Autumn
Darlington Railway Museum
This week we enjoyed a trip to The Head of Steam Railway Museum in Darlington. We met Sarah who taught us about the history of the railways which is extremely important in the north east. We learned about significant people like George Stephenson and events like the opening of the Stockton and Darlington railway line. We saw many old engines which are looked after by the museum and artefacts from old railway stations in the past. In the afternoon, we studied different types of bridges with Sarah before working in small groups to build a strong structure of our own using construction toys. We tested the strength of our bridges using bean bags and we found that all of our structures were strong enough to withstand the weight of the bags- success! Oh, we also had a surprise visit from a special person, too, Father Christmas!
Children in Need
Today was Children in Need and Year 1 were certainly ready to help out by spending the day in their pyjamas or other Pudsey-related clothing to raise money for this wonderful cause! We talked about why there is a special day each year to raise money for children in the UK and beyond - lots of thoughtful ideas were shared and discussed. Throughout the day, we also made time for Pudsey-related activities.
World Science Day
World Science Day happens every year on November 10th. It aims to show that — although you may not be a scientist or a researcher — science is all around you and is a part of everybody’s life. As we are learning about seasonal changes, we decided to create a rain-like effect in our classroom using water, food colouring and shaving foam. We then talked about the science behind the experiment and learned all about the water cycle which we loved - We really are becoming scientists!
It's the most colourful time of the year!
What are the signs that we are in autumn? Can you spot some of the signs in our photographs? We found acorns, different coloured leaves, bare trees, blackberries and red berries. We also observed that it was colder outside and that some days we needed to wear warmer clothes like hats, gloves and scarves. It is definitely autumn time.
Magnificent Moving Pictures
It has been Design and Technology and Art Week at school and we have been busy making moving pictures as part of our DT curriculum. We split up our learning into four stages:
Stage 1 - Research
We had lots of fun exploring and reading a range of moving picture books in the classroom before discussing the mechanisms used to make parts of the pictures move. Our research allowed us to gather some ideas for our own designs. We had a go at making sliders and levers for the first time and discussed what worked best.
Stage 2 - Design
Next we decided to create a design of our own which incorporated a moving part in a picture. We thought about which part of the picture would move and how we could make that happen. We really impressed with our use of new vocabulary such as 'slider', 'lever' and 'pivot'.
Stage 3 - Make
Then, we got busy turning our ideas into real-life moving pictures! We started by mixing colours to make a beautiful sea background before collaging our chosen animals. Lots of bright colours were used to make our moving pictures exciting to look at.
The Life Centre
What a fantastic time we all had at The Life Centre this week! We learned all about our wonderful planet Earth with its seven continents and its five oceans. We took a virtual tour around our world, learning which different animals live in each continent and the different types of climates across the oceans. We located the UK on a large map of the world and we marked our journey across the different continents with help from the adults. We visited the planetarium to learn all about the night skies and the constellations through the Little Bear story. It was very dark in there but it was super exciting! We watched a science show where the clever scientist carried out lots of experiments on a stage in front of us. We visited Space Zone in the exhibition area where we learned about what it is like for astronauts in space. We looked at Earth from space and talked about what we could see. We managed to hold our own weather forecasts, too, and see ourselves on the television screen which was amazing! We enjoyed dressing up and taking photos of ourselves and our friends in the Creative Zone. We also had fun in the Play Zone where we climbed the tree house, played on the light tables, built dens and pretended we were on Master Chef in the kitchen. What a fun-packed day everyone had...we would love to visit again!
The Rise Team
Sarah and Rachel from the Rise Team visited our class to deliver a workshop on resilience. We know that it is important to try to 'bounce back' from every day challenges that we might face in school and at home. We learned about simple techniques which we can use to help ourselves to 'bounce back' and get back on track with our determination to succeed. Sarah and Rachel were very impressed with our enthusiasm and our excellent attitudes to learning. We then enjoyed a mindful colouring session where we decorated leaves and we had the opportunity to talk about the things which we feel we are good at with our friends and teachers. What a lovely afternoon we all had, it was great!
Keep moving!
In our PE lessons we are improving our running and jumping skills. We have worked on our running technique and we are now much faster and more controlled than before. We can also change direction and speed with increasing confidence. We can jump in different ways from spot to spot, from equipment to the floor and between obstacles. We know how to jump and land safely through lots of practice and we are beginning to help our friends improve their skills through careful observation. We love being active!
What a wonderful world we live in!
We have been studying our amazing planet and learning new facts about our world. We know that most of Earth's surface is covered in water and that the oceans and the land masses can be seen from space. We also know that the world has seven continents and we have been learning to recall their names and to locate them on maps of the world. We now know that we live in the UK which is in Europe! We also know that the largest continent is Asia. We can't wait to find out more exciting facts about our wonderful world over the coming weeks.
We are all unique!
Over the last few weeks, we have completed lots of fun activities around our family and the people who are important to us. We have been learning about ourselves as humans and we have identified similarities and differences between ourselves and other animals. We have been talking about the different groups to which we belong, what we like doing and the things which make us the wonderful, unique human beings that we are. We have created self-portraits using mirrors to study our facial features and we have talked about where each facial feature is in relation to others. We know who is important to us and how they help to look after us. We have written our ideas in speech bubbles and displayed them proudly in our classroom with our artwork.
Welcome back!
The children have made a great start to Year 1 this week!
They are settled into their new classroom and they are adapting well to new routines. They are all enthusiastic and ready to learn and it has been wonderful to see their smiling faces each day in our classroom.
This half term our topic is 'What a Wonderful World'. We will be learning all about the world we live in through our Geography unit and we will also be learning about animals and humans as part of our Science unit of work. In our English lessons, we will read a variety of non-fiction and fictions texts this half term. This week we learned all about farm animals and farms. Over the next few weeks we will be reading lots of exciting stories involving animals like 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' by Judith Kerr and 'That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown' by Cressida Cowell. In maths, we are consolidating our knowledge of numbers to 10 through counting forwards and backwards, adding and subtracting and through reading and writing numerals in figures and in words.
We also have lots of trips to look forward to this academic year which we are sure the children will be thrilled about. We are hoping to visit The Life Centre this half term to support our Geography lessons about our wonderful planet and we will be visiting Darlington Railway Museum towards the end of this term which will support our Design and Technology lessons and the history of the railways.
All of the children will attend Forest School this term with Mr Vyle (half of the class Autumn 1 and the other half Autumn 2).
Our PE days will be Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please ensure that your child comes to school dressed in their PE kits on these days.
We can't wait to get moving on our learning journey! Watch this space to see how we get on!