Class 2 Blog

Year 1

2021-22

Term 6

Maasai jumping dance

We have been learning all about the Maasai Tribe in Kenya. We learnt all about their traditions and customers. We talked about our own traditions, such as May Day. The Maasai tribe love to sing, drum and dance. We practiced their famous Maasai jumping dance.

Time to cool off!

We have been enjoying hot and sunny weather (finally)! As well as hats and lots of suncream, Year 1 have enjoyed tucking into ice lollies in the outdoor area!

Cotswold Wildlife Park

We have kicked off the new term with a fantastic school trip to Cotswold Wildlife Park. We were lucky with the fabulous sunshine and spent the day wandering around the zoo, looking at the amazing animals. We all got the chance to see rhinos, giraffes as well as many other animals that originate from Africa.

Cotswold Wildlife Park

Term 5

Eric Carle printing/ collage project

This term we have been having great fun being artists! We first began exploring the illustrations of Eric Carle. We found that he really enjoyed creating collages of animals. We looked at how he created his wonderful paper which made up the animals in his illustrations and replicated it using sponges, brushes, string and counters. We each chose an African animal, cut it up into several pieces and designed a paper for each part. We think our final animals look fantastic!

Eric Carle

Practical maths - fractions

This term we have been very hands on in maths. This has really helped the children to gain a solid understanding of halves and quarters. We began by finding fractions of shapes and moved onto finding fractions of amounts, using tens frames to help us manipulate numbers into halves and quarters.

Maths. Fractions

Lila and the Secret of Rain

We have enjoyed reading our new class book - Lila and the Secret of Rain. Once we finished the story, we went back through a copy of the story and thought carefully about how Lila, the main character, was feeling. We used emojis to track her emotions through the story and used our inference skills to explore clues to how she was feeling at different points.

Lila and the Secret of Rain

Term 4

Great Fire of London - DT - fire engines

This term we have been working hard to complete a DT project. We decided to make fire engines as these would have helped if they had been invented in time for the Great Fire of London in 1666. We had to use saw and glue guns to create a solid frame for our fire engine body to sit on. We then use straws to create an axel for the wheels to be attached to.

Fire Engines - great fire of london

Term 3

Storytelling week

This week Year 1 have been learning to retell ‘The Little Red Hen’. We have had lots of opportunities to act out the story, using our own storytelling stick puppets to help us. We have drawn out a story map from memory and made character headbands to help the children get in character. The children helped to put together the video below, choosing which photos and videos to include, as well as choosing background music. Tomorrow, we will be performing our story in full and writing down an alternative version. This afternoon we are exploring illustrations of the story by the famous Pop Art artist Andy Warhol - we will be exploring his amazing use of colour. What a lovely week it has been!

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Exploring charcoal

In our weekly art lesson we explored charcoal for the first time. We practised drawing thin and thick lines, light and dark lines and even experimented with blending.
In the main part of our lesson, we looked at examples of patterns that created textures. We stuck them in our new sketchbooks and used charcoal to copy the patterns. We listened to calm music and sat quietly drawing with charcoal - what a relaxing afternoon!

Tudor Houses - painting

In our weekly history lesson, we were writing about the features of Tudor houses. We had to include as many of our key vocabulary words as possible. As an additional challenge, at the end of the lesson children were asked to sketch and paint an accurate Tudor house from memory. The children had to think carefully about including as many of the features of a Tudor house.

Tudor houses - painting

Maths games

We have been learning our number bonds to 10 and 20 through some fun maths games. In the photos below you can see the children playing a game in which they trade ten pieces of paper. This allows them to understand ‘if I have four pieces, my partner must have 6’

At the end of the game, Miss Livesey flipped a coin. Heads meant the child with the most won, tails meant the child with the least won. We then repeated it with twenty pieces of paper.

Maths games

Tudor Houses

We are starting an art project about Tudor houses and have been learning all about Tudor homes. This week, we talked about the black, wooden frame of Tudor houses and recreated these with black paper strips on a house template.

Tudor houses

London's Burning!

This term, we begin our exciting new topic - London's Burning. We have only been in school for three days and already we have explored what Tudor houses look like and talked about how London in 1666 was different to London now. Below is the cover of our new class reading book and some of the lovely work the children in Year 1 have produced this week.

London's Burning work

Term 2

Last week of the term - Merry Christmas!

As is often the case during the last week of term, we have been incredibly busy. In English we have been reading the beautifully illustrated text, The Polar Express. As we read parts of the book, we used the film version to compare the differences between the two storylines. To start off our new book, we sat down with a delicious hot chocolate to watch the opening scene of the film. We then used hole punchers to create patters in our very own Polar Express golden tickets! On Tuesday, we sat down together to eat a tasty Christmas lunch cooked by our wonderful cooks Lou and Karen.

Magnificent Monarchs - Printmaking

Over the course of the term, we have been studying the portraits of royalty. We explored how to draw portraits and planned out a simple drawing of Queen Elizabeth II. In our final week, we sketched our drawings onto foam and used printing ink to create multiple copies. Here is the display of our work in the infants hallway.

Maths lessons

This week we have been very busy learning how to add and subtract using number lines. We have also had lots of opportunities to share our learning with others. We have a rule in our maths lessons - no one word answers - you must explain your answer. This really helps children to demonstrate their understanding and deepen their learning.

St Mary's Church

We have spent a lot of time visiting St Mary's church this term. We have been exploring many landmarks in our village and have enjoyed learning about the history of the church. Below is a piece of Year 1 writing describing the church and a photo from a recent visit, alongside Year 2, where we spent time talking and exploring the different areas of our church.

Term 1

Fruit salad

Today we had a great time in Year 1! We have been learning all about fruit this term, the packaging shops use to sell fruit salads and today it was finally time to make our healthy fruit salads. The children washed, peeled and chopped their chosen fruit. I hope they tasted delicious!

Fruit salad

Last week we enjoyed a poetry workshop run by the inspirational poet, Judge. He has even performed for the queen!

Naughty Bus

We have been reading a book which follows the journey of a very naughty bus around a house. It splashes in beans, drives over the dog and eventually ends up at the bottom of the garden pond. We decided to write our own version of the book - The Naughty Bus in Ilmington. Here are some of the photos the children took when the naughty bus explored Ilmington.