What a terrific year we have had in Year 1! It has been a very busy year that has whizzed past.
We started the year with a topic called Incredible Me. We learned all about our brilliant bodies and celebrated all our special differences. We enjoyed reading lots of stories, including Elmer that taught us how good it is to be different! We learned all about keeping healthy and carried out a sugar experiment to test our favourite drinks. Some of us were so shocked that we downloaded the Change4Life app at home and started scanning items in our own kitchen cupboards! To finish up the half term, we had a Ready, Steady, Cook! week. We carried out a vote to decide what to make, went to Sainsbury’s to buy our ingredients, used the Green Screen to create TV adverts and sold lots of bowls of rainbow pasta and delicious fruit kebabs. We also loved our trip to Pizza Express where we made our very own pizzas!
After a well deserved half term holiday, we came back to school to learn all about The Great War. We learned about this to commemorate 100 years since the war ended. We thought about the foods eaten in trenches and even made our own trench cake. We read the poem ‘In Flanders’ Field’ and thought all about how it made us feel. We had two visitors come to teach us all about The Great War and they taught us the song, ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’ which is what the soldiers sang as they marched and marched and marched! We also learned all about the animals in the war and loved learning all about Sgt Stubby. We also enjoyed learning all about different modes of transport that have helped changed our lives today. We found out all about the Wright brothers, who invented the aeroplane, and the Montgolfier brothers, who invented the hot air balloon.
We finished off the first term of school with an amazing Christmas Performance. Together, we made a fantastic choir and performed lots of songs for the play, ‘Straw and Order.’
After the Christmas break, we started a topic called Paws, Claws and Whiskers. It taught us all about animals. We learned to classify animals into birds, mammals, amphibians, insects, reptiles and fish. We also learned to group animals by what they eat. Dr Noel Fitzpatrick sent us a letter when his animals escaped; he was worried that they might not get food. The animals had left us quite a mess (poo!) but we used everything we had learned to work out what they might need to eat. For Paws pet shop also visited us with lots of animals. We got to hold each animal and showed off all our fantastic knowledge related to looking after pets. Class 3 also showed off their brilliant animal knowledge during their Class Assembly.
Our next topic was Hot and Cold. We sang lots of songs and learned the seven continents of the world. Some of us even managed to find all the oceans of our world. We labelled maps of the U.K. and explored the characteristics of Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. We looked at different people from around the world, including the Inuit people. Class 4 also had the very special job of performing their Strictly Come Dancing themed assembly and we had lots of fun learning dances from around the world.
Next up was Castles and Knights! We went on a trip to Alnwick Castle and learned all about our local knight Harry Hotspur. We learned how to attack and defend a castle, and how the castles have changed over time. We got to have a special DT Day where we made our very own castles. We made sure our castles had battlements, turrets and a drawbridge that could go up and down! We also learned all about the Battle of Hastings and enjoyed acting out the battle!
Our final topic this year has been In the Garden. We planted our very own runner beans and have been looking after them at home. We also looked after little caterpillars and watched them to turn into butterflies. We looked at the lifecycle of a plant and learned all about seed dispersion, and we designed seed packets with everything a plant needs to grow. We also learned how to label a plant and carried out an experiment to learn how a plant grows best. We learned all about pollination and how important bees our to our world.
Most importantly, we have had the best time in Year 1 and the grown ups are so proud of each and every single child!
