Year 1 ACADEMIC YEAR 2013-2014
SUMMER TERM
We begin summer term with our Great Fire of London topic. The children learn all about the key events and significant people from that era. They will create their own information books and will also enjoy a visit from our history man Mr Cadle who will bring the topic 'alight' (Mr & Mrs History http://www.thehistoryman.org.uk).
Our materials topic gives us plenty of opportunities to investigate the properties of different materials. We visit Ray's Farm to explore their sculpture trail which armed with our new found knowledge we will create our own masterpieces back at school.
Our local area study and plant topic sit nicely together as we find out more about the area we live in, including the natural environment.
The final topic of the year is Pizzas. This involves toppings, marketing and they even get to make their own!
SPRING TERM
This term we started with Toys topic, which as very enjoyable for the children. They brought in old toys and wrote labels to describe them. They used their enthusiasm to help create a Toy museum in school which was viewed by the whole school as well as by parents, grandparents and other family members.
The children are finishing the Barnaby Bear topic, investigating what is in his suitcase as he travels around the world. This will culminate with our International Day. Children can come dressed in 'International' clothes and will be able to experience tasting different foods from around the world.
The last topic in Spring term is Churches. The children visit St Stephens Church and learn about the various areas of the church and services and finish with some role playing of a wedding.
AUTUMN TERM
We started the term with our Me and You topic. Exploring our differences and similarities and producing self portraits with pastels. We thoroughly enjoyed our share sensory seaside day. We tasted, smelt, touched, looked at and listened to a variety of seaside related objects and then created a fabulous word bank of describing words which we used to create our own poems.
We have learnt a lot about playgrounds. We visited a local park to look at how the equipment was made and the layout and best of all got to play on it. Back at school we made our own models of the apparatus and using a software programme designed our own playgrounds
In our science topic Light and Dark we have been looking a various light sources and the movement of the sun. This is linked into understanding Diwali and creating our own rangoli patterns and Diva Lights.
Because of the significance of the Diva lights in the story of Rama and Sita we decided to make some Diva lights of our own.
We will be studying our own school environment, deciding what we like and what we would like to change. We will begin to understand what school life was like in Victorian times study what is different and have an opportunity to visit a real Victorian classroom when we visit the Black Country Museum.
