Please support your child with their phonics in Year 1. Phonics are the key to good reading and writing.
We took our Maths lessons outside this week to compete against other groups completing different challenges. Our challenges were bowling, throwing and jumping. We each had a score of our own and then found the total scores for our groups. Once we had found the total scores we could then use what we know to work out the difference between each group, to see who had come first in each challenge.
A huge well done to Year 1 who had a wonderful sports day! All children completed every race with enthusiasm and determination. No one was disheartened by the place they came and enjoyed showing their parents their sporting abilities.
Thank you to all the parents who came along to support the children as they raced down the track. Also a massive thank you to the younger brothers and siblings of the children who completed their own races with their siblings, everyone enjoyed cheering you on!
The children in Year 1 have worked tremendously hard during Phonics Week. As a treat at the end of the week Pear Class joined Pine Class outside in the sunshine to enjoy a well deserved ice lolly.
We decided to treat our wonderful Dads this week by making them a special gift for Father’s Day. We really enjoyed making chocolate chip shortbread and can’t wait to help our Dads eat it!
In Art this half term we are looking at sculptures. Pear Class enjoyed looking at a variety of sculptures and exploring how we can use paper to make a 3D sculpture of an octopus.
As it was lovely weather this week, we took the opportunity to explore our school. We looked for any changes we could see from Spring to Summer and look forward to enjoying our school in the warm weather.
This week we had our final two books for Bring and Share a Book. We started the week with Little Red Riding Hood and ended it with There’s a Bear in your Book. Thank you to the whole of Pear Class for bringing and sharing your books with us, watching your confidence in reading your favourite books has been wonderful!
We got the opportunity this week to visit St James’ Church to see their knitted Bible stories. Before entering the Church we looked at the features of the Church from the outside, including the stained glass windows. Once inside we saw the detailed displays arranged in chronological order, thank you Rev. David for inviting us to your Church.
This term our DT project was to make a windmill. To learn all about windmills we read the book Katje the Windmill Cat. We then looked at what 3D shapes we could use to make our windmills. The children made their windmills according to their design, using a cone as a roof and a cylinder as the building.
This week we had two more lovely books read aloud to the class. At the beginning of the week we learnt all about different dinosaurs and Pear Class were very excited to find out that some dinosaurs lived underwater. Then at the end of the week the children enjoyed listening to Giraffes Can’t Dance. Another huge thank you to the children for sharing your favourite books.
After learning about The Rainbow Fish and all his adventures we got creative and drew The Rainbow Fish, including all of his beautiful scales. We then had to make some friends for The Rainbow Fish so potato printed him some friends.
We enjoyed our two books this week. We learnt all about Pokemon in Pokemon Legendary Ultra Beasts and all about being different in Big Nelly.
Pear Class put their creativity and clay skills to the test this week by making clay sculptures of Rainbow Fish. They enjoyed getting messy with the clay and making their own fish to take home.
In Maths this week Pear Class were learning about capacity. At the beginning of the week we estimated and then tested how many cups it would take to fill one container. Towards the end of the week we estimated which container would hold the most to the least amount of multi-link, again testing our estimations to see if we were right. As you can tell some of us had better estimations than others.
This week we had two great additions to our favourite book collection. We loved the repetition in Incy Wincy Spider and looking at the features of tanks in The Tank Book. Thank you boys for sharing.
We had a wonderful week preparing for the King’s coronation. We started by making a horse for the willow carriage next to our welcome garden, which we hope you all enjoyed seeing. Throughout the week we were also busy making finger painted flags, cards for the king and making ourselves into King’s guards.
On Friday we decorated cupcakes and made our own golden crowns. With the help of Pine Class we learnt the words to the Lion King’s ‘I Just Can’t Wait to be King’ which we performed to the whole school in our celebration assembly. A huge thank you to both the PTA and Mrs Hodgson for our ice-creams which were a great end to the week before finishing with a parade around the playground in front of parents.
We hope everyone has a lovely weekend celebrating our new King.
We started the Summer Term perfectly by sharing two lovely books. At the beginning of the week we had The Dinky Donkey followed by a story from Avengers. We look forward to finally getting a chance to read everyone’s favourite books over the term.
We couldn’t wait to try out the new play equipment that was built over the half term. Every one of us had a go at getting from one side to the other, testing our balance. Thank you very much to the PTA for this new equipment, we look using it lots in the future.
Thank you to Rev. Keen for our Easter Service. All of the children looked great in their Easter hats, sang beautifully and spoke clearly for everyone to hear. We hope everyone has a wonderful Easter break.
Our last two favourite books of the term were Don’t Call Me Sweet and Supertato. We have had wonderful books shared throughout the Spring Term and look forward to more being shared in the Summer Term.
