Walnut Class 

Year 1

W/E October 3rd 2025

This week in English, we have been further consolidating our knowledge of nouns and adjectives by writing a description of Dogger. We looked at an excerpt from the book before working in group to make up some more ideas and subsequently completing an individual piece of work. 

In phonics, we have now started to introduce the alternate digraphs in phase 5. 

We learnt how the phoneme 'w' can also be written as 'wh' in words such as when, which and whizz.

We also looked at the phoneme 'f' which can also be written as 'ph' in words such as dolphin and phonics.

As always, the reading and recognition of these alternate spellings in words will come before the writing of them. We use phonics mats for the children to use when writing and when relevant, will introduce spelling rules which help the children remember which letters to use on which occasion. In class, we will prompt them to remember which spelling to use and as they become more accomplished writers, they will start to do this more independently.

In maths we continued to develop a deeper understanding of numbers to ten by counting backwards, working out 1 less than a number and comparing groups and matching the numbers. We finished the week by looking by at the terms fewer than, more than and the same as. We played a game using dominoes and a dice where we had to decide whether the dots of the domino were more than, fewer than or the same as the number rolled. 

 In science we investigated our 'hearing'. 

We discussed how people who cannot hear are deaf and how our hearing often deteriorates as we get older. We spoke of the need to be careful and use our senses when crossing the roads and how crossings have been adapted to help people who have hearing loss or who cannot see.  A few children shared their knowledge of grandparents with hearing aids which magnify the sounds and allow them to hear more clearly.   

We went on a listening walk to find out what we could hear around the school. We had to be very still to identify some of the quieter sounds such as the wind turbine, the birds cheeping and the wind rustling the leaves. The aeroplane, car engines and children's voices were much louder and more easily heard!

We had a delightful end to the week on Friday as we practised our mark making in Art using straight, ziz-zag, curved, wavy, dotted and dashed lines. This time we discussed the artist Paul Klee, who used music as an inspiration for his paintings. Working in groups on a large sheet of paper, they drew marks and pictures as they listened to four different pieces of classical music. They moved around their table, adding to the work of their peers and responding to how the music made them feel.

"A line is a dot that went for a walk..."

Next week, we are looking forward to choosing our Year 5 buddies!

Happy Weekend! 

W/E September 26th 2025 

The weather has been glorious this week and gave us an opportunity to take some of our learning activities outside. 

In English we discovered that a 'noun' is a special naming word that identifies a person, place or thing (object) within a sentence. We looked at different sentences together and spotted the noun words before heading for the playground where we went on a 'noun hunt' and searched for words that fitted the criteria and then wrote them down. - it was great fun!

Later in the week, we discovered how words that describe a noun are known as adjectives. We thought of words that might describe a dog's special features, using adjectives for its size, colour and how it felt to name but a few.  We then wrote down some adjectives to describe other objects such as cars, animals and places.

In Maths, we have been representing different objects using counters on a ten frame. We looked at numbers when written as words and learnt how to count on from a given number - we played a game with dice and used blank number tracks to write down the numbers needed to count on from the number we rolled. We finished the week by adding one more to a number. 

We also highlighted the maths 'working wall' for children to use as a way of remembering the equipment and methods of learning we have used in lessons. 

In Science we started our investigation on the different senses by 'looking' more specifically at our eyes. 

We discussed what it might be like for someone who was blind and then carried out an experiment as we tried to throw beanbags into a bowl using both eyes, one eye closed and then both eyes closed - mind out everyone! 

In computing this week, we discussed how important it is to keep ourselves safe when using the internet and how the information we read on the internet is not always truthful.  

We read a story called 'Penguin Pig' which explains how a girl was tricked into believing that a penguin pig actually existed and went off in search of one at the local zoo. 

In History we looked at our museum artefacts and made comparisons between these old toys from the past and more modern toys from our classroom. We looked at the differences we noticed and how we might tell them apart. 

We discussed the materials they were made from and how many old toys would have been handcrafted and taken a long time to make, which meant they were very expensive to buy. This meant that children had very few toys compared to nowadays. 

A special thank you goes out to Orlando's Granny who came in to explain the traditions of the Jewish new year.

The children helped to set up the special table and learnt what each item represented. We saw some Hebrew writing and saw pictures of the religious book, the Torah, and discovered that, unlike books written in English, the text is read from right to left. 

To finish, the children tasted some special bread and some apples with honey which symbolises hope for a sweet and good New Year.

