Outdoor Provision

Spring 1

In RE we heard the story about how Jesus chose his disciples. We thought lots about the phrase he used ‘be fishers of men’ and what this actually means. Miss Bramley then set all of the groups a challenge. The challenge was to work as a team to create a giant picture of Jesus, his disciples and their fishing net. At first it was tricky to share out the jobs so that everybody had something to contribute, but in the end the pictures were amazing!

This term we have enjoyed lots of different Maths activities. We try and use lots of practical resources to help us understand number before we try to remember facts in our heads. We particularly enjoyed using the numicon to help us learn odd and even numbers. We could see from the shape of the numicon which numbers were odd because they had a ‘chimney’.

We always love celebrating World Book Day in Year 1. The chance to share our favourite books with our friends is very special.

This term we loved getting back outside to play in our mud kitchen. Our imaginations run wild with all of the ideas about what we are ‘cooking’ up!

Our Easter activities have kept us very busy! We practised weaving skills to make a lovely Easter basket in DT. We learned about the events of Easter and listened to the story. Then we could retell the story using pictures on an ‘Easter Wreath’. We also made some lovely Easter cards for the people at home. We practised printing to make some Easter eggs shapes.

Autumn 2

To get ready for the Christingle service in church we learned all about the parts of a Christingle in RE, what each part represents and why.

In our classroom we used some special dough to create candle holders. They looked really festive as we added lots of Christmas decorations to them.

During our DT lessons we used our woodwork bench to create some unique Christmas decorations. We had to remember to wear our safety goggles as we were using handheld drills to create the hole in the wood. We felt so proud when we all had a finished product.

In our RE lessons we were learning all about advent. We remembered that this is the countdown to Christmas. We found out about what you might see at church during advent and how the vicar may be dressed during this time. We practised, cutting, sticking and colouring skills to create our own advent calendars and advent wreaths.

We also learned how to sew. Some of us were surprised by how quick we picked up the running stitch to make a stocking.

We always love completing lots of fun activities at Christmas. Take a look at all the skills we’ve been learning while having lots of fun. We learned how to weave when making beautiful Christmas cards.

To commemorate 100 years since the end of World War 1 the whole school took part in activities to remember. In Year 1 we worked as a whole class to create a collage of a huge poppy. We talked about why we use poppies to remember.

We also used our woodwork bench to create some wooden crosses to put poppies on. Some of us spent lots of time being creative and painting poppies onto stones. These decorations were added to our whole school poppy display at the school entrance.

Autumn 1

Year 1 really enjoyed taking part in a cycling challenge. Somebody ?? came to help us learn how to ride our bikes safely. We had loads of fun completing all of the different challenges.

 

In Science and English, we learned all about Autumn. Throughout the year we will learn about all of the seasons and what makes them special. We loved the story of ‘Leaf Man’ and were inspired to create our own leaf characters.

In RE we learned all about Harvest Festival. We talked about how other countries around the world celebrate Harvest. We are lucky enough to have our own orchard in school so we went to harvest the apples and pears. We then got busy chopping them up and sharing them with our friends. They were delicious – mostly!

When we start Year 1 we like to explore the classroom and enjoy playing in the different areas. Exploring the different activities helps us improve our social skills as we share the resources, it also shows how independent we are at learning and finding things out for ourselves.

Spring 1 2018

Super storywriters from Year 1 have written their own stories about trolls!

Year 1 visit to Durham Castle

Do our royal outfits match our wellies?

Year 1 have Diamond Power

Autumn 2 Christmas Activities

As always we love the countdown to Christmas in Year 1. We have even been sent a special visitor from Santa. Morgan the Kindness Elf has come to visit our classroom to make sure we are on our best behaviour. Our first challenge was to make a surprise box for Mr Farnell with some notes of kindness inside. Mr Farnell couldn’t believe how brilliant our writing is now! We also sent some pictures and well wishes to our Lunchtime Supervisor – Kim. The Kindness Elf also wanted us to spread some Christmas cheer by giving out candy canes to staff in our school. We are sure we made their day with this surprise!

We LOVED our patch of snow! We could all write our name in the snow and had such a good time exploring the snow and ice.

We have been busy little elves ourselves making lots of exciting things in the classroom, so far we have made cards, tree decorations, edible Christmas trees and Christingles. Mikey even wrote us a new Christmas song – we are certain he’s a star in the making!

