This week the children in 1BN have been learning about poetry and as part of this we looked at onomatopoeia and similes. Onomatopoeia is when words sound like the noise being described. For example, crunch went the leaves. A simile is a way of describing something by saying it is like something else. For example, the girl crept up as quietly as a mouse. We thought of lots of onomatopoeia words for water such as splash, splosh, drip and drop. Then today the children have written their own water poem using similes and they came up with some really great ones such as ‘water can be hot like a boiling kettle’ and ‘water is clear like delicate glass.’

Today the children in 1BN have written some instructions on how to make a disgusting sandwich. We have spent this week looking at instructions and learning about the features that we need to include. This included having a title for our instructions and some sub-headings, bullet points, bossy verbs such as chop or cut and time connectives like first, next and finally. Everyone did a fantastic job with their instructions and everyone’s sandwiches really sounded absolutely disgusting with all sorts of revolting fillings such as mud, slime and even bogies!

1BN were very excited to welcome another Mystery Reader into class this afternoon especially Remy as it was her Granddad! She was so surprised to open her eyes and see him sat there ready to read us all a story. Remy enjoyed helping her Granddad to read Detective Dog to the class and everyone really enjoyed the story. He is a great story teller! If you, or one of your child’s relatives, would like to be a Mystery Reader please contact school to arrange a convenient date.

After losing a day in the studio due to the Bank Holiday, 1BN had a really busy week getting everything finished in time for our Arts Celebration on Friday. We began the week by reading the story Bog Baby and then went for a walk down to the Nursery Lane gate to look at the bluebells. Once we were back in the studio we designed our own Bog Baby or creature, deciding if we ere going to give it different features such as wings, horns or a tail.

The children then used clay to create a 3D sculpture of their Bog Baby and once it had dried we painted them. Finally the children used a polystyrene tile to draw their Bog Baby onto and then used a roller and ink to cover the tile in a single colour. The tile was then placed onto a piece of paper and a clean roller was used to create a print of their creature.

We finished our Arts Fortnight this afternoon, welcoming lots of parents into school to celebrate all the children’s achievements with us and have a go at some of the activities themselves. The children performed their dance, that they have spent the last two weeks working hard to rehearse and perfect then we split into groups and went around our three different activities. In the studio, we did some more observational drawings of tulips, in the classroom we used Plasticine to make some more Bog Babies and in the library, Miss Whiteley read the story of Bog Baby and then the children had to hunt around the library with their adult to see how many Bog Babies they could find.

A big thank you to all the parents who came to see the children share their work, they were so proud to show you everything they have achieved during these busy two weeks!

1BN have had a great first week of their Arts Fortnight. We kick started our Arts Fortnight with a walk to the local woods to look for signs of Spring and to find human and physical features (linking to our Science and Geography.)

Back in the Art Studio the children have been doing some observational drawings of Tulips, looking really carefully at the detail of the flowers including the long stems, long, droopy leaves and the curved petals. The children also made pictures of our woodland walk. First they created the background by sponging green and blue paint then used pastels and pencil crayons to add the details of the trees, rocks and stream.

This week in Maths the children have been learning how to double numbers. They have picked this up really quickly and some children can double some really big numbers. When lining up for lunch Ezzy told me, ‘I can double 34, it’s 68.’ Wow Ezzy, what great doubling! The child love lots of different counting songs on the Jack Hartmann Youtube channel, counting up to 100, in 2’s, 5’s or 10’s and have enjoyed learning one of his doubles songs this week. Take a look and give it a go at home!

It was lovely to get back to school this week, and make the most of a rare dry, more Spring like day, by getting outside and planting some potatoes. Mrs Whittaker took the children over to the garden area and using trowels the children dug holes into the soil. They then planted and watered their potatoes. We will keep you updated on their progress and we are really looking forward to cooking and eating them.

This week we burnt the houses that we had made during our DT lessons this half term. The children had put such a lot of work into making their houses so felt quite excited but also a little sad that we were setting them on fire. We talked about empathy and thought about how people must have felt during The Great Fire of London if their house burnt down.

Mystery Reader

1BN welcomed another Mystery Reader this afternoon and it was a wonderful way to round off our half term before the holidays. Alisha’s Mum came into class to read a story called ‘The Most Powerful Night’ which was a story about ‘Laylat Al-Qadr’ and Ramadan. It was a lovely surprise for us all but especially for Alisha. If you would like to be a Mystery Reader, or any of your children’s relatives such as Grandma’s or Granddad’s would, then please email school to arrange a day and time that is convenient.

Thursday 21st March was World Poetry Day and the children in 1BN learnt the poem Handy Work by one of our favourite authors Julia Donaldson. The children found the different rhyming pairs in the poem such as cat and hat, floor and door and hair and bear. Please enjoy the video of 1BN performing their poem for World Poetry Day!

On Monday we visited the local Mosque – The Lingfield Centre. The children were very excited. Some children had lots of experience of this Mosque and some children had never been before. The volunteers at the Mosque were very engaging, asking lots of questions and telling us lots of new information about what they do there. Uhbuid was very informative! He showed us around and we even got to design our own prayer mat. We took our shoes off when we went in and spent lots of time in the prayer hall. All the children were very respectful and had lots to talk about on the walk back to school.