Squirrel Class 2023/24
Lots of further memories were made today during our MEMORY BOX topic showcase. Thank you to everyone who brought in a toy and to all the adults who joined us. We had fun playing marbles, dominoes, card games, tiddly winks, writing on chalk boards and sharing our memories about toys.
Squirrels class have been working so hard on their extended writing! This week we have been writing about Little Red Riding Hood.
World Book Day 2024
Don’t we all look fantastic !
Today we found out all about Loppers. At first the children thought they were called Snippers or Cutters, which are all great names and fit the tools purpose. Soon after we got to know how they are used and the safety rules around them. First Mrs Reynolds gave us a Tool Talk and then we had a choice to have a go at using them. Lots of exploration continued for the rest of the afternoon and we had lots of happy and muddy children.
Today we got to know how to build a large shelter using tarpaulin , rope, a mallet and pegs. We then tried to see if we could all fit inside. It was a bit of a squash and a squeeze but worth it !! Mrs Reynolds put up a different kind of shelter called a hammock and some children chose to have a swing during Play and Explore.
One child excitedly exclaimed ”Wow! This is like a calming, relaxing fun bed but in the forest”
We also spotted signs of Spring by finding Snowdrops, Crocus and Daffodil shoots all amongst a beautiful sunny winter afternoon.
Today we looked for natural materials to build a small shelter for the animals. We sat around the fire circle and discussed which flora and fauna were safe to use within the forest. Once we made the shelters some children chose to explore whilst others continued making the shelters by adding more foliage.
Squirrels class had their Christmas performance and we were so proud of them. Each and every class member did their upmost best to learn their lines, the songs and all the actions and performed it to the best of their ability. They really did live up to the name 'Super Squirrels'. Look how amazing we all looked dressed up in our costumes! Featuring our naughty elf Jingles who decided to dress up with us!
As squirrels, we are super proud and excited that we have won the attendance challenge 4 times so far since starting year 1! It is amazing! We all love being a squirrel so much that we always want to come in! These treats are just a nice bonus for us all!
As artists, squirrels class have been investigating how to create a relief print. This was done by making an impression into a piece of plasticine and then painting the plasticine before printing it into the paper. The children's used their investigation skills to work out how much pressure they needed to create an impression into the plasticine and how much paint they needed to create the print. The children really enjoyed this activity and it is a skill we have continued to build upon using different materials to create our print and even creating repeating patterns. What super artists we have.
In english, the children have been introduced to a new topic of information texts. the children looked at what an information text was and the features in which they have. As a class we spotted these features together and then the children as a table had to use their knowledge, teamwork and communication skills to find the same features on their on information text. They did this super well and managed to spot all the features working together. Well done Squirrels.
In math's, the children's have been investigating how to use the balance scales to work out their number bonds to 10. They had to try different numicon pieces to find the ones that made the balance scales equal. The children then practiced writing these number sentences in their books and what a super job they did!
Squirrels celebrated Children in Need by coming into school in spotty or own clothes. We really enjoyed learning about what children in need is and why we raise money for it! We had such a good day! Happy Children in Need, from the super squirrels!
In PHSE the children have been learning about how to stay safe and people who keep us safe. We have been looking at what we can do to keep ourselves safe in different situations and what responses we can give. The children practiced 'yell', 'stop' and 'no' as responses to different scenarios. The children were very engaged and enjoyed discussing what we do and why we do it. Super job!
We have started a new area of the Physical education program this term and it is gymnastics. To kick start this topic we looked at balances and got out some of the low apparatus to practice these balances on. We practiced 4 different balances using a range of apparatus. The children really enjoyed showing off their skills and competency in this area of gymnastics and cannot wait to move onto more advanced balances using different apparatus! Well done!
The children had the pleasure of having a visit from the amazing Grandad Wheel's today, the author gave the children a task to design a new futuristic wheelchair. The children took this in their stride and tapped into their imagination to create some amazing designs that he really enjoyed seeing. Very proud of the hard work they put into this and how captivated the children were by his stories.
In PE, the children have been practicing the skill of rolling different types balls in a straight line using only one hand to roll and stop in pairs. They then put this into practice in a game of 'elephants football' by where the children had to stand in a circle and using only one hand, roll the ball around the circle trying to score goals. This was a game we really enjoyed and will be playing again! Super control work.
