Friday 6th June

Welcome back to this our final term in Year 1. 

Sadly the weather has not been as kind to us so far but hopefully things are set to improve next week. 

Great news, the pool is now ready for action and our swimming lessons can commence. We went for a look around the pool on Tuesday to make sure we knew what to expect and familiarise ourselves with all the safety rules again.

Thank you for the 'goggle approval' forms that have already been returned, please make sure these are handed in to us if your child wishes to wear them. Earrings need to be removed too please. 

On Thursday, the children had their first cricket lesson. They played some warm-up games that practised their listening skills and speed at responding to instructions. They then worked in pairs to practise their throwing and catching skills. We are all looking forward to next week's lesson.

In Science, we checked in on our planting. The sunflowers have a way to go yet but the grass heads have been a great success and are already in need of a trim!

We have also been looking more closely at growing and planting, with a focus on food sources and the role that farmers take in the production of our foods. We learned how to classify foods that are grown. We looked specifically at fruits and learned that if they contain seeds they are 'botanically' classed as a fruit. This linked with our new DT module too, where we took a practical look at a range of fresh food and investigated which ones were 'fruits or not a fruit'.  There were some surprises such as the cucumber, peas and peppers which most thought would have been vegetables, although many already knew that the tomato is actually classed as a fruit. We looked more closely at the items that were 'not a fruit' to see what part of the plant we were eating...was it the stem, the leaves or maybe the roots?

We talked about how some fruits, for example grapes and pineapples, have been scientifically adapted so the varieties we buy in the supermarket no longer contain seeds, as people prefer to eat them without.      

In phonics we have been playing games and practising the phase 5 sounds.

Next week we will be taking a special 'quiz' (AKA the phonics screening check) where the children get to read some real and alien words. We regularly practise these in class so as far as the children are concerned this will be just like the others we have completed before, we have not mentioned anything else about them.

The quiz will hopefully show us how well the children are remembering their sounds.

In maths this week we have been learning how to describe different positions. We looked at turns and have been practising quarter, half, three quarter and full turns. We started by turning clockwise and then realised we could also turn anticlockwise, which really blew our minds a bit - we will continue to recap this over the next few days. 

We also looked at left and right positions and wrote an L for left and a r for right on the backs of our hands before joining in the 'Cha Cha Slide' song on the smart board where we got to practise a lot of the moves - it was great fun! 

Next week we will be looking at 'forward and backwards' as well as 'above and below'. 

In PSHE this term, we will be learning about our bodies and how they change as we grow.

This week we matched up some animal pictures to their babies. We then thought about what physical changes we could see between the two of them.

We watched a video of the lifecycle of a frog and then had a go at sorting through some animal lifecycles in our groups.

And finally, as promised, our  Willow Class 'Tree of Life' has been completed and put on a display board in the glass corridor. We took a couple of photos for you to see. 

Happy Weekend! 

Friday 23rd May

Another glorious week was had by us all in Willow class. 

We have been out in the sunshine planting seeds this week in Science. 

We investigated what the seeds would need to grow, where to put them and what we would need to do to ensure they thrived. We planted them in soil, watered them and placed them in the sunshine to give them the best possible chance of growing. Now that it is Spring time and the weather is warmer, we decided it was safe to leave them outdoors. We will be tending them over the next few weeks and observing the different parts of the plants as they develop.

In Phonics, we have been practising the long vowel sound 'oa' and the alternate graphemes.

This week we looked at the ow spelling (usually at the end of words) as well as oe, the split o-e and the o on its own. What a lot of variations the English language has! 

Thank you for the History questionnaires and photos that have been sent in. We are working our way through them and have been fascinated by all the seaside experiences of our relatives - there was a very funny picture of great Grandma on a donkey ride who appeared rather shocked as she moved off - we loved it!

We have been focussing on Seaside entertainment this week and enjoyed watching a 'Punch and Judy show'. We sorted through some pictures and decided which ones would have happened in the past and which ones were more present day. We discovered some cross-overs - eating ice-cream was one of them although the way they were served up in the past was different to nowadays. There were certainly no ice-cream vans driving around, it was most likely served from a cart in a glass pot and was known as a penny-lick. 

In English we finished off our diary entries and our adventures at the seaside sadly came to an end - but what a wonderful few days was had by all accounts! 

