Year 1 have been looking at clothes from different eras - pupils were asked to come to school dressed in either a 1900's, 1950's, or 1970's costume. We also enjoyed a fashion show in the afternoon where parents came to watch! Walking down the catwalk and showing off our amazing costumes was so much fun!
On 2nd October we celebrated National Poetry Day in Class 4! We learnt about rhyming, listened to some rhyming poems, and completed lots of activities! We did Rhyming Supermovers for our brain break, and then listened to a poem called “Once, I laughed my Socks Off”. There were lots of rhymes and we discussed these as a class. After that, we recapped how to rhyme and played a game on the board to see if the words rhymed. We had so much fun joining in. Then we played a name game. We had to listen for words that rhymed with our name. When we heard our name rhymes, we had to stand up.
We learnt about a famous poet called Michael Rosen. On a video, he read his poem Oh Dear. It was about him going to a shop and not getting the right item that he wanted! All the items rhymed. We were then given Michael Rosen’s shopping list and had to find the matching, rhyming pair within our classroom. Like peas and bees! Finally, we reread the poem in class and listened for our rhyming words. We had so much fun learning about rhyming and listening to new poems today!
In maths, we learnt about parts and wholes. First, we had to identify what a whole and a part was (we used food to help us). We then looked at a Part Part Whole model. The grabbing hands always holds the parts! We split the food into parts and wholes on the board. For our activity, we each got a biscuit! One partner had to be the whole and put the entire biscuit in the whole of the model. The other partner had to show the parts. They broke their biscuit into pieces (some of us broke them into six parts!) and put their parts in the parts of the model. Here are some pictures of our biscuit Part Part Whole models.
We got to eat our parts and wholes!
Today we talked about ‘feelings’. We discussed different feelings by looking at some pictures and talked about feelings words. Miss Horsfield put these into ‘Zones’. We then used the Zones to act out each one. The rest of the class had to guess what Zone we were.
After recalling last week’s lesson on transport, we discussed what a map was and why we needed them. We watched a video from a sea plan that showed a ground view and then a bird’s eye view. After looking at Google Earth, we found Huish and other key landmarks in Yeovil. We even found Class 4 on the map of our school. Working with a partner, we looked at a variety of different maps and discussed all the things we found.
Today, Year 1 have been learning about the artist 'Andy Goldsworthy' and made our own land art using sticks, leaves and stones!
Today Class 4 started getting into the Easter spirit making our backgrounds for our Easter cards. We used washes of paint to make a bright, stripe pattern for the background. We had lots of fun painting!
Today, we connected with our new partner class- Class 11! We first met our new partner and learnt their name. Then we shared our vocabulary word (the Year 1s enjoyed learning some trickier vocab). After that we shared our Children’s Mental Health Week work. Both Class 4 and Class 11 completed the ‘what matters to me’ spiral. We liked seeing what mattered to our partner. Finally, we completed a ‘this is me’ sheet to share more things that matter to us. Here are some photos of us sharing:
Today Class 4 spent the afternoon designing and decorating their own milk bottle Elephant! This links in with our recent History topic, old and new toys.
We used bits of tissue paper to add colour to our milk bottles and we decided they looked a lot like Elma the Elephant! We tried to add as many different colours to make them super colourful!
In our next lesson, we will be sticking on some googly eyes and big ears to finish them off!
Today we started our Traditional Tales unit. We were introduced to ‘The Magic Porridge Pot.’ We acted out the story and talked about what it would be like if the whole school was full of porridge! To help us remember the key quotes, we ate porridge saying,
“Cook little pot, cook!” When our tummies were full we said,
“Stop little pot stop!”
Class 4’s special Elf surprised us this morning with a science experiment. Class 4 were left some skittles sweets in a bowl and Elfie the Elf left a message telling us to add some warm water. We followed the steps Elfie left for us and we were amazed to see a beautiful rainbow! We all loved doing the experiment!
Year 1 enjoyed wearing their jumpers for Christmas Jumper Day 2023. We spoke a bit about the charity Save the Children and how wearing our Christmas jumpers, and giving money, helps to change lots of children’s lives. Then we had some photos taken to show off all of our amazing Christmas jumpers!
This afternoon, Year 1 did some drawings inspired from our recent trip to Monkey World. Children started by watching a short clip on how to draw an Orangutan. Then, we had a go at drawing our own in our sketchbooks. We did each step at a time and then we got to colour them in! To end the lesson, we showed the rest of the class our drawings and our peers gave us some kind feedback. We has lots of fun and we are very proud of our drawings!
Today we lernt that materials are the 'stuff' that something is made from. We passed around a variety of materials including rubber, plastic, cotton, fabric, metal and wood. We discussed how the different materials felt and used words to describe them. What are the materials used for? The class then decided how to group the various objects e.g. hard or soft, bendy or rigid, rought or smooth. We found that some objects fitted into both groups e.g. the belt was smooth in places but also had rough parts. We had to overlap the circles so that it fitted in both groups.
On Tuesday 7th November Year 1 went on a trip to Monkey World. This was a great way to start our English unit called ‘Monkey See, Monkey Do.’ We explored the park; seeing Chimps, Orangutans and Woolly Monkeys along with many other different breeds like the Orange Cheeked Monkey. We talked about their social behaviours and habitat. We learnt so much and had lots of fun!
Prior to our trip to Monkey World, Year 1 have started their new story, ‘Monkey See Monkey Do’. We had lots of fun playing the mirror game, followed by retelling the story using our story map!
We even had a go at writing some simple sentences on our mini whiteboards!
Today we talked about what makes a good friend. We played the game, ‘I smile when …’ and shared some lovely thoughts. We will keep our recipes in the classroom as a helpful reminder!
To help us become more confident with our two digit numbers we explored tens and ones using dienes. We worked with a partner to try and make 3 different numbers and then talked about which number was greater and why.
