Let’s get plotting!

By Sasha Habbal11th October 2023

In our Geography lesson this week Year 1 have been developing and applying their knowledge of Human features and Physical features. We started by exploring an ariel view map of Christopher Pickering school and discussing what human and physical features we could identify.

 

Once we had done this we designed our own symbols to represent each of the human features, such as the MUGA, carpark and play area, and also the physical features such as the trees, and school field.

The children then worked together using the view of our school from Google earth, to plot their symbols onto their own maps. They did a fantastic job and even added a key to show what the symbols represent!

Year 1 – RE

By Mrs L READ6th October 2023

Year 1 have previously looked at what belonging and faith means to ourselves and others.

We have discovered that there are different religions, with different gods, different places of worship, different festivals and different rituals.

Year 1 had already learnt that Christian’s celebrate Jesus’ birth on Christmas Day, so this week we looked at two different festivals from different faiths.

The Hindu festival of Holi –

  • Holi is a festival celebrated by people who belong to the Hindu religion. It takes place in March.
  • It marks the start of spring and is sometimes known as the Festival of Colour. It celebrates good winning over evil.
  • Everyone chases each other with dry powder paint and coloured water.
  • People sing, dance and have fun together, no matter who they are.
  • Bonfires remind people that the winter days are coming to an end and warmth and light are coming.

The Jewish festival of Passover –

  • Passover is celebrated by Jewish people, who remember how the Israelite people were freed from slavery by Moses over 3000 years ago.​
  • Passover is celebrated for seven or eight days.​
  • On the evening before Passover begins, there is a special service called a Seder where there is a special plate with different food that symbolises different things.​
  • At the Seder meal, three matzot breads are placed on top of each other. The middle matzah is broken and the biggest piece is hidden.​Children hunt for the matzah and to win a prize.​

We discussed both festivals, the children loved the ‘excitement and fun’ of Holi, but thought the Passover story of Moses parting the Red Sea was ‘amazing’.  The children understood that although the festivals were very different, they were equally important to the people of that faith.

Click the links below to share with your child their learning about Holi and Passover festivals:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTfYhG2mOSA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF84Wx0dGTg 

 

 

Colour Mixing

By Miss P STATHERS6th October 2023

Year 2’s art enquiry this week was – How do we make new colours?

We revisited our knowledge of primary colours in Year 1 and made secondary colours. We mixed different combinations of  red, yellow and blue to make orange, green and purple.

Then we mixed our secondary colours to make tertiary colours! There were lots of different shades across the room!

We were proud of our colour mixing skills!

Year 1 – Computing

By Mrs L READ3rd October 2023

This week, Year 1 have continued to develop their trackpad skills and we also thought about  what we would use the keyboard for.

We found out that keyboard is used for writing on a computer and that, on all keyboards, the keys will always be in the exact same place.

Our task today was to type our name using the keyboard.

Once on the paintz.app programme, together we were able to click on the tools to draw a text box.  The children were then able to use the keyboard to type their name.

Most of the children could do this independently and we learnt that holding down the ‘shift’ key makes a capital letter.

We then had chance to explore all the tools… we found that you could draw a circle/square with one, another enabled us to fill the shape with colour and one gave a spray paint effect … we had fun finding out what all the tools were able to do.

After our screen time, we took a much needed break in the fresh air.

The children had a good understanding of why it is important to do this.

Rights and Responsibilities as a member of a class

By Sophie Dale1st October 2023

Year 1 have really been enjoying our weekly Jigsaw lessons with Jigsaw Jack. This week we were looking at what our responsibilities were for being a member of a class, in order for all children to learn in a safe space.

This was some of the ideas the children came up with. We wrote all our ideas down so we can keep referring back to this week after week!

Are animals bodies the same as ours?

By Sophie Dale1st October 2023

This week in science we re-capped our learning of the human body parts and our 5 senses. We then wanted to explore the enquiry ‘Are animals bodies the same as ours?’. This is what a few of the children said at first:

“No they are not the same at all as they have feathers.”- Harley

“No they don’t all have hands!”- Jessica

We then looked at a range of photographs of different animals and we looked at what was the same/different comparing them to the human body. We noticed common similarities such as eyes, noses, mouths, legs even though on each animal they looked different!

We then labelled animal body parts that humans don’t have e.g tusks, horns and claws!

 

 

Year 1 Computing

By Mrs L READ29th September 2023

This week, Year 1 have been working on developing their trackpad skills.

We now understand the main components of a computer – screen, keyboard, mouse, trackpad – so we looked at different mice and how some look different but all perform the same function, such as the trackpad.

All of the children were able to switch on their laptop, log in using their QR code and find the artist app that we were going to use – with a little help of course.

At first, some found it a bit tricky to select colours and use the trackpads to draw … but all of the children showed determination and perseverance, and were able to produce some masterpieces! The children, and myself, were very proud of what they had achieved.

We even walked around at the end, like we were at an Art Gallery, to look at everyone’s amazing creations!

 

Why do I have senses?

By Sophie Dale28th September 2023

To explore our 5 senses we explored each one carefully. We first started with touch.

The children first discussed that we use our hands to tell if something is soft, rough, smooth etc. To explore this we passed round different objects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then asked the question “Can we only feel with our hands?”. A lot of the children first agreed and said yes. Then we discovered that you can still tell if something is soft/rough if it touches your skin on your arm/leg.

Smell

We then explored our sense of smell. The children could identify that we use our nose to smell.

We smelled vinegar which some children said was disgusting but most children loved the smell of the room air freshener.

Taste

Next it was time to explore taste. We tasted salt and sugar first with our eyes open. We talked about how clever our tongue is and how everybody likes different things. We then did a comparative test to see if we closed our eyes, do our taste buds grow stronger? Some children agreed it did, but some said it tasted the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sight

The fourth sense we investigated was sight. We discussed how some people may need help with their vision and that is why people might wear glasses. The children in the class were very excited to show off their glasses to the class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eyes help us to see the world around us. We played a quick game of classroom eye spy!

We then turned all the lights off in the classroom and shut all the blinds to see how amazing our eyes are at adjusting to the dark.

Hearing

The final sense we explored was hearing. The children knew we used our ears to hear and that just like sight, some people may need extra help so that they can hear. We discussed all the different things we use in school that we listen and respond to everyday!

 

 

 

 

 

What are bodies and what can they do?

By Sophie Dale28th September 2023

Our first lesson of the unit ‘animals including humans’ we focused on the enquiry ‘What are bodies and what can they do?’.

To start our lesson we sang the song ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes‘.

We then drew round Arios so we could then label human body parts. We had lots of fun!

Here are what some of the children said:

“We have a heart to pump blood around our body“- Buddy

“We have eyes so we can see“- Jessica

“We have a skeleton which is made of bones to make sure we do not look like jelly”- Neive

We then continued our learning through our continuous provision. We made and labelled the human body for our science working wall.

Here was one Olivia made!

Exploring human and physical features

By Sasha Habbal27th September 2023

Today Year 1 became geographers and got out and about within the school grounds!

We started our lesson by exploring what the terms human features and physical features mean. We learnt that a human feature is anything that is made by people such as buildings, bridges and roads, and that a physical feature is something that is natural such as mountains, rivers and forests.

We then took the information we had learnt and went outside to explore our school grounds to see what human and physical features we could identify.