We finished the week with a look at more 'root words' but this time we added the prefix 'un'. We discovered that a prefix goes at the beginning of a word and changes its meaning to the opposite - meaning not. For example - happy to un-happy (meaning not happy). 

In Maths we took a first look at fractions as we learnt how to share items out into equal groups. As we tried sharing out different objects, we noticed that sometimes items could not be shared out equally and there were some remaining. An odd number of items could definitely not be shared between two!

We found some tiny fairy cakes and set to work seeing if they could be shared equally between the whole class - all gluten and dairy free luckily!

There was just enough for them to be shared equally between everyone - phew! 

We have also been learning how to recognise and find half of an item and then recognising and finding quarters too. We cut out some shapes and discovered that halving an item and then halving it again helped us find a quarter. This worked well for circles, squares and rectangle shapes but didn't work so well for a 5 pointed star shape. Although we could fold it into 4 pieces they were not equal and all 4 parts must be equal to be a quarter. 

We finished the week with Art and continued to develop our understanding of 3D Sculpture.

Last week we started work on a combined piece of work to make a Willow Class 'Tree of Life'. We discovered 

 how the tree of life is a common way of representing all of nature in one tree. Some cultures have stories or myths based on the tree of life. The idea appears in lots of art, from paintings to stained glass to sculpture. 

We combined different paper folding, cutting and decorating techniques to make leaves, flowers, birds, butterflies and creatures. It took a great show of concentration and determination to make all of the different elements - here are a few of the items we made. We will post some photos when all of the items have been put together on the tree. 

We hope you all have a fantastic half term break and look forward to seeing you back on the morning of Tuesday 3rd June, when Mrs Nash will be in for Music and the children will be finishing off making their musical instruments from the last lesson. 

Happy holidays everyone!

Friday 16th May

This week in Phonics we have been re-capping the long 'igh' sound and again looking at different graphemes that represent the sound and whereabouts they usually appear within words. We looked at ie, the split i-e, y and i.

In History we investigated the different transport methods for getting to the seaside and how holiday travel has changed in recent years. We have been hearing all about the children's own experiences of travelling away whether it be by plane, train, boat or car - lucky children! Their experiences have been very wide and varied compared to those of the grandparents' experiences we have been hearing about. Thank you to those that have already send back your answers to our seaside questionnaire, we will be looking in greater detail during our next lesson on Monday. 

In science, we looked at types of trees and whether they were deciduous or evergreen. We investigated what this meant and compared the different leaf types (or needles) that belonged to the different categories of trees. We did some rubbings of a variety of leaves and identified which trees they belonged to. 

In English we learnt about root words and suffixes and investigated how the suffix alters the meaning of the word. We looked at some adjectives and discovered how we can use the ending er and est to make comparisons. We also looked at how adding the suffix ing and ed can change verbs from the present to the past tense.

We used this information with our very next challenge which was writing our very own diary entries.

We started by reading the story - 'Dougal's Deep-Sea Diary' by Simon Bartram.

We used a checklist to find elements within the story that identified it as a diary. We then used this information to start our own diary. We used our own experiences and some photo prompts to imagine we were at the seaside and then wrote down our ideas. Our lesson on past tenses came in very handy! As usual, we worked through a process of drafting and editing our work before writing up our best copy in our diary sheets. 

We are now getting much better at spotting ways to improve our writing and checking that it makes sense, has a capital letter and full-stop, as well as thinking about the alternate ways of spelling words with the information we have learnt in phonics. We will continue with new diary entries next week too.

In PSHE we have been thinking about what makes a good friend. We put everyone's name into a box and pulled one out at a time and started thinking about what makes them a special friend. It was so lovely seeing each child plump up with pride and blush as their friends highlighted their individual qualities.   

We will make sure every child has the opportunity to experience this over the coming days and weeks. 

The children then sorted through some statements about friendships that made them think about what qualities a friend should have. There was one statement that caused quite a bit of debate - 'Bring me presents all the time'.  After some discussion we decided that although it is nice to get presents, a friend shouldn't need to do this!

Friday 9th May

In Year 1 Phonics this term we will be recapping all of the sounds we have already learnt to ensure we are filling the gaps in the children's understanding. We have been looking more closely at the 'ai' and 'ee' long vowel sounds and all the written variations of the sounds. We have been identifying where the different grapheme options are most likely to appear in a word such as ay, ey, and y are most likely to be used at the end of a word, where as ai, ei, ea, and ie are most often used in the middle of words.

