Welcome to Class 1!
We are delighted to be back in school again, after the lockdown break. We have 29 children in our class- a mix of Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children. We hope you enjoy the photos and information about our learning.
Christmas in Class 1!
We have enjoyed a very Christmassy time in Class 1 this week. We have been very busy making cards, calendars, stable tree decorations, clay snowmen and snowflakes. Our classroom looked very festive by the end of the week, although we had to be careful walking around Christmas trees and under snowflakes. Our Christmas dinner and party was great fun. We made party hats from recycled materials and enjoyed a turkey roast. We then had a party, playing Christmas tree beetle drive, pass the parcel, musical statues and sleeping lions. On Thursday, inspired by the children's idea earlier in the week to decorate Pebble Wood with skipping ropes, we took out tinsel and baubles and made the trees look really beautiful! We also enjoyed finding out about the meaning of Christingles and making one from an orange, red tape, a candle, four cocktail sticks and sweets and raisins. Finally, on Friday, our last day, we had the grand Christmas card opening session.
Happy Christmas everyone!
Autumn Colours
We had a wonderful time in the afternoon sunshine on Thursday, finding the colours of Autumn on the field, in Pebble Wood and in the hedgerows. We were surprised to find so many colours on the bramble leaves. We compared our findings to the Rainbows that the current Year 1's made in the September after starting school as Pebbles. We realised that there are less blues, pinks and purples to be found in Autumn.
Cityscapes
The Pebbles used large and small blocks to create cityscapes in the small playground. They thought carefully about which 3D shapes were best for building.
Our dinosaur museum
The children were very excited to see that the dinosaur museum had been set up while they were on holiday over the half term.
Dinosaur pictures in the style of Eric Carle
We looked at the illustrations in some Eric Carle books and then watched a video of Eric Carle in his workshop. He paints tissue paper in different colours and patterns, then files the sheets in drawers of different colours. To create his illustrations, he cuts out shapes to build up a picture. We had a go doing the same to make dinosaur pictures. We painted tracing paper with two colours, trying to create interesting patterns and textures. The next week we laid them out in colour groups. We then chose a paper and a 2D shape template to start to make our picture. We are very pleased with the results!
Dinosaur silhouettes
We have spent our recent art lessons learning how to use a paintbrush and palette. In order to create our sunset backgrounds, we mixed the paint to the correct consistency and then used horizontal strokes to create a sky effect. We added dinosaur silhouette shapes, either by cutting the shapes out of black paper, or using printing stamps. We have got much better at painting within the lines, as you can see from the trees and volcanoes we painted for our target display shown at the top of the page.
Dinosaur poo!
We all had great fun today making dinosaur poo! We thought about what would be in the poo of a carnivore, a herbivore and an omnivore. We then mixed earth and water, and either added straw, seeds and berries or fur and feathers (rather brightly coloured!). It was very sticky and we were very glad it was not real poo!
Giant dinosaurs
The Pebbles had a wonderful time using the loose parts in the small playground to create giant dinosaurs. They had some good ideas about how to go about building.
"We've got five legs! We put it in to make it balance." When it fell over, "Maybe we need six legs!".
"It fell over because the neck was too long!".
"We're making a really long wing, because it's a pterodactyl. It's 6 metres!".
P.E.
We have been lucky to have lots of sunny weather since our return and have enjoyed P.E. activities on the field and playground. We have practised using hoops, large and small balls, racquets, scoops and sacks. We have also explored ways of moving- walking, hopping, skipping and side-stepping. We are now able to run two laps of the field without stopping!
Maths
This half term the Pebbles will be exploring numbers 1 to 5 in depth. As part of our work on Number 2, we had a treasure hunt to find socks and then to pair them up in twos. We also lined animals up in twos to go into Noah's ark.
Free play
An important part of our learning is free play, when the children explore the different areas and resources in the classroom and outdoor area.
Mini beast hunt
As part of our Science work, and linked to our letter a song "A a ants on my arm", we went on a bug hunt with maginifying glasses. This enabled the children to explore the different parts of the school grounds.
