KS1 Fabulous Finish to our Coasts/Seaside topic

To end our Coasts and Seaside topic KS1 ignored the weather and celebrated with a series of seaside based workshops!  They watched a Punch and Judy puppet show and then made their own Punch and Judy puppets.  They made their own seaside pictures using shells and they played a series of different amusement style games.  We finished our celebration with everybody enjoying an ice lolly! We all had a fantastic time!

KS1 Looking at the Season of Spring

To start our new Science topic of Spring, Key Stage 1 planted some seeds.  We talked about the fact that Spring is the season when the weather gets warmer (hopefully!), the days get longer and the plants start to grow.  To celebrate this, each child planted a herb in a pot to then take home and watch grow over the Easter holidays.  We are looking forward to some photographs after the holidays to show us how well the herbs have grown!

Garnet Class - Computing lesson without computers!
In Computing today, Garnet enjoyed writing algorithms (instructions) to instruct their robot partner around the classroom.  They quickly worked out that they needed to be very accurate with their instructions to make sure their partner didn’t crash into any of the classroom furniture!  This has prepared them for writing algorithms on the computers next week.

DT - Making Fire Engines

KS1 have really enjoyed using their knowledge of wheels and axles to create their fire engines this week.  They have worked really hard to ensure their creations have all the features of a modern fire engine and thought carefully about how to attach their axles to make sure the wheels of their fire engines worked effectively.  Well done, KS1!

Garnet and Diamond Class World Book Day!

Diamond all looked fantastic in their costumes for ‘World Book Day’. We loved talking about the stories that the characters were all from. We especially loved our creative writing session with a famous author. We then had a go at writing our own creative writing piece about The Great Fire of London.

This week, KS1 have been looking at the skills they need to construct their fire engines for our DT project this half term.  They looked at a range of wheels, axles and chassis and investigated the different ways to put these together and the different ways to attach the axles to the chassis.  The children will then be using these skills when constructing their own fire engines next week.

In PSHE this week, Diamond class have learnt about different emotions and loss. We read a story about ‘Mog’ the cat and how she passed away. The children shared a time when they may have lost a loved one or a pet and spoke about how this made them feel. We discussed how all of these different emotions are normal and how we can cope with them. The children were all very sensible and had some lovely ideas as to how they make their friends feel better. We then spoke about how we know something is living e.g. they reproduce, they need nutrients, they respire. They then had a go at sorting pictures into living and non living. 

Diamond class enjoyed taking part in the ‘Mind’ workshop where they met Ziggy the puppet again and talked about their emotions. They especially enjoyed playing with the parachute. 

Year 1 have been looking at subtracting numbers from up to 20 this week. They have used a range of different resources to aid them in doing this and have enjoyed working with some of the bigger numbers. We are going to be continuing this next week. 

In English, Diamond class have been looking at the story of ‘Lost and found’ by Oliver Jeffers over the last few weeks. The children were very shocked to find a lost penguin in our class; we gave it a name and talked about how penguins come from Antarctica. The children then wrote about what they would do if they found a penguin on their doorstep and they have written some fantastic predictions of what they think will happen at the end of the story. Next week, we will be innovating the story and having a go at writing our own version of a similar story.

This week, KS1 have been thinking about how we know about the Great Fire of London even though it happened such a long time ago.  We have looked at different sources of information about the Great Fire, including maps, paintings, newspaper reports, eyewitness accounts and diaries.  We then decided whether they were helpful in giving us details about the fire and then we sorted the sources into those that were helpful and unhelpful.

KS1 Sizzling Starter to our Great Fire of London topic

This Wednesday, KS1 enjoyed a sizzling starter to our new topic of The Great Fire of London. All of the children thoroughly enjoyed dressing up as people from 1666 AD and carrying out various activities as if they were the local shop keepers. These included making perfume and candles, sewing, weaving cloth, grinding ink to write with, making bread, leather work and even a visit to a rather gruesome barber surgeon! Throughout this, the children were learning lots of facts about the fire, including how and why it spread and what impact it had on London. It was a brilliant start to our history topic.  Thank you to all of the parent helpers who helped us make this day so special for the children.