The children adventured outside in maths this week when investigating number lines and how we use them when adding two numbers together within a number sentence. They turned themselves into the numbers within the word problems and practically investigated how to 'jump' on a number line, one number at a time. They had lots of fun doing this and then were able to accurately write the number sentence after to match the problem they had worked out all together! Teamwork makes the dreamwork for squirrels.
In computing, the children have been learning about the skill of following instructions. This was practiced without computers and will be built on using the computers next lesson. The children has to use effective communication skills to give their partner a set of instructions on how to build a model out of Lego. The partners had to ensure that they used effective instructions and correct language when describing where they wanted a block to go and what type of block it was. They all worked fantastically together. Well done!
As scientists, the children were investigation the different materials that you could find. Talking about their properties and how we group types of materials. The children then had the opportunity to sort through a range of materials and match the different materials to the label and arrange them into sorted piles of different materials. The children then talked about why they put that material in that category and why we did not have some other materials such as glass to sort out on our trays. Super investigation work.
In maths the children were learning about number bonds and the different ways that we can make different numbers. We practiced doing the number bonds to- 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. They used teamwork and communication skills to work with their partner to make sure they both had the correct parts of the number sentence to add up to the given number. Super work!
In PE we have been pirates and we have been learning all about how to balance on our pirate ship. This week we looked at balancing on one foot and investigated if we could hold this balance whilst balancing objects on different parts of our body. These pirates were super and would be able to withstand any amount of balancing on a pirate ship! Well done!
As scientists the children have been investigating the sense touch. They have been enjoying exploring feely bags and different textures and sensations that you may be able to feel. We also used our new English knowledge about adjectives to help dictate and write about what we had felt and how it felt. They were super scientists!
The children have been using their new computing skills on purple mash. This week we looked at creating their own avatar as the children are starting to understand the idea of 'ownership’ of creative work that they create. Look at their super work, can you spot yourself?
One of our topics in PE this half term is dance. We have an amazing outside provider that comes in and supports the children's development of their dance skills and knowledge. They have been practising following dance sequences as well as learning new sequences that they are improving in completing independently in order to make their own dance routine as a class. Our favorite freeze pose was 'superman' as the children felt like real life superheroes.
Taste was one of the next senses we looked at, all children's in Squirrels had the opportunity to try a variety of different foods. As they tasted they wrote the sentences in their book about what they could taste using the sentence starter ' I can taste'. The children embraced the different sensations from the different foods. Super lesson squirrels.
In English and Science, we have been learning about the 5 senses. We have looked at poems, songs and books all linked. Today we put these senses to the ultimate test with some smell pots. The children had many different things to smell, whilst having no idea what was in each box. Their senses were put to the ultimate test! They then went and wrote sentences about what they could smell, with most children even using our new conjunction 'and' in their work! Super job!
The children had their first computing lesson of KS1 where we were joined by some fantastic year 2 helpers. Together we all learnt to log onto the laptops and log into purple mash with our new logins. It was amazing to see the teamwork and communication between the squirrels and the butterflies class in doing this. Well done!
As musicians, squirrels where learning to play the glockenspiels along to a piece of music that they were given using the notes C and D. They used their fantastic teamwork skills to stay in time with the music and each other! Super job!
The children were learning about greater than and less than in math's and the symbols we use to represent this. As mathematicians they investigated using straws and cubes to see which symbol they may use with different numbers. We even managed to find some numbers that where equal to each other. Super mathematicians we have in squirrels.
In art the children have been looking at an artist called Molly Haslam and the work she produces using circles. The children experimented with thin and thick chalk as well as different pressures and speeds when drawing these circles. They were able to discuss and compare there circles with their friends and tell them how they had done them! What an amazing job!
The children had a wonderful visit from Hayley who spoke to them all about how to keep our bodies safe and private. They practiced showing which areas they keep private and using scientific names for all of our body parts! Super job squirrels!
On our first week in squirrels we have been exploring all of the areas of our classroom and getting excited about our new topic being all about superheroes! Some of us even had a go at dressing up like them and practicing our cutting skills by making some masks! Super Squirrels have been assembled!
Squirrels
Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate our Sports Day with us. All the children tried so hard and every single team worked so well together. We were very lucky with the weather as just after we went inside, the rain poured down!
