KS1 Sports Day

Today, KS1 enjoyed their Sports Day. We started with lots of different physical activities, including egg and spoon balancing, beanbag balancing, shooting at goal, and hoop jumping, before going on to do some running races. We are so impressed with all the KS1 children who showed great resilience and determination and also great sportsmanship with their peers. We were proud of each and everyone of them for giving their all.

STEM week trip to Whipsnade Zoo

KS1 (and LKS2!) were very fortunate to have a fantastic trip to Whipsnade Zoo to round off our STEM week and we were also blessed with a beautiful sunny day for it, too.  Each KS1 class took part in an African Animals workshop, which involved learning about the colourings of meerkats, lions, giraffes and zebras and then comparing them with their habitats. See if your children can remember why many of the are the same colour as their habitat!  Each class also looked at the habits of these animals. Have a look if you can see where they are pretending to be meerkats on lookout!  All the children thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to see the animals in such close proximity and had a wonderful time.  Thank you again to all the parents who joined us on the trip. We simply cannot do these off site activities without your support, so it was very much appreciated.

KS1 House Competition

Today, KS1 took part in a house competition to build the strongest nest! The children were only allowed to use newspaper to build their nests, so it took a lot of trial and error to work out how to make their nests strong and sturdy - and a lot of resilience from the children!  However, after watching some videos of how birds make their nests, the children discovered how to make the newspaper stronger and then the nests really began to take shape. Once each house had decided which of their nests was the strongest, we all went outside onto the playground to test them.  We were all very impressed with how many eggs each nest held. Congratulations goes to Air house whose nest held a fantastic 24 eggs!

STEM Challenge

To start off STEM week in Garnet class, we began with a STEM challenge: using a piece of card and a straw, can you make a racing caterpillar? Garnet class rose to the challenge and we had a variety of different designs and techniques with some children rolling the the card, and some children folding it to see if this made it faster! In the end, we had table races to see which design was the quickest!!

KS1 Fruit Salads

After all our tasting and practise cutting, we were ready to make our fruit salads.  We designed them carefully so that we knew which fruit we wanted to include and how we wanted to arrange the fruit in the cup.  Then we got to make our salads.  Finally, we all got to enjoy eating them outside in the sunshine!

DT Week in KS1

This week, KS1 have been working on our Design and Technology skills.  We started the week by discussing all the different fruits we knew and which ones were our favourite.  Then we each created a class pictogram of our favourite fruits.  Later in the week, we practised our chopping skills using the bridge technique and then - the best part - we all got to taste a wide range of different fruits. We were so pleased with those children who tried fruits for the first time - well done for being brave!

African Sunset Pictures

This afternoon, Garnet and Emerald classes made some beautiful artwork based on our ongoing topic of Africa.  First, we used our paint mixing skills to create the spectacular African sunset, adding more and more red to our base colour of yellow to show the different colours in a sunset.  Then we used black paper to create the silhouettes of the animals and trees in the foreground. The children worked really hard and have created some fantastic pieces of art.

 Year 2 Maths - Symmetry

This week in Maths, Year 2 have been looking at symmetry. First, we discussed what a line of symmetry is and then tried to find them in regular 2d shapes. After this, we looked at a selection of regular and irregular 2d shapes and sorted them into a Carroll diagram based on the number of sides the shape had and whether it had any lines of symmetry.  Finally, we completed symmetrical shapes and designed their own symmetrical patterns.

KS1 Literacy

In our CLPE lessons this half term, we are looking at the text Anna Hibiscus.  Anna goes on holiday in a canoe and travels first through the city, and then through the rainforest before reaching her holiday destination.  We looked at the contrast between these two settings and the children worked in a group, with each child writing a line and then putting them together to make a free verse poem.  The children did a great job writing these poems together.

In the next lesson, we acted out what happened when Anna and her family woke up in their holiday home.  The children had to think carefully about how each character in the story was feeling before having a go at their role play.  This really helped the children to understand how the characters in our story are thinking and feeling. 

Mixed Up Animals!

Today in KS1, we undertook another teamwork lesson. In groups of 3, the children had to each choose an animal and then put all 3 of these animals together to make a new animal.  They had to work as a group to decide which part of each animal they would use to form their new animal and what the new animal's name would be.  Finally, they had to decide which type of habitat their new animal would live in.  They did a fantastic job. Come and see the Snaleoffe or the Crocllileop!

Lego Teamwork

Today, we have been practising our teamwork using Lego models.  We worked in groups of 3.  Each child had a specific role  - one was the builder who built the models, one was the supplier who was responsible for the lego bricks and gave the correct brick to the builder at the right time.  The final role was the architect, who read the instructions and told the supplier which bricks to supply to the builder.  This activity required very careful description and careful listening and lots and lots of patience!  Well done, Garnet class - you did a fantastic job!

Science - Living Things

In KS1, we have been learning about animals and living things.  This week we have been finding examples of things that are living, things that are dead and things that have never been alive.  The children did a great job working as a team to find examples of each of these and photograph them using our ipads.

Teamwork in KS1

This half term, we are focusing on teamwork in KS1.  We have considered all the relevant skills we need to use when working together and we are particularly looking at communication when working as a team.

KS1 Talent Contest Heats

We were delighted to have so many KS1 entries for the Village day talent contest.  Each class enjoyed a wide range of performances including singing, dancing, joke telling, playing musical instruments even an origami demonstration.  Well done to everyone who was brave enough to perform in front of their class and congratulations to those children who were voted into the final on Village Day by their classmates.  What a talented bunch of children we have in KS1!

Year 2 Telling the Time

Year 2 have been learning how to tell the time to nearest 5 minutes this week.  First, we used the clocks in the classroom. Then we played time bingo and had a time scavenger hunt in the sunshine.  Please do test us on our knowledge of telling them time!

KS1 African Masks

In their art lessons this half term, KS1 have enjoyed looking at African Art.  They have made African masks using African style colours and patterns to decorate them.  

Garnet Lions

As part of our continuing Science learning about animals and mindful of mental health awareness week, Garnet class have been making paper plate lions. Don't they look fabulous!

Mental Health Awareness Week.

To celebrate Mental Health Awareness week in KS1 we have been talking to the children this week about what affects your mental well being and what they can do to improve their mental well being.  We have been completing jigsaws together, doing some mindful colouring, listening to calming music, trying some breathing exercises and having a go at some yoga.  Ask your children which of these activities were their favourite.

KS1 Coronation Celebration

All of KS1 looked fantastic in their red, white and blue outfits on Friday for our Coronation Day.  We also had a fabulous selection of crowns for our school crown competition, too. We started the day by making union jack bunting to decorate our classrooms.  Then we had a range of activities to complete including icing biscuits, finger painting union jack flags to wave during the procession, building a castle for the new king and designing coins to celebrate the coronation.  After a busy morning, we were ready for our picnic lunch. Unfortunately, the weather let us down, but we made the best of it by having our picnic lunch in the hall with some of the KS2 classes.  We all had a fun Coronation Celebration.

Geography - Atlas Work

Welcome back to the Summer term.  This term, our KS1 topic is Africa and Garnet Class enjoyed looking at the atlases this week to find the seven continents and five oceans. Ask your children how many they can still remember! Then, we looked at the continent of Africa in more detail and tried to locate the country of Kenya, which will be our focus country this term.

Science - Classifying Animals

Our Science this term is classifying animals and looking at their habitats. We are obviously linking this to our African topic and will be looking at African habitats.  This week, the children were finding their own ways of sorting the animals before we talked about the scientific way of classifying animals.