Amazing Animals

Welcome to our first term in Year 1!

We are so excited to have you join us.

Our topic this term is science-led. We will be using our science skills to identify, name, compare and group common animals. We will also explore what it means to be a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore and how the World’s habitats are interconnected. Our findings will then be published in a book for the school library! Watch this space for updates!

Literacy and art come together with elements of history, music and PHSE to explore colour. We will be experimenting with how colours are made and how the colours and sounds around us effect our emotions.

In our final week this term, we used all the knowledge we had built up on bugs, habitats and the autumnal needs of animals, to design and build our own bug houses. We made sure that there were lots of dry, warm and small places for bugs to hide and stay safe through the winter. We will keep checking on them as winter comes and continue to evaluate our designs based on whether they manage to attract a range of bugs.

As part of our learning on animal classification, Griffin looked at a selection of feathers from local birds such as pigeons, red kites, magpies and buzzards. Mr Thorpe stole the show though as our special guest, to give us a hands-on experience of the features of birds. He did a great job of answering all the questions we had prepared and taught us a lot about how to care for chickens. You really helped us to observe and recall the features of birds, and how they differ to mammals. Thank you Mr Thorpe! 

Griffin loved joining the Puma 50 run! Well done for showing such great team spirit and perseverance! 

Year 1 have been busy again this week! In literacy the children protested to explore the meaning of our book title, “The Day the Crayons Quit” by Drew Daywalt. They also shopped until they dropped, to show that they could identify and use money in maths. Whilst art, the children began to plan a Kandinsky-inspired artwork using their knowledge of how he thought about emotion, colour and music, to represent an animal of their choice. They are definitely ready for a relaxing weekend and a good story!

Griffin class you did us proud on Battle of Britain Day! You worked so hard on your art and on your costumes. Well done and thank you. 

The children's artwork was a culmination of their work on colour through art week, mixing and discovering primary and secondary colours, alongside their shades, tints and tones. The children learned about Wassily Kandinsky and how he was inspired by music, colour and mood. They then related that to images and sounds from the Battle of Britain, to show their own versions of his 'Concentric Circles' art work, each choosing to reflect colours and emotions that stood out to them from that time.