Portway Infant School
Chinese New Year Dance Workshop!
Year 1 were extremely lucky this morning as we got to take part in a Chinese New Year dance workshop. We used special unbrellas and fans and some of us even made our own class dragon. We also enjoyed learning a bit about the special day and some of the ways it is celebrated, before sharing a traditional story about the 12 different animals represented in the Chinese calendar.
Have a look at our photos to see some of the 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 Ben from Chance to Shine. We have learnt to bowl, bat and field so far and in the coming weeks we will have the chance to apply what we have learnt during some mini games.
Today we were lucky enough to be joined by some Portway parents and grandparents for our Christmas assembly in the hall. The grown ups impressed us with their musical talent and we could name many different instruments. What a lovely way to come together and sing some well known Christmas carols. Thank you to our wonderful performers for joining us.
The Snowman
With Christmas just around the corner this week we thought it would be a lovely idea to build our learning around 'The Snowman' by Raymond Briggs. The children watched the film together and then recreated some of their favourite bits through freeze frames. We also discussed how there are no words to go with the film and thought about what the characters might be saying in each scene. Have a look below and see if you can guess what part of the film the children are recreating.
D&T
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 free axle and used different types of construction to have a go at building our own. We then set about designing and making cars for Mrs. Armitage. We did lots of fabulous problem solving along the way. Take a look at our amazing creations!
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!
Thank you very much to all our helpers and to the museum for such a wonderful trip.
On Monday the children in Year 1 were treated to some expert dancing tuition. As part of our RE work on Diwali, the festival of light, Anne-Marie from West End Dance presented a dancing workshop based on the story of Rama and Sita. Have a look at our photos and see the wonderful fun we had and some of the great dance moves Anne-Marie taught us.
We enjoyed a fantastic day today taking part in Forest School! We arrived at school dressed to brave the not so brilliant weather and ready to spend the day outside.
We took part in a range of pirate activities which involved making our very own pirate flag and going on a Forest School Treasure Hunt.
We particularly enjoyed getting our hands dirty and exploring the different woodland areas. We dug for treasure, walked the plank and made special pirate soup recipes!
We all had such a wonderful day and can't wait until the next time.
Today Year 1 celebrated the end of their topic with a Pirate day where we all came to school dressed up. It was such a beautiful day and we were able to complete a treasure hunt which resulted in us completing a ‘key’ puzzle. We received the final clue today which led us to the wooden pirate ship where we discovered chests full of pirate treasure! We were so lucky and got to take home our very own bags full of tattoos, coins and a whole lot more.
We decorated pirate biscuits, enjoyed using Bee-Bot and even got to build our very own pirate ships.
A fun day was had by all!
Pirate Dance!
Ahoy there! We have been having lots of fun and learning to move to the beat. We have learnt a class pirate dance made up of 4 movements keeping to the count of 8 for each movement. We thought of many jobs that a pirate has which include waving the sword, walking the plank, looking through a telescope, scrubbing the deck, climbing the crows nest and many many more. Can you make out from the photo’s some of our chosen dance moves? We also thought carefully about our facial expressions whilst also remembering the order of movements.
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 partners to put on their helmet safely. We rode around our school playground and have manoeuvred some tricky obstacles.
Computing!
We have been busy learning to use the keyboard to write our names and using the track pad to navigate around the screen. We have shown off our brilliant computer skills and have also had lots of fun playing ‘Save the Whale’ to practise and help our learning in Maths for our number bonds to 10.
https://www.ictgames.com/saveTheWhale/index.html
follow this link to have a go at home!
Guinea Pigs!
Hello children and welcome to our very 1st blog of the new school year! It’s been such a lovely few days getting to chat to you and hear all about your holidays and how excited you were to come back to school! Your teachers have been so proud of how well you have begun your Year 1 journey and can’t wait to enjoy some of the other exciting learning, events and activities we will embark on this year! One of those exciting activities is caring for our very own class guinea pig! During the week they stay in class with us, but at the weekend they get very lonely, so we thought you might like to look after them for us and give them somebody to play with. If you would like to look after your classroom guinea pig for the weekend please contact your class teacher either by speaking to them at the door or by dropping them a quick message on Google Classroom. Once we know who would like to look after our furry friends we will create a class rota and let you know what weekend you have been assigned.