On our last day of term we put our instructional reading and measuring to the test by making chocolate crispy Easter gardens.
Thank you to the two members of Pear Class who shared their books this week. We enjoyed hearing you read The Boy Who Ate Everything and The Gruffalo.
We had a fantastic day being scientists this week. As scientists we designed and conducted a scientific investigation. We tested different materials to see which material is waterproof and then discussed which material would be best suited to make a coat. Pear Class had wonderful ideas and questions throughout the day proving that they would make amazing scientists!
This term for DT, we have been busy designing and making fruit desserts. We discussed different fruits and how they would taste in our desserts. This week we finally got to make our desserts by adding fruit, jelly, custard, cream and sprinkles together to make tasty desserts.
This week we had two fantastic assemblies, one from Paul the scientist and another from Year 10’s at Preston Academy.
Paul ran a wonderful bubble workshop, where we saw huge bubbles that were fun to pop. Some of us even got the opportunity to be inside of a bubble! After running through how scientists stay safe, we watched Mrs Charter as her glove was set on fire.
Later in the week some Year 10’s demonstrated three different experiments. We watched a volcano erupt, saw elephant toothpaste and laughed as the teachers hair stood up!
A huge thank you to both Paul and Preston Academy.
We had another two fantastic books shared this week The Smartest Giant in Town and Bluey Goodnight Fruit Bat.
Pear Class got the opportunity to visit the Science Fair this week. We got the chance to see all of the stalls, including those made by pupils in our own class. At the end of the day Mrs Chambers awarded first, second and third places. Well done to all of those who made and shared their projects, we loved seeing them!
During Science week we had the opportunity to go into a Science Dome in the school hall. Once inside we travelled to the rainforest, the dessert and even the Arctic! We pretended to be nocturnal animals in the night sky and saw everything that they would see, including the Northern Lights! Some children got the opportunity to pretend to be different animals living in different places, so we could learn about adaptations and camouflage. A huge thank you to The Explorer Dome for giving us this experience!
The two books shared this week were Funnybones and The Gruffalo’s Child.
Pear Class had great fun this week designing and making a map for a Bee-Bot. Once made they tested their maps and their programming skills by moving a Bee-Bot around the map.
We had great fun learning about transparency this week. To demonstrate this we all made our very own pair of glasses using different coloured lenses.
We took Computing outside this week to learn how to take a photograph and open it in the camera roll. Pear Class took some wonderful photos of our school that we hope you enjoy having a look at.
Our favourite books shared this week were The Runaway Pea and a story from The Avengers Story Collection. We continue to look forward to seeing everyone else’s favourite books throughout the year.
We celebrated World Book Day in Wonderland. Pear Class spent the day writing book reviews, making animal corner bookmarks and creating collages for a character from Alice in Wonderland. In the afternoon Pear Class got invited to their very own tea party hosted by the Mad Hatter. The children looked amazing in their costumes and we hope they had a wonderful day.
We had a visit from the illustrator and author Tom McLaughin this week. He shared some of his books with us, including Mr Tiddles Cat Burglar, Up Up and Away and Along Came a Different where we learnt that being different is the best thing ever. He also showed us how he illustrates his books by drawing different animals and an alien called Martha! Thank you Miss Feltham for organising this.
To end the week we had an amazing time at the school disco. We were lucky enough to be joined by Pine Class and Reception Classes and danced our week to an end. Everyone had a wonderful time dancing and singing along to the DJ. Pear Class would like to send a huge thank you to the PTA for organising the disco.
Pear Class enjoyed getting the laptops out this week. We wrote sentences on the laptops, making sure we included capital letters, finger spaces and fulls stops.
We started off this half term with two more favourite books, these being The Baddies and Big Yellow Digger.
A huge thank you to Miss Taylor and the Language Ambassadors for letting us visit the language fair. We were given the opportunity to learn a variety of languages, including Italian, Portuguese and French. Whilst at the fair we were also able to write in different languages and read books from different countries.
After learning about and discussing different materials, we discussed how they felt and how we would describe them. We were then able to sort a selection of materials according to their properties.
This week we celebrated Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. We learnt all about why we celebrate these events and the importance behind them. After learning all about these special days, we went outside for a pancake race with Pine Class. Unfortunately Pine Class won, but we had a wonderful time taking part!
Hobbycraft Community Project
When we received an email from Hobbycraft, asking us to take part in a community project, Year 1 were delighted to accept. Hobbycraft asked us to design and make a canvas to represent a local place of interest or historical landmark and this canvas is to be displayed in the Yeovil store.
