On our last day of term we went on a hunt for letters.  The letters were  hidden all over the yard.  We worked in teams to find all of the letters.  when we had all of the letters it made a sentence.  " Year 1 are the best."

DT - Making a smoothie

Today in DT we made fruit and vegetable smoothies. The children chose which smoothie they wanted to make out of the following options:

Smoothie 1 - mango, pineapple and carrot

Smoothie 2 - grapes, spinach and banana

Smoothie 3 - strawberries, apple and cucumber

The children prepared their fruit and vegetables by chopping them using a butter knife. To do this, we used the claw method. After the fruit and vegetables were prepared, we used a blender to make our smoothies. Well done, Year 1!

Today Kev and Heather from Team Challenge Adventures came to work with Year 1.  We listened to a story all about a little girl who planted seeds to make flowers grow.  We took part in different activities that were related to the story.  We had to work was a team in order to complete the challenges.

We had so much fun!

Today we played the glockenspiel.  We concentrated on playing the notes C, D and E.  We had to keep a steady beat so we were in time with the music.

DT - Fruit and Vegetables

Our current DT topic is 'Fruit and Vegetables.' At the end of the topic, we will be making our own smoothie. Today we tried a smoothie (some of us for the first time) to see if we could identify which fruits and vegetables were in the drink. Most of us enjoyed the smoothies! We then tried different fruits and vegetables to decide which ones we will put into our smoothie next lesson.

Today was the end of our History topic "What can we learn from a castle keep?"  We worked in groups to make our very own castle out of blocks.  We then had to label parts of the castle.  Then we had to explain why castles were built and the rooms that could be found inside.

We were able to recall lost of information.  We all remembered that castles were built for kings and queens.  They were built to protect them.

It was such a lovely day today that we ended it by running the daily mile.  We all managed 3 laps around the track.  Then sat down for a well deserved drink!!

Year 1 are learning all about "Castles" in history, so we visited a real castle.  The castle that we visited is in Newcastle.  We had a tour of the castle.  We saw the jail, the hall, the sheriffs room, the kings room and we even went and stood on the roof of the keep.

Then in the afternoon we dressed up and pretended to have a medieval feast.  We thought this was great fun.

Music Workshop

We've had a great morning in Year 1. The Gateshead Music Service delivered a music workshop to our phase. We learned some key vocabulary including - pulse, tempo, dynamics and pitch. We then put what we had learned into actions with songs and stories. What a fun morning!

Today we visited the library.  We hadn't been for awhile, so it was great to have the opportunity to go back again.  We chose some books and we also had a story read to us.  We can't wait to go back again!

Today we celebrated King Charles III coronation.  We dressed up in red, white and blue.  We looked amazing!!

This term in PE we are working on invasion games.  We have been learning about defenders and attackers.  Attackers have the ball and the defenders try and get the ball off the attackers.  

We then worked in pairs to practice our passing skills with the football.

We were all amazing!

Today we have been learning about the Ascension of Jesus into heaven to be with His Father.

Wonderful windmills!

Over the last two DT lessons, we have been making our windmills. We used a template for the windmill turbine, cut it out and attached it together using a pipe cleaner. We then attached the windmills to our structures and finally made a roof. Look at our fantastic work!

Today the parents came to watch our Liturgical Prayer.  The theme of was Palm Sunday.  This was the time that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.  We all had a part and were brilliant in singing songs and listening to the story from the gospel.

DT - Making a windmill

Our enquiry question in DT this term is 'How do I make a stable windmill?'

So far in the topic we have designed our structure, cut it out and glued it together. Today we have started to make our windmills to add to our structures. Hopefully we will finish them off next week!

We have been learning about fractions.  We now know that a half means that something is divided into 2 equal parts.  We also know that a quarter means there will be 4 equal parts.  We have had lots of fun finding out about fractions.  We have quartered food, so that in our groups of 4 we all had the same amount.  We then counted sweets, we worked out what a quarter would be by sharing the sweets equally.  We then ate our quarter of the sweets.