We cant wait to see you in class tomorrow.
Lots of love Pip (Puffins), Squeak (Robins) and Nibbles (Woodpeckers)
Bamboo Tamboo
Today all of Year 1 took part in a Bamboo Tamboo music lesson with Mrs Dixon from Hampshire Music Service. We found out about Caribbean music and enjoyed playing different rhythms by bouncing our instruments on the floor. What a great time we had!
Fruit Kebabs!
Yesterday we designed a fruit kebab for ourselves to eat. We had to choose 3 fruits we liked and created a design using this fruit, some of us even chose fruit we hadn’t tried before! We thought about how we could make them so they would look delicious so we would want to eat them. Today we had lots of fun making our kebabs, which were extra tasty in this hot weather. We carefully chopped and threaded the fruit on the BBQ skewer. After we ate them we rated our kebab using smiley faces.
Forest School
What a lovely day we had out in the sunshine today! We got creative with clay, making our own Deadly 60 animal and then using some things we found on the ground in our forest area to make our models even better. We also thought about how animals use camouflage to hide form predators and created our own camouflage masks. The third part of our exciting rotation of activities was a free play where we made dens, played in the mud kitchen and even helped lay a new path through the forest using wood chip from our very own recently trimmed trees.
It was such good fun and we would like to say a very big thank you to our Forest School leader Miss Birmingham for all her help. We cant wait until next time!
Visit from Coyote Fitness
The lovely Becky from Coyote Fitness came to join us this morning and got us all active ready for our day ahead. Unfortunately the wet weather meant that we had to be inside, rather than on the field as planned, however this didn't dampen our spirits! We undertook a variety of different circuits which included hurdles, hopscotch and ladders. We then did a relay race before finishing with a fun tug-o-war. A great time was enjoyed by all. Thank you very much Becky.
Sports Day!
What fantastic weather we had for our school sports day this year! It certainly beats the rain of years past! It was lovely to see all the parents and grown up there to cheer on the children and the children were so excited to see you all too! If you didn’t manage to join us this morning there was a Seaside obstacle course that involved wearing an inflatable, building sand castles and laying in the sun for a while. Not too long though, it was a race after all. Next it was an old favourite; the egg and spoon race followed by the bean bag race and finally the excitement rose once again for the water relay and the sprint race. Needless to say everyone had a great time in the sunshine and we would like to say thank you again for helping us to make this such an amazing morning! To see some of the fun for yourselves, have a peek at the photos below.
Wild Science
We had a visit from some amazing creatures this week! Barbara from Wild Science came to Year 1 to show Morgue the Bearded Dragon, Garlic the Giant African Land Snail. Gomez the snake, and Wednesday the rabbit. She told us lots of facts about the animals and we had the chance to ask some questions. The most exciting part of the experience was being able to hold some of fascinating creatures!
Portway Street Party!
Wow what a week! Hopefully you have all been able to have a peek through the photos of our first 3 days of Jubilee learning and celebrations. Today we finished a fun and enjoyable week in style by throwing our very own Portway Street Party! Have a look below to see some of the fun things we did on Thursday and Friday. Have a safe and peaceful half term break and enjoy the second instalment of your Platinum Jubilee fun next week. We can't wait to hear what you all got up to!
Platinum Jubilee
This week we are celebrating her majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. We have begun the week by learning a bit about her and her family and we then took part in some exciting Jubilee themed activities. The fun will continue throughout this week so check back later to see some more pictures of what we have been up to.
Science – Senses
In Science we have been learning about our five senses by having a go at a variety of activities designed to help us explore each one individually. The activities included
Sound Bingo, food tasting and guess the mystery object in the bag. Have a look at the photos to see the other activities we got up to.
Petr Horacek
We were incredibly lucky to have one of our favourite author and illustrators Petr Horacek visit Portway this week. He wowed us all with his fantastic stories and even taught us how to draw some of his more famous characters. Have a peek below to see your own budding illustrators at work! Enjoy!
Sea City Museum
Today Year 1 visited the Sea City Museum in Southampton as part of our topic about the Titanic. We have just begun learning about the Titanic and so the opportunity to visit this museum, see some of the artefacts 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 interactive exhibits like 'steering the Titanic', 'shovelling the coal' and even having a go at sending a Morse code message.