Hobbycraft provided; a large canvas, some paints, tissue paper, glue and paint brushes. We have been amazed by the children and their care and precision as they have all worked together to produce a Montacute House canvas.
Next time you are in the Yeovil Hobbycraft store, see if you can find our completed piece.
Throughout this half term Pear Class have mixed their DT and Art skills to design and make their own moving books. In our Art lessons we practised weaving, plaiting and wool wrapping. The plaiting skills we learnt helped us to make Rapunzel’s hair for our books. Our wool wrapping skills helped us to make a saddle for the Prince’s horse. We then made a moving Prince, who can cut down a moving tree and a moving horse.
At the end of the half term we were lucky enough to share our books with Chestnut class and eventually took them home to share with our families.
This week’s choices of books were The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Aladdin. We have enjoyed having the children come in and share their books this half term and we can’t wait to see more next half term.
In our last week of term Mrs Atkin challenged us with trying something new. Some of us did this at home; learning to ride a bike, learning a new language or stroking our puppies for the first time. But in school we safely learnt how to do a press up and to hula hoop.
For this weeks bring and share a book we got to read Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy and Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose. Pear Class correctly identified the rhyming words in each book and had fun listening to the stories. We look forward to hearing more of Pear Class’ favourite book.
In Science this week Pear Class took part in their own investigation. They had to predict which material a cress seed would be best to grow in. The options they had were soil, cotton wool, stones and paper. There were mixed opinions as to which would be the best but to decide we planted our own cress seeds to investigate. We are looking forward to discovering which was the best material for growing our cress seeds.
Pear Class had a great time this week learning about toys throughout time. During a workshop we got to make our own thaumatropes, sort toys, play with a variety of toys and dress up in Victorian school clothes.
We had two more books to share this week, Ten Chripy Chicks and The Chimpanzees of Happy Town. A big thank you to you both for sharing your favourite books.
This term so far we’ve been learning all about plants, including their structure. So, this week we braved the weather and went outside to the welcome garden to plant primroses. We discussed the importance of handling the plants carefully and making sure the roots are in the soil. We hope you enjoy the watching the plants grow!
Today we celebrated Chinese New Year. We learnt about The Chinese Zodiac Story and how the years of the zodiac were named. We found out that Pear Class were either born in the year of the Monkey or the year of the Rooster. Pear Class enjoyed tasting Chinese food, with most of us loving prawn crackers but we were unsure about spring rolls. In the afternoon we got creative and had fun making concertina dragons to celebrate us entering the year of the Rabbit.
Throughout this term we are inviting children to bring in their favourite book to share to the class. This week we had two lovely books that were shared, The Fir Tree and Dinosaur Dig. Thank you both for sharing your favourite books, we look forward to seeing everyone’s books over the term!
This week went on an adventure to Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm. When we were arriving at school it began to snow but luckily that did not stop us. We loved our journey from the snow to the sunshine.
When we first arrived at the zoo, we got the opportunity to see the meerkats being fed their crickets. We were lucky to have the opportunity to feed them their crickets, whilst wearing our gloves.
Throughout the zoo, we saw some amazing animals, including a sleeping bear and some lions up close!
The children’s behaviour was exemplary during the visit and it was a pleasure to take them out for the day.
To celebrate World Religion Day, Pear Class discussed, celebrated and respected different faiths, including our own. Today we learnt that Mindfulness comes from Buddhism and is also present in Hindu traditions. We were fortunate to learn about mindfulness being the practise of placing your attention to the present, not worrying about the past or future. Dilys kindly brought in a singing bowl which is used in Buddhist religious practices. Together we practiced mindfulness techniques, while running the mallet around the rim of the signing bowl.
Pear Class have worked so hard throughout the Autumn Term so on our last day we had some FUN. In the morning we decorated biscuits like melted snowmen and enjoyed eating them whilst watching The Nativity. In the afternoon Pear Class took part in Pear Class Talent Show where the children sang, danced, beat boxed and more. Following this we played pass the parcel then musical statues. We had a great day to end what has been a fantastic term.
We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
This week we went to St James’ Church with Year 2 to visit Reverend David. Children in Year 2 read out readings whilst we performed the Christmas Story.
A huge thanks to the PTA for organising and arranging a whole school trip to The Octagon Theatre to watch Dick Whittington. Pear Class had a fantastic time and thoroughly enjoyed the show. Our highlights were when the cast ran through the audience squirting us with water and when we sang My Body Lies Over the Sea.
During our DT lessons this term the children have loved getting creative and have been busy designing and making puppets. You can see the children made a variety of animals from bunnies, elephants, rhinos, dogs and tigers. We hope you’ll enjoy them at home.
