Home Page

Special interest weeks

Autumn

The theme for our first Special Interest Week of the year is 'We Are Reading' with the aim to encourage every child to read for pleasure. We have had a very busy week and it has been so much fun! To start the week the whole school participated in lots of carousel activities including singing story raps, scavenger hunts and yoga to name just a few.

On Wednesday a librarian came to visit us to tell the children that Bamber Bridge library will soon be reopening. Year 1 also had a special marble jar party with Year 3 where the children sat together to read stories and enjoy hot chocolate.

On Thursday morning some of the children attended the 'Books at Breakfast' event with their families. They enjoyed breakfast snacks and snuggled up to read a book. That afternoon it was our turn to visit the Book Bus! Everyone was very excited to buy a new book to take home.

On Friday we had a special visit from an author who read us a lovely story.

Throughout the week Year 1 focused on the book 'Room on the Broom' by Julia Donaldson. We learnt the story using T4W. The children made changes to the story including the object that the witch loses and her pet. The children also participated in lots of different activities in continuous provision.

The children have created some artwork using tints and shades of paint to make a background for Room on the Broom silhouettes. They have also read recipes for the first time and followed them to make 'magic' fruit smoothies.

As their Homework Challenge for the week the children had to read a different bedtime story to a different person in a different place each night. The children sent in their photographs and it was lovely to see how much they were enjoying reading! We'd like to say a big thank you to all of the parents and carers for joining in with this!

We have put all of our wonderful work on the display in the corridor outside our classroom.

Spring

This term's theme for Special Interest Week was STEM. In Year 1 we have been very busy and linked all our learning to polar explorers. We have been on a journey to Antarctica!

To start the week we explored floating and sinking. We carried out an experiment to find out which objects float and which sink. The children then picked the best materials to use when designing and making their own boats. They were given an extra challenge of their boat needing to hold the weight of 5 marbles! It was great fun testing our boats on water to see if they floated or sank.

On Tuesday we had a visit from a real-life polar explorer! Mr Hull from Walton-le-Dale high school came to show us lots of photographs, artefacts and clothing and told us stories about his expedition to Antarctica. It was very interesting and the children thoroughly enjoyed dressing up as explorers.

The children then thought carefully about what equipment and clothing they would need to take with them to Antarctica and 'packed' their own bag.

The children also had the challenge of making an igloo or snow den using different materials, including snow, marshmallows and cocktail sticks, lego and ice.

We have also found out how animals stay warm in cold places. The children learnt that they have a layer of fat called blubber. We did an experiment to test this by putting our hands in a bowl of icy water and in a bowl with 'blubber' (butter). The children made predictions to guess which bowl they thought would keep them warm.

At end the week we designed a menu for a polar explorer and tasted some delicious hot chocolate. We looked at how it changes from powder to liquid.

Some children were chosen as 'STEM Stars' and they received a special certificate in Friday's achievements assembly. We have also put all of our work from the week on the display in the corridor.

Summer

The children had a fantastic time during our 'Outdoor Learning' Special Interest Week.

In Maths, we have continued our learning about factions of amounts. The children have worked in groups in the outdoor area using natural objects to help them count. They have found halves and quarters of amounts up to 20. Some children have found fractions of larger quantities too!

Our phonics lessons have also taken place outdoors this week. The children have enjoyed participating in a variety of activities including relay races on the bikes to read split digraphs, going on sound hunts around the field and using chalk to write on the playground.

On Wednesday it was our special class worship. The children were very proud of themselves for remembering all of their lines off by heart. It was a lovely worship - well done everyone!

Also on Wednesday it was 'Prayer Day' and Year 1 thought carefully about their hopes for the world and created a prayer space for the other classes to visit. During circle time the children shared some very thoughtful ideas and wrote them down on wooden discs to hang from the trees in the school grounds. Everybody also enjoyed visiting the prayer spaces that had been made by the other classes.

On Thursday Year 1 enjoyed a visit from 'Wildwood Days' which is a forest-schools company. The children had an absolutely brilliant time in the school grounds participating in different adventurous activities, including:

A rope swing and hammock
A bug hunt
A mud kitchen
Using a saw to create tree cookies
Flower pressing using hammers
Clay sculpting
Den building

To finish the week the children came to school dressed in sportswear for a donation to NET School. Everybody also had a go on the inflatable assault course where two children raced each other from the start to the finish!