Today in Year One we learned how to use BeeBots. We had a go at moving like a BeeBot and following a series of commands called an algorithm. It sounds far more complicated than it really is – the trickiest part was knowing our left from right!

We created our own maps featuring London landmarks and moved a toy car around the map using the same commands as a Bee Bot would. Next, we created our own algorithms using symbols for our friends to try out. Lots of us made mistakes at first but we worked really hard to debug the code and fix the problem. 

Finally we got the BeeBots out. Once we felt confident, we took on the challenge of commanding the BeeBot to move around the room without touching any of the obstacles.

Today, with the help of Mr Cunningham and his in-depth History knowledge (plus many other helping hands!), we reenacted the Great Fire of London. The children had been making model Tudor houses and this morning on the gravel car park, we assembled them to represent the narrow, tightly-packed streets of London in 1666. We lit the fire at the bakery in Pudding Lane and watched as the wind swept the flames towards St Paul’s Cathedral and beyond. Mrs Atkins threw water on the fire with a tiny ‘bucket’ but it made no difference. Finally, we cleared a section of the house to make a ‘fire-break’ and this was successful at stopping the fire from spreading further. We noticed the smells, tastes and sounds of being near a fire and thought about how awful it would have been for the people of London to be surrounded by all that ash. Hopefully your children enjoyed the event and learnt a lot too!

Today, we had a visit from Kelly from Hampshire and IOW Fire and Rescue Service. She spoke to us about what the service does and we joined in with a song and actions where we pretended to be Firefighters. Kelly talked to us about hazards in the home and things that we should stay away from. She taught us this rhyme with actions:

Matches and lighters, never touch

They can hurt you very much.

Kelly brought along a smoke alarm and showed us how to test it. We talked about how important it is to test our smoke alarms at home once a week. All the children were challenged to find all their smoke detectors at home.

We learnt that if the smoke alarm goes off at home we need to Get Out, Stay Out and call 999. We also talked about how important it is that the children learn their address so that they can communicate it to a safe person in the case of an emergency. The children have been given postcards to write to help them with this.

Finally, we got to see the kit that Firefighters wear to do their job.

Thank you for visiting Kelly – we loved it!

Look what we’ve grown! Okay, so they’re technically not peas, but they still brought joy and happiness! Mrs Crockford very kindly picked the broad beans from our plant, cooked them and returned them for the children to try.

The children all agreed that they were very delicious and surprisingly sweet! Quick, add this vegetable to your shopping lists whilst they’re still keen!

Team One.

This week, the children got to enjoy a fun and competitive sports morning in the sun. They all did fantastically well. Working in their house teams, the children took turns to collect points by completing different stations which tested their speed, agility, balance and reactions. We were so proud of the children’s positive attitudes and how they cheered on and supported one another. Everybody enjoyed a drink refill and snack under the shade of the big trees on our school field before heading back for the races. After several heats, three boys and three girls were awarded medals which they proudly wore for the rest of the day. Amazing work everyone!

We’ve also been doing lots of phonics this week and we are so impressed with the children’s knowledge and how well they are able to sound button and read words, particularly those tricky alien words. Thank you for all you continued efforts with reading at home – it is paying off!

Enjoy the weekend, everybody.
Year One.

Year One have been planting! What do you think of our garden?

Back in April we planted seeds and we have loved watching them grow over the last couple of months. Just before half term we planted them outside. We couldn’t believe how many roots had grown inside the tiny pots! 

We are all very excited to watch our plants continue to grow and bloom. And later, to start producing peas, beans, sweetcorn, tomatoes and peppers.

Our Wild Flowers have buds!

Our peas have tendrils which are grabbing on to the supports.

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Here are our peppers and tomatoes (front) and sunflowers (back).

Our bean has flowers on already and we like to watch the ants eating the flies.

Happy half-term everyone! And at last the sun is shining!

We are really proud of our lovely Year Ones, who wrote a thoughtful poem and later, performed it for Mrs Gray as part of our leaving gift to her. We wish her a happy retirement and thank her for feeding us delicious meals, including our favourite, fish and chips!

Here is some information on how to support your child at home with their phonics.

Parents Phonics Workshop

Videos to demonstrate the mentioned strategies, and more can be found here:

We’re hosting a Phonics Q&A session on Monday 7th June 2021 from 4 – 4:30pm  via Teams. The link has been sent by Parent Mail and will appear on our joint Year 1 Teams General page shortly.

Have a wonderful half term everyone! Looking forward to seeing you all again soon!

Team One.

Happy Friday, everyone! It’s been a busy week here in Year One. We have solving lots of problems involving halves and quarters of amounts. We have become experts at using bar models and part whole models and have been really developing our ability to justify why we’ve chosen a particular one.  Next week we are going to be exploring the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. If you have a chance over the weekend, help your child to spot there shapes in the environment around you.

In English we have brought to a close our topic on Dragons by writing a set of instructions to explain to a dragon trainer how to teach their dragon to fly. We’ve had great fun acting out an instruction text on ‘How to Train your Dragon to Breathe Fire’ and imitating it to create our own masterpieces. Ask your child to see if they can remember and perform this for you. Here is a copy of our Story Map to help you…

Next week will be Mrs Gray’s final week with us at St Peter’s so we will be writing some poems to present to her as a special goodbye from us all in Year One.

We wish you a fabulous weekend. Fingers crossed for some sunny spells!

Team One.

What an exciting week Year One have had! On Tuesday we had a drama workshop with Perform. The children had a great time using role play to address a very important topic – how to save our seas. Also on Tuesday, during Topic we used our DT skills to create our own junk model castles. Look at our amazing creations!

In Maths this week, we have been looking at fractions – one half and one quarter. We realised that if dragons are going to share food, it has to be equal, even and fair or the consequences will be huge!

In English, we’ve started looking at a new book called, The Egg by M.P. Robertson. In it, George (the main character) finds a huge golden egg in the chicken coop. When it hatches, he finds that it is a dragon egg and suddenly he becomes its parent and has to teach it dragony things.

Have a great weekend!

Team One.