Y1 Penguin Class

Welcome To Penguin Class

Welcome to Penguin Class web page. We will be using this web page to share what we have been learning about in class and share our exciting adventures. Remember to check out our fantastic writing on our class blog page: penguin2018.norbridgeblogs.net and keep up to date with all our learning using our twitter page: twitter.com/Y1Penguin. 

Wild At Art Day

We enjoyed taking part in a Wild At Art Day where we made a variety of animal themed art work. Firstly, we created a 3D model of a jellyfish using paper plates and tissue paper. Then, we collected leaves from outside and used these to create our own leaf animal pictures. Finally, we used paper plates and tissue paper to create our own lion picture. See some of art work created below:

Wild At Heart

We are really enjoying our new Wild At Heart topic and have learnt lots about animals around the World. We have used our topic to inspire our writing, topic learning and art work. We have created lots of super work and have showcased some of this on our display:

Wild At Heart Parent Art Event

We enjoyed being joined by lots of year 1's and their families at our parent art event. Families worked together to create animal inspired art and create a piece of writing linked to their picture. We were amazed at the quality of the art work and writing. See some of their creations below:

Phonics Learning

We have been working really hard to develop our phonics knowledge in Year 1. We have developed our phase 5 knowledge and have worked on reading trickier words. 

Summer Term Dates

Check out the key dates for the Summer Term using the link below:

Summer Term: Wild At Heart

During the Summer term, our topic will be Wild At Heart. In this topic, we will be learning  about different animals and where they are found in the wild. We will compare different animal habitats around the World and learn about how environments have changed over time. We will also learn about what we can do to help protect animal habitats. Read what we will be doing in the different subject areas below:

English: In English this term, we will be looking developing our skills in writing descriptions, stories, poems and fact files. 

Maths: We will looking at a range of topic over the Summer term in Maths including: multiplication, division, halves & quarters, position & direction, time and money. 

History & Geography: We will be learning about the Arctic, oceans, deserts and rainforests. We will learn about the locations of these around the World and the animals that live there. We will also look at how these environments have changed over time.

Science: Our Science topic this term will be Animals including Humans. In this topic, we will learn about the different parts of the human body and our different senses. We will also learn how to classify and compare animals, identify animal body parts, match animals and their young and identify whether animals are herbivores, carnivores or omnivores.

Art & Design Technology: We will use a range of different techniques and materials to make pictures and models of different animals and their habitats. We will also look at making animal homes. 

RE: In RE this term, we will be learning about Sikhism. We will learn about what Sikhs believe and different Sikh festivals.

ICT: In ICT, we will be learning how to use a search engine, develop our skills in typing and learning how to create and store different types of media. 

PE: In our PE sessions each Thursday, we will be looking at cricket and developing our skills in batting and fielding. We will also be looking at events that we will take part in during Sports Day and developing our skills in these events.

We will continue to have weekly Karate sessions each Monday, Gymnastic sessions on Tuesday and French lessons on Thursday. 

We will also be visiting The Butterfly House as part of our topic to help us learn more about different types of animals.

History - Favourite Explorers

We have enjoyed learning about different explorers as part of our Marvellous Minds topic. To finish the topic, we learnt about how famous people are remembered through statues, coins and stamp designs. We then created our own stamp design based on our favourite explorer. See some of our stamps below: 

Space Day

We really enjoyed our Key Stage 1 Space Day. On this day, we had got to visit the planetarium and learn more about space. We also made our own rockets, space pictures and shared our favourite parts of the day on the blog. See some pictures from the day below:

Marvellous Me Day

As part of our topic on Marvellous Minds, we had a special Marvellous Me Day where we thought about what was special about us and others we know. We created a kindness web where we made a web by saying kind things about others, drew our own self-portraits, created our own star necklace putting reasons why we are special on and made hearts for people who are special to us. See pictures from our Marvellous Me Day below:

Easter Bonnet

Well done to this superstar who won our Easter Bonnet competition with her fantastic creation. See her super creation and prize below:

Red Nose Day

On Friday, we held a fundraising day in aid of Comic Relief. Children came to school dressed as Disney characters, in red or non-uniform. We also held a design your own nose competition and were really pleased to have two runner ups in Penguin Class. We were also pleased that we raised over £400 at school for the charity. See the pictures of our runner ups below:

Science Week: Ice Investigation

As part of British Science Week, we completed an investigation where we had to see how to unfreeze an item from a block of ice. The children worked in groups to think about to melt the ice the quickest. They had lots of super ideas. See pictures of the investigation below:

