Happy Easter!

We were all so very pleased to see so many parents come in this morning to watch the children's version of the three little pigs.

The children all worked really hard with Mrs Dukes to create this brilliant movie. Well done!!

This week the children finished off their own 'Ahh! Stork' books and have learnt how to collect and input data into a graph. 

We hope that you like your Easter cards and have a fun filled holiday packed with adventures and experiences...see you all in two weeks.

The Year 1 team 

'Ahhh! said stork'

This week we will be looking at the story:

The children will be making their own book and substituting some of the characters. If you are not familiar with the book I wonder if your child remembers some of the animals in the story?

In maths this week we have started some data analysis. Some children were recording favourite traditional tales whilst others were making a table with all the different eye colours in the class. Another job in maths this week is colouring symmetrical eggs.

We have also got our brilliant Easter cards to create and the children will be bringing home a scrumptious treat at some point this week. 

No orchestra this week

Just to let you know that orchestra will NOT run this week. Apologies, but it will return the first week back after Easter for all players.
Thank you!

Mrs Mewett

The first stone is in!!!

A massive well done to all of year 1 and the rest of the school that helped to move the stone. We persevered and went out in all weather conditions! The children loved getting muddy and being a part of the many activities.

The stone was pulled into its resting place today by a mixture of children through out the school, due to the wet weather it did slip and slide and took a few attempts to place it in the hole!! However, they pulled and pulled and finally it fixed in to place.

After the horns sounded, we celebrated the stone being in place, the whole school then went in to the hall to perform our plays. It was fantastic to see the story develop. We will have photos of all of this on the whiteboard next week.

A big thank you again to Antony and Sam from the Ancient Technology Centre who worked so hard with all of us to create the chalk sheep, cave paintings and Dolmen Area. Also a big thank you to Kate and Corwen for your brilliant knowledge and musical skills.

Hope you all have a restful weekend and if you want to draw a picture or write about what we have been doing this week that would be great.

We look forward to seeing you next week when we will be focussing on the story 'Ah Stork', finishing off our hand puppets and doing some data analysis.

Pupil links updates...

We have now added some different websites on Pupil Links. In the Maths section there is a game called 'Hit the button'. The children have all experienced this game during our maths rotation, they have to work out their number bonds to either 10 or 20.

In the topic section there is a link to Lascaux caves. The children looked at this website today with Mrs Mewett. In the same section is a link to The Victoria Albert website. There are lots of videos of old toys that the children have watched. If you realise when watching these videos that you have any of the old toys then we would love to see them in Year 1 next week.

Thoroughly fun Thursday!

Well another busy day in Year 1! We were the first class out today despite the rain and the cold and enjoyed carrying on with yesterday's activities; getting the hillscape ready and preparing the bank and the ditch where the standing stone will be placed tomorrow.
We then used our ICT skills to create some captivating cave art! We were inspired by the caves in Lascaux, South of France. Some children chose to use Purple Mash 2paint to create a still image, some brought their cave pictures to life using 2animate! They were saved online so get your child to show you their work, if not some are up on the display within the classroom.
This afternoon we rehearsed our music and dance ready for the ceremony tomorrow and then finished the day with some more art. Getting our paper covered in glue and sand, we'll be finger painting these pieces very soon. Watch out for them appearing in the classroom!

Tree charms, digging with antlers and clay models.

Today the children have built their own Stone Henge, they used clay to mould and shape the stones. We have also been making tree charms

During our roundhouse session today the children used Deer antlers and should blades to dig out the ditches around where the Dolmen will be built over time.

We helped to finish of the cave paintings, including the ochre hand picture which the children really enjoyed as you get covered in paint!

Our work/picture wall for Ancient History week

We have started a wall of pictures and work in our Year 1 classroom. Please feel free to come in to the classroom in the morning or after school to see what we have been up to. We will also have a slideshow of the pictures on the interactive whiteboard each morning.

Cave paintings, ploughing and digging.

Thank you for all of the home learning about the Stone Age. We found out that English Heritage look after some important old places, including Stonehenge. We had some great pictures of the sunrise at Stonehenge.

We have started to think about different eras in time. We have started to build a timeline. The first labels that we have put on the timeline are; dinosaurs, ice age, old stone age and new stone age. We will continue adding to this throughout the week.

After break we went out to the roundhouse and found out some more information about the stone age.

We used our knowledge that we learnt from dancing with Kate and Corwen to tell Antony about hunter gatherers and tools which were used in the stone age.

We then split into groups and either went and ploughed using an Ard with Mr Farrington, or we started to make a stone circle and finally one group started cave painting with Antony.

Mr Farringtons group used their determination and muscles to pull the plough through the grass! Later on in the week we will be sewing some seeds.

The children in the roundhouse had to grind ochre down to make a powder. Oil was then added to the powder to make paint. The children used the paint to colour a cow and have also started some hand prints using paint brushes to flick the paint.

This afternoon the children got to watch a theatre companys take on The Wizard of Oz.

