WELCOME TO YEAR 1 BUNTINGS

Buntings are a family of birds that includes the Cirl Bunting. This bird is very rare and can be found by the coast in South Devon. Just like us! Many Buntings are long distant migrants which means they travel many miles around the world every year. Just like we will be doing in our learning in this Term's theme!

THIS TERMS THEME

'Be Curious'

This term we will…

immerse ourselves in the cultures and traditions of Kenya. We will compare and contest what we learn with our lives in Paignton. We will explore the world of plants. This will all cumulate in an exciting learning outcome to share with our parents.  

P.E AND DANCE DAYS

P.E/Dance Days are Tuesday and Wednesday each week. Please ensure that your child has the correct kit in school all week. We will ensure that they are sent home at the end of every half term.

HOME LEARNING DAYS

Home Learning will be handed out on a Friday and collected in on a Wednesday. This will give you the opportunity to explore aspects of your child's learning if you wish.

                                            UPCOMING EVENTS

Monday 25th April- First Day of Summer 1

Friday 27th May- Last Day of Summer 1

Monday 6th June- Non Pupil Day

Tuesday 7th June- First Day of Summer 2

Zoo trip Thursday 30th June 2022

Monday 25th July- Last Day of Summer Term

MEET THE TEAM

If there are any issues or concerns, please contact your class teacher (Mrs Walker) or alternatively please contact a team leader (Mr O'Sullivan, Mrs. Ayling);

nwalker@white-rock-primary.torbay.sch.uk

losullivan@white-rock-primary.torbay.sch.uk

bayling@whiterockprimaryschool.co.uk

ACADEMIC YEAR

2021/2022

Summer Term

Summer Term Curriculum Map

Wb 11.7.22 Engineers and Inventors and Sports Day

Wow! What a busy week we have had at White Rock Primary school this week!

We had sports day which the children loved being part of. They all tried their absolute best and were fantastic despite the heat! Photos will be uploaded next week for this once we have had a chance to check all children are able to go onto the website.

Below are photos of our engineers and inventors  D&T themed week. We had to design and create a boat using the following criterion: waterproof, strong, can float. Everyone in the Buntings created a detailed plan. We then created our boats and tested them. Finally we evaluated the boats and wrote down what we would change if we could make the boats again. 

Amazing effort Buntings you are all fabulous engineers!

Wb 4.7.22: Hot hot hot! Meditation & Maths combining coins to make amounts

This week we have been learning about the different coins we have in the UK and what they are worth. We then progressed on to combining different coins to make amounts. We used coins to make 15p and 30p. Everyone worked so hard this week well done!

We also spent a little bit of time after lunch, lying quietly and meditating. This gave us time to cool our bodies down and get ready for the afternoon's learning. The Buntings are still doing their absolute best learning despite the heat! 

Wb 26.6.22-  Trip to Paignton Zoo

We had a wonderful time at Paignton Zoo on Thursday! The children were all amazing and had the best of times! Everyone stayed with their allocated adult, all were so enthusiastic about seeing the animals and they were all brilliant in the Education Centre. I'm very proud of everyone well done. 

Wb 13.6.22- Planting seeds

We have looked at a new text in our Writing journey called 'From Seed to Sunflower' and have linked this to our Science learning about plants. We will observe how these plants grow and ensure that we water them and provide them with sunlight to help them thrive. Check back in a couple of weeks time to see how much they have grown.

Wb 5.6.22- Art sculpture

We have been looking at the work of Henry Moore and how he created different semi-abstract sculptures. We used model magic to pinch and twist our models into shape. We then used tools to create the detail on our animals. We will be painting them and adding detail to them over the next couple of weeks so come back and check for some more photos!

Wb 25.5.22- All things jubilee!

This week we have celebrated the Queen's jubilee, we performed a dance, created our own crowns and found out facts about the Queen to share in assembly. We then shared a wonderful lunch with the rest of the school and everyone had the most amazing time! We hope you have all received your commemorative coin and have it displayed somewhere for everyone to see!

Wb 16.5.22: Can I perform a poem?

