Despite a few technical difficulties, we managed to complete our algorithms lesson… by programming our maths buddies! We took it in turns to guide our partners to a given spot on the ground, proving them with step by step instructions, including how many steps and which direction. We even had to debug them if they went wrong!
Last week was Science Week and we completed lots of different activities and challenges. On Wednesday we completed 4 different experiments and then showed our parents how to do them in Thumbs up Thursday. On Friday, we completed experiments under the theme of journeys, which was the focus of this years’ Science Week. We constructed ramps and rockets and also tested different materials. We had to write a prediction for each experiment and the concluded what actually happened. Even our cooking sessions with Mrs Barnes were science themed and as we made cake representations of the solar system.
This morning we had an introduction assembly to Science week, we found out that if you add bicarbonate of soda to lemon it causes a chemical reaction and fizzes, to make it more exciting we added food colouring. After this we worked collaboratively in our house teams and had a Forest School morning. We were given four different activities to complete in our groups. The yellow team started at the pond area, we were given a scavenger hunt to do and the resources to do tree rubbings. We were very successful and found all of the things Miss Carter had put on the list even a wild card item, we think we will get the extra points for ours.
The second activity we completed was the den building, we had lots of fun and even used rope and tarpolein to make our den draft free. The third activity we completed after break time was the collaborative art, we had a big yellow sheet and found lots of natural materials to put together to show our team animal which is a snow leopard. Finally we were in the quad planting nasturtiums, we took it in turns filling our pots with compost, popping the seeds in, covering them and watering them.
It was such a wonderful start to the week, even the sunshine came out. A big thank you to Mrs Daley and Miss Carter for arranging a fabulous morning!
Today we came in dressed as characters from our favourite books or in our PJs! We had a bit of a different day, we split up into 3 groups, with team ladybird, mermaid and snail – from Miss Carter, Miss Frowen and Mrs Latham’s book choices. Over the course of the day, we have battled it out in our handwriting, English, maths and art lessons for points, based on who has completed the most impressive work. We also gained points for good listening, sitting, behaviour, kindness and answering questions.
In our groups we had our own circle time, where the book for each team was shared. We then went round our groups and told our friends our favourite books and why, writing it down as we went. Some of our group members even read part of their favourite book to the rest of their teams!
In our math lesson, we had a slight problem! There weren’t enough books to go around. We had to work out how many books we were short each time, using our knowledge of subtracting tens and ones.
This afternoon, each team worked collaboratively to create a giant version of their book front cover. They are works in progress as you can see (we had to squeeze PE in too!) But, watch this space for the finished products…
This afternoon in Year One, disaster struck and our umbrellas all broke before the awful rain storm! We each chose 5 different materials to test and see if they would make a suitable cover for the hole. We then all decided on the best material, based upon its scientific properties and explained why we thought it would be the best. Overall, we concluded that the rubber from the rubber glove appeared to be the best replacement.
We grouped our class books into what we thought fiction and non-fiction meant. We then discussed the features of each kind of book and picked out three key characteristics of each type of book.
We used ipads reading comprehension tasks to discover interesting facts about Neil Armstrong. We then wrote our facts down in each group and shared them with the rest of the class.
We have been working on our place value to 20 and subtraction using concrete and pictorial objects, to help us write mathematical calculations.
Over the course of the Spring term, our Science focus has been materials. We have looked for different materials, diffident the different materials, described their properties and sorted them based on different criteria.
We have also been focusing on seasonal change, looking at transitions from Winter to Spring. We went on a Spring learning walk, looking for signs of Spring. The children used ipads in small groups to develop their computing skills, taking photographs of the signs of Spring they spotted.
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Our class text this half-term has been ‘Toys in Space’. Lots of strange things have happened, including toys landing on the school field and a mysterious shadow appearing on our window?! Later this week, we will be writing our very own versions of the story.
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This week is anti-bullying week, with the theme of ‘Respect’.
On Monday, we all wore odd socks to reflect differences and in Year One we discussed how we are all the same, but different. We concluded that we are all people, mammals, come to Marlfields and are in Year One, which makes us all the same. Then we talked about how we are all different; we are different people, like different things, look different, sound different and many other ideas. We then all made our own odd sock to represent us and also picked a name out of a hat of someone else in the class. We had to write something nice about the person we picked out on to a leaf to add to our ‘Friendship Tree’ – watch this space for the finished product!
After assembly in the morning all about ‘Respect’ we talked about all of the people we, as people and as individuals respect and added them to our letter ‘E’, alongside our ideas about what respect is.
Yesterday morning, we were all treated with going to see Year 6s class assembly where they shared what they have been learning about within their World War II topic.
This morning Reception-Year 6 walked to St James’ church to perform the songs for the harvest festival. Thank you to Year 4 for sharing Harvest around the world with us as well as the choir performing and Miss Booth for helping us to learn the songs. 