We loved our Forest School session building dens today. We worked together to solve problems. We also loved relaxing in the hammock too!
Today we wrote a book review about our favourite books. We thought carefully about our favourite parts of the story.
We have been enjoying practising activities for our sports day. We worked well as a team, practised our skills, and tried hard to focus.
We visited the National Emergency Services Museum in Sheffield. We loved learning about different people who help us and getting to see/ go on some of the vehicles. We enjoyed dressing up and role-playing different jobs. Here are some photos of our day.
In Forest School this week, we learnt about the Japanese art Hapa Zoma, where we used natural materials such as leaves to make our own designs. We loved experiencing the forest during the summer and looking at all of the trees.
Over the last few weeks, we have been learning how to do a running stitch in order to make our own fish toys to play with. Look at the amazing job that we did!
Over the last three weeks, we have been reading 'The Rainbow Fish' by Marcus Pfister. We re-told the story and then wrote our own story based on sharing and friendship. Today, we wrote letters to Marcus Pfister. We made sure to include paragraphs, questions, adjectives, and a range of conjunctions.
We loved sports week. Click here to see photos of our activities.
We loved looking at lots of different instruments today and learning how to play them. We enjoyed listening to the different sounds. We particularly liked the rainmaker and we closed our eyes, imagining a storm.
We loved using different leaf shapes to make minibeasts. Can you guess which minibeasts we have made?
We enjoyed learning how to safely use loppers today. We also whittled the bark from the willow trees and looked at what was underneath.
We have been enjoying our 'Flora and Fauna' artwork this term. We've been exploring using different mediums and have been talking about what we like using best. We used oil pastels, chalk, and pens (drawing without taking our pen off the paper). We will be making our own minibeast collages over the next few weeks, thinking about the skills we have used so far.
We really enjoyed learning about hockey in P.E. today. We learnt how to hold a hockey stick correctly, how to pass the ball to a partner, and how to dribble around cones. Look at us go!
We really enjoyed our visit from Emma from Asda today. We learnt about where different fruit comes from and made our own fruit skewers. Most of us tried fruit that we had never tried before. We had a great time!
Thank you to everyone who attended our creative showcase today. Everyone had lots of fun making their coasters and you all did a brilliant job!
What a fantastic day we had celebrating the coronation. We had a delicious afternoon tea for our lunch, sung 'To to the sound of the trumpets' in assembly and showed our crowns and artwork to the rest of the school.
We made a collage of King Charles III's silhouette and filled it with pictures about royalty.
We learnt about the Queen's Green Canopy project and King Charles III's intention to continue this, so decided to decorate our crowns with photographs of nature.
Today we started our P.E. lessons about football. We learnt how to kick the ball with the side of our foot, pass the ball to our partner and stop the ball, and dribble the ball around cones.
Over the last few weeks we have been learning about what plants need to grow. Today we planted cress seeds and cornflower seeds and talked about how we will look after them. We are looking forward to seeing them grow over the next few weeks.
We have been learning how to play games co-operatively. We really like memory games. We have also loved playing phonics games and reading in groups.
This term we will be exploring watercolour paints. Today we experimented with colour and thought about whether we like the medium of watercolour. We learned how to make colours darker and lighter by adding more paint or water.
We have been reading the story 'Elmer' by David Mckee this week. We love the character of Elmer and we talked about how we are unique and special too, just like Elmer. We then re-told the story but tried to make it even better with our exciting adjective choices and time connectives. Here is some of our work.
In P.E. today we learned how to do a relay race ready for sports day. We listened really carefully and worked as a team to be the first team back.
We enjoyed the weather today and did parachute games outside. We had to work as a team to keep the parachute in the air, move a ball to a specific person, and run underneath to a new space.
Well done to the winners of our reading raffle for this half term. They all read lots of times and their name was pulled out of a hat. Well done for super reading!
We had a FANTASTIC day today with 'Captivating Creatures'. We really enjoyed holding the different animals and learning about them. Here are some photos of our experience. We loved the chinchilla, snakes, tortoise, hedgehog, lizard, gecko and many more. Some of us even had a tarantula on our heads!
We loved making our own split pin Easter Egg cards today. Look how bright and colourful our patterns are.