We sang a song to remember how to spell the word happy - you may remember it yourself...

...I'm H-A-P-P-Y, yes I'm H-A-P-P-Y, I know I am, I'm sure I am, I'm H-A-P-P-Y! 

The split digraphs can be particularly tricky to spot too so we have been practising reading many of these words especially within the context of real and alien words as we practise ahead of Statutory Phonics Screening check that is coming up at the beginning of June.

We do not explain the testing process to the children and keep the emphasis on playing fun alien word games - the children are very familiar with the format. 

Please may we ask that you continue with regular reading practise to ensure the children have maximum exposure to the all the variations of sounds and are able to approach the check with good confidence. 

In English this week, we have had great fun further developing our disgusting sandwich ideas.

The children have written out their recipe ingredients and have been writing up instructions that explain to the reader how the sandwich is put together. We looked at imperative verbs, we often call them bossy verbs as they command the reader to follow an instruction. We spotted how these words usually appear at the beginning of a sentence in special types of reading material such as recipe books, game instructions and 'how to' manuals as you are told to hammer, tap, add, mix etc. We often hear those commands on a car Sat Nav too when we are told to drive, turn, stop, reverse. 

We made a list of some appropriate bossy words for our recipes.

In our table groups, we then took turns to step out the making process, ensuring the instructions were carried out in the right order. We chose whether to number the sentences or use bullet points in our writing. 

There were some really stomach-churning ideas which we are confident will truly repel the seagulls!

In PSHE we have been talking about relationships and the different people who are included within a family.

We discovered that people can belong to different family units, some with siblings, some without, some with one or two parents, some with grandparents, some living with foster families etc and how this is all perfectly fine and quite OK.

We talked about how the most important thing is that you have people around you that love and care for you.

We then made drawings of our own families. There was much discussion over our pets and whether they should be included as part of this - the conclusion was a resounding YES! 

Similarly in RE, we talked about people who are important to us. We thought about the reasons why they are special to us and wrote down the reasons why we thought this. It was lovely to hear the children express their thoughts about the people around them and appreciate all the special things things you and others do for them.

In Maths this week we have been counting in 2's, 5's and 10's, we will finish the week looking at equal and unequal groups as we start to introduce multiplication and division in their simplest forms.

Again songs are a powerful source of learning and help children to memorise facts so we have begun to introduce simple songs and chants to help retain these important counting facts. 

In History we have been investigating seaside holidays and will be sending home a list of questions the children have put together to ask about your own seaside experiences from the past. Please look out for this in book bags. We would love to hear memories or collect in seaside photos that showcase changes through the years.

This will help us learn to...

Use a timeline to identify the changes at the seaside over time

Describe similarities and differences between the past and the present 

Find answers to simple questions about the past from sources of information (i.e. artefacts) 

Begin to identify different ways to interpret the past (i.e. photos, videos, stories, adults talking about the past)

Use speaking and listening skills 

Ask and answer questions related to different sources and objects

What a lot of learning there is to be had! 

Happy Weekend Folks - the forecast is looking good! 

Friday 2nd May

We have had a wonderful start to the new term, the fabulous weather has helped of course. 

We began our new Seaside topic that links both our English and Humanities subjects, this term it is History and next term Geography. 

It all started with a very intriguing arrival in class last week - a basket covered in a red checked cloth. Inside was filled with items that included some seagulls, a bucket and spade, and a starfish, which made us think it must be seaside related...and then came a lighthouse, a packed lunch and a pot of mustard!

We wondered what these items might be for...and then someone correctly guessed that it might be connected to our new topic book - The Lighthouse Keeper's lunch (by Ronda and David Armitage). 

We read the story together and discussed the characters, the story structure and our favourite parts of the story. There were lots of new words for us to identify, such as industrious, concocting, appetising, scavenging, accomplished and ingenious to name but a few! 

The story tells of a lighthouse keeper with a lovely wife who sends a fresh basket of food to him everyday via a zipwire. Unfortunately the seagulls realised there was delicious food inside and devoured the food before it ever reached Mr Grinling. Luckily the pair of them came up with a plan to deter the seagulls (mustard sandwiches, which the seagulls detested) and Mr Grinling was soon able to enjoy the lovely lunches for himself again.