And finally, on Friday afternoon the children had a great time practising some rugby skills with our visiting rugby champion Isaac Ridge from Chinnor R.FC. 

All in all another very busy week!  

Have a great weekend!

W/E September 19th 2025

 Thank you for coming to view the first blog for our new Year 1 children.

We will regularly update the pages to give you a flavour of what is happening in class.

The children are settling in beautifully and getting more familiar with routines and expectations. There is a lot to remember, so they may be tired! Hopefully they are not too exhausted as I hear a few of you have plans to visit the Thame fair - I hope you have fun!  

In English this week we started to look at our core text Dogger. 

We looked at the front cover and items from a story sack to think about questions

we would like to know about the story Dogger. 

We then wrote down a question of our own using an interrogative words such as who, what, where, when or why? 

We then read the blurb to see whether it might answer any of our questions but discovered that although some were answered, there were still some outstanding questions. 

Next, after reading the book through to the end, we discovered where each of the story sack items fitted into the story. We finished the week by ordering some pictures that identified the main events of the story and then used the words first, then, next and finally to recall what happened.

In phonics, we will be spending the next couple of weeks recapping the phase 3 digraphs and trigraphs, these tend to be more challenging to remember. This will ensure the children have a strong foundation on which we can introduce the next phase of learning. The English language presents many different ways of writing one sound and these are introduced in Phase 5, we call them alternate graphemes. As the children become more practised in their reading they will be exposed to new spellings of a sound and be taught where and when to use them in their own writing. 

As always, regular reading practise is vital to build the children's confidence in recognising the sounds and to build fluency as they read.

Thank you for remembering to return the reading envelopes on Wednesday, your reading practise is much appreciated. Just in case there is any confusion, the children have two bug club books each week, the third book is their own choice of library book and is meant for you to read to your child as a way of developing their love of reading and modelling how exciting a book can be. 

In maths we have been meeting some of the characters from the White Rose Maths programme. We discovered how one of the characters 'Tiny' the turtle can sometimes get a little muddled and make mistakes.

We talked about how it was OK to make mistakes and how we can learn learn from them and the importance of not giving up if we find things tricky - the teachers are always there to help!

We learnt how our lessons always start with 'flashbacks' to help remind us of all that we have learnt previously and then we move on to the new learning. We will be using practical materials as much as possible to make the maths more easy to understand and will use games and challenges to help consolidate the learning. We finish our lessons with a problem solving question that helps us apply the knowledge to practical situations. 

This week we started our module on place value within 10. We have been learning how to sort items such as shapes and buttons into different categories. We looked for similarities and differences between items, using colour, shape and size as a starting point.

We learnt the word 'subitise' to describe how to identify how many items there are without having to count them. The regular patterns on dice are ways that people regularly subitise numbers, as they instantly see two rows of three dots and know it represents the number six.

We introduced a 'ten frame' which, when full of counters, represents the number ten and then looked at ways of splitting up ten cubes by counting out a chosen amount and seeing how many were left over. 

In History, we had some very special artefacts in class this week, a collection of old toys on loan from Amersham museum. The children showed great care as they handled some cherished teddies, spinning tops, building bricks, and some cup and ball games to mention just a few. We discovered that many of these items were made before even their grandparents were born!

In the coming weeks we will be looking more closely at how and why toys have changed over time.

 Please chat to your child about toys you played with when young, or maybe encourage your child to ask their grandparent/great grandparent what they played with. 

In Science, we started our topic on the human body by naming all the body parts we could. We sang the head, shoulders, knees and toes song and played a game of 'Simon says'. They were very difficult to catch out! 

The children finished by labelling some diagrams. 

Over the coming weeks, we will be looking at our senses and will be taking part in practical experiments to understand how they work.

Happy Weekend Folks!

Summer Term 1 - Week 4

It has been a special week this week with the arrival of 4 little chicks. Two hatched before school, one over lunch, but thankfully one hatched right in front of our eyes and the children had the chance to experience the wonder of nature first hand. The smiles of delight on their faces was so lovely to see. There were questions about the remaining three eggs, so most children chose to watch as we cracked them open to see what had happened inside. We discovered that two were not fertilised and one had started to change and then stopped. This provided an important lesson about the fragility of life as well as the stages of a life-cycle.

In addition, the children have been looking at different breeds of chicken eggs and creating pastel artwork as well as observing the chicks in their new home. The class also voted on names for the chicks, with some interesting suggestions!