In D.T. we have been working as teams to design and make bridges (free-standing structures). We were making a prototype bridge to help Paddington cross the River Thames. We worked hard to make the bridge co-operatively and develop our teamwork skills.
In Science, we passed different objects around a circle. We used the language ‘The object is ____. The material is ___.’ We felt them and discussed whether they were smooth or rough. We then thought about what we could make out of smooth materials (e.g. toys that we want to slide a long way) and what materials would be good for rough objects.
We have been learning about maps. Today we enjoyed making our own maps of London. We added a compass (so we know which way to hold out map) and plotted London landmarks on there. Here are our maps.
We've had a fabulous day doing art today. We spent the day designing our own creativity medals and then used a range of materials (fabric, glitter, felt, card, pipe cleaners, wool etc.) to make our own medals. We talked about how we are all unique and then made our own unique medals.
We really enjoyed using our fingerprints to make our own Mother's Day cards. Happy Mother's Day to everyone!
This week we have been looking at a range of acrostic poems. With a partner, we discussed what we liked about them and what could be better (e.g. more adjectives, an exclamation mark etc.) We wrote our own poems today about London. We made sure that we started a new line for every sentence so that the side of our work spelled 'London'. Here are our poems.
In gymnastics today we enjoyed applying our skills and practising different movements on mats and on benches. We talked about how to get on and off the apparatus safely.
In English, we have been reading the book 'The Queens Handbag' by Steve Anthony. We wrote out own Queen stories based on this story, using different animals and items. Here are some of us reading our stories.
In P.E. today we did gymnastics. We practised different positions and then played 'mirror, mirror' where we had to work with a partner to create a routine.
We LOVE stories in Squirrel Class. Here are our props that we made for World Book Day and the books that our character is from. We enjoyed asking the other children to guess what book we were from.
We LOVED our visit from the illustrator Lynne Chapman today. We listened to some stories and then learnt how to become illustrators. We enjoyed drawing the smelly warthog!
Here are our illustrations.
In art this term we are learning about sculpture. Today we were given paper clips, elastic bands, and clay. We had to use our imagination to create our own sculptures. Look how unique and creative we were!
This week we have enjoyed reading 'Katie in London' by James Mayhew. We pretended to be Katie and wrote a diary entry from her perspective of her adventure with Jack and the lion. We have been working really hard on our handwriting, adjectives, time connectives, conjunctions, and presentation. Here are some of our diary entries.
For our 'Wonder Time' in Maths today, we investigated the question "When I add two numbers together, the answer is always odd- sometimes, always, or never?" We chose two numbers, identified if they were odd or even, then added them together to find out if the answer was odd or even. We thought hard about our presentation during this activity.
We have really enjoyed making our moving pictures to teach other children about animals. We made a slider for our animal and then made a lever for its food. We talked about using Big Brain Bill and persevering. Here are our moving pictures.
We loved going to show Ladybirds our moving pictures and teaching them about the habitat of our animals.
After making two different types of bird feeders/ animal feeders, we chose the one that was our favourite and wrote our own instructions to teach other children how to make them. We enjoyed cutting and sticking pictures into our instructions. We tried hard to use time connectives, numbers, and imperative (bossy) verbs.
We have loved our music sessions with Mrs Wain this term. We have been learning how to play the notes C and D on the glockenspiel to the beat of the music.
We have been learning about Sir Francis Beaufort. We loved using a anemometer to measure the wind around school.
This week in English we are looking at instructions. Today we ordered photos from when we made bird feeders in Forest School. We then used different coloured pens to write our instructions on big sugar paper. We enjoyed adding adjectives, time connectives, and numbers to our instructions.
What a fabulous end to our time in Forest School this term! Today we learnt how to safely whittle sticks using a potato peeler. We talked about what the shavings could be used for and why we have to whittle away from our bodies. We also enjoyed exploring the forest and playing hide and seek.
We loved exploring sliders today. We learnt how to make a cut across our page, then we made our own sliders. We enjoyed re-telling the story of 'The Gingerbread Man' using our sliding pictures to help us.
Today we watched the video 'Bubbles' on the Literacy Shed. The video has no words. We then had a go at writing the story ourselves. We used some super adjectives and tried hard to remember our best handwriting. We then designed a front cover for our stories and stapled them together, making them into our own books. We loved being authors for the day!
Here we are with our finished books.