Some of the children were keen to understand what all the fuss was about and had a go at tasting the mustard - it was hilarious to see the faces they pulled!

Each child then chose a character and then made up interesting phrases to describe them. They turned the phrases into sentences to explain what the characters were like in terms of their appearance and personality and used adjectives to make the descriptions interesting to read. 

They also learnt what a conjunction was and how to use the word 'and' to join their sentences together.

This week we received a letter from Mr Grinling telling us the seagulls were back and asking for our help with more ideas for disgusting sandwiches - it was lots of fun coming up with ideas for the fillings. We shared our ideas before writing our own down and writing an explanation as to what the sandwich would include.

We are looking forward to mocking up our revolting sandwiches next week! 

In maths we have been measuring length and height and comparing items in terms of which are longer, shorter and taller and measured items with rulers in centimetres, making sure we always started measuring at zero. We used balance scales to compare items and see which were heavier and lighter and measured the mass of items with cubes. We then looked at capacity and volume and had lots of fun with water in the garden as we checked out different sizes and shapes of containers to find which had the greatest capacity. We did get rather wet in the process but luckily it was a hot sunny day and we dried off very quickly! 

In Art this term we will be looking a 3D paper play and learning how to make sculptures out of paper and card. 

Today we looked at the artist 'Samantha Stephenson' who makes sculptures out of metal and uses curved shapes  to show movement. We then had a go at making sculptures using paper to makes cylinder shapes. 

There was some fantastic concentration on display as the children came up with their designs and set to work. 

We were very impressed with the finished sculptures! 

And finally...

Apologies if your child came home with pink tongues and maybe a few purple stains on their clothing but it was all in a good cause!

A practical PSHE lesson on dental health was the order of the day as we looked at the importance to looking after our teeth and learnt how we could do this. Out came the giant teeth to demonstrate what needed to be done before the children turned their mouths and teeth purple with disclosing tablets - even the carpet got a little splatter - oops. 

It was then toothbrushing time and everyone had a go at cleaning away the plaque and bacteria from their mouths as we listened to a jolly song that played along for just over 2 minutes - exactly the right amount of time for us to keep brushing. 

We now know that two minutes of brushing, twice a day with regular check ups at the dentist (and avoiding too many sweet foods and drinks) is just what's needed for healthy clean teeth. 

Happy brushing!  

Friday 28th February

Welcome back to the new term.

The children have been very pleased to see one another again and have been keenly sharing news of their half term adventures with us all. 

This term our Space topic continues.

In English we have been looking at poetry. 

We read some poems together and discovered there are a lot of different types of poems. We learnt that a poem is a piece of writing that uses imaginative words to share ideas, emotions or a story with the reader.  We noticed there are a lot that have short verses with words that rhyme and discovered that everyone knew some poems already in the form of ‘Nursery Rhymes’. We were able to recite some of these together.

We particularly liked the funny poems we read and the rhyming elements of the verses.

We also thought about ways we could perform poems to make them sound more exciting.

 We watched a video from the former children’s laureate, Michael Rosen (author of ‘We are going on a bear hunt’ and ‘This is my house’ etc.) who explained different ways in which we can use our voice and actions to bring a poem to life when we are reciting it.

We read a poem called Zim Zam Zoom from the book of the same title, by James Carter, and then worked together in groups to learn a verse. Each group got to decide upon the action and voice changes they wished before reciting it back to the class.

We have been looking at a poem called 'Funny Space Poem' that uses rhyming couplets. We have been identifying the rhyming words within the poem and have been noting down ones we might be able to use when we have a go at writing our own poems next week. 

There has been much excitement about the 'Planetary Parade' that has been visible this week. Hopefully, some of you may have seen many of the planets in the sky as they align for the last time until 2040. If any of you managed to capture this on camera, we would love to see the photos. 

In maths we have continued to look at numbers to 20, this time as we look at doubles and near doubles and how we can use doubling facts to help solve addition and subtraction sums. Again, this has been a difficult concept to grasp so any help with practise on doubling facts would be very much appreciated.

In PSHE this term our subject is 'healthy me'.