Autumn 2 Three Little Pigs

We enjoyed reading the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’. We know that this story is a Traditional Tale and that it has many different versions. We loved hearing different versions of the story and acting them out with puppets. We can tell the story really well…

Autumn 1 2017

Children in Year 1 have enjoyed learning all about Autumn. We went to Hardwick Park and learned about lots of trees and what happens to them in Autumn. We have learned about Harvest and created Harvest cards as part of our RE work. In the classroom we have used fruit and vegetables to create patterned pictures. Some children worked in the Play-doh to create fruits we had talked about. We all helped to make a display picture for the Hall, we decided to make a picture showing Harvest – to represent our part of the Lord’s Prayer “Give us this day our daily bread”.

Summer – Marcus from Cycle Generation

Marcus came to work with our class on the balance bikes. The children loved going super-fast in the MUGA and some were brave enough to lift up their feet as the bike was moving. Marcus was really impressed with everybody.

Summer – Fire Engine

We had a surprise visit from the Fire Engine from Darlington Fire Service. The firefighters talked to us about the dangers in our home which could cause fire and what we must do at home to stay safe. The best part of the afternoon was firing water out of the hose to knock a football off a bucket. It was great fun.

Summer – Animals Masks

We have learned lots about Animals including where different animals live in Geography and all about animal groups and food chains in Science. In DT we all made an animal mask, we took our time to decorate them carefully and they look amazing on our display alongside our animal puppets.

Summer – Zoolab

As part of our ‘Animals’ topic we had a very special visit from Rob from Zoolab. He brought with him a Giant African Snail, a Salamander, a Tarantula, a Snake and some rats. The children were brave enough to hold or touch the animals with great care and listened very carefully to facts about them too. In our English work we read and matched up the facts to the animals and have written some fact files which are on display in our classroom.

Spring – Gardening

As part of our Science topic ‘Plants’ we have been planting and growing peas. We have made sure to take good care of them by watering them often and making sure they get enough sunlight in our lovely courtyard area. With any luck we will get to try some of our peas very soon.

Spring – Easter

To celebrate Easter we did lots of creative activities. The children made cards for the people at home as well as a poster of the Easter story. The children thoroughly enjoyed their Easter Story Hunt in the School Grounds.

Spring – Adam Bushnell

Author Adam Bushnell visited our classroom to help us create stories about robots to link with our ‘Inventors and Inventions’ topic. He inspired us to be creative in our writing. The following week we got to work on our stories in our Extended Writing books. We all tried hard to make sure our stories had a beginning, middle and end and that we used lots of adjectives. Rhys and Kaisha-Mae won the competition for the best two stories in the class and received a signed book by Adam. Well done!

Spring – House of Objects

As part of our ‘Inventors and Inventions’ topic we took the children to the ‘House of Objects’ in Newcastle and it was brilliant. The children could choose from an enormous range of recycled materials to create their own invention – something new that would help others. The children had lots of excellent ideas and were really enthusiastic about their inventions.

Christmas Party!

We had so much fun at our Christmas Party. We played party games, ate party food in the dining room and danced our socks off!

Christmas Classroom Activities

We also got to work in classroom as we spent lots of time weaving crosses and trees and sewing stockings ready for Santa coming! We had to concentrate very hard to finish our creations independently.

Christmas – Making and giving gifts

We have been very busy elves in the run up to Christmas making gifts for the people at school and home. We loved using our new woodwork bench outside to create wooden Christmas tree decorations.

Autumn – Judo

We loved taking part in a Judo session by ‘Destination Judo’. It was great to learn some new skills.

Autumn – Leaf Man

We love the story ‘Leaf Man’ by Lois Ehlert. The book inspired us to create our Leaf characters and make our own short stories in English. Some of us could read our work aloud to the class. 

Autumn – Harvest

In RE we learned about Harvest around the world. Year 1 really enjoyed taking part in the Harvest festival at St John’s Church and even harvesting our own apples from the orchard – they were delicious!

Autumn – Fireworks

After Bonfire Night we made firework sculptures using natural materials – inspired by artist and sculptor Andy Goldsworthy.

Autumn – Funny Bones

The children loved learning all about Funny Bones using the book by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. We had great fun making the ‘dark, dark street’.

Autumn – Hardwick

As part of our learning in Science we went on a trip to Hardwick Park. We took part in the ‘All about Autumn’ Workshop. The children could spot the signs of seasonal change and had great fun working together.

You can find out about our class curriculum by visiting the Our Curriculum section of our website.