Portway Infant School
Life Onboard Titanic – The Classes Role Play
Today in Year 1 we had great fun role playing moments from the Titanic story. Having previously learnt about some of the differences between the classes onboard the ship.
The children were chosen at random to be members of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd classes and treated to lunch befitting of their given class. However just as they were settling down to enjoy their time onboard, disaster struck and the ship had to be abandoned with the children being put into lifeboats! Have a look at the photos to see some of the fun we had.
Forest School!
What a fantastic time we had on our forest school day today! The sun didn’t manage to make it’s way through the clouds but it didn’t dampen our spirits as the birds were singing and there were signs of Spring everywhere.
Add to that, the smiles of the children and you have the recipe for a fun and memorable day no matter the weather!
We made a space necklace out of wood and string, planted some plants and vegetables as part of our ‘Farm to Fork’ week and finally the 3rd activity in our rotation gave us the chance to build our own dens, play in the mud kitchen and even dig for worms and other bugs! Have a look at the pictures to see what fun we had.
Cricket Fun in Year 1!
This half term we have been practising the different skills we need to play cricket with the support of an expert cricketer Graham from Chance to Shine. We have learnt to be brilliant bowlers, super strikers and fantastic fielders so far and next week we will have the chance to put these skills into practise by playing some mini games! Look out for those pictures soon, but for now why not have a peek at what we have been up to so far.
Today we were treated to a fantastic performance from a ukulele band! Everyone enjoyed clapping and singing along to popular songs and we were even taught some new songs too. Some children from Year 2 played a piece of music from their weekly ukulele lessons. A huge thank you to the wonderful musicians who came to visit and share their talents with us.
Wales Day
What an exciting day we have had in Year 1! As part of our Geography learning we took a trip to Wales! In our imaginations of course! The day started with our train journey from Andover to Wales. During the journey we shared and learnt facts about our destination and we even had our own train ticket to show our drivers! Once in Wales, we enjoyed a variety of activities that helped us learn even more about the wonderful country we were going to. There was Welsh Cake tasting, flag colouring and landmark spotting on our maps and atlases to name a few things. Why not have a look at the photos below and see what we got up to for yourselves! Noswaith dda! From the Year 1 children!
Today was World Book Day! We came to school dressed up as some of our favourite book characters. Our day was very exciting as we got to take part in lots of different activities linked to the book ‘Where has all the cake gone?’. We got to draw the cakes we would like to eat, make story maps and even write our own postcards! Here are some photos of our day.
Space in Virtual Reality!
It was a very special day in Year 1 today as the children took part in a fantastic virtual reality tour of our solar system.
Along the way we made a stop at some of the planets and learnt some fascinating facts. The children seem to thoroughly enjoy the immersive experience and it was lovely to hear all the comments they were making about their learning along the way!
Have a peek below at some of the photos of the morning.
Knight School
Today we had a special visit from a knight! His name was Sir Teachalot and he began by telling us a little about knights and how they fought in fierce battles like the battle of Hastings in 1066! Then he showed us some of the important equipment a knight uses in battle and some of us got to try it on. We also took part in a jousting contest which was lots of fun! After all that fun we had a tasty banquet dinner and drank our water from special goblets that we had made during the morning. After filling our tummies we all came together in the school hall and learnt how castles were made and about the special and useful features they have. However, the best part of the day was definitely using a weapon called a Trebuchet, which is like a giant catapult, to destroy our castle! It was so much fun! Take a look and see!
Forest School
We enjoyed another fantastic fun filled day at forest school today! It was cold and a teeny bit windy but you wouldn’t have known it because the children were bursting with smiles and fun was clearly had by all! We practice the tricky art of using a flint and steel to start our own fires, pretended to be dragon hunters and went on an adventure around the school site! We found so many clues of dragon activity it was incredible! And the last of our exciting round robin of activities was a fantastic free play in the mud kitchen and den building area. Have a look and see some of the fun we had for yourselves!
Dancing Fun!
This term we are being visited by Harrow Way’s dance teacher, she is teaching us a new dance that Kings and Queens may have enjoyed during medieval times! We are really enjoying the dancing as it matches our learning about Castles and Dragons. Take a look at some of the dance sequences we were taught this week to see some of our amazing moves!
Castle Learning Fun!
This week we enjoyed writing a news report about the egg-citing discovery we found last week! We were even contacted by a real Dragon Hunter who told us our egg was laid by a Snow Dragon that had been blown off course by the strong, stormy winds we have had recently! The Dragon hunter believes our dragon may have been on her way to Siberia! We will keep you posted of any new developments! Meanwhile in class we have been enjoying some castle based learning activities! Have a look at some of the things we done this week!
Dragon Egg Discovered on School Grounds!
We have had a very egg-citing time in year 1 today! During our winter walk around the school grounds, we made an unusual discovery! Tucked away in a secluded area of our school field, we found a large dragon egg nestled in a bed of sticks and brown leaves! We are going to be writing letters to a dragon hunter to ask for some expert advice. We will keep you posted so watch this space!
Today we were lucky enough to be joined by some very talented Portway parents for our Christmas assembly in the hall. The grown ups impressed us with their musical talent and it was lovely to see so many different instruments. What a great way to come together and sing some well known Christmas carols! Thank you to our wonderful performers for joining us.