Year 1 enjoyed a fantastic trip to Ninespring this week. We walked from school and took part in lots of exciting activities linked to our science curriculum. The bug hunt was fun, some of us even found a six eyed orange spider! Our next activity was pond dipping, followed by a story and a cup of hot chocolate. After our lunch we played stuck in the mud, lots of other fun games, then walked sensibly back to school.
We were very fortunate to have a visitor from Somerset County Museum come to talk to us about ‘The Great Fire of London’. We re-enacted ‘The Great Fire of London’ dressing up as Thomas Farriner, the baker and Samuel Pepys, who wrote his famous diary about the events back in 1666.
We spent the morning talking about how close together the houses would have been on Pudding Lane and looking at artefacts that helped us understand more about what life might have been like in London all those years ago.
We loved having the opportunity to try and move water in linen buckets along a line of people and fire hooks to pretend to pull the buildings down!
Our final activity was using quills to attempt writing our name with ink. This was trickier than we thought!
Year 1 really enjoyed their trip to Yeovil Library. They walked beautifully over the Tesco bridge and remembered their manners at all times. In the library, they listened to a story and then had the chance to look at and find some of the 40,000 books!
Year 1 were very excited to invite Helen and Harold the giraffe from the life bus into their classrooms to talk about having a healthy body and healthy mind. We discussed the importance of sleep, food, exercise, water and oxygen. Harold talked to us about connecting with our friends and family and always being thoughtful and kind.
Class 4 had a fantastic day learning about and celebrating the coronation of King Charles 111. We all wore red, white and blue and brought lots of scrumptious cakes into school. During the morning we carried out lots of activities followed by a whole school picnic and games in the sunshine.
Y1 and Y2 children were very excited to walk to Westlands Entertainment Venue to watch the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra deliver their Curious Creatures and Adventurous Animals concert. Children participated well, behaved beautifully and thoroughly enjoyed this experience.
In English, Year 1 have been looking at the story of ‘Handa’s Surprise’. Today we focused on our speaking and listening skills and held a class debate! Was it right that the animals should take the fruit without asking? Maybe they took the fruit to feed their starving babies? We formed two ‘for’ and ‘against’ lines called a ‘decision alley’, listened carefully to what everyone had to say and then made our final decision.
Class 4 loved this year’s vocabulary day! We all came to school dressed as different words. We looked at each other’s costumes, discussed them and carried out various activities. In the afternoon we had a vocabulary parade in the KS1 playground.
For this year’s Comic Relief we dressed up as a |Mr or Little Miss. We shared our costumes and talked about our personalities.
As part of Science Week, Leonardo Stem committee came to talk to us about ‘Engineering.’ We learnt there are many different types of engineers.
Engineers of Physics, Medicine, Farming and Software engineers to name but a few!
Engineers identify problems, test ideas and then find solutions. We learnt most things around us are designed by engineers.
Engineers improve peoples lives in so many ways by advancing technology and processes which help us. Be it though developing hospital scanners or producing prosthetic limbs which can be life changing to individuals.
Our STEM visitors spoke to us about the many different helicopters they work on and how they have all been engineered for different roles, performing different tasks.
The biggest helicopter they have worked on is the size of a double decker bus! Yet, even more fascinating the future points towards unmanned helicopters, which perform vertical take offs and landings but then can fly like a plane. Engineers truly are creative people!
We enjoyed the opportunity to ask questions at the end and came up with some great ones…
Where do the Rescue helicopters go to rescue people?
How do the helicopters take off?
How heavy are the helicopters?....
One of our science week activities links with our geography topic on the polar regions. We thought about how we cool down on a hot day, and how it’s easy to get too cold too quickly. We know that many polar animals have blubber but we wanted to prove that blubber does keep penguins warm.
We made a blubber glove filled with fat and put the glove on one hand leaving the other hand bare. We made predictions, then put both hands into iced water and noticed how each hand felt. We found that the bare hand felt too cold very quickly but the hand in the blubber glove stayed cosy and warm in the icy water for a long time.
Class 4 really enjoyed our special day talking about and sharing books! We discussed our favourite books and redesigned new book covers. Throughout the day, we listened to lots of our favourite stories and discussed ‘why’ they were our favourite. In the afternoon, we shared books with our reading partners from Year 5 – this was fun!
Class 4 have enjoyed a varied and reflective week focusing on their mental health and art. We connected with Class 11 from Y5 and went outside for a wellbeing treasure hunt! We also expressed our emotions through art, listening to music and reflecting on how this made us feel.
Class 4 loved learning all about India during our International Day. We found India on a world map and can now recognise their national flag. Our main focus for the day was looking at Indian elephants and how they are decorated for religious festivals. We had great fun drawing elephants and decorating them!
Year 1 started their new English unit this week, The Magic Porridge Pot. To help us remember this traditional tale, we acted out the story then ate some delicious, hot porridge. To remember the words, while we were eating our porridge we said,
“Cook little pot, cook!” When our tummies were full we said,
“Stop little pot, stop!”
Year 1 really enjoyed listening to the education officer from Monkey World when she came to visit Huish. We revisited our learning from our school trip to Monkey World earlier in the year and also discussed palm oil, rainforests being reduced and how we can help.
What materials are absorbent? How can we find out?
Today we carried out a little experiment to find out what materials are absorbent.
We started by putting a sponge in a cup of water. As we pulled the sponge out of the cup we noticed there was less water in the cup and the sponge was a bit heavier. As we squeezed the sponge more water came out. We learnt this is called Absorbency – When water is sucked up through a material.
The sponge has little holes in it and the water travels up into the holes and makes a little home in them. As each little hole gets full, the water travels up through the sponge and eventually there is not room left. This is called saturation. The sponge cannot hold anymore water.
We carried out a little experiment. We took some kitchen roll, marker pens and two bowls of water. We drew a rainbow pattern on both ends of the kitchen roll. We then dipped each end in the two bowls. We predicted what we thought might happen.
