Year 1 Blackbird

April 2025- History- Wow starter! Nurturing nurses.

Wow Starter!

Today we had a visit from Sam from the Southwest Heritage Museum and we travelled back in time to over 200 years ago. We were back in the Victorian times. This half term we are going to learn about two famous ladies- Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. We were asked why we thought these ladies were important and if we had ever heard their names before. They were both famous nurses. Sam told us all about Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole and how they both helped to nurse soldiers in the Crimean war. They both came from very different backgrounds and had very different upbringings. One thing they had in common was that they both wanted to be nurses and wanted to help others. We learnt that hospitals, medicines and conditions were very different from the care that we receive today.

Today we had the opportunity to dress up as both nurses and wounded soldiers and to experience what life was like back then. We then designed a meal for a sick soldier and looked at some resources and had to decided if they belonged to Florence Nightingale or Mary Seacole. We also played a matching game where we had to match pictures of objects to their descriptions.

We finished up by discussing similarities and difference between the two nurses. Here are some pictures from our lovely afternoon.

 

March 2025 Red Nose Day and Geography- London.

 

Today Blackbird Class came to school dressed in Red or sparkles in support of Red Nose Day. We all looked amazing! 

This half term in Geography we are learning about the United Kingdom. Today we took a closer look at London. Wow! what a lot of special landmarks there are in London and places of interest that you can visit. We used a range of mark-making materials and construction kits to create some of our favourite places.

March 2025- World Book Day 2025 and Oracy sharing session.

 

We have had an amazing time celebrating World Book Day in Blackbird Class. We loved seeing all the creative and exciting costumes that our friends were wearing

 We had the opportunity to design our own book covers, make book marks and write about our favourite books and characters. 

As part of our Oracy focus we have been looking at character descriptions across the school. In year 1 we focussed on George the giant in the story of The Smartest Giant in Town. We either described George before he got his lovely new smart clothes or after when he was really proud of how he looked. Today we worked across KS1 and EYFS and had the chance to read our descriptions to the other children and to see if they could guess which George we were describing. We also had the chance to listen to EYFS's descriptions of different dinosaurs and Year 2's  descriptions of either a goat or a troll from the story- The Three Billy Goats Gruff. It was great to visit some of the other classes and spend time with some different children in our school.

Here are some pictures from our World Book Day and our Oracy session. 

February 2025- English -Wow Starter- Instructions- Jam sandwiches

 

February 2025 - Making Jam Sandwiches

Today we made jam sandwiches!  Our teacher made us laugh because she got the instructions muddled up the first time. You can’t cut the sandwich before you’ve put the jam in!!

We were able to follow and explain the instruction map step by step and read it through with a partner before retelling to the adults. We discussed the layout of the instructions and key words, (or time connectives), that were needed to start each sentence.

We used the instructions to make our sandwiches. We even got to taste them at the end!

We will use this experience to write instructions in our next lesson.

February 2025 - Making Porridge - English Wow!

 

 

 

 

Today Blackbird Class made porridge! The children were able to follow and explain the instruction map step by step. They read it through with a partner before retelling to the adults. We discussed the layout of the instructions and key words, (or time connectives), that were needed to start each sentence.

The children worked in groups to create their porridge. They even got to taste it at the end!

We will use this experience to write instructions to make porridge.

January 2025 - Trip to Somerset Rural Life Museum

 

Today we visited the Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury. We went there so that we could build on what we have learnt in our ‘Everyday Materials’ Science topic.

We learnt a lot during the workshop. We began by playing a sorting game with different materials, then took part in two activities. The first was an investigation using wool, soap and water. We found out that you can make felt out of wool by rubbing soap and water into it. It was great fun seeing which animals we could make from the felt.

The second activity was exploring the properties of different materials using object feely bags. It was quite tricky to identify some of the materials.

We also went on a Materials Hunt around the museum. We discovered that lots of different materials were used to make objects used in rural Somerset, such as straw for thatched roofs and metal for wash tubs.

We had a great day and are looking forward to using what we have learnt in our Science lessons.

January 2025 - Toy Workshop - History

 

This afternoon we had a visit from Natasha from Southwest Heritage trust. What an amazing afternoon we have had. We learnt about how toys have changed since the Victorian times. Natasha showed us lots of toys and we discussed how we knew that the toys were old. Some were dirty, others were rusty, some had small tears or rips in the fabric. Most of the older toys were made from either wood, metal or china.

We were very lucky as we were able to play with these old toys and we even got to dress up like Victorian children.

Natasha showed us a Zoetrope and an Thaumatrope. These were ways that Victorians started to make moving pictures. We then made our own Thaumatropes which was good fun.

Here are some pictures from our exciting afternoon. 

