Pine welcome letter

• Pine welcome letter.pdf

Phonics in Year One

• Phonics Information Y1.pdf

• Phonics and reading support
  Here is a link to the 'pure' pronunciation of sounds that we use in school when supporting reading and writing.

We began the year by talking about what we are good at and setting goals for ourselves. 

Exploring Place Value

Andy Goldsworthy

• National Poetry Day - 7th October 2021
  We enjoyed learning the poem 'Oh Dear' by Michael Rosen.

This half term, our topic is called 'Brick by Brick' and we will be learning about different types of houses and homes, focusing on the story of 'The Three Little Pigs'. We will explore different materials which could be used to build houses, as well as homes from the past and around the world.

Dinosaur Dome

Construction Day

Nottingham Playhouse Theatre - Little Red Riding Hood

We were so inspired by the performance of Little Red Riding Hood by Nottingham Playhouse Theatre, that we created 'Wanted' posters for Wulfrick the wolf, and we wrote letters to Chip the woodcutter to persuade him to stop cutting down the forest. 

Dangerous Dinosaurs!

We have loved learning all about dinosaurs in Pine class! We explored who Mary Anning was, and how her important discoveries taught scientists that dinosaurs existed long before humans ever lived. We created dinosaur eye inspired artwork using clay, and compared how dinosaurs were different to humans by looking at photographs of skeletons. 

We even had a very 'egg-citing' day when some large footprints were left behind... along with an enormous egg! This created a good deal of discussion, as well as letters to Mr Carver explaining why we should or shouldn't keep a dinosaur as a pet! We measured how many of our shoes could fit inside a T-Rex's footprint, too!

We also discovered some 'coprolites' (fossilised poo!) and carefully dissected them using tools to find clues. This told us whether the animal which left it behind was a herbivore, a carnivore or an omnivore.

A new sign for school

Pine class completed some excellent home learning by designing a new sign for the school entrance. We then carefully considered all of the entries before voting for our three favourites for our school councillors to take to their meeting for the final vote.

Could a wombat live at the North Pole?

This half-term, we are exploring hot and cold places by focusing our studies on Australia and the North Pole, as well as the animals which live there. 

Polar Perfection

We have impressed every visitor to our classroom with our artistic skills this week by using chalk and pastels to create this aurora of polar bears.

We had a wonderful time at 776 Gymnastics this half-term!

World Book Day 2022

We love books in Pine Class! Each child had the opportunity to 'sell' the book they had brought from home to their friends, by presenting it to the class and explaining the reasons why they thought others would enjoy it. Children spent time sharing books with each other and loved watching their friends' faces when they discovered their favourite part! What an amazing variety of books - and no two the same!

Our Easter Garden of Gethsemane

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

Our fabulous rockpool homework - inspired by 'Sharing a Shell' by Julia Donaldson

Inspired by Punch and Judy puppet shows, we designed and made our own puppets, using a variety of different joining skills including sticking and stitching. 

Sock puppets

Hand puppets

We made our own mustard (and jam) sandwiches, inspired by 'The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch' by David and Ronda Armitage

Multi-Skills PE sessions

We taste tested lots of different fruit so that we could design our own fruit ice lollies.

Buckets and Spades Day

We had a wonderful day when the coast came to John Blow! We dressed in our summer clothes (and we even had some rockpool and sea creature outfits!) and had a great time exploring 'rockpools', building sandcastles, playing seaside games, watching and performing in our own Punch and Judy shows and creating seaside crafts. Of course, we also enjoyed eating our fruit ice lollies which we made ourselves!

Cricket PE sessions

• We loved singing this song to help us to remember the 5 oceans in our Geography lessons.

• We particularly loved this song to help us remember the 7 continents, too!

Platinum Jubilee

Into the Woods

This half-term we will be learning all about trees and plants, as well as exploring who might live in Sherwood Forest...

Visiting All Saints Church in Collingham

Visiting Sherwood Forest

We were all incredibly excited to be going on our first whole-day trip! We were greeted by Lady Marian, who helped us to find our way around Sherwood Forest. She told us stories along the way about Robin Hood and his merry men. 

We found the Major Oak, and learnt that it is around one thousand years old! We also discovered that the fence is there to protect the ground around the roots so that it can continue to grow leaves and acorns.

After lunch, we explored the forest using a leaf spotting sheet to help us identify the trees of the forest. We played a game where we used a blindfold to feel the bumpy bark and knots in the trunks of trees, and then had to guess which tree we had been led to once we removed our blindfolds. 

We made natural artwork of a plant, labelling each part. Finally, we went on a colour hunt, collecting as many different coloured things from the forest as we could. 

A wonderful day was had by all!