We then carried out our experiment. We observed how the colour was travelling up the kitchen roll. This was the material absorbing the water and carrying the colour up into the little holes. Eventually if made a rainbow! What other materials might be absorbent? We discussed ideas for other experiments we could do to find out how absorbent a material is. We tested how much water different materials could soak up when we put a given amount in a cup.
Well done Year 1! You did a fantastic job of telling the Christmas story in your Nativity performance to parents.
You sang beautifully, acted out every scene so confidently and really made us all think about the first Christmas all those many years ago.
Thank you to everyone who helped supply costumes and practice lines with their children. We are very proud of every single one of them!
We had a very jolly day in Class 4 on 19th November. We discussed why we have Children In Need day and where the money we raise goes. We certainly enjoyed dancing with Pudsey, Joe Wicks and the dancers from Strictly Come Dancing!
Following our trip to Monkey World and our recount writing, Year 1 have started their new story, ‘Monkey See Monkey Do’. We had lots of fun playing the mirror game, then tried on and described lots of different hats!
Today in RE we spoke about forgiveness. Sometimes it’s really hard to forgive someone when they have upset you. We discussed scenarios whereby we forgave someone and some of us acted these out. We all agreed that when you say, “It’s OK, I forgive you!” it makes everyone feel so much better.
Today we were very fortunate to have a visitor, Mr Lawrence, talk to us about his experiences during the Falklands conflict and working on an air craft carrier. Mr Lawrence shared with us how he felt when being a wreath bearer at the Cenotaph.
We discussed the importance of remembering those who sacrificed their lives during the Great War, Second World War and other conflicts. At 11 o’clock we respected the two minutes silence. In the afternoon we painted sunsets and remembrance crosses.
Year 1 enjoyed a fantastic day out at Monkey World! This was a great way to start our new English unit writing recounts, followed by the story Monkey See Monkey Do. We explored the park; observing Chimps, Orangutans, Woolly Monkeys, Gibbons, Orange Cheeked Monkeys and many more. We talked about their social behaviours and habitats. After eating our packed lunch we really enjoyed playing in the ginormous play area. We all agreed this was a wonderful trip and a great way to learn about primates.
During Arts Week, we have been learning about the Russian abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky. He believed bright warm colours made people feel happy and cool colours made people feel calm. We carefully painted our Kandinsky circles, thoughtfully choosing contrasting colours. We also sorted colours into warm and cool and made a collage using different textures. Using laptops, we used the Purple Mash program to create Kandinsky repeated patterns. Finally, we painted Kandinsky snails. Our classroom looks very colourful and jolly!
Today we explored feelings through dance. Our visitor ‘Darcy’, came to talk to us about the importance of mental health and ways of feeling good about ourselves. We had a go at showing feelings such as ‘happiness’ and ‘sadness’ and made up a little dance together. It was lots of fun and we particularly loved using the ribbons at the end. What a great way to explore and show our feelings as well as lift our moods!
At last, our long-awaited Fashion Show Day arrived! Children and staff dressed up from one of the following eras, 1900s (Victorians) 1950s or 1970s. We carried out lots of fun activities and discussions throughout the day, including finding adjectives to describe the different clothes from each era, drawing, painting and looking at similarities and differences through the ages. After lunch, we practised walking up and down the catwalk to music from our chosen era. Finally, we filmed our fashion show for our parents and grandparents to watch at home. What a fun filled day!
Some children took part in the Gadgeteer’s reading challenge over the summer holidays. Many congratulations for reaching your targets and receiving a certificate and medal.
To help us learn our first story of the year, Red Ted at the Beach, we have been retelling the story, drawing a story map, role playing and hot seating. We all agreed that Lucy should take more care of her poor old Ted when she goes out on an adventure!
The 8th July was a very exciting day! We all came to school dressed as a word. Throughout the day, we discussed new vocabulary we had learnt and celebrated all the different outfits. Some of our favourite words were, mythical, jubilant, bedraggled, pitter patter and mellifluous.
Class 4 really enjoyed learning about The Great Fire of London. We wrote some fantastic recounts as part of our ‘Big Write’, followed by making Tudor houses and houses made from brick. Finally, we re-enacted the events in the correct order out in the play ground. We made sure the new brick houses were further apart; making London look very different.
Year 1 really enjoyed their school trip to Carymoor with lots of exciting activities to enhance science learning. We found lots of amazing insects during both the meadow and pond minibeast hunt, including a newt! In the afternoon, the children experienced watching bees make honey in a real bee hive behind glass, followed by making a clay minibeast of their choice.
Class 4 thoroughly enjoyed their school trip to Nether Cern Farm. Despite the rain, we spent the morning outdoors finding out about life on an arable farm. Linking with our new Science topic, ‘Plants’, we explored some of the crops growing in the farmer’s fields.
After a walk around the fields, we returned to the farm to look at all the machinery that makes wheat production possible. We sat in a tractor, measured the size of the combine harvester wheels and finally had a fantastic play in a barn full of wheat!
In Maths this week, we have been learning how to share equally. We worked practically to make groups sharing cubes equally. Next, we drew children on our white boards to show how many groups there were. Again, we shared cubes equally repeating the phrase, ‘One for you … one for you.’ We found this tricky at first, but the more we practised the easier it got.
Class 4 have really enjoyed the story, Handa’s Surprise. As part of our Speaking & Listening curriculum, we held a debate. Was it right that the animals stole the fruit from Handa? 12 Children thought is was wrong to steal; whatever the reason. The remaining children focused on the animal’s motive and reasoned that they only took the fruit as their babies were probably really hungry. Children listened to each side of the argument and had an opportunity to change their minds.
We loved it!!
Thank you to Year 5 for a great Easter Egg hunt around the Key Stage 1 playground. We had lots of fun searching for the eggs and even more fun eating all the chocolate!! ?
Class 4 have really enjoyed learning about the Easter story. We watched a video and shared our thoughts about what we had seen and heard. We role played the story then sequenced pictures. We linked Easter with new life, blossom, eggs … and yes, Easter eggs! Finally, we sketched some lovely Easter images.