 

January 2025 - ICT Internet Safety Lesson

 In ICT today we continued to learn about internet safety. We looked at the school website and talked about how to stay safe online. We looked at some of the photos and videos on our website, and talked about our internet rules. We then decided to add our own photo to share with you!

January 2025 - English WOW! 

This morning we came into school and saw that our role-play area had been cornered off with police tape. The chairs had been knocked over and there was porridge all over the floor. What could have happened? 

We watched some video clips from our cleaning team who had discovered the mess and tried to help us with some clues. We worked together to try to discover who the suspect could be. They left a red ribbon, a lock of golden hair,  We will try to work with the police and find out who broke into the school.

 

December 2024 - Merry Christmas!

We have been very busy getting ready for Christmas in Blackbird Class, but it has been lots of fun.

Some of the things we have enjoyed doing include our Christmas performance, making Christmas cards and calendars for our families, making Advent wreaths and Christingles in RE, and we also had a Christmas party. Santa even came to visit which was very exciting!

 

Here are some photographs for you to have a look at so that you can see what we have been doing.

 I hope that you all have a lovely, restful Christmas and I look forward to seeing you in 2025.

Mrs Leach

November 2024 Year 1 English - Wow starter!      Where the Wild Things Are

Today we listened to the story of Where the Wild Things Are. We then looked at some pictures of different cartoon monsters and agreed that a monster was quite unique and could have all kinds of different features. look at the fantastic monsters that we have created today using recyclable materials. 

 

November 2024 Year 1 History - Wow starter! 
First Flight

This morning we had a visit from Don Thomas. He was a pilot who worked for the Air force and flew very fast planes. Don was also an astronaut and had also travelled in space rockets.

Don told the children all about how the Montgolfier brothers invented the hot air balloon, and how they first sent up a duck, chicken and sheep to see how far it could fly.

Don then taught us about how the glider was invented and how people tried to fly.

We then learnt all about Orville and Wilbur Wright and how as children they loved to read and fix things and how from a very young age, they had dreamt of flying. Wilbur and Orville were the sons of Susan and Milton. When they were young adults, they worked in a bicycle shop, where they fixed and made bicycles.

 

Wilbur flew their first aeroplane on 14^th December 1903. The flight lasted for 3 seconds. Orville attempted his first solo flight which lasted for 12 seconds. On the 17^{th of} December 1903 the Wright flight, as it was named lasted for 37 minutes. The Wright brothers had invented and flown the very first aeroplane.

 

The children were able to get into character and help Don retell the life story of The Wright Brothers and to learn about first flight.

 

September 2024 Geography. Walk around the local area.

What a great morning we have had today looking to see what is in our local area. Just round the corner from our school we saw the co-op and other local shops including a bakery and a hairdressers. We also saw a post box, where we can send our letters. We then carefully crossed the main road using the zebra crossing and went in search of St John & St Francis Church, a green space and The Salvation Army. We had our own recording sheets so could tick off some of our landmarks that we had seen. We were really lucky as several of our parents were able to join us. A big thank you to all of our helpers.

 

September 2024. English Wow Starter!

Today we received a letter from a new friend. He is called Dave and he is a skeleton. 

In his letter he told us that unfortunately some his friends, Bob, Brian, Brenda and Betty had got broken up and needed some help to put them back together again. 

We worked in groups to hunt for the parts of the missing skeletons. Then we worked together to put the skeletons back together. 

We then heard the story of Funnybones written by Janet and Allen Ahlberg. It was really funny. We discussed the parts that we enjoyed the most. 

Over the next few weeks we will listen to some more stories by these authors as they are our focussed authors this half term. Do you have any of their stories at home?

 

September 2024  Welcome to Year 1! 

Welcome to Year 1. We have had a very busy first couple of days in school, we wanted to share some photos of the activities the children have been doing. The children have settled beautifully and we have enjoyed getting to know them.

 

Blackbird Health and Sport Week : June 2024

What a great week we have had this week during health and sports week. We began the week with Kirsty Way a European champion trampoline gymnast. We have also had a circus skills workshop, a tennis session along with a range of other activities promoting the importance of sun safety, healthy eating and road safety. Here are some pictures from our very busy week.

 

English Minibeast Wow! : June 2024

Today we started our Minibeasts topic in English. We began by sharing our ideas about ‘What is a Minibeast?’ before going on our own minibeast hunt around the school grounds. We took a check-list with us to record all the different types of minibeasts we could find and magnifying glasses so that we could see any details.

We loved being explorers, here are some photos of some of the mini-beasts we found!

 

Giant objects arrive in Blackbird Class : May 2024

We have been so impressed by all the giant objects that have arrived in Blackbird Class this week. The children have enjoyed sharing them with the class and we have all enjoyed looking at them. A huge thank you for all the hard work that has been put into making them. 

