Woodpecker Class Blog
We were invited to take part in a cricket taster day courtesy of Hampshire Cricket (Allstars). James, the cricket coach, taught us some cricket skills. We learnt how important it is to always watch the ball and were able to practise some bat and ball skills. There were definitely some budding cricket stars of the future among us!
This week in year 1 we were very lucky to welcome Mrs Manson and her alien friend Jean who came to reinforce our knowledge of space and the solar system. We undertook various challenges including ordering giant inflatable planets, thinking about what it might be like to travel through space and we helped Jean to understand all about planet Earth. We enjoyed a wonderful time. A big thank you very much to Mrs Manson for all her hard work.
What a lovely day we had out in the sunshine on Wednesday! We got creative decorating our headdresses with natural bits-and-pieces, ready to become an assortment of wonderful characters from kings and queens, to wizards and witches. We worked well in teams when trying to build fires, collecting sticks and carefully piling the wood and dry grass. After reading the story ‘Room on the Broom’ we rose to the challenge of trying to make a broom long enough to fit our whole team on. Whilst all this was going on we were climbing trees, creating magical potions and exploring with friends.
It was a brilliant day packed with adventure and creations. We can’t wait for our next Forest School already!
Yesterday Woodpecker and Robin class visited the Sea City Museum in Southampton as part of our topic about the Titanic. We have been learning all about the Titanic and so the opportunity to visit this museum, listen to the voices of survivors and even take part in a workshop has really helped our understanding of this moment in our local history.
We learnt about life on board this magnificent ship for passengers and crew, its final moments and the impact of this tragedy on the families of Southampton. We really enjoyed our guided tour from a historian who was very impressed with our knowledge of the Titanic voyage. Some of our other highlights included 'steering the Titanic' and 'shovelling the coal' interactive exhibits.
We had a fantastic day and have learnt even more about the Titanic that we cannot wait to share.
12 Year 1 children were invited to attend a tri-golf Festival at Harrow Way School, where they got the opportunity to partake in lots of mini activities testing their accuracy and precision, against another local school. The activities involved them using putters to aim at different markers and chippers to try and hit a bucket! Great fun was had by all!
Happy World Down Syndrome Day!
Today our school was brightened up by lots of colourful socks to help raise money for Andover Twenty1! We learned about Down Syndrome in assembly and celebrated difference together.
The idea of ‘Lots of Socks’ is that chromosomes look like socks under the microscope, and people with Down Syndrome have an extra chromosome.
Thank you to everyone who joined in and made a donation!
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 our author focus Simon Bartram. We also got to go on a word hunt outside which revealed a secret message delivered all the way from the planet Mars! Here are some photos of our amazing costumes.
As part of our Space topic, ‘Out of this World’, a mobile planetarium popped up in our school hall! The children were able to explore the stars and planets and learn about different constellations. This exciting show captivated our imaginations and allowed us to really believe that we were astronauts in space!
We enjoyed a fantastic day today taking part in Forest School. We arrived at school dressed to brave the weather and ready to spend the whole day outside.
We took part in a range of activities involving a nature walk, making hazard flags using sticks and creating a recipe for spring in small groups. We particularly enjoyed getting our hands dirty and exploring the different woodland areas.
We all had such a wonderful day and were very lucky the sun decided to shine!
Bring on next time!
We used our knowledge of castles to make our very own functional drawbridge using a winding mechanism. The children had to make sure their drawbridge could rise and fall and solve any problems that occurred. The children worked in pairs brilliantly and helped each other to construct their drawbridges.
We had a special visit from a knight on Monday! His name was Sir James and he began by telling us everything about knights and showed us the equipment he uses in battle. We then got the opportunity to become knights ourselves, using shields and swords to protect our bodies in battle! Finally, Sir James taught us some special medieval dance moves. It was a fantastic day and the children really enjoyed meeting a real knight.
Last Monday, during our winter walk, we came across a glittery trail. We followed this trail and discovered an enormous egg! We were unsure where this egg had come from, what type of egg it was and why it had appeared at Portway Infants! So the children wrote a letter to a Dragon Hunter to ask if she could visit and investigate our egg. Despite being very busy the Dragon Hunter was able to come in and answered lots of the children's questions. She also told us how she became a Dragon Hunter and shared her exciting collection of dragon findings.
12 Year 1 children were invited to attend a Multi-Skills Festival at Harrow Way School, where they got the opportunity to partake in lots of mini activities against other local schools. The activities involved them dribbling balls around markers, throwing foam javelins and balancing a ball on a tennis racket whilst manoeuvring around obstacles. Great fun was had by all! Thank you to Mr Cole for organising the event and to all the Harrow Way leaders for their help and support.
We have had a very egg-citing time in year 1 this week. During our winter walk around the school grounds, we made an unusual discovery! Tucked away in a leafy area of our school field, we found a large dragon egg nestled in a bed of sticks and long grass! Letters have been written to a dragon hunter to ask for some expert advice. We will keep you posted so watch this space!
In DT, we have been learning about moving vehicles. We have explored different toy vehicles which either had a fixed axle or fixed wheels with free axles.
The children have explored different axles using constructions kits.
Today we finished our unit of work by making new vehicles for Mrs Armitage. The children designed what they wanted their vehicles to look like and carefully considered what equipment they would need. Afterwards, they evaluated them thinking of ways that they could make them even better. We were very proud of the finished results.
Today we celebrated World Diabetes day by having a whole school superhero day. We got to dress up as our favourite superheroes and linked our learning for the day to this.
Don’t we look fantastic!
Mrs Hibberd, from the Valley Gas Speed Shop, very kindly came into school to talk to the year one children about her American Hot Rod cars. She brought in three cars for us to see: a 1961 Ford Falcon, a black Dodge pick-up and Brendan Gaughan’s NASCAR named South Point.
We got the chance to use our observational skills to sketch one of the vehicles, complete a treasure hunt and then we got the opportunity to sit in the cars too!
A big thank you very much to Mrs Hibberd for all your planning and making the morning such a huge success.
Come and see our Year 1 soldier at Vigo Road Recreation Ground on 10th November. He represents one of the 215 soldiers from Andover who were killed during World War 1. We decorated our soldier with coloured sketches of different animals involved in the war.
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 look forward to finding out more about them after half term. We then took part in a session in the classroom where we had the opportunity to explore different flying vehicles e.g. parachutes, kites. We also got to make and fly our very own paper aeroplanes! 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!
Thank you very much to all our parent helpers and to the museum for such a wonderful trip.
