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Nurture, Cherish, Succeed

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"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all"

Aristotle

Y1 Spring Half-Term 1 2024

Nirvana Day 

As part of our World Faith Day celebrations, we explored Nirvana Day and how Buddhists celebrate the day that Buddha reached Nirvana. As part of this we spent a large amount of the day considering what is precious to us and being calm and in the moment. We used our light projector to help us to focus our minds and complete deep breathing exercises, then we moved onto mindfulness colouring, using mandalas to help us to focus our attentions. We finished the day using a Cosmic Kids Yoga session to focus our breathing as well as stretch out our muscles. 

Internet Safety Day 2024

As part of our Internet Safety Day work, we looked at story which talked about how to keep safe online from pop-ups. The children learnt the very useful phrase, "Stop, Close and Tell". In order to remember this, the children designed their own posters to include some of the characters from the games they may play online. 

Maths - Doubles

As part of our work learning about doubles, we played a game with 2 dice. We could only score a point if we rolled doubles. This helped the children to cement their understanding of doubles and how each number in a double needs to be equal.

Computing - Understanding Algorithms

As our continued work on algorithms the children worked in pairs today to describe a picture of Mr Potato Head to their friends to complete. The children soon realised how important it was to make their instructions clear and concise! 

School’s Big Bird Watch 2024

The children worked with Miss Taylor today on the Big Bird Watch. We worked at 3 different stations around Forest School to look for, identify and count the birds we could see. We also listened to different bird songs using Miss Taylor’s soft birds and even had a conversation with a robin! 
We have used the knowledge from our science unit on birds to help to understand about the different parts of a bird and to be able to identify several British garden birds. 

Computing - Understanding Algorithms

To start our learning about simple coding we have been exploring what an algorithm is. We discovered this is a simple set of instructions that need to be completed in the correct order for a task to be completed. We used this approach to complete a simple set of instructions for making a Lego model. We used our iPads to take photos of each stage of the instructions so our friends could complete the same model. We had to make sure our photos were clear and not blurred and that you could see all the parts of the model. 

Art - Using Primary and Secondary Colours

In Art we have been exploring primary and secondary colours and how we can make different colours by mixing certain colours. Today we put our new knowledge to the test and used this to paint numbers 1-9. We used the primary colours to start then added the secondary colours to add further depth. 

Maths

In Maths the children have been learning about place value up to 20. The children have been exploring manipulatives and playing games to secure their knowledge of numbers to 20. 

Geography

In Geography we have been exploring the United Kingdom and where we fit in the world. As part of this theme we have been investigating atlases and finding out where England is in the world. 

As part of our Geography fieldwork we explored our school grounds, looking for signs of the weather and the season we are in. The children noted down what signs of winter we could see, and we looked into the sky to see if we could see any clouds or other signs of weather. 

The children presented our sponsorship money to Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. We raised £369 with our Hedgehog Walk. Well done Year 1!

Author of the Term

This term we will be looking at the work of Oliver Jeffers in our Curious Quests. Here is some information about this great author. 

Paper airplanes 

In our English lessons this week we have been reading The Great Paper Caper. As part of this, we made our own paper airplanes, following simple instructions. Once we tried these out we then wrote our own instructions for making a simple airplane. 

Art

Learning about primary and secondary colours

We have been using poster paint today to explore colour mixing. The children listened to a song to help them to remember which colours were the 3 primary colours, and then used these to make secondary colours.