 

English Wow! Jack and the Beanstalk : May 2024

Today we found a strange suitcase in the middle of the classroom. We wondered if we should open it.   

We carefully opened the suitcase and took out the items that were inside one by one. We noticed that everything inside was much bigger than normal.  We tried to guess who it could belong to. Maybe a giant? 

We realised that the story of ‘Jack and the beanstalk’ had a character who was a giant and decided to read it. We all joined in with the fun bits ‘Fi Fi Fo Fum’! 

We thought of some words to describe the giant objects, these are called adjectives. 

 

Planting a bean : May 2024

Today we heard the story of Jasper's Beanstalk. We learnt how Jasper planted a bean, then had to wait a long time for the bean to start growing. We then had the opportunity to plant our own beans, we can't wait to see them grow!

 

Year 1 Church Visit : March 2024

Blackbird Class walked to the St Francis of Assisi Church this morning as part of our Salvation Unit in RE. We have been learning about Symbols of Christianity and the Easter Story so we were very interested to see if we could see any representations of these in the church. We noticed that there are lots of crosses in the Church and were extremely impressed when we were shown a quilt that one of the members of the Church had made, with lots of details to represent the life of Jesus. It took her 6 months to sew!

 

World Book Day

 Look at our amazing costumes that we wore to school today to celebrate World Book Day. We enjoyed sharing some of our stories with the rest of the class.

RockTopus

What an amazing time we had today working with RockTopus, a real life rock band. We created our very own rock song all about the ten times tables. Here are some pictures from our session and we can't wait to view our rock video once Andy and Tom publish it.

 

Year 1 Trip to Somerset Rural Life Museum

 

Today we visited the Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury.

We took part in a workshop where we conducted a scientific investigation using everyday materials. We also looked around the museum to learnt how materials are an important part of domestic and farming life in Somerset.

We had a great day!

Fencing with Coach Jim

Blackbird Class had a fantastic morning learning how to fence with Coach Jim. We were taught how to stand, how to move backwards and forwards and three special words that are used in fencing. Did you know that the equipment used in fencing is called a foil? Here are some photos of our fun morning of fencing.

 

Year 1 Visit from Storyteller

Today in year 1 we were lucky to have a visit from Sharon Jacksties, a professional storyteller. It was very exciting, Sharon brought some musical instruments from all over the world which she used to help her tell us her story.

Her story was all about a quiet, shy, young boy called Davey who loved to sit in his boat on the River Parratt. One day he caught a massive, slimy, scaly fish, which sadly he had harmed with his fishing hook and  made the fish's mouth and cheek bleed. Suddenly he heard a small voice asking him to kiss his wound better. At first Davey wondered where the voice was coming from. He then realised it was the fish. He quickly kissed the fish and to his surprise the fish shred its slimy scales and turned into a beautiful young girl. Davey was not shy around the girl and had found himself a new friend. They spent lots of time together and fell in love. They later married and had children of their own. However, all of the children and grandchildren and great, great grandchildren that they had, all had the same scar on their cheeks just like the young girl had from the fishing hook. The children enjoyed their visit and I am sure will enjoy making up some of their own stories about Davey and the fish from The River Parratt.

 

Hedgehog Workshop

Year 1 were very lucky this afternoon as we had a visitor from the RSPCA. She taught us what RSPCA means and all about the very important work that they do.

We learnt about caring for all kinds of animals and particularly how to care for hedgehogs. We didn't know that they could get stuck in tin cans so it's important that we are careful with our recycling. We also learnt what to do if we think they are in trouble.

We finished the session by making our own hedgehogs out of clay. It was a great afternoon!

 

Blackbird ICT Lesson

Today Mrs Leach showed us how to upload a photograph from the camera onto our class page, as part of our online safety lesson. Everyone in the picture has permission to be on our school website. We have spent some time looking at the different parts of our website. We can not wait to see our picture once it is uploaded.

 

Happy New Year and Welcome Back!

Wow! what a busy three days we have had in year 1 this week. 

In English we had our Wow starter- we came into school on Wednesday morning and it appeared that our classroom had been part of a crime scene investigation. Someone had broken into our classroom and not only left us with a trail of devastation but several clues for us to solve. A small child was apparently the prime suspect and had left a lock of long golden hair and a red ribbon as she fled the scene. Who could this person be? We are yet to find the suspect.

On Thursday we had our PE Festival which was truly amazing. We had the opportunity to participate in four different obstacle courses and competed against other groups in our class. 

Today we bought in some of our favourite toys that we enjoyed playing with at home. Our History topic is on toys and we will be looking at how toys have changed over the years.

That's without our other lessons that we have been working hard in. Here are some pictures from our busy week.