This week Year 1 continued working with the BEEBOTS.
The children had remembered what all the command buttons did and also that the clear button is very important, that we must press it before giving our Beebots new instructions.
They worked in small groups to navigate their Beebot around the grid, trying to predict which symbol it would stop on. This turned out to be a little tricky, sometimes where it actually did stop, caused a few surprises!
All the children enjoyed making our robots move.
Year 2 have started their second Jigsaw piece in PSHE – “Celebrating Differences”.
Our main learning objectives this term will be:-
This week we looked at assumptions about boys and girls (stereotypes) and some ways in which we are all similar and to feel good about this.
All the children self-selected a partner and chatted to find out four things that they have in common or are similar … we spoke about eye/hair colour, hobbies, things they like doing, favourite foods, things they are good at, similarities in their families, etc.
The children enjoyed finding out things about each other, each others likes and dislikes and we’re excited to discover some of their similarities.
Then, they recorded these in their books, along with a ‘we are special because…’ sentence.
This term Year 1 were introduced to the Bee-Bots.
Bee-Bots are robots that need commands to make them move.
We spent time linking outcomes to each button.
The commands we learnt were:- forwards, backwards, turn, clear and go.
Working together, we estimated how many times we would need to press the forward arrow key to get the Beebot all the way to Bailey… it was 20!
Then, working in small groups, the children were able to independently programme some commands into the Beebots … they enjoyed predicting and seeing how they moved.
This week Year 1 found out how different faiths celebrate marriage.
First, the children shared their thoughts about some weddings that they had been to.
Then, we found out that not all wedding ceremonies are the same. People make choices about the type of wedding they have depending on what they believe in and what is important to them.
Christians believe that marriage is one of God’s gifts. Weddings usually take place in a church but can take place anywhere nowadays. The bride and groom exchange rings which show their eternal love.
The Muslim ceremony is called a Nikah. It usually takes place in a mosque. The husband sometimes pays a money gift to the bride called a mahr and this payment is for the bride to keep and use as she wishes. Most of the time, the bride and groom have a Walimah, which is a large feast where the couple announce their marriage publicly.
Sikh weddings usually take place in a gurdwara. On arrival at the gurdwara, an introduction is carried out between the two families. The main ceremony is very simple and includes hymns, readings and music. After the ceremony, a reading is given and a sweet pudding called karah prasad is passed out to all guests.
After that, the children took part in acting out a traditional Christian wedding ceremony.
Year 1 finished their RE learning for this term by looking at promises.
First, we learned that a promise is an agreement to do or not do something.
We then shared talk about promises… Olivia said that you can make a ‘pinkie promise’, Harvey said that promises are something you should never break, Lilah said she always promises to tidy her room and Ocean said that she makes promises to always be good.
Then, we listened to the tale of Abraham and Sarah which is a story from the bible. It tells of how God made Abraham a promise. He promised to give Sarah and Abraham a child and many descendants if they moved from where they were living to a new land. They did, and they had a son called Isaac.
God kept his promise to them, proving he was dependable and faithful.
Next, we spoke about how we feel when promises are broken … Malik said that you might feel angry and confused, Delilah said she would feel sad and Tommy said that you might feel disappointed. Some children also shared that if they break promises, there would be consequences, for example, time-out, no treats or tablet time.
Finally, the children made their own promise vouchers, promising to:-
All the children thought carefully about their promises and understood the importance of keeping them. They were excited to take them home to share with their families.
Year 2 have completed their first Jigsaw piece in PSHE – “Being Me In My World”.
Our curricular goal was to be able to explain why our behaviour can impact on other people in the class.
Our Jigsaw lessons are a safe learning environment, and we have some ‘ground rules’, that are included in our ‘Jigsaw Charter’ which we read together at the start of each lesson.
These include:-
The right to pass
Respect for each other
Confidentiality
During this term we have:-
Each week the children have shown a growing understanding of how all these things impact on enabling us to feel happy, safe and able to learn.
They have all been confident to share their thoughts and feelings when we pass around Jigsaw Joe around the class for discussions.
During ‘calm me’ the children have enjoyed the time to calm their minds and bodies, some children have become amazing at this and are appreciative of this time.
Year 1 have been looking at rules and why we need them.
We discussed that rules keep us safe and make sure that everyone is treated fairly.
The children shared their family rules. Finn told us that in his house they’re not allowed food and drinks upstairs and Delilah told us that in her house her bedroom must be tidy before she gets treats. We realised that all families don’t always have the same rules.
Gracie told us that “we have golden rules at school” and we all agreed that these rules can also be used in family and a sports clubs.
Then we listened to the story of Moses and how God gave him the 10 Commandments.
The commandments were the rules for all people to follow and live a good life by.
When we looked at the 10 commandments, the children could understand their importance in life today, even though they were from the Bible that was written a long, long time ago.
Year 1 then designed a poster of a rule which was most important to them. We decided that ‘be kind’ and ‘always try your best’, were the most important rules to follow.
Year 1 combined their dribbling, chest passing and receiving skills this week, whilst trying to avoid the defender cones. They are beginning to show more accuracy and developing better communication by listening to their team members.
As a treat at the end of our session, the children had a go at getting the ball through the net… some amazing focus and technique was demonstrated, great job!
In RE this term, Year 1 have already learnt about some celebrations that are familiar to them – they now know that Christian’s celebrate Jesus’ birth on Christmas Day, and that we also celebrate this day in different ways.
This week we looked at two different festivals from different faiths.
The Hindu festival of Holi –
The Muslim festival of Eid –
The children enjoyed discussing and sharing their knowledge of these festivals. We spoke about that although we may not belong to the same faiths, we are still able to respect each other.
This term in PE Year 1 are focussing on ‘ball skills – hands’ and this means only one thing…BASKETBALL!
The children were very excited to recap on their skills learnt last year.
Here are some fantastic photographs of them demonstrating their dribbling skills.
The focus of learning is to develop dribbling in order to keep control and possession of the ball.
We concentrated on keeping control of the ball, using our fingertips, not our palms. The children also tried to keep in a low stance, with their feet apart and knees bent.
Even though some found it tricky, they all persisted, an amazing effort from everyone!