This week in orchestra...

Those instrumentalists I need this week for Orchestra  are Violinists, Ukelele players and Guitarists.  If your child was selected by their music teacher they would have received a letter from me inviting them to attend. Children need to come to the school hall for 3.30pm, bring a snack and drink, and then we’ll rehearse. Finish time is 4.15pm; please come around the back of the hall for pick-ups.

Tuesdays activities...

Tomorrow we will be continuing with lots of different activities on our Ancient History week. We will start the day with some maths problem solving including an elephant and child, or many children!

We will then be going to the roundhouse area to learn some of the skills used in the stone age.

After lunch we are lucky enough to have a theatre company in, we will be watching 'The Wizard of Oz'.

If your child did not come in to school with spare clothes and wellies today, please make sure that they have warm, water proof clothes for tomorrow as we will be spending some time outside.

The Stone Age!

For Ancient History week we are going back to the Stone Age. We will be looking at a range of skills and art that would have been practised in this era.

We have had a fantastic day today! We started off the day by thinking of words about the sun, moon and stars.  In groups we made up a poem, all of the children worked extremely hard on this and should feel proud of their achievements.

Can you think of any more words that we haven't used today? Can anybody have a go at writing their own poem about the stars, sun or moon?

After play we went into the hall and started to make a dance/play. Our class told the story of a Shepard that had to fight off a fox, a wolf and a very large and fierce black bear. All of the children played different parts in the play, whether it was singing, playing a musical instrument or acting. Later in the week we will be combining our part of the story with the rest of the school so watch this space!

And finally we got the chance to show off our brilliant skills of moving a 1.4 tonne stone from the top of the gate in our field to the tarmac playground.

The children were excellent listeners and stopped pulling the rope at vital moments. There were times when the rock nearly fell off the rollers, but Year 1 pulled it back!

The children were so intrigued about how far they managed to move the stone that after we moved it we decided to measure, using metre sticks, the distance. I can confirm that Year 1 pulled the 1.4 tonne stone...... 74.29 metres!!!! WELL DONE

Thank you very much for the generous donations and lovely cakes that were bought in today for Red Nose Day, the children enjoyed them very much!  Also a big thank you for the fantastic t-shirts that the children made or wore today they all looked great!

Next week is Ancient History Week, so please ensure your children have warm weather clothes such as hat scarf, gloves and wellingtons as there will be some outside work.



Fella our four legged friend...

I expect some of the children have been talking about a dog in school today. We were lucky enough to have a guide dog called 'Fella' come into Year 1 today. Fella was very well behaved and the children got to ask his owner some questions about what jobs he does. 

Fella was trained for over 3 months to become a guide dog. He helps his blind owner to walk around safely. Some of the children also gave Fella a stroke. 

The cold weather...

Today in Literacy we have been looking at bad characters in traditional tales. The children had to try and change the character into a kind character. We had lots of wolves that were helping Granny bake a cake and Giants handing out gold!

Thank you all for your home learning. It is fantastic when you all bring in your work that you have been doing at home. Keep it coming!

It is very cold outside at the moment, can we remind you all to have a warm coat, gloves, hat etc for play times. Lots of the children are complaining of having sore lips. If your child does have sore lips could we have some lipsalve that is labelled in their book bag please.

Yr 1 ICT film!

Year One have been working together as a class to create an animation film using Blue Camera software. The story they are re-telling in their own unique way is 'The Three Little Pigs'. The children have created their own scenes using lego and other props with  the help of Mrs Dukes. The children will be completing the film by adding  voice overs, re-telling the story in their own words!

We would like to display this short film to all those parents who can come into Year 1 on the morning of Thursday 28th March at 9am or shortly after this time. Pop it into your diary so you don't forget!

We've also been using an animation program on Purple Mash which your child can access via the school website. Why don't you ask them to share this work with you? You could create one together/ as a family for a bit of fun?!

Mrs Mewett

Orchestra this week

Just a reminder that we are now in the third week of orchestra (Thursday 14th March)

Those instrumentalists I need this week are Brass players, Drummers and recorder players. If your child was selected by their music teacher they would have received a letter from me inviting them to attend. Children need to come to the school hall for 3.30pm, bring a snack and drink, and then we’ll rehearse. Finish time is 4.15pm; please come around the back of the hall for pick-ups. The recorder and ukelele players were super last week, I've been really impressed so far!

Thank you, Mrs Mewett

w/b 11/3/13

This week we have started looking at the story of 'The Good Little Wolf'. The children really enjoyed listening to this story and have started telling us about what a bad wolf behaves like and what a good wolf is like.

In maths this week we have started to look at Time. Some groups are still working on number bonds to 10 and 20.

On Friday it is Comic Relief Day. The children can wear red spots and a donation can be made during the day. We are also having a cake/biscuit sale. We warmly welcome any baking. All cakes etc will be sold for 20p this year so please can you send your child in with 20p so that they can get one cake/biscuit.