Portway Infant School
Today was World Book Day so of course we came to school dressed up as some of our favourite book characters. We couldn’t miss that opportunity could we! Below is a photo of our wonderful costumes for you to see! However our World Book Day fun wasn’t just confined to today! All week we have been doing fun activities based around our Year 1 Stories ‘Zog’ and ‘The Smeds and The Smoods’! We have made clay dragons, created colourful planets using shaving foam and paint and even created our own tin foil Moon scapes with craters and mountains!
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 and even a treasure hunt! 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!
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 thoroughly enjoyed 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.
Year 1 - 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!
Chinese New Year!
Year 1 were extremely lucky this morning as we got to take part in a Chinese New Year workshop. We were introduced to the 12 different animals of the Chinese calendar and were excited to find out that this year we are celebrating the year of the snake. The fun didn’t stop there though as we got to perform a traditional Chinese dance and even form our own class dragon! The Chinese believe that the longer the dragon, the more luck you will get – we are going to be very lucky in year 1!
Have a look at our photos to see some of the fun we had!
Forest School
We enjoyed another fantastic fun filled day at forest school today! It was cold but the sun was out to help raise the spirits. You wouldn't have known it was cold though as the children were bursting with smiles and fun was clearly had by all! We made dragon flies using sycamore seeds and pipe cleaners which challenged us to use our fine motor skills. That wasn't all though! What could be better on a cold winter's day than to sit around the fire pit singing songs and drinking hot chocolate? Not very much I think you'd have to agree and so we did just that! It's fair to say the hot chocolate went down a treat! Then for the last of our exciting round robin of activities we had 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!
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.
Friday was 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 short bread, flag colouring and landmark labelling to name but a few. Why not have a look at the photos below and see what we got up to for yourselves!
Trip to the Army Flying Museum
Robins visited the Army Flying Museum today 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! Last but not least we 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 helpers and to the museum for such a wonderful trip!
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!
We made pirate ships from construction toys, enjoyed using Bee-Bot and even got to draw our very own pirate treasure maps!
A fun filled day was had by all!
What a lovely day we had out in the forest on Tuesday! 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 area, identifying different leaves, seeds and flowers. 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 few weeks. We have learnt how to perform an ‘M’ Check to make sure our bikes are safe to ride and we have helped our partners to put on their helmet safely. We rode around our school playground and have manoeuvred some tricky obstacles.
Cricket Fun in Year 1!
This half term we will be practising the different skills we need to play cricket with the support of an expert cricketer Vic from Chance to Shine. Today we have learnt to be confident catchers and took part in a variety of activities to help improve our catching. Have a look at the pictures below to see the fun we had.