Maths: Measuring Weight

In Maths this week, we have looked at measuring, ordering and comparing the weight of items. We learnt how to measure items using cubes, how to balance items using scales and ordering items by weight. See pictures of us measuring the weight of items using cubes below:

Art: Creating Land Art

In Art, we have learnt about the artist Andy Goldsworthy and looked at his land art. We then tried creating our own outdoor land art in groups using natural materials. See pictures of our land art below:

Art: Mini Models 

In Art this half term, we are learning about sculptures. This week, we created our own mini models of natural materials using clay. See some of our mini model pictures below:

World Book Day: Golden Ticket Winners

We had 14 children who completed our World Book Day reading challenge. The children all got to select an envelope and these 6 children found a golden ticket inside. Here they are with their book prizes that they selected:

World Book Day

We had lots of fun celebrating World Book Day in class. We designed our own bookmarks, used puppets to retell stories, read a range of stories and discussed our favourite books. We also judged our entries for our World Book Day home challenge. See pictures from our World Book Day below:

Phonics Games

We have been working really hard in phonics lessons to be able to read a range of words and sentences. We have been applying our phonics knowledge in a range of games. See pictures below:

Gymnastic Badges

We have been working hard in our gymnastics sessions to earn our next badges. See some of the children who have earned their gymnastics badges below:

Music: Playing Djembes

We really enjoyed our Music lesson learning how to play rhythms on the djembe and the different sounds you can make on the djembe. See pictures from our lesson below:

Paddington Visit

In our English lessons, we have been receiving special messages from Paddington who has been searching for our school. We were super excited on Friday when he managed to reach the school and we were able to send him back to Mr and Mrs Brown in London. 

Gymnastics Skills

In our PE session this week, we worked on some of the skills that we have been working on in gymnastics. We have been working on balancing on the benches and developing our jumps off the bench. See pictures of us developing our skills below:

History: Mary Anning

In our Marvellous Minds topic, we have been learning about a range of famous people. We learnt about Mary Anning who studied fossils and then tried creating our own dinosaur fossils. See some of our fossil creations below:

Spectacular Science Blogging

Many children came back to school for our Spectacular Science blogging event. We had lots of science fun. We watched mint and coke explosions, made our own slime and made telescopes to look at the stars. See pictures from our event below:

Art: Looking at Kandinsky

This week in Art, we have been learning about the artist Kandinsky. We learnt about his life and art. Then we tried recreating one of his art pieces. We created some super Art. See some of our work below:

English: Shape Poems

This week in English, we have been looking at shape poems and calligrams. We have tried creating our own shape poems and calligrams. See some of our super shape poems below:

Phase Five Phonics Experts

We have been working really hard in Penguin Class to learn our phase 5 phonic sounds. We are pleased to have lots of phonics experts in our class. See some of the children who have achieved their phonics experts certificates below:

ICT: Using Scratch Junior

In ICT, we have been learning about using Scratch Junior. We have learnt how to add characters and backgrounds. We have also learnt how to give codes for different characters.

Year 1 RE Day

On Friday, we had a Year 1 RE day in which was focused on 'What did Jesus teach Christians?' We learnt about the stories that Jesus told us in the Bible, looked at the miracles of Jesus and learnt about the ten commandments in the Bible. See pictures from our RE day below:

Art: Primary and Secondary Colours

In Art, we learnt about primary and secondary colours and investigated mixing together primary colours to see what they created. See pictures from our colour mixing below:

Phonics: Word Reading

We have been working hard in phonics to learn all our phase 5 phonic sounds. We also have been trying to apply our knowledge of phonics when reading words. See pictures of us reading a range of words below:

History: Learning About Famous Scientists

As part of our topic on Marvellous Minds, we have been learning about famous scientists. We learnt all about the life of Isaac Newton and his discoveries. See pictures of our learning about Isaac Newton below:

Gymnastics Badges

We were very pleased to have lots more children achieve their gymnastics badge 8. We also had one child achieve their badge 7. Well done to all these children below:

Science: Investigating Materials

We have started our new science topic on Materials. We have been learning about the names of different materials and have found different items in the classroom that are made of these materials. See the labels we created for items in the classroom below:

Spring Term: Marvellous Minds

Our Spring Term topic is 'Marvellous Minds' in which we will be learning about lots of famous people. We have lots of exciting events planned! Read what we will be learning about in each topic area.