Today was a lovely sunny afternoon in the woods. We made hedgehog feeders for the animals and birds using left over pears and sunflower seeds.
We enjoyed exploring relief painting today. We made imprints of different objects in plasticine and then used these to make prints. We liked exploring how putting an object in at different angles changed our prints.
After reading Jack and the Beanstalk, we imagined what type of magic beans we would have. Some of us decided we would eat them and that we would get magic powers, and others decided we wold plant them and something magical would grow. We looked at what we could see, smell, feel, and what our beans would do. We tried hard to include interesting adjectives.
We have enjoyed learning about capacity and volume. Today we looked and different containers (shapes and sizes) and measured how many cups of water would fit in each one. We talked about tall containers not always having the most capacity.
In Forest School today, we made bird feeders using lard and bird food. We also loved exploring the Forest and working as a team to solve problems.
We really enjoyed playing today during CHIL time. We enjoyed using Purple Mash on the computers, using play-dough, painting, drawing, and playing with our friends.
We learnt about the Maasai people who live a traditional way of life in Kenya. We looked at photographs of necklaces that they wear to special occasions like weddings. We noticed that there were a lot of triangle designs, patterns, and bright colours. Here are our necklaces.
In P.E. today we learnt an African dance. We loved dancing in our own circle and using our whole bodies. Look at us go!
As part of our international week, we looked at the different food from the story 'Handa's surprise' which is set in Kenya. We loved tasting all of the different fruits (pineapple, mango, avocado, blueberries, passionfruit) and seeing which ones we liked the best.
In computing this week, we looked at the flag of Kenya. We then used Purple Mash to try to replicate the flags. We thought really carefully about the colours and the design.
In maths we are really enjoying all of our practical lesssons learning how to weigh objects. Yesterday we put an object in each end of the weighing scales to compare them. We said what the heaviest and lightest objects were. Today we used cubes to measure how heavy each object was. We kept adding cubes until the scales were even and then recorded the number in a table. We enjoyed comparing how many cubes it took to weigh our shoes.
For our second forest school session today, we enjoyed listening to Mrs Reynolds reading "The Squirrels who Squabbled". Three squirrels came to join us during the story and we loved watching them jumping across the branches. We learnt that a Squirrel's nest is called a drey. In teams, we collected sticks and made our own Squirrel dreys. We then finished with another game of "1, 2, 3, where are you?"
We have been looking at the story 'Handa's Surprise' this week. The story is based in Kenya and we enjoyed learning about different fruits. We are really looking forward to tasting some of the fruits next week. We had a go at re-telling the story using lots of adjectives. Look at our amazing writing.
This week we have been looking at how our hand prints can turn into artwork by creating pictures. After making our handprints, we looked at photographs of flowers and tried carefully to draw them. We cut them out and stuck them on our picture to make trees and flower bushes. We really enjoyed this activity.
In P.E. this term, we are starting dance. Today we worked individually to practice different movements, then worked with a partner to create a routine. We really enjoyed showing our dances to the rest of the class.
In maths, we have been learning how to measure. We have used cubes to measure objects and then used our hands. We thought about which way of measuring was the most accurate. Tomorrow we are going to learn how to use rulers to measure.
We loved our first Forest School session today. We all had a lovely time learning about the safety and boundaries within the woodland alongside lots of team games. We looked out for different foliage and which ones to touch and not to touch. Learning how to tie a knot using hazard tape was a tricky challenge but we all persevered and put our sticks in a place to help others spot a hazard. We finished off with 1,2,3 where are you?
We had a fantastic Christmas party day today. We enjoyed playing party games in the hall and having a disco.
We followed instructions of how to make a rocking snowman.
We had party food in the classroom and enjoyed pulling crackers and telling the jokes. We also watched a pantomime.
We designed our own party hats and had so much Christmas fun!
We loved our Christmas puppet show today. We enjoyed joining in and seeing all of the Christmas puppets.
We worked hard making our calendars for 2023.
Congratulations to the winners of our reading raffle this term. Every time you read 3 times at home, your name is entered into a raffle and 3 names are pulled out. Keep reading!
We really enjoyed making our Christmas cards this year. We used our fingerprints to make the tree or wreath shape, and then added glitter and sequins. Merry Christmas!