This half term, we have looked at the poem What creature pray are you? by Gervase Phinn. We spent lots of time working with our learning partners to tap out the rhythm and think of actions to go with the words of the poem. 

Please see the video of one part of the poem. The photos show us practising the actions in our groups. 

Wb: 9.5.22- Morris Dancing

The Year One children have been learning a traditional dance.

Wb 2.5.22- Maths: Challenging ourselves with an open ended problem.

This week we have looked at how we can use our own problem solving skills to make equal and unequal groups. We had 8 seeds and could share them into 4 pots. How we did it was up to us and there were lots of different ways we all shared our seeds. It was really great to challenge ourselves to explore making groups and to find out how many different ways we could do it.

Wb 25.4.22: New topic 'hook' experience

This week our new topic has been launched, 'Be Curious'. Our teachers were sent a video, some music and a story and we have been tasked with finding out all about Mombasa in Africa. 

Wb 4.4.22- R.E: Can I understand how Christians celebrate Easter?

In R.E, we looked at the meaning of Easter for Christians and how their celebration is also celebrated by many other people around the world. We looked at why we have Easter eggs and then went on an egg hunt in class. The children enjoyed finding their eggs and taking them home for the Easter holidays.

Wb 28.3.22- Science: Can I observe patterns and changes over time?

We have been tracking the changes to a tree on our school grounds over the academic year. We have looked at how it has changed as the seasons have changed and made predictions about what will happen next. We used our observations skills to look closely at how the tree has changed and what it looks like at each stage of the year. 

Wb 21.3.22- Paddleboat Theatre came to perform!

We were very lucky to have the Paddleboat theatre perform a story to us all in EYFS and KS1. We all really enjoyed watching the show and joining in with some of the parts of the story.

Wb 14.3.22: Sports Festival and Red Nose Day!

We had an exciting week last week in between all of our lovely learning! First we enjoyed lots of different games in the hall with our class friends. We practised throwing and catching and kicking a ball into a goal. On Friday we then celebrated Red Nose Day and participated in an egg and spoon race, pin the nose on Tom Daley and guess the amount of bricks in the tub.

Wb 7.3.22: Can I follow a set of instructions?

As part of our Writing journey we have been asked to create bird feeders to encourage birds to visit our school grounds. We had to follow the instructions we were given and then next week we are going to write our own set of instructions on how we made the feeders.

Wb 28.2.22: World Book Day celebrations

This week we celebrated world book day and the children came dressed as their favourite book character. We also read stories with children from Year Four. This is the first time for two years we have been able to meet for WBD so it was a very special occasion. Everyone was so excited and we had a brilliant time!

Wb 14.2.22- Chinese Dragon Puppets

In Writing, we looked at Chinese New Year and how it is celebrated. We then made dragon puppets and had a dragon dance around the classroom. The children made these independently and tried really hard with their cutting skills and coloured in the head and tail parts really carefully. Well done Buntings.

Wb: 7.2.22- Can I identify the features of a non-fiction text?

For our writing journey, we are looking at a non-fiction text about Chinese New Year and this week a cheeky dragon cut up the pages from our book and we had to put them back together and label the different features on the page. We found there was: a title, photos, a label for a photo, information and a caption.

Wb 31.1.22 Science: Naming materials and the objects they are made

We started our new Science journey with a concept cartoon discussion about why glass may or may not be the best material for a football.

We then looked at the different materials we see everyday which included wood, glass, plastic, fabric etc. The children worked in teams to match the photos of the objects to the material and then went on an object hunt. They really enjoyed being Scientists and using their observational skills around the classroom.

24.1.22- Class Reader Vote

Every time we are due to finish our class story, we have a vote to decide which book we should choose next. This important part of our day involves understand that we live in a democracy and we have the right to vote. The children know they can only vote for one book. They make an informed choice by listening to the blurb, looking at the front cover and reading the title. They also look at tallies, count in 5's and understand data is presented in different ways.

The 20minutes we spend doing this is a cross-curricular example of how school routines are an opportunity for learning! 