English: In the first half term, we will be continuing to look at the Paddington story and create writing pieces linked to the story. We will also be looking at traditional tales and creating shape poems. We will be working on creating longer pieces of texts and using more adventurous vocabulary.

Maths: This term, we will be looking at numbers to 50, addition and subtraction and measuring lengths and capacity.

Phonics: We will have daily phonics sessions where we consolidate our knowledge of the phase 5 sounds and will work on applying this knowledge in both our reading and writing.

SPAG & Guided Reading: Children will be having daily spelling sessions looking at spelling key words and spelling rules. Children will also have SPAG lessons three times a week in which they will learn about different punctuation and grammar terms. They will also have weekly guided reading sessions to help support children's reading skills.

History & Geography: In the first half term, we will be learning about a range of famous scientists, inventors and authors from the past and present. We will learn about what they discovered, wrote and invented. We will also learn about how life was different in the past and how technology has changed over time. In the second half term, we will be learning about famous journeys and explorers. We will learn about the places they explored and the adventures they went on.

Art & Design Technology: In the first half term, we will be looking at a range of famous artists. We will learn about their lives and their Art and will try creating our own Art work inspired by their different styles. In the second half term, we will be looking at famous sculptures and will be making our own sculptors using a wide range of different materials.

Science: Our Science topic this term is 'Everyday Materials' in which we learn about the materials that things around us are made out of and the properties of different materials.

ICT: This term, we will learn how to keep safe on the internet and rules that we should take when using technology. We will also be learning about how to create blog posts.

Religious Education: We will be doing our RE sessions through two RE days. The first RE day will focus on what Jesus taught Christians. We will be looking at different Bible stories and the morals they teach Christians. The second RE day will look at the Christian Holy Week of Easter and learn about how and why Christians celebrate Easter.

Music: We will be taking part in a Music day in which we will develop our rhythm skills, develop our skills in using different instruments and create our own music.

Physical Education: We will continue to have weekly Karate sessions with Sensei Dave on Monday, Gymnastic sessions with Mrs Spencer on a Tuesday and PE with Mr Scott on Thursday.

French: We will continue to have weekly sessions with Madame Walsh each Wednesday.

Venture Experts: Children will have four more weeks of their current Venture Experts groups which will finish with a showcase where parents are invited to come see what the children have been up to. Then they will choose a new Venture Experts group for the second half of the school year.

Special Events: As part of our topic on Marvellous Minds, we will be learning about Space and famous astronauts. To link with this we have an exciting trip to the National Space Centre on Friday 1st February. We also will be having a Planetarium in school and a special space themed day on Monday 1st April.

All children will receive a Year 1 Dates Letter which will tell you about the other exciting events happening in our class and across school (See the photo below). Don't forget that you can keep up to date with our learning on this webpage, on our blog site and using twitter (@Y1Penguin).

RE Day & Christingle Service

On Thursday, we had a RE day at school where we learnt about the Christmas story, creating Christingles, learnt about what each part of the Christingle represented and had a Christingle service with Parakeet Class. See photos of our Christingle service below:

Computing: Understanding Algorithms

In our computing sessions, we have been learning about algorithms. We learnt about what algorithms are and we tried sequencing instructions. See pictures of sequencing the instructions below:

Christmas Fair: Making Fruit Skewers

For our Christmas Fair, we made fruit and marshmallow skewers. We added the fruit and marshmallows carefully and then drizzled chocolate on top. We think they looked really tasty and lots of children enjoyed eating them at the chocolate fair. See photos of our creations below:

Art: Carnival Pictures

In our Art session, we created our own carnival pictures based on the Rio De Janeiro carnival headdresses. See our pictures below:

Brazil Skype

As part of our learning on our topic 'Bright Lights Big Cities' we have been learning about different places in the World and connecting with other schools in different countries. On Thursday we connected with a school in Brazil. We learnt about their city and school and shared songs with them in a Skype session.

English: Hotseating

In English this week we tried hotseating. We pretended to be different characters from the Paddington story and tried to answer questions as them.

