On Friday 17th April FPIS was filled with lots of different colours and costumes all with an elephant theme! Each year group 'herd' took part in a sponsored 'STOMP' around the FPJS track for our Trunks Across the Thames project raising funds for Thames Hospice. Together as a Federation we walked a combined distance of 430 miles (which is the length of the river Thames and back again!) 

As you know, we are aiming to raise £1,300 by the end of the year in order to sponsor our baby elephant, Blossom, who will be part of the Trunks Across the Thames art trail during the summer months.  So far we have raised £778 and are at 59% of our final target. Thank you for all for your generous sponsorships and donations so far. Look out for more elephanty events coming soon! :-)

All of the children (and grown ups too) enjoyed our sunny Brilliant Beginning, which was a journey to Oaken Grove park! We discussed how we were going to get there and talked about being safe on our journey. Mr Wallace ensured that we were extra safe when crossing the road by being our lollipop man and stopping oncoming cars. The children made full use of the park once we had arrived and it was wonderful to see so many of our children's grown-up's come along on our journey too - thank you for coming! The children thoroughly enjoyed their first school trip and are excited for the next one! 

Our Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies have been very busy since returning from their Easter holidays! 

We launched our new project 'Journeys' and the children were excited to share, draw and write about a journey that they went on during the Easter break! Our Early Years explored a range of maps and discovered why they might be helpful. Following this, the children also walked around our school grounds using maps of the school to help navigate the way. Once the children had returned back to their classroom they 'had a go' at designing their own map and labelling the areas. They drew parts of the school that they had noticed such as the log park, pond, woodlands, the car park and more! We used directional language and our senses as we travelled around. Many of the children were inspired by the different map's and chose to create another one during busy learning. 

The children have been busy growing sunflowers and a variety of herbs, including basil and chives. Through this hands-on experience they have been learning about what plants need to survive, such as sunlight, water, and good soil. We have also been discussing how to care for them properly, including regular watering and ensuring they have enough space to grow. The children have shown great enthusiasm and responsibility while looking after their plants and it has been wonderful to see their excitement as they observe the changes and growth over time. 

In maths with have been using our subitising and composition knowledge to make '5 and a bit'. The children have been making links and using different representations to explore the composition of numbers to 10 and talking about number bonds to 10. During Marvellous Maths they have enjoyed exploring money through role play shops in their classrooms. We have also explored positional language, maps and following a route around the classroom. 

This week we began retelling the Gingerbread Man traditional tale through actions and words. We linked the Gingerbread Man story to our project 'Journeys' and the children created their own story maps to help them retell the story in sequence.  As well as this, the children have been using playdough scented with ginger and cinnamon. They explored the different smells and textures, sparking lots of curiosity and conversation. The children used the playdough to create their own gingerbread people, carefully shaping and moulding the dough. They showed great attention to detail as they added features such as buttons, eyes, and mouths, making each one unique. We are all looking forward to baking our own Gingerbread next week... lets hope ours don't run away! 

To launch our new project 'We're Going on an Adventure!' Year 1 gathered in the hall to travel around the world and visit each of the seven continents. Each teacher taught us about a different continent and we learnt some fun facts from each place! We investigated some of the main physical features, weather and animals found there. As part of our Brilliant Beginning we were all invited to bring in an object, picture, flag, postcard or drawing of a country or place we have visited. We shared our experiences with the rest of the class and loved hearing about everyone's adventures! It was wonderful to see and hear the children speak so passionately about their chosen place. Thank you to everyone who spent time preparing the objects and posters and also for discussing your children’s ideas with them!

We have also been reading a variety of fictional adventure stories. Using these stories as inspiration, we used our imagination and created our own stories! We started by creating a story map and planning each part, then we had a go at writing it up as a short narrative. 

During our maths sessions our drip feed has been to recognise the UK coins and notes. We have also been working on the beginnings of multiplication and division by counting in steps of 2s, 5s and 10s, grouping objects into equal groups and drawing arrays. These concepts fit in with the big idea of unitising: counting in steps of equal sizes and treating a group of, say, five objects as one unit of five. 

In outdoor learning we have enjoyed some improved weather! We have been enjoying cloud watching, bug hunting, creating observational drawings of the pond and its surroundings, playing parachute games as well as quietly reading books listening to the bird song.

We have been thinking about how technology is integral to the supply of our food as it is grown and transported from all over the world.  We have also been busy applying our Sticky Knowledge of primary and secondary colours and using this in our busy learning to create different flags from around the world! 

We have started learning about five groups of animals: mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles. So far we have looked at mammals and reptiles and thought about the special characteristics that enable them to be classified in those groups.