We had a wonderful time during Arts Week learning lots of new skills. We really enjoyed choosing colours and making a repeated pattern for our Easter bunny background. We thought about different tools we could use to apply paint and used a fork to create an Easter chick for our Easter card. To complete our cards we explored ‘Texture’, weaving different coloured strips of paper in and out of our egg shells. This was a bit tricky but we showed good perseverance and were very proud once completed!
Finally, we made collage nests using strips of paper placed at different angles then painted these with brown paint. We worked on ‘Form’ using paper to construct a stand making our Easter nests 3D. What a busy week!
Y1 really enjoyed an action-packed week of science! We started by focusing on our senses, exploring different types of crisps and going on a sound hunt around the school groups. Tuesday was our ‘green’ day, we all brought a plant into school, used our observation skills and carefully sketched it before carrying the plants to the Huish horticultural hall! We carried out some fair testing, identifying which tin can would travel the farthest off a ramp. We really enjoyed the visitors who shared their cockroaches and tarantulas and also watched a wonderful physics show with explosions and electricity! What a fun way to learn.
We really enjoyed our special day talking about books! We discussed our costumes, favourite books and authors and made a book mark. In the afternoon we redesigned the cover of our favourite book. Throughout the day we listened to lots of our favourite stories and discussed why they were our favourite.
We really enjoyed our whole school day of focusing on how we can improve our mental health. We started the day with circle time, respecting the rules and listening to others. We played lots of games sharing resources and ideas then read some pages from The Boy, the Mole the Fox and the Horse. In our art books, we sketched some of the main characters and also included a badger. After lunch we listened to relaxing music … some of us actually had a little nap!
Year 1 have been introduced to their new traditional tale, The Ugly Duckling. To help us remember the characters and how they were feeling, we role played using masks and also interviewed the Ugly Duckling through ‘hot seating’.
Class 4 were amazed when they entered their classroom this morning. All their toys had a party overnight and caused havoc! They got lots of resources out, ate the fruit, read some books, played games and generally had a very exciting time. Once all the tidying up was over, we wrote a fantastic recount about what we had seen.
Year 1's first Design technology project of the year was to design a spiced Christmas biscuit.
First we looked at and smelled 3 different spices, ginger, cinnamon and vanilla, and we talked about where they come from. Then we tried biscuits flavoured with each spice and decided which was our favourite. We then planned how we would make our biscuits using a Christmas shaped cutter and one of the spices we had tried. This week we actually made the biscuits, working as a small group to weigh out the flour, sugar and butter to make the actual biscuits we had designed on paper. We followed a simple recipe, putting all our ingredients into a bowl and then used our hands, rubbing the mixture between our fingers and thumbs. When the mixture looked crumbly, we squeezed it together to make ball of dough. We rolled it out and then shared it amongst the group, carefully finding the cutter that matched our original design. Finally we tasted our biscuits and evaluated them against the designs we created last week. We all agreed that our biscuits were a great success!
Class 4 are having a very exciting time preparing for Christmas. We were filmed performing Christmas carols for our parents, enjoyed a scrumptious Christmas lunch and even had time for a little dance afterwards. We are busy making Christmas crafts and are looking forward to our party on the last Wednesday of term!
Today in class 4 we welcomed a visitor who talked to us about the importance of road safety and how to stay safe.
We practised saying, STOP, LOOK, LISTEN AND THINK.
Our focus for this year’s Huish Earth Day was linked to our recent trip to Monkey World and the orangutans we saw. We watched the videos, ‘There’s an Orangutan in my Bedroom’ and learnt lots of facts about why the rainforests are shrinking. Some visitors from Monkey World came to talk to us about the importance of using sustainable palm oil. In the afternoon, we practised our observation skills and drew some amazing orangutans!
On 11th November we discussed the importance of Remembrance Day. We really enjoyed painting a sunrise, crosses and poppies. At 11 o’ clock we respected the 2-minute silence and thought of all those that had sacrificed their lives.
On Wednesday 3rd November, Year 1 went on a school tip to Monkey World! This was a great way to start our English unit, ‘Monkey See, Monkey Do’. We explored the park in small groups and learnt lots of interesting facts about apes, orangutans and monkeys. We discussed their social behaviours and habitats. After lunch, we played in an enormous play area. The sun was shining and we all had an amazing fun filled out!
We have been learning about the Russian abstract artist, Wassily Kandinsky. He believed bright warm colours made people feel happy and cool colours made people feel calm. We carefully painted our Kandinsky circles, thoughtfully choosing contrasting colours. We also made Kandinsky snails and crowns. Using laptops, we used the Purple Mash program to create Kandinsky repeated patterns. Our classroom looks very colourful and jolly!
We had a fun filled day in year 1 today. As part of our History topic looking at clothes through the ages, we dressed up from three different eras, 1900s, 1950s and 1970s. In the afternoon parents and grandparents were invited to watch us dance along the cat walk to tunes from the different eras. What a wonderful way to learn about history!
Well done to the children in Class 4 that took part in this year’s Summer Reading Challenge. You are all Wild World Heroes, congratulations!
As part of our Geography unit, we have been comparing different cultures to our own. One aspect of learning about China is the use of chop sticks. We had great fun trying to eat a variety of foods using chop sticks, then took them home to show our family.
Everyone is trying so hard to improve their arithmetic skills in Class 4! This week, there were twelve children who completed their card and are moving up to the next level, well done EVERYONE!
We have been linking our History unit, The Great Fire of London, with our English recount writing and art. One of our tasks was to look closely at the old Tudor houses and sketch them in our art books. As you can see, we’re very proud of our drawings!
Class 4 were very excited to invite Helen and Harold the giraffe from the Life Bus into their classroom to talk about having a healthy body and a healthy mind. We discussed the importance of sleep, food, exercise, water and oxygen. Harold talked to us about connecting with our friends and family and always being thoughtful and kind.