The week concluded with a special treat for earning 10 pairs of pants with a hot chocolate and roasted marshmallows around our fire pit in the wild area.

Summer Term 1 - Week 3

This week we have mainly focussed on creating different pages for our Chicken Information Books. The children will each have their own book with details about their observations and knowledge of the chicken life-cycle.

We are close to our due date (next Wednesday) and the children have been excitedly counting down the days until they hatch. There will be an opportunity for the children to hold a chick if they would like and a photo will be used to go into their books.

We have also been focussing on a number of chicken and/or egg related texts, with a lot of interest in traditional stories such as ‘Chicken Licken’ and ‘The Little Red Hen’. The children have enjoyed relaying the stories and discussing the moral issues associated with them.

Phonics Sessions – We have started to build on the children’s independent writing skills and are focussing on writing short sentences on their own. If your child wants to bring an item in to show, please encourage them to have a go at writing (and sounding out the words in their sentence) without too much adult input.

Summer Term 1 - Week 2

It has been a lovely week of outdoor learning, with opportunities to do some gardening, search for minibeasts and use our water pulley systems and den. There has also been a lot of collaboration working in our large sand pit creating tracks and tunnels.

Other activities…

We would like to thank Georgie’s mum for kindly coming in and delivering an art session doing some block printing and also Louie’s Grandma for another great Maths session to challenge our more able mathematicians.

We have also been continuing interest in our chick development and ‘candled’ our eggs this week. We were disappointed to learn that two eggs are not fertile and one other is unlikely to develop (having started to change). The other four eggs seem to be doing well, with clear shadows showing the embryos inside. The children have started making their own information books about the chicken life-cycle and will be adding information over the couple of weeks.

In addition, following the children’s interest in nature and minibeasts last week, we put out some interesting natural artefacts that have been found locally (some in our wild area) to stimulate a focus for writing.

Finally, there has been quite a lot of discussion about new life (with the chicken development) as well as death. This is obviously a sensitive subject area and we always look to use these opportunities to provide some context, without going into too much depth, at an age appropriate level. If you would like to talk to us more about this, please get in touch.

Summer Term 1 - Week 1

We have had an ''egg'citing start to the new term with the introduction of a chicken life-cycle project (following our butterfly project last term). We have 7 eggs (from Mr Van der Leeuw's chickens) in an incubator and will be counting down the days until they hatch. The children have been learning about the different stages using an app on the iPad to see what is happening inside the eggs.

Other news…

There was an opportunity to create butterfly sun catchers which have been put up to decorate the classroom.

We have been busy planting and repotting vegetables in our garden and we have also noticed how much our onions and garlic have grown.

There was a lot of activity in the Wild Area, where some children discovered a newt and a number of interesting minibeasts, which we researched later.

Spring Term 2 - Week 6

It has been a jam-packed end-of-term round up, with lots of exciting events, culminating in the perfect timing of our Painted Lady butterflies hatching and being released into the wild – a true sign of new life at Easter!

The children have been learning about the Christian celebration of Easter and how the story is told in the Bible. This week we have also enjoyed decorating and rolling eggs, planting wildflower seeds and taking part in an Easter egg hunt as a special treat. The children had to work together to solve and find clues, which they had to write down to find the location of some Easter eggs.

Lastly, the children witnessed our butterflies hatching (which we have observed as part of a life-cycle project from tiny caterpillars).

We hope you all have a wonderful Easter break!

Spring Term 2 - Week 5

We’ve been continuing our interest in life-cycles this week with our chrysalides fully formed and in their new location ready to emerge as butterflies soon. The children have been writing about their knowledge of the changes that occur, which will be reinforced again after Easter as we start our chicken life-cycle project.

Thank you again to Mrs Lowndes for her continued support reinforcing maths mastery in number. The children have enjoyed and subsequently benefited from the focussed teaching groups she has been a part of and this has been apparent in the confidence the children have shown when explaining their understanding.  

We also enjoyed an Easter activity with Reverent Richard from St. Mary’s Church this week. The artwork will contribute to a larger display in the church for all to see. We will be learning more about the Christian celebration next week.

Spring Term 2 - Week 4

Following on from our Octonauts project, the children have been creating storyboards as a prerequisite to animating a short video using stop-motion technology. The children were taught how to carefully position props on a small set and used an app on an iPad to create motion that brought their animations to life.