We played a 'healthy or less healthy' game as we decided what choices we could make to keep our body and mind functioning at its best. Choices included eating, drinking, cleanliness, exercise, sleep routines and keeping safe in the sun. There were lots of lovely discussions to be had and these will continue in more detail over the next few weeks. We discovered that sleep is very important for a healthy mind and body and that 5-6 year olds need approximately 11 hours each night. 

Friday 14^th February

Another jam-packed week has taken us all the way to half term.

In English, we have been learning about verbs. We learnt that a verb is an action word that describes something you are doing or have done. We spotted the verbs in sentences, some were more tricky than others such as saw and thought. We noticed that many of the words had an ‘ing’ on the end of them. We then went outside and had great fun searching for the verbs that were hidden around the playground.

 This term, in music, the children have been learning to play a ukelele and Mrs Nash invited me in for a special performance. The children have learnt the names of the different parts of the instrument and how to strum simple songs.

I was hoping to show you the video but have only been able to upload some stills – sorry, no sound!

In maths, we have been using the balance scales and the Numicon counters to solve number sentences. This helps the children visual the concept of number bonds as they see that adding ten to one side of the calculation needs to balanced out with a ten on the other side for example:

6 + 2 = 8

16 + 2 + 18

6 +12 = 18

The children were very excited to tell me about the science day. There were lots of interesting facts and wonder from the planetarium dome, a very hands on marble run exercise and the arrival of a real piece of 'Moon rock' - all a big hit - a messy classroom told me there was lots of fun had that day!

We finished the week off with a super visit to the village library. We had a great A-Z introduction to the parts of the library as each person got to search for a letter of the alphabet and find out what their letter represented.

Then there was time to search through the shelves and enjoy a book. 

Thank you to all the helpers who gave up their time to help on the day - it was much appreciated! 

  We hope you have a fabulous half term break and looking forward to seeing you all again next term!

Thursday 6th February 

Hello everyone!

In English this week, Willow class have been busy putting together the final elements of their Alien stories. We will be finishing off by getting the children to decide upon a inviting title for their story and thinking about how to include illustrations that enhance the story and help explain what is happening - just like the fictions books we read in class. 

We are excited to think that we may be holding the first manuscript of a future 'award winning' author!

In Maths we have been solving number problems to twenty on a number line. We have learned a new word 'commutative' to explain how the two numbers in an addition sum can be alternated and will still equate to the same total. This has helped us to remember that we can start to count on from the biggest number when completing our number sentences. 

We have also been using our number bonds to ten to help calculate addition sums with numbers up to 20. It has been quite a difficult concept for the children to understand - we have been looking for similarities and differences to help identify patterns within the numbers. For example...

6+2=8 

16+2=18

We have therefore been consolidating our understanding of the number bonds to ten using lots of concrete materials to help with this. We made fact families, working systematically to identify all of the bonds that make up a particular number, for example...

7+0=7

6+1=7

5+2=7

4+3=7

3+4=7

2+5=7

1+6=7

0+7=7

We found all the commutative numbers as we did so too! 

It would be really great if you could practise these number bonds to ten at home too. The 'Top Marks' maths site has some good games that will help with this...

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/number-facts/number-fact-families

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?f=WaystoMake

In Science we carried out a practical experiment to find out what would be the best material to use for a pair of curtains. We learned some new vocabulary 'transparent' and 'opaque' and shone our torches through different  materials to see which blocked out the light the best. We discovered that black card and tin foil were opaque but thought they might prove tricky to pull across a window as curtains. The children decided the dark fabric would be the most ideal material to use and now know never to buy cling film curtains! 

In History we have learning about the race into space and ordering the events that happened as the world began to investigate space travel.

We found out how fruit flies, a monkey and some dogs were sent into space long before any humans made it there. We placed the events on a timeline and watched some fascinating videos of how astronauts brush their teeth in space and how they make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich using rather a lot of velcro to hold items down and stop them floating away in the zero gravity environment. We even saw how 'Tim Peake' played ping pong with a large droplet of water and some special hydrophobic bats! 

We have really enjoyed sharing the children's space books and models, they have been a lovely way of engaging the children in this fascinating subject. We also loved the newspaper copy from the Daily Telegraph on July 21st 1969 when details of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's moon landing were first reported. 

Thank you so much - please keep them coming in!  

