Welcome to Yr 1 Buntings Class

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 our Explorers we are learning about in this Term's theme! 

The Class Teacher in Buntings for this year is Miss Sarah Durnford.  Our Learning Support Assistants in this class are Mrs Debbie Tummon and Mrs Sandra Wooll.  

The theme for the Summer term is 'To Infinity... and Beyond - Space!'. We asked the children what their interests were and what they would like to learn about and space was a very popular suggestion! We have already 'kicked off' our theme with a Space Day full of different space related activities. We will continue to inspire the children and explore the subject of space in many different ways within school as well as having the opportunity to take part in a variety of trips! 

For more information on our curriculum please look at our Summer Term Curriculum Plan below.

The Theme for Spring Term is a whole school Theme called 'Seven Billion Stars. We used this video  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmcRa70LHe8) as our hook and an initial talking point to discuss what the term community meant to the children. On the first day back all children and adults came dressed in the uniform for their community. Recently, we have had a visit from Occombe Farm recently which gave the children a first hand experience of how to care for chickens. We will be fundraising throughout this term to enable us purchase and raise our very own flock of chickens!

The Theme for Autumn Term was "Explore".  Initially we explored "Under the Sea" and then explored areas according to the children's interests. Some of the exciting learning opportunities that experienced included a trip to Brixham to the fish market and a tour of the Golden Hind as well as a Beach trip where we explored rock pools and created team sand art! There was a History focus beginning with Sir Francis Drake and the history of Pirates.  For more information on our curriculum, click on the Autumn Term plan.

P.E. Days:  Wednesdays and Fridays

Home Learning: 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.

Team leader: Mrs Sarah Jarrett

If there are any issues or concerns, please feel free to come in and see the teacher (Miss Durnford) or contact the Team Leader.

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

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

UP COMING EVENTS...

Transition day - Thursday 2nd July

Library Van Visit

Buntings visited the library van this week and were able to choose some exciting new books for our school library. Pop in to our school library and have a look at what we chose... 

Sunflower Day

We are taking part in a school wide sunflower competition to see who can grow the tallest sunflower. We had a whole say learning about sunflowers to get ourselves ready. In Science we thought about what a sunflower needs to grow and made posters to share our ideas. In Art we looked closely and at sunflower and drew a detailed picture, we also wrote some acrostic poems about sunflowers.

The quails have laid eggs!

More 'eggciting' news from the White Rock Chicken Coop. Our quails have laid their very first eggs. We all had a very close look at the egg itself as well as what it looked like inside.

Space Explorer Dome came to visit us...

Explorer Dome came to visit and we all got to crawl through the tunnel into the dome. Inside the dome we learnt lots of exciting new facts about space and the planets, experienced star gazing and listened to some really exciting stories.

These are some of the facts we learnt:

The moon is made from rock - Jamie

Orion's belt has 3 stars - Freya

There are too many stars to count - Bailey

Maths

We have begun to explore the concept of measure within our Maths sessions. We have been investigation different units of measurement and finding the most interesting objects possible to measure! We had the opportunity to go into the playground to complete our learning as well as in the classroom.

To infinity...and beyond!

We had a fantastic space day full of exciting adventures and activities. We all had an opportunity to sketch ourselves on the moon, dance like astronauts, compose a space inspired soundscape, learn the names and order of the planets and witness a rocket experiment. We even got to meet some real life astronauts and a NASA commander...

Year 1 Mathematics Spring Term Objectives

Compare, describe and solve practical problems for:

• Lengths and heights [for example, long/short, longer/shorter, tall/short, double/half]
• Mass/weight [for example, heavy/light, heavier than, lighter than]
• Time [for example, quicker, slower, earlier, later]

Measure and begin to record the following:

• Lengths and heights
• Mass/weight
• Time (hours, minutes, seconds)
• Recognise and use language relating to dates, including days of the week, weeks, months and years tell the time to the hour and half past the hour and draw the hands on a clock face to show these times.

• Read, write and interpret mathematical statements involving addition (+), subtraction (–) and equals (=) signs
• Represent and use number bonds and related subtraction facts within 20
• Add and subtract one-digit and two-digit numbers to 20, including zero
• Solve one-step problems that involve addition and subtraction, using concrete objects and pictorial representations, and missing number problems such as 7 = – 9.
• Solve one-step problems involving multiplication and division, by calculating the answer using concrete objects, pictorial representations and arrays with the support of the teacher.

WORLD BOOK DAY!

To celebrate World Book Day we all dressed up as one of our favourite characters from a Traditional Tale. Everybody looked fantastic! We really enjoyed exploring all different types of books and sharing our favourite ones with Year 4! 

Day 11 in the White Rock chicken incubator! We candled our eggs in a dark room using a bright torch. Have a look at the pictures below to see what is happening...

 ...

CHICKEN CAKE SALE

The children in KS1 decided to do a 'chicken cake sale' to raise money for our own Chicken Coop. For home learning they designed and made their cakes and then sold them to the rest of the school.

We raised an amazing £403.84!

FARMER DAY

The children in Year 1 and 2 had a day of 'immersion' in our topic. They spent the day dressed up as farm characters. We had Verity's Grandma, who is a farmer, come to visit us and talk about different types of chickens and how to care for our eggs.

The activities the children experienced were collage, making chocolate crispy nests, Six Little Chicks quiz, labelling and setting up the incubator and walking around the school grounds looking for the best place for our Chicken Coop! It was a busy and fun filled day!

We studied the school grounds with Mr Wingrove to find the best place to keep our chickens.

Here were some of our suggestions...

Daniel - "Behind the Year 2 classrooms because the foxes won't eat them".

Reef - "On the field because when they're older they'll need lots of room".

Theo - "Near the Year 2 classrooms because it has grass and it is peaceful".

Sarah - "On the playground because the children will scare the foxes away".

Freya - "Near the classrooms, on the field so we can come and feed them".

Alya - "Next to Year 2 so that children will hear them and look after them".

Gabrielle - "In the trees because it's sheltered and the foxes won't see them".

Ben and Luca - "We think inside the classrooms because it is warm and cosy!"

Look at how good we are at adding!

Chocolate Crispy Cakes

We have been learning about Fairtrade.  We used Fairtrade chocolate to make Crispy Cakes.  We gave them to our parents at our Learning Celebration.

Our Trip to Paignton Zoo

As you can see from our photos, we all had a wonderful day at the zoo! We learnt many exciting new facts about the rainforest including the different layers and why the rainforest is so important to us. We got to feel tiger fur, look at animal skulls and even stroked a snakes skin! 

KS1 children went on a trip to Brixham in the second week of term. We had a fantastic time and learnt lots! We went to Brixham Fish Market and had a tour from the harbour master. He showed us a variety of fish the fishermen would find in Brixham, the fishing boats, how they weigh and sort the fish and the harbour master's office.

We had lunch on Breakwater beach and then went and explored the Golden Hind. We are now 'Sir Francis Drake' experts. 

One child said "This is the best trip I have ever been on"

Another child said "Wow, I didn't know that female lobsters had that many eggs under their body"

This week we have been focusing on the text 'Dougal's the Deep Sea Diary'. We thought of questions we wanted to ask Dougal. On Tuesday he came to our school and we hot-seated him. He parked his submarine in Paignton's harbour whilst he was in our school. This week we are also learning to describe a setting in the book 'Atlantis' which is a city under the sea. 

Some of the questions we asked him were:

'How long can you stay under the water for?'

'Did you see any sharks?'

'Who was the ghost pirate?'

'Why did you choose the old rickety boat to dive from?'