Autumn term 1
PE in Autumn 1: Tennis!
Usually, during Autumn, we would be in the hall doing gymnastics or dance. As we are stuck in our bubbles, we can only do PE outside or in our classrooms. The weather has been kind so far, so we have been doing games. This term we are learning Tennis. Our first 2 weeks has been trying to practise our hand-eye co-ordination and master the forehand.
First we need to practise bouncing and catching the ball:
Time to hand out the rackets!
Can you use your forehand to roll the ball to your partner?
The basketball game! Use your hand-eye co-ordination skills to score a point
The surfing game! Use your balance skills to weave in and out of the cones whilst balancing the ball on your racket.
The golden shot! The culmination of all your tennis skills..Can you use your forehand to hit the golden cone through a tunnel of cones?
Giants visit Forest school!
In our first day in Forest school we used the Woodlands trust leaf spotter sheet to explore which trees we have in the Walkley Primary school grounds. The children collected them on a cleverly constructed leaf kebab!
LO: I can compare, describe and solve practical problems for length:
After learning about environmental artists such as Andy Goldsworthy and Chris Drury using woodland materials to build and create 3D art and sculptures, we decided we would build our own twig sculptures. To do this we would need twigs from long to short. This was a perfect opportunity to show our skills in comparing and describing lengths.
The children were able to describe longest to shortest and when questioned, could describe which were longer and which were shorter.
Linking to our Maths lessons we learned how to order by length using sticks.
We looked at some work by environmental artists such as Andy Goldsworthy and Chris Drury who use natural woodland materials to build and create 3D art and sculpture in the woods. The children were given the task of building their own twig tower sculptures in our forest school.
They were encouraged to gather some twigs, ready to create their twig towers. It could have a square base, a triangular base or be of their own designs.
Now the children are in year 1, they will have a mixture of play-based learning, a national curriculum delivered through our creative theme-based projects and a fantastic maths programme based on White Rose and Big Maths.
White Rose Maths
White Rose Maths is about building a completely new culture of deep understanding, confidence and competence in maths – a culture that produces strong, secure learning and real progress. Each area of numeracy is taught using varied fluency. This means that when a child understands a concept, it doesn't matter how they encounter it, they will use their mastery to answer the question. It is a scheme that encourages the use of manipulatives as well as pictorial examples. In this way, children learn each concept with concrete examples, pictorial examples and then finally understand it in an abstract way.
Children need to sort groups by characteristics before they count. The children were encouraged to sort objects into groups in a variety of ways:
Counting objects
Once objects are sorted, children begin to count from 1 to 10 to work out how many there are. The important learning objectives were to count one object at a time and to understand that the last number they count is the total amount. The Giants were encouraged to place the objects in a line to improve accuracy when counting.
Represent Objects
Children learn that one object can be represented by another. For example, one elephant can be represented by one cube or counter. Also, a number can be represented by a manipulative:
