Penguins Class Page

Today we have explore the country of Benin as part of our Modern Foreign Languages Day. We looked at the map, flag and capital city. We learnt the numbers 1-5 in French and how to introduce themselves. During the afternoon we learnt about the Kingdom of Benin and created some artefacts using clay. 

Today groups participated in the Big Science Event. They had two problems they needed to choose from to help the supermarkets, ‘Which material is best for protecting eggs?’ and ‘Which biscuit is the best for dunking?’. Teams decided on their question, how they were going to test this and how they would record their results. They then conducted their investigation and made a simple conclusion of their findings. 

In DT we have been making puppets! We practised a new skill of using safety pins to join fabric together then carefully cut out our puppet shape. We created a design of our character and tried our best to make our puppet fit our design. We stick the pieces together with a hot glue gun and the children designed and embellished their puppets to add to its character. We then put on some puppet shows to perform to the class!

This week in PSHE we have been learning about being healthy. We learnt about getting enough sleep, eating and drinking enough and being safe around things in our house including cleaning supplies and medicine. We also learnt about road safety and practised following the steps to cross the road safely. 

Today we have been developing our fluency of finding pairs to 10. We learnt the generalisation that ‘Even numbers can be partitioned into two odd parts or two even parts,’ this helped us to quickly identify if it is a pair to 10 or not. We played different games with our partner too.

Today in Geography, the children learnt about what a human and physical feature was, they explored these across the world-their first activity was to sort pictures to ensure their understanding. They learnt that a human feature was made by humans and a physical feature was made by nature. 

Today in drumming, we drew pictures to match the music we just heard. We could represent this how we like and what it made us think/feel - there was no right or wrong answer. We had different pictures when the music got quicker or slower, when the instrument changed and then created our own piece of music. 

Today the children have been folding and rolling paper to make a 3D drawing. They have been consolidating skills manipulating this material to create 3D forms.

Today in Art, the children have been investigating how rolling paper can create 3D structures, the designing a simple structure using cylinders.

Today, the children had a drama workshop where they were cowboys/girls in the Wild West. They went on a journey to find the golden horse and get some of its golden main for the Sheriff! They loved the fun activities and acting out of this imaginary story. 

Today in our Geography lesson, we have been identifying Africa on a variety of maps. We used atlas’, world maps and globes to do this. The children enjoyed looking through the atlas’ to see how the different pages zoomed into Central Africa and South and North Africa. We spoke about how the globe is the most real version of the world as it is a sphere and the 2D maps have been made to be flat and help us to see the world in a way that makes it nice and easy.

Today, the children have been reflecting on how goals can be achieved through the steps we take, they don’t just happen on their own. We used the analogy of what steps we need to make a jam sandwich. Children were then set a challenge as their goal and they had to work together and think about the steps they will need to achieve the challenge successfully.

Happy New Year! Today, the children have been exploring their new class text, during this time, they were encouraged to ask questions and make inferences about what they thought would happen in the story. To hook the children into the unit, we then thought about what topping they would put on Mama Panya’s pancakes if they were to make them; we then had a taste!Today, the children have been exploring their new class text, during this time, they were encouraged to ask questions and make inferences about what they thought would happen in the story. To hook the children into the unit, we then thought about what topping they would put on Mama Panya’s pancakes if they were to make them; we then had a taste!

Penguin's had a lovely first visit to the library today. We learnt that you can get a library card for free and can borrow up to 20 books at a time! Jane also created a lovely activity for us to sort things that happen in different seasons to link with our Science topic of seasons. We then choose 1 book to borrow and keep safe at school and enjoy at school. Finally, Jane read us the Christmas Story told from the point of view of a cat. We look forward to our next visit where we can borrow a different book and maybe take them home this time. 

Today we have been to the Witney Museum and explored! We learnt many things when we were first got there including the History of Witney; Dave-the gentleman that worked there-showed us around the ground floor. We got to see models of the Witney Church and the old Witney Railway; this transported some of the wool around Witney and local areas. Whilst downstairs; we also got to have a go on an old telephone!

After this, we went to the upstairs part of the museum. The upstairs was all about Witney Blankets, our topic! We recapped our learning about the story of sheep to blanket, heard all about world record blanket makers and Mr Early-he was the founder of Witney Blankets! We had a go at trying on blankets, that horseman used to wear and got to snuggle up in other blankets.

We had a super time on our first school trip in Year one, we can’t wait for the next one!!

The children have continued reflecting on the Story of Creation today. They have been discussing Day 6, when the humans were created; not only to look after the Earth but to look after each other. The children learnt this was called ‘Agape’; doing something kind without expecting anything in return. Their activity was to act out a scenario of where they had shown Agape, they have then written a sentence about what their scenario was. Some examples children remembered were; helping their friend when they were hurt, picking up rubbish off the floor, holding a door open for someone and many more. 

Today in RE, the children have been learning about the Christian story of creation. They firstly thought about who God was and linked this back to their creator lesson; we discussed the importance of God to Christians and how they might feel about the world knowing who created it. The children were then exposed to creation story, we read through the story and looked closely at the pictures. The children were given printed copies of the pictures in the story and had to order them; they were encouraged to verbalise to their partner what was happening in each part of the story.

Today in RE, the children have been beginning to understand the concept of what a creator is. They explored something their teacher has created and how it feels to be given feedback on a creation. It was then time to make their own creation; the children went on a scavenger hunt to find things in the outside area. When they came back, they made a ‘creation’ with the resources that they found. The children were then asked, ‘How do you feel about your creation and ‘How would like it to be treated?’.

Today we have been exploring how a whole can be split into three parts. We made a tower using 3 colours and put it into a part whole model with 3 parts, to see how many we had of each colour and how many we had altogether (the whole). We then used this to help solve a word problem of how many ways we could share 5 marbles between 3 people.

Today, in Humanities, the children have learnt about the importance of the Point Blankets made by the world-famous Witney Blankets company. During the lesson, the children recapped why Native Americans needed warm blankets; we then added to this by understanding that they didn’t want to use animal skins anymore and how important colour was for their tribe. We learnt about the points system and how each point was worth one beaver skin. The children had a go at trading their own blankets for the right about of beaver skins. 

Today in English, the children have been exploring what instructions are and, more importantly, what makes a good set of instructions.

Within this part of our unit, the children were given a picture (see below), on what a multilink man should look like-this was important so that the children could see that instructions do not always need written words. They had to use this picture to make the multilink man. After this, they had to make their own shape and explain to their partner how they made it.
At the end of the lesson, the children had a discussion about what instructions were easier to follow; pictures or spoken word instructions.

Today, we were introduced to the comparison symbols greater than, less than and equal to;  <,> and =. We made these symbols with our arms to show that the symbols are representing how big the number is and that big number will fill more space. We then used cubes and pencils to show this by moving the pencils to the show which side is greater and less or equal.

Today, in Art, the children have been working together to collaboratively create a piece of artwork based on the sea. The children recapped their learning from last lesson on the different types of lines they learnt about, they were able to incorporate this in their joint artwork today. They have used different drawing materials to make their different lines and marks whilst listening to music, their lines reflect this. They finished off their artwork by adding creatures and colour to bring their creation to life.

Today in English, we have learnt all about what adjectives are. We learnt that adjectives are describing words, they describe people, places and things. We looked carefully at a picture of ‘Mythico Wood’ to find different adjectives, this will help us to think of what adjectives to write about in our setting description.

Today, we were comparing two sets of objects to see which had more or fewer. We used counters to represent a picture, then put them onto a tens frame to help visually see the difference and help us compare. We made sure we were using the language accurately.

Today, in English, we learnt about the five senses. We then went on a nature walk around ‘Mythico Wood’, just like Mrs Noah did in our class story. Our task was to draw pictures or write words of all the different things we could see, hear, feel, smell and taste whilst in the wood!

Today we did our first Art Lesson of our new unit ‘Mark Your Mark’. Our first lesson was all about different lines that we could create. We firstly spoke about Bridget Riley, an artist who uses lines to create her Artwork. We then talked about the different lines we could create; vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and wavy. We used this learning to make lines with string and then used chalk to draw them onto black card. 

Penguin class have had a brilliant first week back at school. They have all settled in really well and I can't wait to continue teaching them this year :) We started our week with getting to know you activities and some rules and routines. We have also provided enhancement activities in the afternoons to encourage learning using hands-on equipment and resources.