P.E. in Key Stage 1 has got off to a somewhat wobbly start this year. No, not because of the storms – because children in Year 1 & 2 have been busy developing their body control and balance in our Gymnastics sessions.

Sessions start with a range of active and tiring warm-up games aimed at teaching children to be aware of their own space and body movements. Children are improving their skills of observation quickly, while managing their speed and direction to avoid collisions. Warm ups are accompanied by screams and giggles that get all sessions off to a flying start.
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Well, that depends on where you come from….

If from come from UK then you will have green fingers, if you are from the USA or Canada then you will have a green thumb….. but you will only have these if you are really good at growing things such as pretty flowers, vegetables to eat and even fruit like pineapples or bananas.

Year 1 have been trying hard to grow their own bean plant from Lima Bean seeds. Do you think they can help their beanstalk to grow as tall as Jack’s beanstalk in the Jack and the Beanstalk story?

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Who is Iggy Peck and have you heard his fantastic story?  Year 1 was introduced to ‘Iggy Peck the Architect’ by one of the children in the class (They love this story because their Dad is an architect). An architect is someone who designs buildings and structures.  In the story, Iggy builds a suspension bridge from boots, tree roots and strings, fruit roll-ups and other things. Year 1 decided to see if they could follow Iggy Peck and build their own bridges.

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Take a look at our amazing Year 1 Architects in action!  What a variety of creative bridges, palaces, campfires, tepees, hotels, resorts, homes and dens they have built!

One afternoon, Ms Shara brought in 3 big tubs of wood for the children to use to create structures.  Working alone, in pairs or in a group, they thought, planned, explored, made decisions, built, changed their plans, started all over again and finally built a structure that they were proud of.

As you will see in the photos below, a selection of small and large wooden pieces, patiently balanced with precision, can create all sorts of wonderfully creative designs.

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Here at Provo Primary we are very proud of our Spanish Language programme and we want to make sure that our parents know just how fantastic it is, the progress their children are making and just how much they can do in Spanish!

One of the ways we hope this will be made clearer is through the introduction of our Language Passports. These have also been created to help the children see just how much progress they make from year to year and to keep track of any areas they need to work on.

The passport is made up of ‘can do’ statements which the children colour in when they feel they can carry out the statement, and have shown this understanding to the teacher.  This allows the children to self-assess their ability and the teacher to understand where the children need help and where they are confident.

We will be launching the passports after half-term to Years 1-3 to start with to see how they work. Please feel free to ask Miss Cara or Mrs. Yorka to see your child’s ‘Passport to Spanish’.

In our previous Year 1 blog, we introduced you to Flat Stanley.

The Year 1 children had to choose a relative or friend to send their Flat Stanley to. They asked their parents to help them find out the address of this person. Each child then wrote a letter to their chosen person explaining what they would like them to do with Flat Stanley when he stays at their house.

The children carefully wrote the address on their envelope, they had to do this very neatly so that the mailman or mailwoman could read it. Take a look at the photos to see some of their beautiful writing. Great job, Year 1! There was a lot to think about…from forming each letter correctly, to sizing our letters, to sitting the letters on the line and even making sure the address was written correctly so that it would be delivered to the right house in the right country!

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Stanley is a book character boy who lives with his Mum, Dad and his brother Arthur. He went to bed one night and whilst he was asleep a bulletin board fell and squashed him flat!

After visiting the doctor for a checkup, amazing things start to happen to Stanley. He is flown like a kite by his brother, he goes down a drain to rescue his mum’s ring and he gets to help the police catch two dangerous art thieves, he even gets mailed to California for a vacation.

Year 1 thought it would be fun to send their own Flat Stanley’s on vacation too. We thought this would be a really fun way to learn about lots of different countries. Right now Flat Stanley can be found in the Year 1 classroom, he is looking at the world map and checking out where in the world he is going on vacation. All the children in Year 1 have chosen a friend or relative to mail their own Stanley’s to and we are excited to find out where they are all going. So far, we have Hungary, Canada, India, USA and England on our list. We are hoping to ask Mrs. Yorka to help us send Stanley to Chile.

The Year 1 class are excited to learn about the countries he will be visiting. We hope to make a big class book to show what we have learned. Watch this space to find out more about Stanley’s adventures over the next few months

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Last Sunday saw the 42^nd World Environment Day.  It is observed every year on the 5^th June and “aims to inspire more people than ever before to take action to prevent the growing strain on planet Earth’s natural systems from reaching the breaking point.” (http://www.un.org/en/events/environmentday/)

Y1 and Y2 were inspired to take action and decided to do a “Provo Primary Clean Up”.  So, armed with plastic bags and lots of determination, the Key Stage One children went about picking up litter from around school environment.  We feel that we are pretty good at not creating litter, but we are sad to say that we found lots of little pieces of litter, the main offender being plastic!  Plastic drink draw wrappers, plastic food wrappers and plastic bags had all been blown (we suspect) into the bushes that make up parts of our playground.  We worked really hard and are pretty sure we collected almost all of the litter.

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In their Music class, the Year 1s created sound effects to match each of their papier-mâché animals.

Our BIG Design Technology project this term was designing and making 3D papier-mâché animals. The children worked very patiently and hard to complete their animals.

First, they had to plan how to make their animal and bring in different ‘junk’ material to create it. Next, they worked with duct tape to attach the different parts of the body together and then, they covered their animals with newspaper that was coated with a special mixture to strengthen their animal and keep it from molding. Finally, the children painted their animals and added all the special features to make them stand out.

I was so impressed by the good attitude shown by the Year 1 children. It took them over a month, over various sessions, to complete their animals.  We showcased all of the children’s animals, their habitats and non-fiction animal books, at our Education Week Open House Showcase.  If you have not had a chance to see then yet – pop into our classroom this week!

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Congratulations to all of our Year 1 – 6 classes!  Our Topic Learning Showcase was a magnificent demonstration of the tremendous talent, hard work, knowledge and creativity of all involved.  It was lovely to see so many family and friends come along to support the event and take part in the activities on offer.  The children all really enjoyed the experience, both of sharing their knowledge with others, and also getting the opportunity to visit and learn from all the other classes too.  An all-round success!

Thank you also to everyone who helped put together all of the amazing costumes – we were very impressed with your creativity, attention to detail and resourcefulness!

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As part of our current topic ‘The Carnival of Animals’, Year 1 have been fully immersed into the world of animals. We have been exploring different animals, learning new information facts, writing information sentences and creating some beautiful Eric Carle inspired art.

During our Spanish sessions, our latest focus was on learning about the special features of different animals, like tusks on elephants and manes on lions.

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