To help us learn the importance of equal columns and rows when using arrays, we used a resource called ‘Pegs 2 Pager’. This was really good fun and simple to use. We followed instructions using the language, equal, column, row, left, right and total.
Year 1 had a special treat today when a visitor from Carymoor Recycle Centre delivered a fun virtual ‘Eco Pirates’ against waste workshop. We discussed the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling. We also had a good explanation about the new ‘blue’ bags we will soon be using for our weekly waste.
In Year 1, we have been learning the traditional tale of The Ugly Duckling. To help us with our learning of this story, we have role played using the main characters and also played ‘hot seating’ where we interviewed the duckling and asked him about how he felt. Some wonderful vocabulary was used, at times he felt very ‘glum’ but at the end of the story he felt ‘jubilant’!
Class 4 had great fun at home with their families carrying out lots of science investigations. There were lots of Skittles rainbows, slime, bags full of water and pencils and eggs in bottles! Thank you parents, I think you had just as much fun as your children!
Class 4 had a fabulous Christmas party! After making crowns we played lots of games, had a boogie and finished by eating some party biscuits. We even had a visit from ‘you know who’, we didn’t see him but he left us a sack of presents!
As part of our sparkle and shine week, we had great fun making our own wrapping paper using Christmas stamps!
We were disappointed that we couldn’t invite our parents to school to watch a Christmas performance, so we decided to make a video for them all to watch at home instead. We have been practising our songs for a few weeks, and we enjoyed wearing our sparkly headdresses for our performance. All of us in class 4 would like to wish our family and friends a very merry Christmas.
Class 4 enjoyed a scrumptious Christmas lunch in their classroom. We listened to Christmas music, pulled our crackers, read lots of silly jokes, put on our party hats and ate our delicious turkey!
We have linked our science with art and have created some wonderful coniferous trees! First, we painted the background, then we painted the falling snow using cotton buds. Finally, we cut out triangles and decorated them using different shades of green.
We had a brilliant celebration and party afternoon for all the children who have not been able to celebrate their birthdays due to Covid restrictions. We started by making party crowns, played lots of games, had a good dance and ate some party biscuits!
Year 1 created some wonderful art work to commemorate Remembrance Day. At 11 o’ clock we respected the 2 minutes silence and held the poppies we had made.
Earth Day was celebrated by all Huish children. In Year 1 we focused on the importance of trees to our planet. We carried out lots of activities throughout the day starting by listening to Sir David Attenborough, followed by guessing the age of the oak tree then watching The Lorax. We sketched some amazing Lorax trees using a variety of media.
Class 4 carried out lots of exciting investigations as part of Maths Week. We started by looking at triangles and seeing how many we could make using rods and lollipop sticks. We learnt the skill of taking a tally using tally marks to count the different pieces of fruit The Hungry Caterpillar ate. Finally, on Children in Need Day, we investigated how many different combinations of outfits Pudsey could be dressed in using three different coloured cubes to represent articles of clothing.
To help us learn our new story, ‘Monkey See Monkey Do’, we have been playing the monkey mirror game, trying on lots of exciting hats and role playing the story.
To help us learn the concept of subtraction, we dressed up as pirates and walked off the plank into the ocean full of sharks!
During Arts Week, Class 4 have been learning about the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky. He believed bright, warm colours made people feel happy and cool colours made people feel calm.
We carefully painted our Kandinsky circles, thoughtfully choosing contrasting colours. We also made Kandinsky snails and crowns. Our classroom now looks very bright and jolly!
At last, our long awaited Fashion Show Day arrived! Children and staff dressed up from one of the following eras, 1900s (Victorians) 1950s or 1970s. We carried out lots of fun activities and discussions throughout the day, including finding adjectives to describe the different clothes from each era, drawing, painting and looking at similarities and differences through the ages. After lunch, we practised walking up and down the catwalk to music from our chosen era. Finally, we filmed our fashion show for our parents and grandparents to watch at home. What a fun filled day!
Year 1 held their fantastic fashion show on Wednesday 30 September, and walked the catwalk with outfits from the 1900's, 1950's and 1970's.
More photos will follow shortly, but for now you can watch the video here.
Class 4 have been busy bees with their home learning this month!
In maths they have been finding half of a shape and number. In science lots of investigations have been taking place, including dancing grapes and frothing monsters. In history they have been making a time line of The Great Fire of London. In English they have been writing stories and in art they have been making a rainbow trail and using cling film to create very colourful masterpieces.
Class 4 have really enjoyed their Talk for Writing unit on Sidney the Spider. They have read the story, answered questions, written a letter, poem and recount. They have also been on a mini beast hunt and best of all … made some scrumptious Sidney Spider biscuits!
Class 4 children have been working really hard at home. Thank you parents, you’re doing an amazing job. It’s great to see how creative you all are!
Some of our Year 1 children entered a national Young Writers’ Acrostic Animal Adventures competition. Nationally, there were over 15,000 entries! We were delighted to hear that some of the poems had been chosen for publication in ‘My First Acrostic: Animal Adventures – Poetry Gems book! Well done everyone!
Class 4 enjoyed a wonderful World Book Day. There were some amazing costumes! We shared lot of our favourite stories and also started writing a poem in preparation for our visit from the performance poet, Joesph Coelho.
As part of our learning about the Arctic Circles, we investigated how inuits live in such extreme temperatures. We looked at what inuits wear, how they travel, what they eat and also looked at the traditional shelter of an igloo. Working in small groups, we made igloos using cardboard bowls, plates, toilet rolls and … mini marshmallows!
Y1 have been discussing how to stay safe online and what to do if worried when using the internet. We watched videos of Jessie and Friends and have also been practising our song ‘Be Responsible’ in preparation for our assembly performance.
We had lots of fun brushing up on our sketching and painting skills during Arts Week. We created portraits of William Shakespeare in two different forms, followed by making penguins from recycled toilet rolls as part of our Geography learning on the Arctics.
