During our last week of the Autumn term, the children have enjoyed completing an orienteering activity to finish our geography topic on where we live. The children also took part in the Santa Run for ‘Herts Young Homeless’ charity and enjoyed watching the Jack and Beanstalk Pantomime. We also had a great afternoon making Christmas cards.
We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
This week KS1 have wowed audiences with their performances of Manger Mouse. We are so proud of everyone of the children. When we were not in the hall performing the children have been working on their Design and Making skills. All the children have used their new sewing skills to create a beautiful Christmas bauble.
We can't wait to share our nativity Manger Mouse with you all next week!!
This week KS1 have been busy working on their Christmas Nativity, we don’t want to spoil the surprise for you all in a couple of weeks time so have not shared any pictures…..
During the rest of the time the children have been continuing to work on their understanding of the story in English, re-enacting and creating dances for the characters in the Lonely Beast. We have also created some excellent posters in Science highlighting how important it is to recycle certain materials as they are beginning to destroy the planet.
To start the week we had a special assembly to celebrate Remembrance Day where all our poppies had been added to the whole school display. KS1 have also been celebrating Anti-Bullying Week by choosing respect. On Tuesday the children all came to school in odd socks to help highlight that we are all unique and that is ok! Wednesday we celebrated World Kindness day by receiving a kindness jar for our classrooms where the children can earn pompoms when they are kind to others. And on Friday we all wore our pyjamas to help raise money for Children in Need.
Within our English lessons this week the children have been introduced to our new book, The Lonely Beast. All the children took part in recreating some of the images of the book to help them understand how the characters might be feeling.
It was lovely welcoming the children back after their half term break. To start the term we spent the Monday afternoon with our Brookmans Buddies making poppies ready for our remembrance day assembly next week.
In our Science lessons this week the children really enjoyed investigating a range of different materials that we could use for wrapping a present. The children had to think carefully about which material fitted all the requirements needed when wrapping a present.
During our final week of the half term, KS1 have been studying the theme of Autumn. The children have created their own Autumn poems in English and, in Science, looked at the changes to the weather that occur during this season.
Also this week, the children took part in our annual house cross country run. All the children showed great determination and resilience as they completed 3 laps of the field. Well done to everyone.
To finish our half term the children got the chance to spend time with their Brookmans Buddies. The children read with them and then they got the opportunity to complete a circuit of P.E. activities together.
In KS1 this week we have been finishing our work on Traction Man within our English groups, the children have all thoroughly enjoyed the book and linking their work to it. Within Science we have been experimenting with different materials to tie shoelaces, the children showed great resilience with this working together to identify the best material that we could use if our shoelace had broken.
In Art the children have been continuing to look at Andy Warhol and have been creating repeated patterns through a range of different mediums. The children have really enjoyed these activities. For our final History lesson on this topic the children were tasked with creating a toy museum to demonstrate everything they have learnt this half term.
This week in KS1 we have been continuing to look at different types of toys and how they have changed over time. The children have been able to explain what has changed between the sets of toys we have looked at over this half term and noticed that the oldest toys are all made mainly from wood and metal and the newer toys tend to be made out of plastic and need a source of electricity to make them work.
In our Science we have been looking at how materials change. The children investigated several different materials testing to see if they could twist, bend, squash and stretch them. The children found out that the balloon was the most versatile and that the paper was the least.
In KS1 this week, we were invited to a special assembly on Wednesday, to welcome Mike Mullens to Brookmans Park. He shared with us stories of how he has used a growth mindset to help him achieve his goals in BMX. Mike gave us a display of the skills that he can do on a BMX bike, before getting Mr Rahman to put his skills to the test and balance on the front wheel of a bike in front of us all. In addition he spent some time with the older children.
On Thursday we enjoyed watching the older children, who showed us the BMX skills that they have been learning. The children thoroughly enjoyed watching their peers push themselves.
During the rest of the week the children were treated to a lesson on Rosh Hashanah, where they learnt about how the festival is important to Jewish people and the act of celebration; the children even got to try dipping apples into honey.
In Science, the children were investigating waterproof different materials and for English the children were sequencing the story of Traction Man. Within Year 1 Maths, we practised using inequalities to compare different numbers.
KS1 have been busy continuing with their learning. In History we were lucky enough to explore a range of Victorian toys which we borrowed from Hertford Museum. The children enjoyed being able to play with the toys and could explain the difference between Victorian toys and the toys we have today.
In Science the children undertook their first investigation of the year to see which material was the most absorbent. The children found out that the sponge was very absorbent however, the tissues which we use were not great for mopping up water as they weren’t as absorbent.
This week KS1 have been continuing our learning in Art by using our knowledge of the primary colours to make secondary colours. The children then mixed the primary colours to make secondary colours and painted a colour wheel. Ask your children if they can remember which two colours they need to mix to make green?
During Science this week the children continued to work on their understanding of different materials. They developed their vocabulary of the properties they would use to describe different materials.
For History this week the children were lucky enough to explore a range of different games that are from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. They were able to identify how they are similar and different to the toys they have today.
It has been lovely welcoming all the children back into KS1 over the last week. All the children have settled into their new classes and begun to make new friends both within their classes and across the phase. This week we have spent a lot of time learning the new routines and meeting the different teachers.
We have begun our phonics and maths lessons where the children have been using their previous knowledge from last year to support their learning. In our Science lessons we have been exploring different materials and grouping them according to their properties. During the History lesson we have begun to look at the toys which we currently play with and the materials which they are made from before we start to look at older toys. In Art we were looking at the artist Piet Mondrian and how he uses the primary colours to create his artwork. The children then used a range of resources in the classroom to create their own versions.