Spring 2
Phew, what a term! One of the main objectives of the sensory room is to learn to play alongside others and then eventually to share and collaborate. We have also had fine and gross motor skills activities, explored different types of art including collage. Curiosity time is a big favourite with the children.
In striking and Fielding it was time to learn how to field. When trying to field the children were learning to get in front of the ball (never chase it from behind) and then use two hands to collect the ball.
Today the children wrote things that they love about Yorkshire onto leaves. They stuck the leaves onto Burnaby Cub.
Thank you so much for your generosity on Red Nose day. The children had a blast! They looked brilliant and were on form, telling jokes, and beating Anansi in the Red Nose class challenge. Lots of children had their faces painted and did a brilliant job designing their own nose.
We were very lucky this term to be visited by the brilliant children’s’ author and illustrator Bethan Woollvin. She was so lovely and treated us to the secrets behind how she wrote stories, her illustrations and even taught us how to draw some of her characters. If you don’t know who she is, this is written by Bethan explaining who she is: Hello, it's Bethan here, and here's a little bit about me. I'm a creative soul, and even as a little girl, I knew I wanted to be some sort of artist. I'm happiest with my apron on and paint on my easel, and I'm fortunate enough to have created a career for myself in the arts. While studying for a degree in illustration at the Cambridge School of Art, I discovered my passion for telling stories with my pictures, and even penned my very first book Little Red while at university! Little Red was my empowered retelling of the traditional tale of Little Red Riding Hood, and it won the Macmillan Children's Book Competition in 2014, launching the beginning of my career in children's books. Encouraged to create more fractured fairytales, I continued my fairytale series with Rapunzel and Hansel & Gretel, and have since been working on my very own original tales, including I Can Catch a Monster, Three Little Vikings, and Luna & the Sky Dragon. I also joined forces with author Caryl Hart, illustrating several non-fiction books including Meet the Planets, Meet the Oceans, and Meet the Weather.
In Forest school we practised our rubbing techniques we had learned in art. The children worked in pairs to produce fabulous prints rubbing using crayons. Some children even managed to find some drier leaves to rub.
Today’s Pe lesson was continuing our gymnastics unit. We were learning to make our gymnastics shapes of Star, Straddle, Pike, Dish, Arch and Tuck. To do these we needed to squeeze our muscles to make them feel hard and tense when in a shape. Collaborate with a partner to create shapes and know that they can improve their shapes by extending parts of their bodies.
Today's Maths lesson was all about the difference between capacity and volume. The children were able to describe different volumes: Full, nearly full, half full, nearly empty and empty.
What a brilliant day! Ian's Mobile farm was fantastic. The animals were all so friendly and let the children stroke them. The children were very knowledgable about farm animals and Ian was impressed with their animal facts. I'm sure you agree that the children were all very brave.
In Forest school the children were given the challenge to make shapes with natural materials. We used string to tie our shapes together. This was another challenge in itself. Some great fine-motor skills on show! This was the first year that we had some 3d shapes!
Brilliant effort on these World Book Day costumes!. If you're wondering, I'm DJ Banana from "Kitchen Disco"
On World book day we looked at the amazing books of Jon Klassen. During one story we had a debate as to whether Square was a genius or not. We decided to make an opinion line. The children put themselves along the line according to their views.
This term we are learning about mass and volume. This is the first time they have been formally introduced to mass. The children should have had some understanding of describing something as heavy or light from their own experience or from previous learning in Reception. We began by holding objects to compare them, using the language of “heavier” or “lighter”. They then used balance scales to check their comparisons. They needed to understand that the heavier object is lower on the balance scale. At this stage, children do not need to measure the actual mass of objects in order to compare them. Children may assume that larger objects are heavier than smaller objects or that objects that are the same size/shape have the same mass. We measured a Kg weight (small) and a chocolate tin (big). This hopefully helped the children to overcome these misconceptions.
In Science we concluded our unit on everyday materials by sorting materials according to their properties. We did this first as a class, choosing different criteria such as soft/hard, bendy/rigid. The children then looked around the classroom for thier own objects to sort.
On our last day in Forest school, we took advantage of the beautiful view from the old Tennyson yard to look across Sheffield and try to spot Human and Physical Geography. If you’re not sure what it is, ask your child. The year 1s are absolute experts in telling the difference. They found fields, woods, factories, roads and lots of houses. Afterwards, we went into our forest and looked for signs of Spring.
We had such a fun time at Walkley Library. We were treated to a little tour of the whole place and saw that the library was a lot more than just books! We saw art, models, computers..so much! The children loved reading in the library and really enjoyed sharing the stories with each other. Charlotte explained how the library works and read a story to the class. It is amazing that all of the staff there are volunteers! Lots of our children visit this library. If you haven't yet, I urge you to support them by visiting.
Big thanks to the parents who organised this awesome school disco. Lots of K pop Demon Hunters tunes for the kids to sing along to!
This term, our second PE unit is Gymnastics. This week we have been exploring travelling movements. The children were thinking of different body parts to travel on and using high and low levels to travel. The children were brilliant at showing respect when watching others, finding the confidence to share their ideas and using a starting and finishing position to let people know when their sequence had begun and ended.
This term our computing unit is Moving a robot. The children knew about the Beebots from Reception. We discussed what the buttons on a Beebot might do and then tried the buttons out. They spent time linking an outcome to a button press. The children needed to consider the direction command buttons, as well as the ‘clear memory’ and ‘run program’ buttons.
In PE this term, we are learning about Striking and Fielding. In today’s lesson we learned that striking teams are trying to score points and fielding teams are trying to stop them score points. This session was about under arm throws. The children needed to point their hand where they wanted the ball to go and step forward with their opposite foot to their throwing arm when they throw. To catch they need to use two hands to collect the ball and watch the ball when it is coming towards them.
In this lesson, the children were learning how to count objects more efficiently by grouping into tens and ones. They spent time practically counting groups of ten from objects including Dienes, counters and cubes. After grouping objects into tens practically, children practised counting pictures of objects and circling each group of ten. It is important that children recognise that a 2-digit number is formed by counting the number of groups of ten for the first digit and the ones left over as the second digit.
