Year 1 Summer 2021-22
Music - The Lighthouse Family!
This term our music unit will help us to listen and appraise songs by local artists ‘The Lighthouse Family’. We listened to facts to help us to understand more about the band and where they are from. After watching the video of the song 'Lifted' we discussed the questions...How does the song make you feel? Do you like/not like the song? What does the song make you think of? What instruments can you hear? We were able to remember musical language from our previous lessons and find the pulse by moving our bodies in different ways. Well done Year 1!
Maths - Measuring Length and Height
We have started a brand new unit of Maths learning all about measurement with a focus on length and height. To start today’s lesson, we thought about words that can help us compare length such as short, long, length, same, shorter, longer, longest, shortest. We then discussed methods we can use to work out when something is the longest or shortest object e.g. lining the objects up. After that, we compared the length of our fingers. We thought about which of our fingers was the longest, which was the shortest, and if we had any fingers the same length. Once we had done this, Mrs McMeiken challenged us to find 3 things longer than our pencil, and 3 things shorter than our pencil. We then moved on to thinking about words that can help us compare height such as tall, short, height, tallest, shortest, taller, shorter, same. Again, we discussed methods we could use to compare height e.g. everyone standing up straight next to one another. We then spent some time being measured using the height chart we have in our classroom and placing a label next to it. From this, we discussed who was the tallest in the class, who was the shortest, who was taller than x, who was shorter than x. Mrs McMeiken then challenged us to find 3 things shorter than ourselves, 3 things taller than ourselves, and 3 things the same height.
The Queen's Jubilee Celebrations
Year 1 have had a fantastic day celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. We dressed the queen in a new outfit practicing our art skills, we drew pictures of ourselves and wrote messages for a special celebratory card that we are sending to the Queen, we had a special Jubilee lunch, each created a piece of bunting for a competition, and had an ice cream from the ice cream van. It has been an excellent day and we each received a commemorative bookmark to mark the occasion! Congratulations on 70 years your majesty!
Hoopstarz
Hoopstarz came into school today to teach us how to hula hoop! We practised the method needed - one foot in front of the other and moving backwards and forwards, before we did lots of activities to help us become excellent hula hoopers! We did an amazing job, learnt new skills, and did lots of exercise!
Teddy Bear's Picnic
As part of this year's DT, Year 1 have been learning about cooking and nutrition. We have been learning all about what foods make up a healthy diet, and have spent a lot of time looking at the Eatwell Plate and how we can design meals based around this. We designed our own healthy fruit skewers to take to a picnic and then spent some time in the breakfast club room making them. We also had an opportunity to develop our chopping skills! Once we had made them, we enjoyed a fantastic picnic outside on the yard with our teddy bears!
Literacy - Drama
Year 1 have been learning the story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ in Literacy. We listened to Mrs McMeiken read the story, rehearsed the story using our story map, and discussed each part. Once we had rehearsed the story, we did a drama performance of each scene to help us recall it better, and to sequence the events that occurred. You can see our fantastic performance in the pictures above!
Art - Collecting Materials
This term we are learning about the famous artist, Andy Goldsworthy. We looked at what materials we could see in his artwork, what colours we could see, and what shapes we could see. Mrs McMeiken explained that Goldsworthy likes using natural materials in his artwork. We then discussed what ‘natural’ materials are and identified some examples such as rocks, twigs, leaves, grass, bark, cotton, and weeds. We then went outside and in pairs, we collected natural materials. We then came back together and were given the task of sorting our materials into groups e.g. grouping all the leaves together. Next lesson, we will use the materials to make our own piece of artwork in the style of Andy Goldsworthy.
Our Visit to Gibside!
We had a fantastic day on our trip to Gibside where we learnt all about how to create art in nature. We created a colour pallete using leaves, petals, grass, and any other natural objects we could find. We then used mud as paint and drew pictures of the natural environment around us using sticks. Finally, we went into the forest and did bark rubbings, and created Andy Goldsworthy inspired art out of sticks. It was a brilliant day and we learnt lots about how the world around us can be used as a canvas!
Blackfell Scramble
Year 1 took part in the Blackfell Scramble. There was a variety of activities for us to complete including walking over the trim trail, walking through tyres, football shoot out, and our very favourite activity...the slip and slide! We got very wet and had lots of fun. Thank you to Year 6 for organising the event.
Science - Naming body parts
In Science this term, Year 1 are learning all about Animals, Including Humans. In our first lesson, we were identifying the parts of a human body. To help us with this, we went outside on to the yard and drew around Sephora. We then took it in turns to identify a part of her body and we labelled it. As you can see, we already know a lot about our body parts!
PE - Tennis Skills
This half term in PE, we are developing our tennis skills. We have practiced holding a racquet, controlling the ball, balancing the ball, bouncing the ball using the racquet, and sending and receiving the ball.
Lifestyle and Fitness Team
To kick start 'Be Safe, Be Fit, Be Healthy' week, Year 1 had a visit from Sunderland's Lifestyle and Fitness Team. They came to teach us all about how to stay fit and healthy. They began by explaining how we can use the Eatwell Plate to create a balanced meal, then they showed us how much sugar is in some of the treats we might enjoy. We were shocked to find out that there is 18 teaspoons of sugar in a bar of chocolate and a fizzy drink - that's a whole glass full! We were then given 5lb of fat and 5lb of muscle and asked to compare them. Although they were the same weight, they were very different in size and shape! We have learnt a lot about staying fit and healthy and can't wait to put some of their ideas into practise.
Art Andy Goldsworthy
We have been completing some art work in the style of Andy Goldsworthy. We created our own sand style background, then took inspiration from some of Goldsworthy's work to create a swirl made of different sized stones which we painted in different shades of grey. Finally, we added details using white pastels and a black line to make the stones stand out and look cracked. I'm sure you'll agree, our work is fantastic!