During our History unit on Toys, we discovered that children used to make their own toys from everyday objects. Toys like tin soldiers, peg dolls etc. Using plastic milk containers, we made our own Elmer elephants!
As part of our science learning, we had some special visitors from Longleat today! They brought with them a collection of animals. We were able to learn lots of super facts and even got to touch/hold some animals – including pythons, stick insects and ferrets! We looked at the very hairy tarantula … but did not touch it!
Class 4 enjoyed an action packed day learning all about the continent of Africa! We discussed the different landscapes, climates, people and animals. We also sketched and made giraffes and lions. To end our fun filled day, we enjoyed an African Dance Workshop!
Mrs Farmer very kindly visited Year 1 today with her wonderful collection of old bears. She talked about the materials they were made from, their special features and why they are so special to her. We compared Mrs Farmer’s bears to our own bears at home.
Year 1 had a lovely afternoon learning about toys from the past. Some very kind grandparents brought their toys into school to share with the children. What a fun way to learn! A huge ‘thank you’ to all the grandparents who attended our workshop.
To help us learn our new traditional tale, The Magic Porridge Pot, during our English lesson we ate some porridge! We stirred our delicious bowls saying the words,
“Cook, little pot, cook!” and
“Stop! Little pot, stop!”
Class 4 brought their toys into class for a sleepover! When we walked into the classroom the next morning we were amazed to discover all the mischievous antics they had got up to!
Class 4 enjoyed lots of Christmas activities during the last week of term. They even had a special visitor drop in during their party!
KS1 enjoyed a Christmas treat on the last Monday of term. We were entertained by Nutty Noah, who was very, very funny!
Despite the wet and windy weather, Huish children were very excited when a helicopter with Christmas elves landed on our playing field! Thank you Squadron 815!
Year 1 enjoyed a visit from AJ who is a helicopter pilot at Yeovilton. We discussed different helicopters and AJ’s exciting job and rescue missions!
Class 4 had a great time learning about the life of Leonardo Fibonacci and why we remember him today. We looked at the Fibonacci sequence and its connection to nature; followed by drawing Fibonacci spirals. What a fun maths day!
To help us learn our new story, we acted out scenes from the above story, followed by writing sentences to describe hats.
As part of our Science curriculum on the changing seasons, Class 4 enjoyed a wonderful trip to Gore Farm. We walked to Trent Woodlands and spent the day looking for signs of autumn. After lunch, we had a good run around then working in groups went on a mini beast hunt. Despite the cold, we were amazed to find 15 different species of mini beasts!
We have been learning about the Russian abstract artist, Wassily Kandinsky. He believed bright, warm colours made people feel happy, and cool colours made people feel calm.
We carefully painted our Kandinsky circles, thoughtfully choosing contrasting colours. In addition to this, we painted Kandinsky snails and made our own Kandinsky crowns!
To end our science unit on Materials, Class 4 had a very constructive afternoon working in teams making houses from the Three Little Pigs. Each team presented their houses to the class, discussing what materials were the trickiest to work with and why.
Year 1 had a wonderful day celebrating the history of clothes. We all dressed up in costumes from the 1900s, 1950s and 1970s. To end our day we had a fashion show and invited parents to come and watch us strut along the catwalk!
We’ve been busy learning the story of Smartie the Penguin to help us stay safe when using our tablets. We also drew wonderful posters using the Purple Mash program on the Macbooks.
We had a wonderful morning at Ninesprings! Working in teams we made dens, went on a mini beast hunt and also had fun pond dipping. We were amazed how many mini beasts we found, including a water scorpion!
Year 1 have made the most of these lovely sunny September afternoons using their new role play shops purchased by the PTFA. Thank you very much!
Year 1 had a wonderful day at Carymoor. We started our day with a ‘seasons’ game, followed by a nature detective walk. We found slow worms, ant nests and even a grass snake skin! We listened to the spring birds sing and could hear the blackbird chaffinch, woodpecker and blue tit. We made lots of creatures including clay hedgehogs, dragonflies from willow and paper plant pots. We also played lots of
exciting games that helped us understand how plants grow and how dragonflies see.
To start our ‘Movie Making’ unit, we thought about how pictures moved before technology. We drew a picture of a bird on one side of a disc, and a cage on the other. When we rotated the disc quickly, it looked like the bird was in the cage! This is called a thaumatrope.
As part of our learning on the Arctic Circles, we have been exploring facts about different mammals that can survive in extreme conditions. Our favourite was the penguin, so we had a fun afternoon making our own.
Working in small groups, we recited a poem we wrote with Pete the Poet on World Book Day and filmed ourselves using the ipads. Some of us were camera men/ladies. We then used the Green Screen technique to make our poems really exciting … and scary! Warning! If you don’t like snakes, this may be tough viewing!
Year 1 had a real treat today, a visit from Pete the Poet! With a focus on nature and the wonderful Lost Words book, we discussed the adder. We moved like adders, then generated lots of interesting vocabulary and made a class poem. We are looking forward to continuing writing poetry as part of World Book Day.
To end our unit on the History of Toys, Mrs Farmer kindly brought her wonderful collection of rare old bears to our classroom. She told us the materials they were made from, how their limbs were longer and moved easily and also how expensive they were! We asked her lots of questions and were able to compare them to our own teddy bears. Thank you Mrs Farmer!
Class 4 celebrated the Year of the Pig in style! We took part in a Chinese dance workshop learning how to perform the ancient dragon dance and also some peacock Tai Chi moves. Lots of wonderful pig paintings were created and we all made a pig mask to take home. What a great day!
We had a fantastic afternoon looking at different religions from around the world and their symbols. We then made a hand print and designed our own symbol, sticking it on our print.
Year 1 children enjoyed a wonderful afternoon with their grandparents and parents discussing toys from the past. We were amazed by the variety of toys that were brought along and also the materials they were made from. A huge thank you to all the grandparents that shared their delightful toys and knowledge, it really was appreciated.
