A Happy Half Term

Warning! 

This blog post contains many photos after a very busy half term. Take your time to look through the super work our learners in 1P have enjoyed. 

Making Jam Sandwiches

Impact: We've been learning how to put instructions in the correct order and as a bonus we enjoyed a tasty snack in the process.We used time vocabulary like 'first', 'next', 'after' and 'finally'. Maybe during the holidays we can make jam sandwiches for tea? 

Even more food was enjoyed when we looked at Handa's Surprise as our story from a different culture. 

We were inspired to write about the scents, tastes and textures of the tropical fruits in Handa's Surprise. Passionfruit, pineapple, avocado and mango were given the thumbs up by our official taste testers. 

Mrs Page searched high and low across Blackpool for a real guava to show the class. The children heard stories about her as a child growing up in Barbados 'acquiring' guavas from the neighbour's tree. 

The closest we could get to guavas was a carton of guava juice. Our taste testers described it as 'yummy', 'nicer than pineapple juice' and said 'it smells delicious'. This was followed by many requests for a refill. 

Impact: Experiencing new tastes provided an opportunity for the children to experiment with new language. We talked about whether we enjoyed the tastes and how they could be described using interesting adjectives. 

We were studying Africa in Geography at the time and Handa's Surprise is a story set in Kenya. This enabled the children to relate to fruits and tastes that children in Africa would be familiar with. 

Stories by the same author: Julia Donaldson

Much of our work on narratives has been delivered using Talk For Writing- a teaching strategy which is based on children talking about stories, acting, sketching pictures, which helps them build sentences and the skills to write stories. 

We have enjoyed Room on the Broom, A Squash and a Squeeze, The Gruffalo, the Troll, in addition to several short rhyming stories in Guided Reading which were written by Julia Donaldson. 

"My house is a squash and a squeeze!"

There be lots o' pirate talk with these mateys as we made the blaggard Troll walk the plank. 

That scallywag threw our doubloons into the sea! 

Ask your little pirate to tell you the story of the Troll and the alternative ending that they wrote. 

Maths

We have been learning about multiplication and over the last week our mathematicians have been doubling, halving and practically working out equal groups of 2, 5 and 10. 

Phonics 

If you haven't already taken a look, please check out the recent blog post with a link to the Phonics videos made by Mrs Greatrex's Phonics Group. You can also look at our phonics songs and links in earlier posts to keep your darling out of mischief in the holidays. 

 Making words using the grapheme eggs.

Did someone say 'split digraph'?

Science: Investigating Trees

We have been learning about how trees grow and that the circumference of a tree can tell you how old it might be. 

We made bark rubbings of the different trees on the school grounds.

Horse Chestnut Tree

Here is a branch from a sycamore tree. 

This is a Hawthorn Tree.

Impact: The children understand that there are different kinds of trees and they can be identified by their leaf shapes and bark. We measured the circumference of various trees and discussed why some measurements were smaller than others. We understand that trees with larger circumferences are older and have had a longer time to grow. 

Our mixed daisy seedlings.

Around the World: Exploring Europe

Hola! Guten Tag. Hallo! Bonjour. 

We have been travelling the world and after exploring Antarctica and Africa, our next stop was Europe. 

Our Geography work included looking for capital cities, identifying countries by their national flags and locating places based on how close they are to the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea, the Irish Sea, the English Channel and the Baltic Sea. 

Exploring  physical and human landmarks in Asia

Impact: The children understand how a map is used to located places and their map-reading skills continue to develop as they become familiar with the places we are studying in each of the continents. They are developing a genuine interest in different places by finding out about foods, different cultures, customs and landmarks. 

Finally we have reached the end of the photo album for this half term. Wherever you explore during the holidays, we wish you a lovely break and we'll see you again on Thursday 7th June. 

Mrs Page and Mrs Woolley xx