We loved Christmas dinner day! We coloured placemats and enjoyed listening to Christmas music and eating our dinner.
Today we did our Christmas performance. We loved re-telling the Christmas story and singing the songs. Here are some photos of us in our Christmas jumpers, which we wore to perform.
We enjoyed learning how to safely use the apparatus today in PE. We practised our jumps, balances and rolls too.
We are really enjoying learning about animals in Science. Today we sorted the animals into two groups. We sorted them in different ways. E.g. Animals that live on land and animals that live in the sea. Animals that can fly and ones that can't. Animals that have feathers and ones that don't. Animals that are big and ones that are small. Then we had to guess how Mrs Mace had sorted her animals.
We have been practising representing numbers in different ways. Today we looked at the numbers 11, 12 and 13. We practised using tens frames, dienes, tens and ones counters, place value fans, and counting the number of objects.
We loved leaning about Children in Need today. We talked about how money is raised and the children and families that the money helps. We then made our own Children in Need bookmarks and Pudsey Bear pictures.
This afternoon we played a game of 'phonics splat'. We looked carefully at the sounds and saw how fast we could splat the sound that Mrs Mace said.
We are really enjoying gymnastics in PE. Today we used apparatus and learned how to jump safely. We also practiced our rolls from last week.
We have had a fantastic morning. A few weeks ago, we learnt about the work of Giuseppe Arcimboldi. He used fruit and vegetables to make artwork of faces. We were inspired by this and designed our own fruit faces. Today we enjoyed making them. We learnt how to cut fruit and use knives correctly and safely. We especially liked eating it at the end!
Here are our amazing spirals. We really enjoyed choosing colours to make our patterns.
Here we are practicing drawing our spiral shapes and experimenting with lines.
Today we talked about the importance of Remembrance Day. We wtched a video and discussed how it made us feel. Then, we coloured poppies and talked about why we use this to help us to remember every year.
Our topic for the term is 'What has changed since my grandparents were young?' Today we looked at lots of old toys and investigated how to use them. We thought of questions to ask such as 'Who played with this?' 'When was this toy made?' 'What material is the toy made from?'
This week we found some mysterious items in our classroom. After reading 'The Room on the Broom' by Julia Donaldson and looking for clues, we thought it might be the witch from the story. We wrote her a letter to tell her we were keeping her hat and ribbon safe and she wrote us a letter back! She also sent us some photos from her adventures around school.
In computing, we have been exploring Purple Mash. We have linked our science topic (learning about our bodies and senses) to our computing and have created pictures of ourselves. Some of us even managed to label our body parts too.
We really enjoyed our first day back after October half term. In maths, we learnt about 3d shapes. We closed our eyes while our partner put a 3d shape into our hands. We had to feel the shape to figure out what it was.
We have been learning about how computers sort information. Today, we turned ourselves into computers and practiced sorting shapes into two piles. We realised that you could sort them into colours (red and blue), but you could also sort them into two piles by the number of sides they have (4 or less than 4). We worked really well as part of a team.
In maths we have been learning how to add and subtract numbers. Here are some of our Squirrels using cubes to help them to add two numbers together.
In English we have been retelling the story of the gingerbread man. This afternoon, we designed our own gingerbread man. Some of us even read a story to our gingerbread man. We had so much fun!
Our topic this term is "I am unique". Today we used mirrors to look at our faces. We drew ourselves and talked about the similarities and differences. We know that we are all special.
For our first computing lesson, we learnt how to correctly turn a computer, log in, and shut them down correctly.
We are enjoying our Mini Kixx sessions. We are learning multi-skills and are having lots of fun.
This afternoon we looked at x-rays of the human body and felt our bones. We talked about why our skeletons are important and then worked as a team to create our own life-size skeleton. We worked hard to cut out the bones and to use instructions to piece them together.
In maths we have been looking at numbers to 10. We have been using tens-frames to make and count numbers to 10. We have also practised counting to 100 and counting in 2s, 5s, and 10s.
We really enjoyed making our own moving skeletons using split pins. Our skeletons could move their arms to do the skeleton dance.
We have had a fantastic start to Year 1. We have explored our new classroom, have been kind to our friends, and learnt about squirrels. We made fantastic artwork using paint and sponges. We stuck a squirrel onto our page, used paint, then peeled it off. We loved creating our magic squirrel pictures.