Well, Class 4’s cheeky toys got up to all sorts of mischief during their sleepover! The unicorns and rabbit ate our fruit, the mermaids and dog dressed up, most of the games were found left out and not tidied away, some one had written on the boards and the money and cubes were scattered all over the place! Worst of all, our maths books went missing so we couldn’t do any maths! Fortunately, we found them in Class 10!
Class 4 enjoyed a fantastic Christmas party, we even had a special visitor!
Well done Year 1 for all your hard work in learning your lines, remembering when to come on and off the stage and for singing so beautifully. I’m sure your parents enjoyed it and were very proud!
We were very full after this year’s Christmas lunch, some of us even ate all the brussel sprouts on our plate!
Having made our tudor houses, we recreated The Great Fire of London in the playground. Our houses were very close together, the fire spread quickly down Pudding Lane!
We had a super day learning all about Fibonacci. Who was he? Why do we still remember him today? What is the link between Fibonacci and nature? Some very creative pattern work and spirals were produced.
To help us with our mathematics, we pretended to be pirates and one by one walked the plank! We will definitely remember the number of pirates left on the ship got smaller!
As part of our English unit on recounts, and Science unit on materials, we went for a brisk walk around the local area and looked at all the different types of homes.
Class 4 should be really proud of the fantastic art work they produced this week to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day. I think we are probably one of the best classes in Huish at cutting out poppies!
Year 1 had a fantastic time at Gore Farm woods looking for signs of Autumn. We used our senses to see, smell, hear and feel autumn all around us. We made a class autumn mobile and also worked in pairs gathering items to make a woodland collection.
What a wonderful way to learn about the history of fashion! Thank you parents for your support in attending our fashion show and also dressing your children so brilliantly. We hope you enjoyed our show, the children certainly did!
As part of our History topic on Clothes, we were very fortunate to have a visit from a local carnival club. We discussed the history of clothes and carnivals, tried on lots of different costumes and even had time for a little dance!
We are learning the story, Monkey See Monkey Do. To help us with this we have been playing a monkey game and miming the story.
We have been busy bees practising our counting skills and are focusing on ‘one more than’ and ‘one less than’.
Year 1 enjoyed a fantastic trip to Ninespring this week. We walked from school and took part in lots of exciting activities linked to our science curriculum. The bug hunt was fun, some of us even found a six eyed orange spider! Our next activity was pond dipping, followed by a story and a cup of hot chocolate. After our lunch we played stuck in the mud, lots of other fun games, then walked sensibly back to school.
We were very fortunate to have a visitor from Somerset County Museum come to talk to us about ‘The Great Fire of London’. We re-enacted ‘The Great Fire of London’ dressing up as Thomas Farriner, the baker and Samuel Pepys, who wrote his famous diary about the events back in 1666.
We spent the morning talking about how close together the houses would have been on Pudding Lane and looking at artefacts that helped us understand more about what life might have been like in London all those years ago.
We loved having the opportunity to try and move water in linen buckets along a line of people and fire hooks to pretend to pull the buildings down!
Our final activity was using quills to attempt writing our name with ink. This was trickier than we thought!
Year 1 really enjoyed their trip to Yeovil Library. They walked beautifully over the Tesco bridge and remembered their manners at all times. In the library, they listened to a story and then had the chance to look at and find some of the 40,000 books!
Year 1 were very excited to invite Helen and Harold the giraffe from the life bus into their classrooms to talk about having a healthy body and healthy mind. We discussed the importance of sleep, food, exercise, water and oxygen. Harold talked to us about connecting with our friends and family and always being thoughtful and kind.
Class 4 had a fantastic day learning about and celebrating the coronation of King Charles 111. We all wore red, white and blue and brought lots of scrumptious cakes into school. During the morning we carried out lots of activities followed by a whole school picnic and games in the sunshine.
Y1 and Y2 children were very excited to walk to Westlands Entertainment Venue to watch the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra deliver their Curious Creatures and Adventurous Animals concert. Children participated well, behaved beautifully and thoroughly enjoyed this experience.
In English, Year 1 have been looking at the story of ‘Handa’s Surprise’. Today we focused on our speaking and listening skills and held a class debate! Was it right that the animals should take the fruit without asking? Maybe they took the fruit to feed their starving babies? We formed two ‘for’ and ‘against’ lines called a ‘decision alley’, listened carefully to what everyone had to say and then made our final decision.
Class 4 loved this year’s vocabulary day! We all came to school dressed as different words. We looked at each other’s costumes, discussed them and carried out various activities. In the afternoon we had a vocabulary parade in the KS1 playground.
For this year’s Comic Relief we dressed up as a |Mr or Little Miss. We shared our costumes and talked about our personalities.
As part of Science Week, Leonardo Stem committee came to talk to us about ‘Engineering.’ We learnt there are many different types of engineers.
Engineers of Physics, Medicine, Farming and Software engineers to name but a few!
Engineers identify problems, test ideas and then find solutions. We learnt most things around us are designed by engineers.
Engineers improve peoples lives in so many ways by advancing technology and processes which help us. Be it though developing hospital scanners or producing prosthetic limbs which can be life changing to individuals.
Our STEM visitors spoke to us about the many different helicopters they work on and how they have all been engineered for different roles, performing different tasks.
The biggest helicopter they have worked on is the size of a double decker bus! Yet, even more fascinating the future points towards unmanned helicopters, which perform vertical take offs and landings but then can fly like a plane. Engineers truly are creative people!
We enjoyed the opportunity to ask questions at the end and came up with some great ones…
Where do the Rescue helicopters go to rescue people?
How do the helicopters take off?
How heavy are the helicopters?....
One of our science week activities links with our geography topic on the polar regions. We thought about how we cool down on a hot day, and how it’s easy to get too cold too quickly. We know that many polar animals have blubber but we wanted to prove that blubber does keep penguins warm.