And finally, in PSHE today we listened to (and acted out) the story of Pauli the Penguin who set off on a well-deserved holiday having tended to his penguin egg for such a long time!

The journey was not easy, there were many hurdles to overcome (icy-rain, snow storm, hungry seals and melting ice) before he finally made it to the sea resort where the fish were plentiful!

We likened this story to a learning journey of our own, that might be tough, have challenges along the way and may take a long time but discussed how the rewards at the end would be well worth the effort. We talked about our feelings along the way and how we can help each other with words of encouragement and kindness when things get tough. It was super to hear the children come up with such lovely examples of how to support each other such as we acted it out.                           

"Let me help!"

"Don't give up - you can do it!"

"Don't worry it will get easier!"

As the story ended we heard… " Well done me - I feel proud of myself" 

FANTASTIC! 

Friday 31st Jan

This term seems to be flying away with us - where does the time go?

In English our focus story Beegu has become our writing inspiration. We have imagined and drawn our own Alien and then identified and labelled its features. We have been learning about noun phrases and been thinking about what adjectives we can use to describe our aliens. 

We have challenged the children to write their own alien adventure story and these are progressing nicely.

They have been learning to write using a three-stage process of draft/edit/final copy.

This started with a character description aimed at getting all the fabulous ideas down on paper without worrying about spelling or punctuation (and using their noun phrases to make the aliens sound more interesting). Then they learnt to edit and go back to check the content to see if it made sense, had capital letters, full-stops, finger spaces and the correct spelling of words and lastly they wrote up the final copy in their best handwriting.

The story starter has been written too and we will be progressing to the adventure and story ending in the coming days. 

In maths we have been developing our knowledge of numbers to 20. We know know how the teen numbers are made up of one lot of ten and some single ones and used ten frames, Numicon counters and cubes to make the concepts easier to understand.  

We have been counting forward and backwards and looking at what numbers are the smallest and greatest using games to practise and consolidate our understanding on number tracks and lines. We have also been using the terms greater than, less than and equal to and learning the symbols that represent them.

3>1    1<3   3 = •••

We have been using the symbols to make number sentences and discovered the arrow always points to the smaller number. 

We have begun to use the written words for numbers in our problem solving challenges too and the children are learning to read questions/listen carefully to what they are being asked to do.

Such a lot of learning - no wonder they can be tired and grumpy when they get home! 

In PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic education) we have been looking at 'Dreams and Goals'.

The children made a treasure box each and have been thinking about what they have already been successful at. They then chose a 'gold coin' and proudly wrote out a special achievement to place in their treasure box.

We then discussed how some of our goals may take time and perseverance to achieve and how breaking them down into smaller steps will make them seem more achievable. We used the analogy of making a jam sandwich to note what the 'steps to success' might be. We will continue to reflect and celebrate successes with more gold coins as the term goes on. 

In Art this term we are looking at 'Paint and Mixed Media'

We started with the three primary colours and mixed them together to make secondary colours.

We used playdough first and then moved on to mixing with paint.

We investigated how different quantities of paint could alter the shades of colour we made.

We also managed to make a lot of brown!

We looked at the work of artist and sculptor Jasper Johns.

Many pieces of his artwork feature numbers and letters and it is thought this enabled him to focus on exploring other elements of the painting process such as colour and brush strokes.

We applied our knowledge of colour mixing paints to make our own ‘Jasper Johns’ inspired painting

Friday 10th Jan

The children have made a great start to the new term.

In English we started off our new 'Aliens and space' topic. 

We read the story of Beegu and thought about where she may have come from.

We looked at how the character was introduced, where she has crash landed

and where all the noises were coming from.

We discussed who the big ones and little ones might be, how they made her feel and looked for clues

in the words and illustrations that would help us decide.

We also wondered what language Beegu spoke and although some of the words she spoke

could not be understood on earth, we discovered that she was able to communicate how she was feeling through her body language and expressions.   

We thought about what we liked and disliked about the story and were pleased that Beegu

eventually made it back home to her mother.

In science we looked at the process of melting and freezing and tried to solve the problem of how

to release the sea creatures from the frozen water.

We tried putting the pots on a radiator.

Wrapping them in warm items such as hats and gloves.

Standing the pots in hot water.

Placing the pots outside in the warm sunshine.

