In English today, we learnt a new poem ‘Queue for the Zoo’. The poem is about queueing up and pretending to be the different animals whilst waiting. We spent time learning the lines and acting it out. The animals in the poem were tigers, bears, snakes, hares, rats, bats and kangaroos. Can you guess which animals we are acting out?

In recognition of World Down Syndrome Day, the children in Cherry Class engaged in activities aimed at understanding what Down syndrome is and how it affects individuals. The lesson began with a presentation introducing the story of Ella, a young girl with Down syndrome. Through Ella’s story, students learned that while individuals with Down syndrome may face certain challenges, they have the same desires, dreams, and abilities as anyone else.

Then we finished with a handwriting challenge to experience some of the difficulties children with Down syndrome may face. The children attempted to write using their non-dominant hand. This activity helped build empathy by demonstrating the effort required for tasks that may seem simple to others.

By the end of the lesson, the children understood that Down syndrome is not an illness but a condition that individuals are born with, and most importantly, that people with Down syndrome are more alike than different.

In Year 1 this week, we have been learning about how to stay safe when we’re online. The theme for Internet Safety Week this year is ‘Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online’.

Firstly, we discussed when and why we go online. We had varying reasons to go online, such as, to play games, to watch television programmes, to watch online videos, to find out information and to complete homework tasks.

We then discussed the word ‘trust’ and its importance when using the internet. Trust means to be able to count on someone and know when they are telling the truth. It was important for us to understand that we can’t trust everything that we read and see online.

Finally, we discussed what information should be public and what should be kept private. We learnt that we should never share our full name, address, birthday, school or any passwords with anyone when we’re online. We demonstrated our understanding of what we should and shouldn’t share online by showing a thumbs up or a thumbs down.

Just like in the real world, the Internet has both nice and unkind people using it. Some people might pretend to be someone else or offer fake things to trick you into giving them money or personal information. This is called a scam. People who try to trick others into giving them money or personal information are called scammers. Online scams can be tricky to spot so it is important to stay alert when you are online.

This week it's British Science Week! In Year 1, we have been learning about 'changing and adapting in our everyday lives and the world around us'. We enjoyed reading and exploring some books together with our teachers and engaged in an exciting class discussion. We learnt lots of new scientific facts.

Did you know that people as well as animals change over time?

People change as they grow from a baby to an adult. They grow bigger, their arms and legs grow much longer, and their hair grows and changes colour. Animals change too! A chameleon can change the colour of its skin and match the colours in its natural environment. It changes colour to hide from other animals and potential predators. This is called camouflage. 

Did you know that butterflies change and adapt in the world around us? 

Butterflies all start their lives as tiny eggs. Inside each egg, a caterpillar begins to grow. After 10 days the eggs are ready to hatch and ready to eat lots of juicy, green leaves. Once the caterpillar is fully grown, it finds a place to rest. Soon the caterpillar begins to spin a silk thread and overtime, begins to turn into a chrysalis. Inside the chrysalis, a butterfly is growing. When the butterfly is fully grown, it then pushes its way out of the chrysalis. 

Did you know that acorns grow on Oak trees?

An oak tree is a type of tree. All trees are plants, and they have roots, stems and leaves. Trees are plants that grow tall and strong. Their woody stems are called trunks. A thick layer of bark protects the trunk. Oak trees grow in forests, woods, gardens and parks and live for a long time. When they are between 40 and 50 years old, oaks start to grow seeds, called acorns. One day, new oaks will grow from the acorns.

Today in science we were extending our learning of floating and sinking. Last week we experimented with different objects to see if they would float or sink. We learnt that float means it stays at the top of the water and sink means it drops to the bottom. 

Today we looked at lots of different types of boats and what they are made from. We talked about how boats are sometimes very heavy but that water also weighs a lot! We then had a go at creating our own boats from foil and tested them out. This was very exciting and most of our boats floated! As a class we recapped our learning from before half term and decided that the best materials are ones which are waterproof.

In our English lessons this week, Year 1 have been exploring the book, 'Marta Maps It Out' by Leigh Hodgkinson. We are really enjoying the book and have been inspired to create maps of our local area and the school grounds. We learnt what nouns are - an object, name or place and this enabled us to add labels to the maps that we'd drawn.  

Chestnut class were lucky enough to visit Stevenage Museum this afternoon. We all had a wonderful time and loved exploring the rooms at the museum. We learnt about how Stevenage was the first new town and was the first place to be pedestrianised. The lady at the museum showed us pictures of Stevenage in the past and we were able to recognise lots of the places! 

We then had time to explore the museum. There were lots of different rooms as well as items which we could hold and try out. Our favourite parts were some headphones with music from the past on, a kitchen set up from when the new town was built and feeling the stuffed animals’ coats.

We have been focusing on the story Stanley's Stick. We have loved all of the different things that Stanley imagined his stick to be. Today we found our own stick and thought about all of the other imaginative things it could be. We came up with some super ideas such as a toothbrush, a bubble wand, a lolly pop and many more. We all had a wonderful time acting out these different things. Afterwards we wrote a label about what our stick was, so everyone would know. 

Next week we are going to be using these imaginative ideas to write our own version of the book.

In English this week we have enjoyed exploring a new book, 'Stanley's Stick' by John Hegley. In the book, Stanley is a very curious character who loves to use his imagination. He imagines that his stick might be a dinosaur, a fishing rod, a broomstick or even a saxophone! 

Just like Stanley does in the book, we imagined that the stick was a dinosaur. We wrote sentences about what dinosaurs like to do, for example:

'I like to hunt for meat.' 

'I like to roar and snap my sharp teeth.'

We focused on starting our sentences with a capital letter and using a full stop at the end. We began to extend our ideas by using the conjuction 'and.'

This week we have been looking at instructions. Yesterday we read 'The Gruffalo' and thought about who the Gruffalo might want to invite to his party. There were lots of animals we wrote invitations for, but the class said there were other things needed for a party too, such as balloons and food. We had a look at the recipe book 'Gruffalo Crumble' and followed a recipe to make ‘Terrible Tusks’. First, we washed our hands with soap. Then we chopped up the banana, and after that pushed pieces of fruit onto our skewer. Finally, we added a piece of banana to the end to look like a tusk. We then ate our ‘Terrible Tusk’ to see if it would be a good recipe for the party, we all decided it would be!