Summer term 1
PE: Gymnastics - Shapes
Unfortunately, the restrictions in place have changed how we can do PE in school. We can only work outdoors, so our lessons have been weather permitting. This term we will be learning gymnastics shapes, jumps and balances. We probably won't be able to perform rolls as we can't work indoors. Firstly we needed to learn the 5 basic shapes: straight, star, tuck, pike and straddle:
PE: Gymnastics - Jumps
Next, we needed to learn how to turn our gymnastics shapes into jumps. First we learn how to jump safely; by bending our knees on launching and landing. Swinging our arms give us more power to jump higher. Height will give us time to perform our shapes in the air. You can see that the children were fantastic:
The Archeological mystery
Whilst preparing the school new grounds for new plants and fences, a mystery has been unearthed. Mrs Sian has called in the experts from Sheffield University: Lord Botherington Smythe and Indiana Bones!
Next, the experts enlisted the help of the year 1s to dig up the area. Many clues were found:
After finding lots of burnt household items, toys and papers, it was time to work out what was going on. A newspaper from London was found...and the date 1666. Luckily, one of the children had heard of a momentous event called 'The Great Fire of London.' It was time to hit the books and the internet to find out more.
Calculation: Multiplication
This first step is one of those times where it is useful to get the children ‘doing’ the maths so that they can see it, feel it and then begin to understand it! Teaching multiplication in Early Years is nothing to fear, in fact it’s natural! Once children can count up to 10 objects it is useful if children are asked to find, for example, 3 dinosaurs and then another 3 dinosaurs… and then count the 2 groups (1,2) and then count all of the dinosaurs (1,2,3,4,5,6). Even without detailed explanation they will begin to feel the idea of counting groups of the same size, counting the amount of groups and then finding the overall total. This concept could also be communicated by asking a young child to lay cutlery for 3 people, each with a knife, fork and spoon.
In year 1 we are making equal groups of 2, 5 and 10 to lay the foundations for our 2, 5 and 10 time tables:
Multiplication: Arrays
The same process of first being able to set out the groups (arrays), and then being able to find the total of the entire amount happens again in these next two steps. Except here there is a further move towards the abstract and away from the play-based learning. This provides progression from the last step but also lays the foundations for the next pair of steps of actually writing out numbers to show each group size.
There are 4 pairs of steps for setting groups out then finding the total: firstly in play, secondly as blocks, thirdly as dots and lastly as numbers. This move is a gentle one though because an adult guides this process seamlessly so that the learner does not feel any sense of a rough ride.
The entire process reinforces the key message (Swapping the Units) that it doesn’t matter what the object/thing is, the number operation and results stay the same.