We made a blubber glove filled with fat and put the glove on one hand leaving the other hand bare. We made predictions, then put both hands into iced water and noticed how each hand felt. We found that the bare hand felt too cold very quickly but the hand in the blubber glove stayed cosy and warm in the icy water for a long time.
Class 4 really enjoyed our special day talking about and sharing books! We discussed our favourite books and redesigned new book covers. Throughout the day, we listened to lots of our favourite stories and discussed ‘why’ they were our favourite. In the afternoon, we shared books with our reading partners from Year 5 – this was fun!
Class 4 have enjoyed a varied and reflective week focusing on their mental health and art. We connected with Class 11 from Y5 and went outside for a wellbeing treasure hunt! We also expressed our emotions through art, listening to music and reflecting on how this made us feel.
Class 4 loved learning all about India during our International Day. We found India on a world map and can now recognise their national flag. Our main focus for the day was looking at Indian elephants and how they are decorated for religious festivals. We had great fun drawing elephants and decorating them!
Year 1 started their new English unit this week, The Magic Porridge Pot. To help us remember this traditional tale, we acted out the story then ate some delicious, hot porridge. To remember the words, while we were eating our porridge we said,
“Cook little pot, cook!” When our tummies were full we said,
“Stop little pot, stop!”
Year 1 really enjoyed listening to the education officer from Monkey World when she came to visit Huish. We revisited our learning from our school trip to Monkey World earlier in the year and also discussed palm oil, rainforests being reduced and how we can help.
What materials are absorbent? How can we find out?
Today we carried out a little experiment to find out what materials are absorbent.
We started by putting a sponge in a cup of water. As we pulled the sponge out of the cup we noticed there was less water in the cup and the sponge was a bit heavier. As we squeezed the sponge more water came out. We learnt this is called Absorbency – When water is sucked up through a material.
The sponge has little holes in it and the water travels up into the holes and makes a little home in them. As each little hole gets full, the water travels up through the sponge and eventually there is not room left. This is called saturation. The sponge cannot hold anymore water.
We carried out a little experiment. We took some kitchen roll, marker pens and two bowls of water. We drew a rainbow pattern on both ends of the kitchen roll. We then dipped each end in the two bowls. We predicted what we thought might happen.
We then carried out our experiment. We observed how the colour was travelling up the kitchen roll. This was the material absorbing the water and carrying the colour up into the little holes. Eventually if made a rainbow! What other materials might be absorbent? We discussed ideas for other experiments we could do to find out how absorbent a material is. We tested how much water different materials could soak up when we put a given amount in a cup.
Well done Year 1! You did a fantastic job of telling the Christmas story in your Nativity performance to parents.
You sang beautifully, acted out every scene so confidently and really made us all think about the first Christmas all those many years ago.
Thank you to everyone who helped supply costumes and practice lines with their children. We are very proud of every single one of them!
We had a very jolly day in Class 4 on 19th November. We discussed why we have Children In Need day and where the money we raise goes. We certainly enjoyed dancing with Pudsey, Joe Wicks and the dancers from Strictly Come Dancing!
Following our trip to Monkey World and our recount writing, Year 1 have started their new story, ‘Monkey See Monkey Do’. We had lots of fun playing the mirror game, then tried on and described lots of different hats!
Today in RE we spoke about forgiveness. Sometimes it’s really hard to forgive someone when they have upset you. We discussed scenarios whereby we forgave someone and some of us acted these out. We all agreed that when you say, “It’s OK, I forgive you!” it makes everyone feel so much better.
Today we were very fortunate to have a visitor, Mr Lawrence, talk to us about his experiences during the Falklands conflict and working on an air craft carrier. Mr Lawrence shared with us how he felt when being a wreath bearer at the Cenotaph.
We discussed the importance of remembering those who sacrificed their lives during the Great War, Second World War and other conflicts. At 11 o’clock we respected the two minutes silence. In the afternoon we painted sunsets and remembrance crosses.
Year 1 enjoyed a fantastic day out at Monkey World! This was a great way to start our new English unit writing recounts, followed by the story Monkey See Monkey Do. We explored the park; observing Chimps, Orangutans, Woolly Monkeys, Gibbons, Orange Cheeked Monkeys and many more. We talked about their social behaviours and habitats. After eating our packed lunch we really enjoyed playing in the ginormous play area. We all agreed this was a wonderful trip and a great way to learn about primates.
During Arts Week, we have been learning about the Russian abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky. He believed bright warm colours made people feel happy and cool colours made people feel calm. We carefully painted our Kandinsky circles, thoughtfully choosing contrasting colours. We also sorted colours into warm and cool and made a collage using different textures. Using laptops, we used the Purple Mash program to create Kandinsky repeated patterns. Finally, we painted Kandinsky snails. Our classroom looks very colourful and jolly!
Today we explored feelings through dance. Our visitor ‘Darcy’, came to talk to us about the importance of mental health and ways of feeling good about ourselves. We had a go at showing feelings such as ‘happiness’ and ‘sadness’ and made up a little dance together. It was lots of fun and we particularly loved using the ribbons at the end. What a great way to explore and show our feelings as well as lift our moods!
At last, our long-awaited Fashion Show Day arrived! Children and staff dressed up from one of the following eras, 1900s (Victorians) 1950s or 1970s. We carried out lots of fun activities and discussions throughout the day, including finding adjectives to describe the different clothes from each era, drawing, painting and looking at similarities and differences through the ages. After lunch, we practised walking up and down the catwalk to music from our chosen era. Finally, we filmed our fashion show for our parents and grandparents to watch at home. What a fun filled day!
Some children took part in the Gadgeteer’s reading challenge over the summer holidays. Many congratulations for reaching your targets and receiving a certificate and medal.
To help us learn our first story of the year, Red Ted at the Beach, we have been retelling the story, drawing a story map, role playing and hot seating. We all agreed that Lucy should take more care of her poor old Ted when she goes out on an adventure!