We had a fantastic day and would like to thank all the grown-ups who joined us on the trip.
Forest School!
What a fantastic time we had on our forest school day yesterday! The sun was shining 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!
We made some space necklaces out of wood and string, turned earthly trees into some rather creative and wacky aliens by using clay and anything we could find in the forest 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.
Lunar landscapes in the style of Christopher Badger.
This week as part of our space topic, we have been thinking and learning about the surface of the moon. We have learnt that an artist called Christopher Badger created aluminium sculptures, polished to a mirror finish to portray a visual representation of the surface of the moon. We worked together in groups to create our own masterpieces using resources found within our classroom and covering with aluminium foil. We worked hard to capture the different types of craters, which all have their own names. We hope you enjoy our creations.
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 each 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.
Today was World Book Day and all this week we have been building up to it by completing some fun activities and by sharing a range of exciting and interesting books. This morning was just as exciting as the children arrived at their classroom door with big smiles and some fantastic costumes ready to wow us all with their fantastic learning. Have a peek below to see some of the fun things we have been up to this week.
A visit from Sir Teachalot!
We had a special visit from a knight on Monday! 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. 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 we learnt how castles were made and about the special and useful features they have to provide those within their walls safety and a big advantage during battles. 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 Tiger. 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!
DT - Dragon Egg Structures
Year 1 were set the challenge of designing and then creating a structure to keep a dragon egg off the ground and safe from the chilly frost.
They were given a range of resources to create their structure and to help them with ideas we also went on a structure spot around our school grounds.
Have a look at our wonderful creations in the pictures below.
Special Places
Today the children were treated to a visit from one of our local vicars, the wonderful Alex. He spoke to the children about why churches are special places and shared some of the interesting artefacts which could be found in a church. The children really enjoyed being able to handle and even wear some of them.
Materials
In Year 1 this term we have been learning about materials and their different properties. This week the children were set the task of exploring which materials would make a lightweight and waterproof helmet for a Knight. This involved lots of smiles and giggles and some very wet teddy bears (our very willing substitute Knights). Have a look at the pictures below to see the fun we had.
In the end the children all agreed that a plastic helmet would be the best solution for the Knights.
Dragon Egg Discovered on School Grounds!
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 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!
Diva Lamps
In class we have been enjoying the traditional Hindu story of 'Rama and Sita' and talked about the importance of light, linking this to Diwali. We have made our own diva lamps to remind us of the story and help us remember the importance of candlelight.
Trainmaster Visit!
Today the Year 1 children were surprised with a visit from the wonderful Trainmaster Company. We were able to explore and play with a gigantic hands-on train track, electric trains and even a ride on train!
We would all like to say a huge thank you to one of our wonderful parents Mrs Cotton from The Trainmaster Company for coming in and allowing us to have so much fun. What a wonderful end to our Wheels and Wings topic! Have a look at our pictures below to share in the fun too!
Helicopter Visit!
Today Year 1 were incredibly lucky to have a real helicopter land in our school field. The helicopter was co-piloted by the grandfather of one of our children! We all braved the cold weather to witness such a special event. We were so excited to see our learning come to life! We were able to point out the different parts of the helicopter as it landed and witnessed the power of the main rotor as it blew big gusts of wind towards us when it took off again! We would all like to say a huge thank you to everybody at Royal Airforce Shawbury for allowing us to enjoy such a rare and exciting event. Have a look at our pictures below to share in the fun too!
D&T
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 free axle and used different types of construction to have a go at building our own. We then set about designing and making cars for Mrs. Armitage. We did lots of fabulous problem solving along the way. Take a look at our amazing creations!
Diwali Day
Today the children in Year 1 were treated to some expert dancing tuition. As part of our RE learning about Diwali, the festival of light. Jo from The Education Group presented a dancing workshop inspired by Bollywood dancing. Have a look at our photos and see the wonderful fun we had and some of the great dance moves Jo taught us.
In class we have also been enjoying the traditional Hindu story of Rama and Sita and talked about the importance of light, linking this to Diwali.
Hot Rod Cars
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, each had its own special story and very unique look!