Today we had a very special visitor during our Maths lesson. Father Christmas came in to visit Pear Class and brought us gifts for us to use in our class. We got given a set of uno, a construction kit and the game Hedbandz. We can’t wait to play with these games, thank you very much to the PTA for organising this special visit!
The children in Pear Class have all been busy making snowmen to be displayed around the school grounds. They had fun glueing on eyes and noses and placing their snowman in the ground. We hope you enjoy them and look out for them when you come to school.
Pear Class had a Martial Arts workshop this week. We learnt about the rules, including treating each other with respect. We learnt to punch, kick and block safely and independently and then had the opportunity to show what we learnt to the class. Thank you to Premier Education for coming into school and running this workshop.
This week Pear Class went on an adventure to Brimsmore Garden Centre. After waking from school we had the opportunity to look around their Christmas display, seeing all the beautiful decorations. We were then treated to a hot chocolate and some biscuits. But before our walk home we were presented with a sack full of presents from Santa, which we took back to school with us. Santa got us all a wooden construction kit and we cannot wait to build our animals. Pear Class would like to thank the PTA for their kind donation that allowed this trip to go ahead.
Pear Class took their instruction writing into the kitchen this week by baking Pusdey themed biscuits for Children In Need. They followed their set of instructions perfectly to create their own Pudsey biscuit before decorating them to take home, we hope the children enjoyed them. Thank you to everyone for your generous contributions towards this worthy cause.
Darrell Wakelam came into school to show us how to create animal masks. We had great fun mask making with our teachers and parents. Our class listened carefully to instructions and we each made a mask to be displayed in our school. A big thank you to everyone who came in to help us.
Pear Class would like to say a huge thank you to Mrs Charter for giving us the opportunity to see her tortoise Jules. We learnt all about what she eats and how she stays warm, whilst describing how she felt.
We celebrated World Mental Health Day by wearing yellow. We enjoyed our day with mindful colouring and relaxing by taking some time to sit and reflect.
We hope you enjoy these autumnal photos of the children that we took when the sun was shining.
This week we’ve been busy in Mathematics. We found objects around the classroom that were longer or shorter than leaves we’ve found outside. We also measured our heights and compared them to each other, finding out who was taller and shorter.
Pear Class were creative today and went outside onto the playground. Here we got out the chalk and used leaves to make lion faces and bodies on the playground. Everyone had a wonderful time being creative and making their lions.
Key Stage 1 celebrated their Harvest Festival with an assembly with Reverend David Keen. Reverend Keen reminded us to be thankful for the things we have. Some of us read our Harvest poems and said our Harvest prayers, with all of us singing harvest songs.
We had a lovely week for Arts Week. We enjoyed drawing hens and farm animals for our book of the week, The Little Red Hen. In addition to this, we drew around leaves to make a variety of animals using pastels, a challenge set by a local artist.
To celebrate European Day of Languages some of our language ambassadors came to share some books with Pear Class. Pear Class loved learning how to say simple phrases in different languages, a huge thank you to our language ambassadors.
Thank you to Animals 2U Southwest for visiting our school today. Pear Class had a wonderful day meeting four different animals. We learnt all about the life and safety of invertebrates, meeting an African millipede and learning about their exoskeleton and what they eat. Next we met Twix and Wispa, who had left their sister Twirl at home. They are rats, who are both rodents and mammals. We learnt that they are omnivores who will eat any leftover food. We were then introduced to Prince, a royal python from Africa who only eats once every two weeks! Finally we met Venus the extremely jumpy Gecko. What a lovely morning!
We explored our senses this week by visiting our sensory garden. We heard the wind chime and the xylophone, smelt the plants and flowers, while touching and seeing a variety of things. Luckily we didn’t eat anything in the sensory garden and waited till we got inside and tasted different fruit.
We have had a wonderful time exploring the school grounds in search of a bear. The children found footprints and they led us over, under and around objects to a quiet space in our sensory garden where a big, brown, fluffy bear awaited our arrival. We were so pleased to find a bear in our school grounds!
Following yesterdays sad news in Pear Class today we reflected on and celebrated the life of Queen Elizabeth ll. The children had the opportunity to discuss their memories of Queen Elizabeth ll and record these in their books. We also discussed the accession to the throne of King Charles lll, to record this moment children in Pear Class drew a portrait of King Charles lll with his late mother, Queen Elizabeth ll.
Pear Class would like to extend their thoughts and prayers to the royal family and the rest of the country at this sad time.
We have had a fantastic start to the year in Pear Class. The children have worked incredibly hard and have shown great enthusiasm for the year ahead! Since our return to school the children have explored the school grounds, identifying their favourite part, estimated in Maths and enjoyed a team work PE lesson with Mr Bourne.