Curious Historians
As part of the current history topic – The Great Fire of London – the children have been using historical sources to ask and answer questions about the past.
Questions are tools of curiosity
In Year One, the children are given plenty of opportunities to ask questions and these have stimulated some great conversations.
To help develop and nurture the children’s curiosity about the past, we have a dolls house in the classroom. The class can spend time looking inside the house and studying the various items. As well as raising questions, we have been using this resource as an opportunity for writing. Using some of the vocabulary taught in history lessons, the children have been writing about the objects in the house.
Keep asking questions, Year One!
School menu change and Christmas meal
Bringing the fire to life
This week, Year 1 took part in an online drama workshop all about the Great Fire of London.
1,2,3 Who are we going to be?
Here we had to show actions for some of the main people from the Great Fire of London – Thomas Farriner, King Charles II, Samuel Pepys and the London residents.
Save our treasure
We heard about the ‘treasure’ that Samuel Pepys saved from the fire by burying his items underground – cheese, bottles and his diary but what would you want to save?
I would save my favourite teddy.
I would bury my toys.
Chaos on the streets of London
What sounds could be heard while the fire was burning? We created a sound ladder of all the sounds to show what the atmosphere would have been like.
- screams
- crackling from the fire
- cars horses trotting along (well done, Hollie – you remembered there were no cars at that time)
- people jumping out of windows
- people shouting help
- water splashing on the fire
- buildings crashing down
- people giving orders
- children crying
Virtual after-school sport club
Aimed mainly at primary-aged children, a different theme has been assigned for each day of the club – Adventure Monday, Tuesday Play, Wild Wednesday, Thinking Thursday and Fun Friday.
Click here to find out more.
Living and learning: anti-bullying week
This week is anti-bullying week and Year 1 have been considering the theme of bullying across different areas of our learning.
Our fluency text, that we read daily, was based on our anti-bullying child friendly policy.
As we read it, we considered words we weren’t sure of.
several = lots of
on purpose = someone meant to do something and it wasn’t an accident
solution = how to sort something out
We spotted the important message of STOP which means two things in our school.
In our Living and Learning lesson, we used our inference skills and our school definition, recently reviewed by our school councillors, when looking at this photo to consider what might be happening and whether this is bullying.
The boys, who are standing up, are laughing at the boy sat down. We can laugh with someone but not at them.
The boy on the ground looks unhappy, upset and left out because his face looks sad and his head is down.
They are hurting his feelings.
We don’t know if this is bullying because bullying is when it happens lots of times (several) on purpose.
We discussed that if this boy is being bullied he should…
Start
Telling
Other
People.
The children then considered who they would tell if they needed to get help or if they were worried about something.
I can tell my family.
I can tell my friends.
I can tell an adult that I know.
I can tell my teachers.
I can tell my cousin.
Thank you to all the families who supported Odd Socks Day. There were all different sizes, patterns and colours of socks on show and it was great that the children could express themselves and celebrate their individuality while raising awareness of bullying. Here’s the Odd Socks Day assembly, led by CBeebies star Andy Day, which prompted lots of discussion within the class.
This years’ song performed by Andy and the Odd Socks is based on the theme of ‘United against bullying’.
We’re excited to see the childrens’ homework based on anti-bullying week. Here’s some we’ve received already. What great messages they are giving!
Austen’s kindness statements
Grace’s anti-bullying poster
Staying hydrated
Tennis
In their PE lessons, Year 1 have enjoyed learning some of the basics of the game tennis. Each lesson has slowly introduced skills required to play a game of tennis. The children have learnt how to hold a racquet securely, how to maintain control of the ball and have developed timings for when the racquet connects with the ball.
Fire Art
What a busy few days Year 1 have had!
On Monday, we continued with our history themed topic and we spent some time looking closely at the colours of the Great Fire against the night time sky. Could we recreate it?
Using marbling inks, the class chose appropriate colours to represent the fire. Patterns were formed by floating the ink colours on the surface of some water. Then, the children used a thin stick to swirl and merge the colours. Finally, paper was laid on top and the colours were absorbed.
Once dry, the houses were created and placed against the background.
The results are simply stunning!
Living and Learning: United against bullying
This week, it’s Anti-Bullying Week and the theme for this year is ‘United against bullying’.
Don’t forget – we are also taking part in Odd Socks Day on Monday 16 November.
STOP is a key message linked to bullying. In our school, STOP stands for two things:
- the definition: Several Times On Purpose
- the solution: Start Telling Other People
Recently, our school council met to review our school definition of bullying and our child friendly anti-bullying policy. Thank you to the school councillors for their valued contributions. As a result, our definition and policy have now been updated.
Child friendly anti-bullying policy
What is bullying?
In our school, this is what bullying means:
Bullying is where you hurt someone, physically or emotionally (including online), several times on purpose.
What might bullying look like?
If any of these things happen several (lots of) times, it is bullying.
- Hurting peoples’ feelings, for example, name calling, teasing, threatening, ignoring, leaving people out or spreading rumours
- Hurting peoples’ bodies, for example, hitting, punching or kicking
This could be in person or online (cyber bullying) and could be because of someone’s race, disability, gender, appearance, age or any other protected characteristic.
What could you do if you are being bullied?
Start
Telling
Other
People
Who could you tell?
- Mrs Weekes/Mrs Freeman/Mrs Russell/Mrs Small (they are child protection staff)
- Mrs Taylor (Health Leader)
- Any other members of staff
- Friends
- Someone in your family
- A trusted adult
- Childline (0800 1111)
- Write a worry slip and put it in your Living and Learning box or the whole school worry box
- Email stayingsafe@spherefederation.org
Our views on bullying
STOP bullying – bullying is wrong! We’re a happy and healthy school.
Supporting your child at home
Firstly, thank you for all the support with your child’s learning. We are very impressed with the children’s attitude and enthusiasm to continuing and extending their learning at home.
As you will be aware, Lexia is a reading and phonics based online program and, in Year 1, we have been using this app on a regular basis. Once your child has received their level 5 certificate, they no longer need to work on this at home as they have completed the Year 1 program of learning.
We’ve just signed up to Numbots and your child will have brought their login details home on Thursday. This is a great app and website for practising addition and subtraction facts (our current maths learning) and it’s great to see so many of the children have already accessed this resource. There are 15 different games, each with a different focus. Topics covered include doubles and number bonds to 10, 20 and 100.
Another great maths resource is Hit the Button. Select number bonds (to 10) when using this.
PhonicsPlay is a great website that we often use in our daily phonics lessons. In each game, you can select the phase of phonics and, more specifically, which letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes) to focus on. The games are a fun way to practise reading sounds, real words, alien words and sentences. Login details are Sphere (user name) and Spher3 (password). Check out the Resources page. In class, we have recently reviewed Phase 3 and we are now working on Phase 4 so please select these when using this at home.
As with all of these resources, little and often is the best way to use these at home.
In addition, our Home learning page provides an overview of our learning in class for the week. Finally, it’s definitely also worth checking out our Help your child and Calculations and times tables pages which both contain a range of ideas, links and activities – even just a bit of regular practice of handwriting can make loads of difference!
If you have any questions or queries about the above resources, please contact us by email (carolinetaylor@spherefederation.org and jackiefreeman@spherefederation.org).