During the morning we got the chance to use our observational skills to sketch the vehicles and we loved having our picture taken as we pretended to drive our favourite one!
We would like to say a huge thank you to Mrs Hibberd for coming in and for making the morning such a huge success.
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!
Thank you very much to all our helpers and to the museum for such a wonderful trip.
Science - Forces
In our Science lessons this week we have had a great time exploring the forces of push and pull. We talked about the differences between them and then went on a hunt around our classroom looking for different examples of each.
If you find any examples of pushes and pulls around your home you may like to share your pictures on our Google Classroom page.
Forest School Day in Year 1!
Year 1 enjoyed a fantastic time today taking part in a pirate themed Forest School Day! We arrived at school dressed to brave the chilly weather and ready to spend the whole day outside.
We took part in a range of activities involving making miniature pirate ships and testing them to see if they floated. We also showed excellent team work and used our previous learning to give instructions to our team mates who were blindfolded and had to hunt for pirate treasure. and the final activity in our rotation of 3 was den building and making yucky mud soup in our Forest School mud kitchen area.
We all had such a wonderful day and were very lucky to have the sunshine all day long!
We can't wait for next time!
On Tuesday Year 1 enjoyed a swash buckling pirate day where we all came to school dressed up. We braved the howling wind and ventured out in to the school grounds on a very exciting treasure hunt which resulted in us finding 4 exciting clues! Once we had collected the 4 clues we quickly realised it was a puzzle so we rushed back to our classrooms to build it! To our surprise it was a picture of a golden key! After some investigation the key led us to the wooden pirate ship in our top playground where we discovered a chest full of pirate treasure! We were so lucky and got to take home our very own bags full of goodies!
In the afternoon we had lots of fun creating our own 'Pirate Dance'! We thought about some suitable actions and then put them all together to make our super dances! Have a look at the video over on our Google Classroom page to see the finished dance.
By home time we had a very tired pirate crew, but we think it's fair to say that a fun day was had by all!
Bee Bot Algorithms
This week we have been learning about instructions in Literacy and in Computing. We learnt that an instruction given to a computer is called an algorithm. We then practised using these algorithms to send a Bee-Bot to different locations on a map Have a look at the photos below to see the fun we had.
Maths - Number Bonds
Following on from our guinea pig maths challenge last week. The children have been learning about number bonds themselves and we would love to show you some of the learning we have been doing in class. Take a peek below...
Nibbles' Number Bond Challenge
Nibbles' has been practising his number bonds for 10 but he has missed some! Can you find the missing number bonds and then write them down ready to tell Nibbles when you see him in school? Good Luck!
Longitudinal Study
This afternoon we began our longitudinal study as part of our Science learning. The aim of our learning was to observe different areas of the school and record what we found within our micro habitats. We were very excited to find a number of small creepy crawlies including, grasshoppers, slugs, woodlice and spiders. Have a look at our pictures to see what areas of the school we chose.
Cycling!
We have had a wonderful time practising our cycling skills this week. We have learnt how to perform an ‘M’ Check to make sure our bikes are safe to ride and we have learned how to put on our helmets. Some of us even helped our friends to put on their helmet safely. When we were safely kitted up we enjoyed riding with our friends around our school playground. Have a look at the pictures below to see some of the fun we had.
Year 1 Circus Fun!
Friday was a very special day for our school as 'Happy's Circus' rolled into town!
The whole school were enveloped in the circus fever! Costumes were bright and colourful and the activities were fun and circus themed! The children enjoyed watching the big top being erected and had a go at being circus performers themselves.
Meeting Our New Class Pet!
This week we have been getting to know our new classroom and part of that included meeting our new class pets the guinea pigs! Woodpeckers loved meeting Nibbles, Puffins enjoyed meeting Pip and Robins had lots of fun with Squeak.
The children have also been getting very excited about having the opportunity to look after their class guinea pigs over the coming weekends. If you would like a to take your guinea pig home for the weekend please let your class teacher know in your school diary or at the door at the end of the day.
Chance To Shine Cricket!
Year 1 have enjoyed learning and putting into practice some cricket skills today. We got into small groups and practised our bowling and batting. Lots of fun was had by all and we would like to say a big thank you to James from 'Chance to Shine Cricket' for making the session lots of fun!
