these creatures!

God's Earth

In RE, Year 1 have been learning about what we can do to protect God’s Earth. The Eco Committee came in to visit us. They shared information about how they help our school and answered some questions about why they meet. Year 1 really enjoyed listening to them and had some great questions!

Seasonal Changes

We have started our Seasonal Changes topic in Science. We thought about all the seasons – Summer, Autumn, Winter and Summer. We also looked at the months of the year. We thought about summer and what the season was like and then compared it to autumn. We discussed and sorted picture cards of the weather, trees, wildlife, clothing and temperature into summer or autumn.  In pairs we created a tree of either summer or autumn, using different craft materials – we had so much fun!

Humans – Tallest Investigation

We concluded our Humans topic by learning about Brahim Takioullah, the Guinness World Record holder for the world’s largest feet. We used tape to mark out how long his foot is and compared it to our own feet. He has pretty big feet!  

We then thought about and discussed our investigation question – ‘Are the oldest children the tallest?’ We made a prediction for whether we thought the older you are, the taller you are. Then we worked in small groups to look at each other’s birthdays, measured each other’s heights and then compared the results. It was great fun measuring our friends!

Creation Story

In RE, we have been learning about the creation story. We discussed what happened on each day and how amazing the world God created for us is. We looked at some artwork to represent the events of each day.

We then went on an ‘Awe and wonder’ walk around the school where we chose something God created that fascinated us. Some of us said we are in awe of the sky, some of us said volcanoes and mountains and some of us are in awe of how many different living things God created!

Testing Our Senses

This week in science we have been learning the 5 senses and what part of the body uses which sense. We then spent time testing our senses. We used our noses to smell mustard, mint, marmite and coffee. We used our eyes to see a picture and complete a puzzle. We used our ears to hear vehicle noises. We used our hands to touch a smooth ball and a spiky pinecone. We used our mouths to taste different flavours of juice. It was so much fun!