A Spring in our Step
What a fabulous half term it has been for Year 1. We have loved welcoming the warmer weather, enjoying more time in our beautiful Fairy Garden and discovering lots more about the world.
We have embraced the new season: enjoying spring walks to spot signs of spring; creating spring themed paintings and collages; noting and recording temperature changes; learning about our orbit around the sun and how this affects seasons; creating spring themed hats and other beautiful artwork.
Our writing is going from strength to strength. This half term, we have embarked on a journey with Stanley (Stanley’s Stick). Stanley has a trusty stick, which provides him with lots of adventures! The children loved getting into role as Stanley, finding their own sticks outside and using their vivid imaginations to come up with new ways to use their sticks. The children finished this unit as proper authors, creating their very own books with a focus on using conjunctions ‘and’ and ‘but’. The books are truly wonderful, and we are very proud of everyone’s efforts. The children have also written a fantastic story all about going on an egg hunt, using the ‘We’re Going on an Egg Hunt’ story by Martha Mumford. We loved learning about prepositions, going on an adjective hunt and even learning about apostrophes.
We have loved learning about materials this half term. We linked this to more fantastic writing, creating our own ‘That’s Not My…’ books using different materials and adjectives. In science, the children have learned about materials’ properties and materials’ uses and have completed a series of inquiries to discover what properties each material has. Some highlights included creating a waterproof mini umbrella for baby bear, and an absorbent astro-nappy for an astronaut on a space mission!
Class 1 Spr 2 2025
Our history topic has been captivating: we have learned about changes in transport and significant inventors. We learned all about Henry Ford’s cars and his assembly line production, with the children even participating in their own assembly line to see how efficient they can be! We learned about the Wright brothers and the first ever flight in December 1903, with the children getting into role as the Wright brothers, making their own aeroplane and sending it on its first flight! We also learned about the local George Stephenson, whose contributions to train travel have changed the world. The children have done lots of hot seating and discussion to help them to remember all about these important changes to transport and travel.
We have delved into the world of ‘fauna and flora’ for our art topic, exploring our drawing skills to draw plants and animals. We have also used collage to make some beautiful pictures of minibeasts.
The children’s maths skills are improving so much! We have been learning all about numbers up to 100 this half term, linking this to our measurement topics such as length and height, mass and volume. We have enjoyed working with bigger numbers and challenging ourselves to see how they can be made up in different ways.
We have finished this half term with some vegetable planting in our wonderful Fairy Garden! We have planted carrots and lettuce and we are looking forward to enjoying the fruits of our labour in the summer term, leading into our wonderful science topic about plants and our DT topic, where we will create a healthy meal.
Mrs Gallon and Ms Nicol are extremely proud of the children and their hard work. The reading progress has been particularly phenomenal and it is so rewarding to see the children beginning to find a love for independent reading. We’re coming to the end of our very first novel together: ‘The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark’ by Jill Tomlinson (we have laughed so much at sweet little Plop and his endeavours!) and I hope the children’s love of reading will continue.
We hope you have a happy and safe Easter break.