Mindfulness
Year One are really getting into this mindfulness thing. This week we sorted a pile of mixed pulses into groups. It sounds silly, but it is so soothing. I put some music on and we concentrated on how do the beans feel? What colour are the different lentils? How do they sounds and they slide across the table? Then afterwards we made pictures using the different shapes.
Maths
We've been thinking about numbers, where they live in a 100 square; what column and which row. Eg. 36 lives in the 6 column and the 30 row.
This came in handy when trying to put the 100 square back together, to roughly know where the numbers should be.
Design & Technology/Geography
As part of our Geography Unit we have been learning about our local area, last week we spoke about the important buildings in our area. We came up with Sandridge School, St Leonard's church, St Leonard's park, the village shop and of course the Green Man and the Rose and Crown.
Well this week we made some junk models of the Sandridge buildings. First we looked at the front of the buildings and then the birds eye view of the buildings using Google Maps. This helped us to plan out what our blueprints would look like. Which then lead into what materials we would need.
Then it was build time. I could hear some great communication going on between teams about what materials could be used for what, like
"The pointy bit (in the egg box) would be a good steeple.",
"We need a white box for the top half",
"I've found the plastic for windows."
I had all these beautiful images of how they would turn out, so well thought out and teams working together nicely.
"I'll start making the hall, you do Butterflies and Catterpillars."
"If we put these together."
I caught this young man using this egg box as a massive jaw. I asked him what part of your church is this. Honestly he replied "it's not, I'm a crocodile." Made my day :)
Can you guess what part of Sandridge this is?
They turned out differently to how I expected. But that's not a bad thing. It was much better. The amount of team work, talking, planning and imagination exploring that took place it was a much more valuable lesson that I had in mind. The models look good too. Most important was that they had fun and were so focused on what they were doing.
We're going on a tree hunt, we're looking for lots of different ones, what a beautiful day, we're having fun!
Uh oh! holly! shiny, prickly holly.
Uh oh! Willow! Skinny, swaying willow.
We used a simple classification grid to figure out which tree the leaves belonged to. Ones that we weren't sure of we collected and brought back inside to show Mrs Ivory, our nature guru.
While other groups went out to plant conkers and acorns.
Show and Tell
Ottie brought in some wheat her dad had grown and harvested with his combine harvester. She planted some more and looked after it, making sure to water it and place it in a sunny area.
Jasmine collected seasonal plant matter. She spoke about how she had some flowers that were wild plants and some that were garden plants, just like we've been learning about in class. Then made a collage of a variety of autumn leaves in different colours.
Well done girls, you've linked your show and tell to the topics we are learning about in school. Next week will be Lois and Lucia. Can't wait!
I have had an amazing week! The children have been superb. I've skipped to the car every night and walked out the house with a smile on my face every morning. They make me enjoy my job and I want to say thank you Year One.
Certificates
Merit - Jack & Hooriya
Presentation - Lois
Phonics - Molly
Writing - Aaron
Reminders
Monday is French day!!!! So remember to wear something red white and/or blue.
The Reading area is starting to come together, today we added speech bubbles to the pictures to say what we enjoy about reading, where we like to read or what our favourite book is. Thank you for sending in your pictures, I've put up the ones I have. However I'm still missing some people. I'd love to see where you read at home.
Also I'd like to arrange some kind of a conker fight towards the end of the half term. Just need to OK it with the boss. I'm going to push its a part of British Values and talk about Health and safety *rolls eyes*. So while they're about collect them, you can have a go at your home remedies for making them stronger. I've got a bucket full at home and will start drilling holes in them just so there are spares. What do you think? Any objections?