Other news…

We have been excitedly observing the growth and changes to our caterpillars, which are now almost all chrysalides. Next week we will remove them from their current housing into a net in anticipation of the next process of metamorphosis as they hatch into butterflies. We will then release them into the wild area before the end of term.

Spring Term 2 - Week 3

This week there has been a lot or interest in the Octonauts project. The children have been busy finding out about the characters and creating information sheets.

We have also been working with clay to create models of the Octonaut characters, which have been carefully painted ready for next week, where we will be learning about stop-motion animation.

Other interests…

We have been delighting in the wonders of nature with the observation of our fast-growing caterpillars, collecting hailstones after the storm and looking under a microscope at a Devil’s Coach Horse beetle. All of these interests have sparked conversations and stimulated questions to answer, often resulting in research in books to find out more!

Spring Term 2 - Week 2

This week we initiated a mini project linked to an interest in Octonauts. We have been learning about the characters and how they help to save animals and solve problems in the ocean. We will continue this over the next few weeks, working towards some stop-motion animation using models they will have created.

We have also been focussing on a few pirate themed stories that the children enjoy, which led to the theme for World Book Day. The children followed treasure maps and solved clues to look for some buried treasure in our wild area.

Caterpillars observation – We have started talking about Spring and the start of new life. We will be learning about life-cycles and started this off with the introduction of caterpillars. The children will be able to observe them grow and metamorphosise into butterflies, which will later be released into our wild area. This topic will continue next term in more depth with a focus on chicken life-cycles, developing eggs in an incubator in the classroom.

Finally, we have been planting bulbs for an up-and-coming special occasion!

Spring Term 2 - Week 1

Walnut Class started the new term with enthusiasm and excitement, talking about their holidays and time spent with families.

The children have been learning to get back into school routines and focussing on listening skills.  

The children have voted on ‘’toy shop’ for their new role-play area and have been learning about the value of different coins.

We have seen some good progress in mathematical language and understanding, referring to number facts and composition.

We have also been doing some still life watercolour painting of daffodils and discussing some of the early signs of spring.

Spring Term 1 - Week 6

What a busy and fun packed last week it's been! We launched this week with an introduction into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) looking at various jobs and how science is used in many different ways. We set ourselves an engineering challenge, looking at bridges and the shapes that appear to give structure and support. This led to a number of tasks involving pasta, card and other materials to create bridges to support small vehicles. Lastly, we had a marble challenge to work in teams to build the longest marble run!

Other news…

We had fun learning about the moon and how astronauts have made lunar landings. We looked at the moon using google earth and then had the chance to see real moon rocks and fragments of asteroids!

Finally, we rounded the week off with our special treat, which was a slightly belated Lunar New Year celebration. The children helped to set up a Chinese banquet and cooked a stir fry with crispy seaweed, prawn crackers and fortune cookies. They also gave lucky envelopes to each other. What a lovely end to the term!

Spring Term 1 - Week 5

This week has flown by, with a continuation of the Lunar New Year Theme. The children have been working on different movements in their PE lessons this term, building up to a sequence linked to Dragon dancing. This week we enjoyed putting the various elements together to show each other. They also used their imaginations to represent animals of the Chinese Zodiac.

Other news…

There has been a surge of enthusiasm in our phonics sessions, with lots of fantastic writing from everyone. The children’s confidence in blending and reading is also evident and we will be building on this motivation next term.

Walnut Class have been working hard to earn the last few pairs of pants so that they can have another treat. We are aiming for a Chinese Banquet to finish the term’s Lunar celebrations.

Spring Term 1 - Week 4

It has been another eventful week in Walnut Class, with guest appearances from two of the children’s grandmothers stepping up to do some teaching! Special thanks to them both for their enthusiasm and expertise. The children were having fun doing some maths activities at the beginning of the week and then learning more about Chinese customs and celebrations at the end of the week.

The class have also been busy writing Chinese messages, making lucky envelopes to share with their classmates and continuing craft activities linked to the Lunar Festival. We enjoyed rehearsing a dragon dance in PE too!

Spring Term 1 - Week 3

We have been continuing the theme of Lunar New Year celebrations and Walnut class have been making puppets after watching a shadow puppet show about the animals in the Chinese Zodiac. The children have enjoyed learning about some of the Chinese customs and folk stories, including the story of Nian the monster!

Other news…

We have also ben talking about silhouettes and noticing thee beautiful sunrises and sunsets at this time of year. We were inspired to do some art work using pastels to blend colours and represent a winter sunset.