PE: Table Tennis

In PE this week we practised our throwing and catching skills by playing table tennis. It was lots of fun. See pictures of us playing below:

Christmas Dinner Day

We really enjoyed our Christmas dinner day on Wednesday. We had lots of fun listening to Christmas songs, wearing our Christmas jumpers and enjoying some tasty food. See pictures of us below:

History & Geography: Changes Over Time

In History and Geography this week, we have learnt about Dubai and how it has changed over time. We learnt about the Burj Khalifa and then tried to make our own towers out of marshmallows and sticks. We showed great team work and had lots of fun building our towers. We also discussed changes that we had seen in our location. See photos of us with our towers below:

Science: Parts of Plants

In Science, our topic for this half term is Plants. We have been learning about different parts of plants and their function. See pictures of our labelled plants below:

Art: Penguin Adventures

In Art this week, we created a penguin adventure picture. We thought about the adventures that our penguins might go on and then drew pictures of these. See some our penguin adventure pictures below:

Amazing Work Display

We have lots of new amazing display showcased in our display. Well done to all the children whose work was chosen for the display. See pictures of the work below:

Gymnastics Awards

In our Gymnastics sessions we have been working hard to develop our skills and working towards our badges. Well done to these two children who were the first penguins to achieve their level 8 badges. We are very proud of them!

Special Mentions Assembly

This week, we enjoyed starting off the week with our specials mentions assembly. We enjoyed celebrating the achievements of the children who were selected for a specials mention award and learning why they were selected for the award. Well done to our two specials mentions winners and our smart slip winner for this week:

Identifying Hot & Cold Countries

In Geography, we have been learning about the Equator and where you would find hot and cold countries on a map. We then used this knowledge to help us match the suitcases to the different locations. 

Gymnastics

In Gymnastics, we have been working on walking along the benches both forwards and backwards. We have also been practising our jumps off the bench. See pictures of us developing our skills below:

Maths: Subtraction

In Maths, we have been working on subtracting. We worked in pairs to develop our skills in using a number line to solve subtractions. See pictures of us solving subtractions below:

Attendance Bingo Balls

This half term, we have started our attendance bingo in which children who have been at school all week have their balls in the box for the draw. One ball is then picked out as the winners and they receive a prize. Well done to our first three attendance ball bingo winners for this term.

Christmas Play: The Magical Christmas Jigsaw

This week, we have been working really hard on learning songs, dances and lines for our Christmas play. We are excited to show everyone what we have been up to in our play soon. 

Skype With Hungary

On Wednesday, we took part in a Skype session with a school in Hungary. They shared a Hungarian folk song with us and some of the children played Hungarian music on different instruments. We then shared some traditional nursery rhymes with them. We really enjoyed the opportunity to connect with another school and learn more about the World around us.

Phase 5 Phonics 

In our phonics sessions, we have been learning our phase 5 sounds. We have been working hard to spot the different phonic sounds in words. Today we worked in pairs to read a range of words and sentences with different phase 5 sounds in. See pictures of us below:

100% Attendance 

This week in Penguin Class we had 100% attendance all week. We also started our new attendance bingo ball reward system. All children in the class had their balls in the box as they were here all week. Well done Imogen for being the winner of this week's bingo balls draw.

Skype With Argentina

On Friday, we took part in a Skype call with a school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We played an animal guessing game, asked questions about their life and school and shared facts about our life and school. Have a look at the photo of our Skype session below:

Creative Heroes Day

On Friday, we had a creative hero day in school where we celebrated people that are heroes to us. Many of us enjoyed dressing up as our favourite heroes. In class, we discussed our heroes and why they are our heroes, watched Supertato and created our own heroes using potatoes. In the afternoon, we created comic strips showing our hero's adventures. See pictures from the day below:

Science: Investigating Shadows 

In Science, we have been learning about the different seasons and the weather in each season. We have looked at how the seasons affect the length of sunshine hours in the day. We went outside to look at shadows and discussed how shadows are created. See pictures of us investigating shadows below:

ICT: Using A Drawing App

In ICT, we have been learning about how to use different apps. Today we looked at using a drawing app to create pictures. We learnt about the different features of the app and tried creating our own pictures of Paddington Bear. See our pictures and us creating our pictures below:

Paddington Day

In English, we are going to be looking at the book Paddington. To start our learning on Paddington we had a Paddington Day in Year 1. On this day, we made our own bear ears, created Paddington bears using origami, looked at Paddington stories and made bear toast. See pictures from our day below:

Bright Lights, Big Cities

Our topic this term has been Bright Lights, Big Cities. In our topic, we have been learning about London and other cities around the World. We have created lots of fantastic Art, writing and homework linked to the topic. Have a look at some of our work on our display:

Geography: Comparing Rio De Janeiro & London

In Geography, we have looked at Rio De Janeiro and compared it with London. We looked at the different landmarks in Rio and London. We then learnt about Rio Carnival and made our own carnival style headdresses. See pictures of our designs below.