Wb 17.1.22 Science: Longitudinal Study

For Science, we have set up a long term study to observe how our large Oak tree changes through the seasons. We discussed what happens during the different seasons and what they are called. We used our observational skills to look closely at the tree so we can monitor how it changes over time. There were lots of observations that the branches were thin and spiky at the moment and one of the class observed that there were leaf buds at the end of most of the branches. 

Wb 10.1.22 Our School Stick Insects!

At the start of the year we were given some baby New Guinea Spiny stick insects. These insects are not like the long thin green ones we commonly see! These stick insects grow extremely large! We share the care of them with Reception and we had them back in class for a while this week to see how much they had grown! The children were all very brave as the stick insects can move quite fast. Well done everyone for being so responsible and careful when handling them.

Wb: 3.01.22 The Train Ride performance poetry

For our first week back, we listened to The Train Ride poem and explored how to perform it by thinking of our own actions to go with the words. We then created our own train and went on a ride around the classroom using our hands to act out the different verses.

Autumn Term Curriculum Map

Final week of 2021!!!! Christmas dinner and Polar Express Days

This has been a packed final week in school with our class Christmas dinner and Polar Express day. We really enjoyed being in the hall together sharing a delicious meal. 

For the Polar Express day there were lots of excited Buntings dressed in their PJ's clutching golden tickets. We had a brilliant time travelling on a virtual train ride and decorating our own biscuits.

Wb: 6.12.21- Our virtual nativity story

This week we have been practising our virtual nativity. We have learned some actions to go with the story, taken part in a whole class Crazy Santa dance and signed We Wish You a Merry Christmas. The link will be uploaded for you all to see very soon.

Wb 29.11.21 - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

This week marked the start of December and we changed our choosing activities to celebrate Christmas. We received a letter from an Elf asking us to write a letter to Santa and we also had a Toy Workshop in our role play area. 

Wb: 22.11.21 - Little Red Riding Hood

This week we have been immersing ourselves in the Little Red Riding Hood story. We have had fun acting out the story using costumes and stick puppets.

Wb 15.11.21: Science- dissecting animal poo

For our Science journey we have been looking at carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. We looked at their poo to decide what their diet might be. We also had a go at designing our own meal for an animal too. 

Wb 8.11.21: Dance

In Dance this week, the children have been exploring a prehistoric jungle travelling over, under, around and through. In these photographs, some children are being the jungle while others are being the explorers.

Wb 1.11.21: History Excavating Fossils

For our History lessons, we have been looking at how Archaeologists excavate to find artefacts. We are focussing on fossils and how they were formed and how they link to dinosaurs. 

W.b: 18.10.21: Handwriting- Can I form my one armed robot letters correctly?

We have been practising forming our letters and joining them correctly on our whiteboards.

Wb: 11.10.21: Maths- How many ways can you make 5?

In Maths, we have been looking at how we can spot the different ways to make 5 using double sided counters and the Hungarian dice pattern.

Wb 4.10.21: All things The Gingerbread Man!

For our Writing journey, we have been looking at the story of The Gingerbread Man, in our choosing time we have been acting out the story and making play doh gingerbread men.

Monday 27th September 2021: LQ- Can I label parts of the human body?

For Science, we are looking at animals including humans and we drew around each other's body and labelled them with the correct Scientific vocabulary.

Wb: 20.9.21- Plastic Pirates Recycling Workshop

This week, we were looking at how to re-use our plastic waste. We had a fabulous time creating things in our school woodland.

Wednesday 15th September 2021- Maths: Can I represent a number?

This week we have been looking at what 'represent' means in Maths and how can we represent numbers below ten in more than one way? We all worked really hard to show our understanding of different representations of a number and we even used this knowledge in our choosing time too! (Also, check out the fabulous different sized towers created using magnetic squares and triangles in our construction area!)

First week of the year 2021: Exploring our new learning environment!

Everyone in the class has settled in so well this week, the children have shown how grown up they are by coming independently each day and hanging up their coats and bags! We have also been learning together, sharing and interacting with one another so well this week too I am so proud of you all well done Buntings!