Some ideas worked better than others…

We also carried out some experiments on floating and sinking. We made some predictions about what we thought might happen and then tested out our theories. 

We discovered that some did both depending on which way they were put into the water!

Wednesday 8th Jan 2025

Welcome back to the new term!

Thank you to those of you who were able to make it to the art/DT show and the KS2 concert on Wednesday - it was lovely to showcase the children's amazing work and see the progression through the year groups. 

Here are a few photos for those of you who could not be there.

Wednesday 18th Dec

With just two more days left until the Christmas holiday begins, we have kept ourselves busy finishing off this term's projects.

In geography we have been looking at aerial maps and have been outside taking part in some fieldwork as we thought about what the playground might look like from a bird's eye perspective. We used the compasses to find North before plotting the layout and adding in symbols that represented the features we could see in the area. We used a map key to explain what each of the symbols meant so that anyone could use our maps to find their way around. 

   We then thought about four of these areas and rated them as to how they made us feel ahead of a final design activity we have planned. We look forward to finding out what improvements the children would like to see!

We had a fabulous Christmas lunch on Tuesday and would like to say a huge 'thank you' to the kitchen staff who organised the wonderful feast.

We had time for a few photos before we started but once the food was ready, it was all hands on deck as the adults all 'waited' on the children. Although, sadly there are no food photos, I can vouch that it was very delicious!    

In Science this term we have been investigating materials and their properties. We have been looking at similarities and differences between the materials such as whether they are shiny or dull, hard or soft, rough or smooth etc. Today we went a material treasure hunt to find items made of plastic, wood, glass, fabric, metal and rock. The 'health and safety' officer was glad we had trouble finding items made of glass, although some thought they had managed to find some, as a few of us were wearing glasses! After some investigation and further discussion we discovered that glasses are not actually made of glass, it is a special type of plastic - which we all agreed is much safer that having real glass next to your eyes. 

We were all a little sad that the KS2 concert has had to be postponed and were looking forward to sharing our now completed puppets. The children made a super effort to match their designs, we think they did an amazing job and are very proud of them!

We hope you will be able to come and see them in January instead but here is a sneak review!

We hope the children are ready to 'party' at the Christmas event tomorrow - it should be a fun afternoon! 

Thursday 12th December

What a fabulous and exciting week this has been with our dress rehearsal and long awaited for Nativity performance. Thank you all so much for taking the time to come and see the children shine. It is a very brave thing to do, standing up on stage and performing in front of so many people.

We were very proud of each and every one of them. 

We have a few photos of the children in their costumes - the joy is evident on their faces! 

Elsewhere we have been busy with this terms D&T project - puppets. The designs have been made, the joining techniques assessed and templates attached and cut out. We discovered that cutting out felt is no mean feat! 

The children all showed great determination and resilience as they battled with the scissors and snipped their way around the template - twice! 

We will (hopefully) have them all complete for next Wednesday's D&T showcase - it runs from 6-7pm in the dining hall and is then followed by the KS2 Christmas Music concert in the main hall.

Please come and join us for a festive evening of fun!

Friday 6th December

Well what a busy week we have had!

The Nativity practises have kept us occupied all week, we are now singing the songs in our sleep and are very much looking forward to sharing the performance with you all next Tuesday - all are welcome to join! 

In our classroom, the Christmas tree has now been decorated, the tinsel is up and the sparkly lights are flashing...

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" - as the song says! 

We have started the Christmas countdown with our Willow class advent calendar and each day someone will be chosen to take home a little chocolate treat - luckily there are 24 spaces in our calendar, just enough for everyone to have one - although some will have to be a little more patient than others!     

We had another lovely encounter with Reverend Richard on Wednesday when he came in to tell us all about Christingle celebrations. We made a Christingle of our very own and learned the significance of each of the items we used and what they represented to people of the Christian faith.  

Thank you so much to the Reverend and his special helpers Wendy and Gay - we all enjoyed the special treats! 

We have enjoyed our competitive sports sessions and worked in our House teams to try and earn points at a different selection of teams games. We remembered to try our best, cheer on our friends and have lots of fun in the process.