Scotland Day
It’s been another exciting day in Year 1! As part of our Geography learning we took a plane ride to Scotland! In our imaginations of course! The day started with our flight into Edinburgh. During the journey we shared and learnt facts about our destination and we even had our own plane ticket to show our British Airways cabin crew! Once in Scotland, we took part in a number of activities that helped us learn even more about the wonderful country we were going to. There was tasting of shortbread, flag colouring, National anthem singing and landmark labelling to name a few. Why not have a look at the photos below and see what we got up to for yourselves!
We have been learning about how vehicles move. First we learnt about the forces push and pull and explored what we could push and pull in the classroom. We then looked at two different types of axles: a fixed axle and a Moving axle and used our new learning to have a go at building our very own vehicle for Mrs Armitage.
Christmas has arrived at Portway!
The children enjoyed exploring the winter wonderland this morning and the Christmas spirit is in the air!
Trip to the Museum of Army Flying
This week year 1 visited the Museum of Army Flying to learn about the history of military transport. The children were given a guided tour of the museum focusing on the different vehicles the museum has in its collection. We especially enjoyed seeing all the different helicopters and impressing the museum staff with our amazing helicopter knowledge! We then had the chance to make and fly our very own paper aircraft! We finally got to explore some of the exhibits in the museum further and were able to dress up in different army uniforms, then sit in a real helicopter and pretend to be the pilot!
The children were amazing and we are very proud of them!
Thank you very much to all of our helpers and to the museum for such a wonderful trip.
We enjoyed a fantastic day today taking part in Forest School! We arrived at school dressed to brave the weather and it certainly tried it’s best to dampen our spirits but we were still super excited for the day ahead. The children learnt lots about the different types of tree we have on the school site and they used some seeds and twigs from the trees we looked at to build their own dragonfly. Have a look at our pictures below to see how they turned out.
Diwali
Today the children of Year 1 were treated to some expert Diwali learning and story telling. The fun included lots of dressing up, a little dancing and even some face paining. We met some important characters from the Hindu story of Rama and Sita and also some other important Hindu figures. Have a look at our photos and see the wonderful fun we had.
Transport
Take a look at some of the photos of our learning. We have been applying our existing knowledge of modes of transport to create our own vehicle art work as well as creating some firework pictures using chalk and coloured pastels.
Gymnastics
Today we have been building on our Year R learning and reminding ourselves of 5 important gymnastic shapes; the Straddle, Pike, Star, Straight and the Tuck. After practising the shapes we worked with a partner to think of some interesting ways of showing them to the rest of the class.
Beebot
In year 1 this week we have been learning about programming. We have learnt that a program for a machine or a computer is called an algorithm. We then used this new learning to guide a Bee-bot to a specific location on a map. If our algorithm didn’t go to plan we also practised debugging our code.
Harvest Day!
Today we celebrated Harvest Festival by taking part in lots of fun learning activities. The day began with an assembly from Miss Allen where the children learnt all about Andover Food Bank and what happens to their kind and generous donations. Back in class we learnt about what Harvest is and why it is important. Have a look at some of the interesting activities we completed today, one of the favourites being apple donut tasting!
On Friday Year 1 celebrated Pirate day where we all came to school dressed up. Part of our mornings learning was about maps and what better way to learn about maps than to use one ourselves! We completed a treasure hunt which resulted in us finding parts of a ‘key’ puzzle. The key was a clue which led us to the pirate ship where we found an exciting box of treasures! We were so lucky and got to take home our very own bags full of bubbles, tattoos, chocolate coins and a whole lot more.
We made pirate ships from construction toys, enjoyed using Bee-Bot and even got to draw our very own pirate treasure maps!
A fun day was had by all!
Forest School
What a lovely day we had out in the sunshine on Monday! We got creative making our own pirate flag, we got had to concentrate carefully to attach them to our sticks. We designed and completed our flags with designs to warn off other pirates. We then went on a hunt in the meadow and round the forest school aread, identifying different leaves, seeds and flowes. We used our wonderful knowledge of adjectives to describe if they were smooth, noisy or heavy. In the afternoon we worked in teams den building, cooking pirate soup in the mud kitchen, using drain pipes to make a run for a ball to travel down and walking the plank!
It was a brilliant day packed with adventure and creations. We can’t wait for our next Forest School day already! A big thank you very much to Miss Birmingham for all of her help.
Cycling
We have had a wonderful time practising our cycling skills over the past couple of weeks. We have learnt how to perform an ‘M’ Check to make sure our bikes are safe to ride and we have helped our friends to put on their helmet safely. We rode around our school playground and have manoeuvred some tricky obstacles.
Maths
This week we have been show casing our amazing skills in maths! We have been counting forwards and backwards, using the maths equipment around the classroom to represent number and much more! Take a look at the photo’s to see the fun we have been having in Year 1.
Our First Week!
Wow Woodpeckers!! What a wonderful first week we have had. We have had lots of fun beginning our new topic 'Pirates' and getting to know each other. You have all come to school excited and ready to learn, it has been great to see your big smiles each morning. This week we have worked together to create class promises, written poems on what Pirates look out for using exciting adjectives, enjoyed the year 1 outdoor area and the year 1 classroom toys. Take a look at some of the fun we have been having in Year 1!