We also spent an afternoon sharing cake and a story with our buddies after voting for this special treat for earning 10 more pairs of pants!

Spring Term 1 - Week 2

Walnut Class have kicked off this year with the introduction to Lunar New Year. We have been learning about Chinese customs and celebrations and have converted our role-play are into a Chinese Restaurant.

We have also been joining in with the Big Bird Watch and have discovered a Robin’s nest in our Mud Kitchen.

Finally, the class have just received their final pair of pants for the washing line and voted to have cake and a story with their buddies next week.

Autumn Term 2 - Week 6

Walnut Class amazed us with their fantastic performances on Monday and Tuesday this week. The children have worked so hard to remember their lines and when to come on to narrate their part of the story. They were so confident on the big stage and had smiles on their faces as they participated. There was also some wonderful artwork that was produced for the backdrop scenes and lovely singing too – well done to you all, we are very proud of you!

Other news…

The children have been continuing to take part in festive activities such as creating Christmas paperchains to decorate the classroom. There was a challenge to beat Mrs Ward’s class for the longest paperchain and we won!

We were also trying out some new writing tablets to practise our letters and drawing, which have proved very popular (not dissimilar to old-fashioned chalk boards!)  

Autumn Term 2 - Week 5

Christmas is in full swing and the children have been busily decorating the classroom and Christmas role-play home. The children each created their own advent calendar and have been opening them each day to see what is inside (coupled with receiving a Smartie as an extra treat!)

The children have also been rehearsing hard for the play performance next week and have blown Mr Poote away with their confidence and delivery of their lines. 

The class also earned a special treat for collecting all the gems in the jar. Children can receive a gem for solving their problems using words. The vote was to toast marshmallows on a fire and have a hot chocolate – yummy!

Autumn Term 2 - Week 4

Nativity play rehearsals are in full swing and the children are already rising to the occasion! The children have been learning their words and practising the songs daily. We always like to set the bar high, so the determination to deliver their lines confidently and without prompting is fantastic. The children are improving every time they get on the stage and are also adapting well to the changes in routines.

Other news…

Thanks to one of our parents, we had the chance to look at and burn some real frankincense, which we found interesting.

The children have also been busy creating advent calendars ready for the countdown to Christmas. Each day, the children will be offered a ‘Smartie’ once they have opened their calendar door.

Lastly, the class have collected all of the gems in the jar for solving problems using their words. This means we are going to have a special treat (toasting marshmallows on a fire and having a hot chocolate) next Friday. Well done Walnut Class!      

Autumn Term 2 - Week 3

It has been a busy week, with lots of visitors to the class! We were really impressed with the way children were confident to talk about their learning environment and the things they do at school. It was noted how well the children managed to be calm, when they needed to, especially after the heavy snowfall.

Other news - We had fun during Forest School, looking for animal tracks and creating Mandalas in the snow using natural resources. The class also delighted in throwing snowballs at Mr Poote and having a run around to keep warm!

We also enjoyed observing the effects of melting snow and ice and did an experiment to predict what would happen overnight. We also looked at our wormery to see how the worms that we collected had created tunnels.

Finally, we have been reading lots of versions of the Nativity story to help the children to understand their characters and their involvement in the play. We have been busy trying to formulate part of the dialogue by asking children what the cahacters might say - watch this space!

Autumn Term 2 - Week 2

This week we have been focussing on artwork linked to Remembrance Day. The children took part in a minutes's silence with the rest of the school on Monday and we were proud to see how respectful they all were during the service. The children later created watercolour and 'splatter art' of poppies, which will be displayed later in the term.

Other news - We have created a wormery and will be observing the wonder of worms and all that they do. Some children helped find the resources needed (including worms) and we also discovered a family of Irish Yellow slugs (we though that they were Leopard Slugs) and their eggs!

Autumn Term 2 - Week 1

It has been lovely to see everyone after the half term break and despite the inevitable few wobbles, the children have been excited to be back.

Some of this shortened week has been about getting back into school timings and routines, but in addition to the usual timetable, we have been talking about various celebrations and customs. We have been learning about Bon fire night and Diwali and looking at some of the similarities between activities people take part in. The children have been creating firework art and had a go at producing rangoli patterns.

Other news - we have been thinking of ideas for a change of role play area and the children used tally charts to find out that a cafe was the most popular suggestion. The children have started to resource their new space and decorate it with cafe paraphernalia!

Please take a look at our class page for more photos...