In English we have been learning how to write formal letters and have been writing to Percy the Park Keeper to ask for help solving a problem. We drafted out a letter first, looking at the different aspects that are needed such as the addresses, formal names like Mr/Mrs and signing off with Yours sincerely. Once we had edited our letters, we wrote them out in our neatest writing - we will be sharing the letters with each other next week and self-evaluating our work using a special checklist to make sure we have included everything we need - fabulous work Willow class!

In maths we have been finishing off our module on addition and subtraction within 10 and have been using a variety of tools and equipment to help us calculate the answers to number problems, including part/whole models, number tracks, number lines, bar models, ten frames and all manner of concrete materials that help consolidate and embed the understanding of numbers and the patterns within them. 

Next week we will start our Geometry module and will be looking at 2D and 3D shapes. 

Happy weekend everyone!           

Monday 2nd December

The start of our Christmas celebrations started today in school when we all made our way down to St Mary's church for our annual Christmas service. The reverend Richard put on a wonderful service for us - we particularly loved his Innkeeper performance - complete with stable door! 

The children got to practise their Christmas song 'Bethlehem Boogie' and were treated to a special chocolate coin from the church to celebrate advent. 

Thank you to the parent/grandparents who helped out on the walk to the church.

Thursday 14th November

This week we had great fun acting out our 'One Snowy Night' story.

We imagined ourselves as the animals in 'Percy the Park Keeper's park' who were caught out in the winter snow and went in search of warmth and shelter in Percy's home. 

Of course, we wanted to make the experience as realistic as possible so brought in some special 'snow' and ice props before removing our shoes and socks and trudging across the 'snowy park' to the park keeper's hut. 

We definitely began to understand how the animals might have felt on that snowy night!

Percy was very understanding and let us in and we huddled together one by one under the covers. It was quite a squeeze and there was a bit of a scare when we heard a scratching noise coming from the floorboards...but luckily it was only mole!  We finished off the fun with some delicious hot chocolate and biscuits as just reward for all our hard work.

It made our day when we heard one of the children say..."this is the best day ever!" 

For the rest of this week, we have been finding out how to write character descriptions and were able to put all our story knowledge to good use in this process. We thought up some wonderful descriptive ideas in draft form and will be editing them tomorrow as we look to make improvements to our sentences by checking they make sense and have capital letters and full stops where needed. We are even trying to add some adjectives to make our descriptions even more exciting - well done Willow class - we are very proud of your efforts! 

In Geography this term we will be finding out where in the world we are and looking at what our world looks like from an aerial map. This week, we used 'Google Earth' to take a look at the earth from afar and then gradually started to zoom in closer and closer. It was fascinating looking at the different land masses and seas and we had great fun trying to identify what we were looking at. We managed to find the UK and discovered where England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales were before zooming right in to eventually find Long Crendon and our school. We identified lots of different features from around the school and manage to label them on our maps. We had a little extra time at the end of the lesson and went in search of different areas around the world to see how they were the same or different. We visited the Ukraine, Florida, Australia, France and Antarctica - although sadly we couldn't see any penguins! 

If you have the time, it is definitely worth taking a look at home.

Thursday 7th November

Willow class have made a fabulous start to the new term and are settling back our class routines

with great enthusiasm.

In English this week we started our new topic book - One Snowy Night by Mick Butterworth. 

We have been discussing the story structure and identifying all the characters that appeared at Percy the Park Keeper's door on that snowy night. We then made a story map of the book, thinking about what happened first, next, then, after that and finally to explain what happened. We are looking forward to acting out the story (with a few extra props) to make the story come alive. Look out for the next week's blog to see what happens!   

In Phonics we have been learning the tricky words 'water and where' and have been discussing the technicalities of when to use Mr, Mrs and Ms when addressing different people. We also talked about 'Miss and Master' although we discovered they are not tricky and can be sounded out. We have also been learning some alternate ways of writing the digraph 'oa'. We looked at the split digraph o-e  and ow. We noticed that oa grapheme is usually found in the middle of words where as the ow and o-e are mainly found at the end of words. This information will help us decide which spelling to use when we are writing.         

In Maths we have been building on our knowledge of fact families by looking at number bonds up to 10. We have been finding out how to work systematically to ensure we do not miss any out and spotted some patterns in the numbers as we did so. We have been developing our independence in problem solving and have been using a range of different manipulatives to help us work out the answers, such as ten frames and part/whole models with counters from our 'maths shop'.