TOPIC - EXPLORING THE WORLD 

English

This term, Year 1 has been travelling far and wide—both on the back of a humpback whale and on the wings of a dragon!

In our English lessons, we’ve been diving deep into Julia Donaldson’s The Snail and the Whale. The children have been busy retelling the snail’s epic journey, focusing on how even the smallest creature can see the big, wide world.

We’ve also been inspired by The Dragon Machine. The children have become fantastic "Dragon Experts," writing detailed descriptions of these creatures. We practised using ambitious adjectives to describe dragons in detail. 

Maths

Year 1 has been diving deep into the world of equations. We have been looking closely at the equals sign, showing that the "whole" is the same as the "sum of its parts."  The children have been acting as "Maths Detectives" to find the missing addend in an equation.  We have been partitioning a whole number into two groups to create subtraction equations. To make this stick, the children have been creating their own addition and subtraction stories.

Science

Our young scientists have been putting their bodies to the test this term as we explored our Five Senses. We’ve been learning how our senses help us understand the world around us.   We held a "Blind Taste Test," sampling different foods. The children were brilliant at identifying flavours without using their eyes!  Our "Mystery Smelling Pots" challenged the children to identify familiar scents like onion, garlic and coffee using only their noses.  We sharpened our ears by listening to he sounds different items made in cups and tried to guess what they might be. 

Wider Curriculum 

In Art we have been looking at prints and how these can be created. We’ve moved away from standard brushes to see how we can transfer patterns and shapes from one surface to another. We started by looking at our own hands as "printing plates" and took our paper outside to find textures in the environment.  The children became sculptors, using plasticine to press in patterns and printing foam to scratch out their own unique designs.

We have also really enjoyed NSPCC Maths Day! We had great fun exploring maths around us. We created a tally chart from a vehicle survey, measured our height using bricks, estimated time, weighed different objects and took part in a number search. It was a great day where we looked at how maths is all around us.