Year R

This half term the children in Year R have been having great fun dressing up as pirates, princesses, queens, dragons and knights and they have been engaged in some fantastic role play. They have drawn treasure maps, dug up treasure that was buried by pirates and worked together to build boats to sail the seven seas. This week the children were very shocked to find a letter from the Pirates of Penzance telling them that the Class bears, Winston and Tip Top Ted have been taken! The children are busy looking for clues, writing letters to the pirates and making lists of equipment they might need to save the bears. The children are so involved with their learning that we will continue this topic after half term.

Badgers and Hedgehogs

Earlier this term we welcomed Shirley Infants School to South Wonston. The visit had been arranged so that their children could compare the two schools and find out about life in a village.  It was a great opportunity for the children in Y1 to ask and answer questions. They were brilliant hosts.

As part of our topic we have been investigating what it would be like to go to our pen pals’ school, Jumierah International in Dubai. We wrote letters to our pen pals and they sent us photos and maps to show us what it is like there. We were jealous because they have a swimming pool!  We looked at a world map and thought about what we would see on our journey there if we were to travel by plane. We noticed we would cross the ocean and deserts! We had great fun making our own maps outside; we used collage to represent the different land types.

Foxes and Otters

We have had a really busy half term….

The last few weeks we have been very busy practising and sitting our quizzes. However we also have been enjoying  learning to play Cricket with Mr Hawkins. We have learnt about the four key players in the game and had a go at each one. We have also learnt how to get people out, how to bowl a ball accurately and how to hit the ball to gain more runs. The children have thoroughly enjoyed playing cricket and have shown great team work and sportsmanship throughout by helping their peers.   Well done everyone.

We have been making use of the lovely weather in Science too! We investigated a woodlouse’s preferred habitat and researched facts about woodlice. We used our knowledge to make predictions. We then created different habitats and observed their behaviour in their new habitats. We discovered that woodlice prefer sand over pebbles, leaves, grass and soil “because their ancestors are crabs and lobsters” (Alfie Whitlock).                           

In art we had lots of fun creating abstract paintings inspired by Paul Klee. We blew bubbles in paint through a straw to create different shapes. We cut them out and arranged them to create pictures and added straight sided shapes in a contrasting colour to create interest.

Owls and Woodpeckers

This half term we have been studying  Pablo Picasso and his cubist style of  painting. In particular, we were focusing  on his portrait work; how he creates interesting lines and colour plus the unique placement of his shapes. After talking about his life and cubism, we looked at Picasso’s ‘Weeping Woman’ portrait from 1937. We chose a part of the painting that interested us and used a viewfinder to focus on that area. Next we recreated and enlarged it in our art books, thinking about colour, bold lines, different proportions and strong shapes. Once we had finished we evaluated our work and gave it two stars and a wish!

We felt so inspired by Picasso that we decided to create our own portraits - using a photo of a family member or friend as our muse! We had a lot of fun playing with the placement of the features and experimenting in Picasso’s cubist style. We are very proud of the final pieces and our portrait gallery is now displayed in the library.