Sherwood Pines Trip

On Thursday, we visited Sherwood Pines to help us learn more about our local environment. We enjoyed completing woodland art activities and shelter building. We then finished our day with a trip to the park. See pictures of our trip below:

Gymnastics

We are enjoying our gymnastics sessions and are developing our skills. We have looked at developing our jumps and landing positions. This week we have looked at balancing on a bench and working on jumping off the bench. See pictures of us developing our skills below:

Special Mentions

We were excited to have our second Special Mentions assembly of the school year. Well done to the two children who received a special mention and our smart slip winner.

Year 1 RE Day

On Friday, we had a RE Day in Year 1. We looked at belonging and groups that we belong to. We then looked at different religious groups and how people belong to religious groups. We also learnt about the Christians views on creation of the World. See pictures from our day below:

National Space Week

This week we have been learning about National Space Week in our Science lesson. We have learnt about what it is like in Space and learnt about the work of astronauts. We then designed our own alien for a planet that we had created. See our pictures below:

Space Week Art

This week, we have been learning about National Space Week. In our Art sessions, we have created our own space themed pictures. See some of our Art work below: 

Geography: Comparing Locations

In our 'Bright Lights, Big Cities' we have been looking at Worksop and London. We have learnt about different landmarks in each location and have discussed whether we would rather live in Worksop or London. Have a read of our ideas on our class blog page: penguin2018.norbridgeblogs.net

Amazing Work

Our Amazing Work display is starting to fill up with lots of fantastic work that the children have created. Well done to Nevaeh, Imogen and Thomas who have had their work chosen to go on our display. 

Attendance Trophy

We were really pleased to have received the attendance trophy because we had 100% all week. This is an amazing achievement. Well done Penguin Class!

History: Great Fire of London

As part of 'Bright Lights, Big Cities' topic, we have been learning about the Great Fire of London. We learnt about how the fire started and how it spread. We then created our own Art work based on the Great Fire of London. Have a look at some of this Art work up on display:

Gymnastics Lessons

We are really enjoying our gymnastics sessions in Year 1. We have learnt about the different gymnastic shapes such as: star, straddle and pike. We have also worked on our rolls and landing positions. See pictures of us working our gymnastics skills below:

London's Blogging Day

As part of our 'Bright Lights, Big Cities' topic, we have been learning about the City of London. We had a special blogging day in Year 1 to learn more about London. We learnt about the Tower of London and made our own crown jewels. We learnt about the flags of the United Kingdom and England and created our own flags. We also created Art work based on the London skyline. We then learnt about the Shard and tried making our own towers using different materials. We had lots of fun learning more about London. See pictures from our day below:

Student Councillors 

At the start of each school year, we choose student councillors for each class from Y1-6 to represent their class and share ideas about how to make the school better. Children who wanted to be a student councillor shared ideas about why they would be a good student councillor member. The children then voted on who they would like to be the student councillors. Well done to our two winners.

Geography: Exploring London Landmarks

As part of our 'Bright Lights, Big Cities' topic, we have been looking at London and the different landmarks in London. We created our own pictures of landmarks in London. See pictures below:

Special Mentions Assembly

We have enjoyed having our first special mentions assembly of the new school year. This is a great chance to celebrate children's achievements and share these with parents. Well done to these two children who received a special mentions award and to our smart slip winner.

Science: Seasonal Changes

Our Science topic this half term is 'Seasonal Changes'. We have started off this topic by looking at the names of the different seasons and what the weather is like in each of the different seasons. We created own pictures showing the weather in each season. Have a look at some of our work below:

Gymnastics Lessons

We are really enjoying having gymnastics sessions in Year 1. We have been learning about different gymnastics shapes and developing our flexibility and fitness. See pictures of us developing our skills below:

Karate Sessions

We have started our weekly Karate lessons in Year 1 and are really enjoying developing new skills. We are working on our Karate technique and taking part in different games. See pictures of us in Karate below:

Art: Creating Cityscapes

In our Art sessions with Mr Slaney, we have been working on creating cityscapes using paint. We looked at the different colours we could use for the sky and then added black paint to create the buildings in our image. See pictures of us creating our cityscapes below:

Autumn Term Topic: Bright Lights, Big Cities