Autumn 2
In English this term, we have been reading the text ‘Pattan’s Pumpkin’ by Chitra Sounder. We have been performing a variety of drama and reading-focussed activities to explore the book, including looking at new vocabulary and inferring character’s feelings. The children wrote a speech bubble saying what Pattan would’ve said when he encountered the giant pumpkin.
In fitness, we have been developing our understanding of how exercise relates to breathing. We played games which demonstrated what happens to the air and the lungs when we breathe. The children were also breathing in and out slowly, feeling their lungs and discussing what was happening to their bodies. They could see with our activity that our lungs get bigger as we breathe air in and smaller as we push the air out.
Jolly Posties Children in Need 2025 Hula hoop challenge!
This term in Design and Technology we are going to make 3D free standing animals. After researching what makes toys stable, the children used various construction materials to check stabilitty, practise cutting and joining.
In Fitness this week, we were learning to develop an understanding of how exercise can make you strong and healthy. During the lesson the children kept checking their heartbeats and noticing how their heart beat changed during exercise.
The weather has been getting worse day by day, so we decided to use our imaginations and make pretend campfires and leaf kebabs to warm ourselves up.
What a busy week!. We have had a visit from ‘M and M theatrical productions’ who put on a pantomime of the classic story 'Beauty and the Beast'. It was fantastic and all of the children loved it! It was a very interactive show and my favourite moment was when Mr Murphy and Miss Robinson were pulled on stage for a dance off!
Our next soggy day in Forest school was all about Geography. The children were given little aliens to look after and they had to choose a type of climate/habitat to build the alien house. We had children creating beach habitats with yellow leaves or creating mountain environments for their new friends.
This week is looking a little rainy and cold, but we're still going to try and make it to forest school. Today we had a dry morning and went to forest school for our maths lesson, Their task was to create a Sudoku grid using 4 sticks. The challenge is for every row and column to add up to 10. Unfortunately the sheer amount of leaves on the ground meant it was a major task to clear a space to begin working. The end result was hard to judge but there was a lot of learning involved with the attempt.
Our second PE unit this term is Ball skills. In this unit, the children will explore and develop their fundamental ball skills such as throwing and catching, rolling and dribbling with both hands and feet. Today, the children were practising dribbling using their hands.
Last year, during World book day we had a reading buddies afternoon across the school. It was so successful that we now have a session every other week. This week, the Charlies in year 4 came down to the Jolly Posties and buddied up with them. First the Posties read their RWI books to the year 4s. Then the year 4s read a favourite book to their year 1 buddy. It was lovely! The year 4s were nurturing, kind and patient. It was a wonderful lesson. We are now really looking forward to our next one in week 3.
Our first PE unit this term is fitness. In this unit, the children will develop their understanding of the benefits of exercise and a healthy lifestyle on their physical body, their mood and their overall health.
The children who access the sensory room are settling beautifully. They are beginning to play alongside each other and watch each other's activities with interest.
History in year 1 begins with children needing to develop an awareness of the past and begin to understand where people and events fit into a timeline. Today's lesson was about understanding what the past is and how we find out about it. The children were amazed that many things we have now didn’t exist years ago. They managed to sort pictures between past and present.
In computing last term, the children were learning how to communicate text and images using the school iPads. They spent the term getting familiar with the tablet, learning how to unlock it, select specific apps and adjusting the volume. Next, they became familiar with the painting app ‘Charcoal’. This entailed learning how to create a picture by changing colours, pen sizes and using undo. Next, they needed to plan their picture by drawing an animal. On the final week they attempted to recreate their hand drawn picture on the Charcoal app. As you can see, they were great at it!
