Building the dream
Iggy Peck, Architect inspired Year 1 to become architects themselves today. World Book Day was celebrated with drawings, thoughts, painting and actual building. Iggy Peck built towers out of nappies (dirty ones!) – you will be glad to hear we didn’t do that but we did construct our own structures:
We did some sketches and line drawings:
…and we did some printing:
What a creative day!
School council elections
Our current school councillors held their final meeting recently as we prepare to elect our new school council.
Children from every class, including Reception, are encouraged to prepare a speech to present to their class as part of the election process. Our whole school homework before the election date will give children the chance to plan their speech.
Thank you to our existing school council who have been involved with many decisions and discussions throughout the year. Most recently they have selected books for our library and pupil prizes as rewards in class.
Thanks for coming to our class assembly…
…and thanks for your compliments! Here are just three of them…
- “Very entertaining assembly. Impressed by how talented the class are.”
- “Lovely assembly – kids had great fun sharing their talents with the school.”
- “Good work by Year 1 – very committed performances by all the children.”
Time travel
Our new whole school Big Topic, Time Travel, got underway today with Year 1 and 2 focussing on houses and homes.
The first challenge was to work as a group to put the different types of houses in chronological order according to when they were built. There was lots of discussion about what the houses looked like and what they were made of. The next task was to match the inside of the house to the outside.
The first types of houses we investigated were Celtic houses and we concluded that houses certainly have changed over time.
Talented Year 1
This half term our SEAL theme is Good to be me. For homework, this week, Year 1 have been asked to discuss, Why is it good to be you? What is your talent?
We will be discussing this homework in our SEAL lesson on Wednesday and it would be great if your child could bring in anything to support this homework (for example: a recorder, swimming certificates) on Wednesday as this will feed into our upcoming class assembly on Thursday 22 January.
We’re looking forward to hearing all about these talents.
New SEAL theme – Good to be me
Our new SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme for this half-term, Good to be me, focuses on three main areas of learning:
•Self-awareness – feeling good about yourself, taking risks.
•Managing Feelings – understanding feelings, and why and how they lead us to behave the way we do – particularly the feelings of being excited, proud, surprised, hopeful, disappointed, worried and anxious and standing up for yourself –assertiveness skills, standing up for your views.
•Empathy
This theme explores feelings in the context of the child as an individual, developing self-awareness and helping the child to realise that it really is ‘Good to be me’. The theme is about understanding our feelings as well as considering our strengths and weaknesses as learners.
The key ideas and concepts behind this theme are:
Building emotional resilience
Children need to become resilient if they are to be healthy and effective life-long learners.
Coping with anxiety and worrying
Worry and anxiety are major features in many children’s lives. Many children have good reasons to be anxious. Exploring worries is important.
Calming down
Although getting stressed, anxious or angry are important and useful emotions, sometimes these feelings can be overwhelming.
Assertiveness
The theme encourages children to become assertive – that is, able to recognise and stand up for their rights while recognising and respecting the rights of others.
Understanding feelings and how they influence behaviour
The theme explores the relationship between ‘thinking’ and ‘feeling’ and the way each impacts on our behaviour. It looks at Flight or Fight rapid response to situations of threat and our responses to feeling threatened /under stress.
‘I respond to difficult situations in a positive way’ is the first SEAL statement for the theme of Good to be me.
Party Time
The party season has now officially started! Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 danced and jigged their way through the afternoon with a few games thrown in. It was a great way to finish off the term – looking forward to non-uniform day tomorrow with lots of fun things planned. Here are a few photos of the fun and games this afternoon.
Happy Christmas everyone.
Amazing learning!
At the end of the first term in Year 1, it seems appropriate to say well done to all of the children for the fantastic start to Key Stage 1 they have had. We have been regularly surprised by contributions to learning and have said “wow” several times when we have seen what children are achieving. We could mention everyone separately so would just like to say well done to everyone and wish you and your family best wishes for the approaching holiday.
Here are some brilliant examples of homework from last week which show how much support parents are giving. Thank you – it makes our job easier when we know learning is continuing at home.
Christmas Party
It’s that time of year again when we get our party dresses out and our posh trousers on and dance the afternoon away at the Christmas party!
KS1 and Reception will be having their Christmas party on Thursday 18 December in the afternoon. Your child can bring their party dresses and/or posh trousers (and anything else they want to wear) in a named bag so that they can get changed at lunchtime. Please make sure that all children come to school in their uniform as normal. You may think that they will not be able to get ready themselves – believe me, they can. However, there will be help at hand for zips, tights and any other difficult item!
Please do not send any food – there will be a party snack provided.
Thank you.
Keeping our teeth healthy
Year 1 and Reception have been visiting Year 2 to learn about how to keep their teeth healthy. The children had great knowledge on what they needed to do to have healthy teeth and we tested just how well they were brushing their teeth by using a plaque disclosure tablet. We found the parts of our teeth that we needed to brush most and then brushed for two minutes until they were squeaky clean. We did look a little odd with our purple mouths though!