In PE, this half term, we are concentrating on the topic of "Dance."  We are very lucky in that we have a dance teacher helping us.  We are thinking of our own choreography for a dance all about the "Great Fire of London."  We had to think of low movements, high movements and the ending movement for a dance.  We all loved it and cannot wait until next time. 

It was World Book Day.  

For World Book Day we dressed up in our pyjamas and brought a cuddly toy into school.  We went to the library and we were read a story by the librarian.  We had a fantastic time.

Share a Story

We have come to the end of our 3 week reading challenge.  As a reward we were given hot chocolate.  We then shared a story with our friends in Year 5.  We had a great afternoon.

Children's Mental Health Week

We had a visit from Bigfoot Productions.  They came to tell us all about being safe on the internet.  We talked about how we use the internet and how we must stay safe.  Boo the rabbit needed our help so he could stay safe.  He asked us questions about being safe.  We were brilliant at telling him what to do.

Sculptures - Andy Goldsworthy

In Art we have been learning all about Sculptures. We have been looking closely at the work of Andy Goldsworthy. Andy creates all of his sculptures outside using the natural environment. We have all made our own sculptures using things we have found outdoors. This includes grass, conkers, sticks, stones, pebbles, leaves, grass and flowers.

Year 1 visited the Discovery Museum to learn all about the Great Fire of Gateshead.  When we arrived at the museum we had a look round.  There were lots of things for us to look at.  We then had a talk where we learnt lots about the Great Fire, it was very interesting.

Today in PE we were practising our ball skills.  We were dribbling a ball with our hands.  We had to control the ball, first with 2 hands and then with 1.  We all did brilliantly.

This week in maths we have been looking at 2 digit numbers to 50.  We have been looking at how many tens and how many ones the number is made from.  We have used Base Ten, numicon and counters to help us.  We then partitioned numbers using the part-whole model.

We had a wonderful time at the Tyneside Theatre.  We loved watching Beauty and the Beast.

DT - Building a vehicle

Today we built our own moving vehicles. We used a box for the body (chassis) of our car. We then attached axel holders to the chassis. After that we used a straw for the axel. Finally, we attached the wheels to the axel using tape and our vehicle was complete!

Wow, what a fantastic performance by Key Stage 1.  Merry Melodies was a fantastic way to remember the Nativity story.

Santa Dash!

This morning we took part in a 'Santa Dash' around the field. We had a great time, with the snow adding to the excitement. All of the children received a Santa hat, selection box, candy cane and a certificate. Well done boys and girls and thank you to the PTA for organising the event.

In RE our topic is "Waiting."  We talked about how the Advent Wreath is lit in church to show the countdown to Christmas Day.  There are 4 candles on the wreath, each one is lit on a Sunday, as we wait for the coming of Jesus.  There are 3 purple candles and 1 pink candle.  The first and second candles are purple, hope and peace.  The third candle is pink, which is for joy and the fourth candle is for love.

We made our own Advent Wreaths to help us to remember we are waiting for the birthday of Jesus.

Don't we look all festive in our Christmas jumpers!!!

This term in Geography we are looking at maps.  Today we looked at Google Earth and zoomed in on the school and the surrounding area.  We could see Fewster Square, the church, the park, the school and lots of houses.  Together we drew our own map of the area, using Google Earth to help us.  It was lots of fun!

The children worked so hard in DT today. We made a rotating mechanism using card, wheels, straws and tape. The children were encouraged to experiment with how they could use the axel and axel holder, and attach this to the body of their car. We all tried so hard and helped each other along the way. Well done Year 1!

Come on England!!!

We really enjoyed watching the England match today.  We celebrated all of the 6 goals.

Children In Need.

The children looked fantastic in their outfits for Children in Need.  They all had a great time showing everyone their Pudsey and Blush attire!