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Learners’ Trip To Danby Moors Centre

Scott Grason-Taylor

Learners enjoyed a wonderful day at Danby Moors Centre this week.

Linked to our science topic, animals and their habitats, we explored Crow Wood and searched for micro-habitats and mini-beasts among other woodland activities. The sun was shining and we enjoyed a full day in the outdoors.

In the classroom, we have been busy measuring using metres and centimetres and have been able to sort ourselves into height order, which was lots of fun.

We are busy practising for our Easter Church service and are learning some new songs to perform.

We are putting finishing touches to our persuasive writing about Tromso in Norway and are extremely proud of our finished pieces.

Please check out our class page next week, to see what we have been learning.

Visit to St John’s Church

Scott Grason-Taylor

We picked a beautiful day for our visit to St John’s church and the walk together was a real treat. 

Before our visit we discussed the features of a Christian Church and we knew what we were looking for. From a data handling perspective, Year 1 made a pictogram to help gather and organise their information.

Once we got up to church we walked together spotting the features and discussing their purpose. We then split into smaller groups to look more closely and take time to question.

We located and discussed:pews, the font, the aisle, the altar, the pulpit, the lectern, the bible, the organ and many candles,crosses and statues.

We looked carefully at the content of the stained glass windows focussing particularly on the image behind the altar showing the crucifiction.   At this time of year the cloth on the altar is purple and linked this with the colour on our Worship Table at school and the church liturgical calendar. We noted that there were no flowers in church either.

We finished our session with a parable from the bible, also shown in one of the windows-The Shepherd and the Lost Sheep.

Such a lovely way to spend an afternoon of wonderful learning.

A busy week in Learners Class.

Scott Grason-Taylor

Learners have had a super busy week. We started the week with a fun drama session with Louise from Red House Theatre, where we were able to consolidate our history learning about monarchs. We became absolute monarchs, who feasted and jousted for fun and who made all of the decisions and rules to suit themselves. We also became constitutional monarchs, who  needed the partnership of the Government to make important decisions. We thoroughly enjoyed the session!

Learners took part in the Open The Book assembly in Collective Worship, where learned about a story around our current value, forgiveness. The parable suggested that forgiveness has no limits and that we must forgive if wanted to be forgiven ourselves.

This week Learners also welcomed families into the classroom to join in computing sessions with Mrs Gurney.  Families used the chrome books, iPads and even got out the Beebots –  great fun was had by all. 

Learners have begun their writing to persuade, around why Tromso in Norway is a nice place to visit. This has linked wonderfully with our geography topic about Tromso and we have been so impressed by the appeal of Tromso, we too would like to visit!

We are looking forward to a school trip this week, where we will learn more about our science topic, animals and their habitats.

Read our class page next week to find out what we have been learning!

 

Mechanisms and Structures

Scott Grason-Taylor

We continued our work in Design and Technology,exploring wheels and axles. During our exploration we began to see how cogs worked together. The addition of some longer pieces of wood allowed the Pioneers to build on a bigger  scale,working together to secure long pieces.

We built a tower from the left over parts of a wardrobe. This formed a platform for our ramp (a carpet inner tube) We ran the trains down the tube and had a discussion about friction.

Some intricate structures have been made this week and we will continue to develop these next week.

Stop,Look,Listen,Think

Scott Grason-Taylor

The Pioneers planned a trip to our local park and we needed to risk assess the route after looking at it on a map. We noted trip and slip hazards, parked cars and discussed the shape of the road. 

After watching a road safety video in the classroom, we rehearsed what we would do when out on the road.

The weather was not kind to us for our Field Trip but the Pioneers battled on through the sleet and the rain. We discovered the pavement surface indicating where it was safe to cross. 

 

 

Finding out about structures.

Scott Grason-Taylor

This week in DT, Learners have been finding out about structures. Learners have been identifying man-made structures and natural structures. We had to look carefully at igloos and Stonehenge, as although these structures are made from natural materials, man has created the structure. We have been looking around our school grounds to identify different types of structures and are looking forward to learning more in the coming weeks.

In maths we are starting to learn about length and height and are looking forward to measuring everything we see next week!

In science, we have been finding out about adaptations and could identify different adaptations animals had and understood why these had evolved over time. We are looking forward to our class trip in a couple of weeks to consolidate our science learning.

In history, we have been finding out about the first rulers of Great Britain. Learners have been extremely interested in learning about Alfred The Great and William the Conqueror and how they fit in to British history. Next week, we will have a history Drama session with Louise from Red House Theatre, who helps us bring our learning to life!

Check out our website page next week, to see what we have been learning!

Springtime has sprung

Scott Grason-Taylor

In science, Learners have been monitoring what time the sun has been setting each month. We first started to record the times in September and have watched the hours of daylight shorten. We have been excited to begin identifying that the days are getting longer with this week’s sun setting at 5.29pm. Spring is on the way, as we have spotted some spring bulbs beginning to peep through outside the classroom and buds appearing on our class tree. 

In maths we have been getting to grips with arrays. We have been using resources to make arrays and were able to match these to a multiplication sentence. 

 

We are enjoying dance sessions with Hannah Verity dance each Tuesday and are keen to learn new moves to add to our routine in order to lead towards a finished performance.

We were excited to welcome families into the classroom on Friday to celebrate World Book Day 2025. We enjoyed sharing many stories together and discussed our favourite characters and made our own book marks.

In English, we have worked extremely hard on writing a balanced argument about whether we think books are still relevant today. 

visit our classroom page next week, to find out what we are learning.

Learners love to learn!

 

Pop-Up, Slide and Pivot

Scott Grason-Taylor

The Pioneers love to cut and stick and create and in Design and Technology we have been looking at mechanisms and creating our own. Our initial designs were simple but soon became personalised, combined and complex.

The Pioneers are aware of how to keep themselves safe when cutting card and paper and making holes, placing a blob of blu-tac behind.

On World Book Day, Pioneers worked with their families to create pop-up pages and they were simply stunning.

 

Zoom to the Moon

Scott Grason-Taylor

The time had come for the visiting elves to leave and go back to their day job. The Pioneers have enjoyed their daily letters and tasks and had one final job to do. They needed to launch a rocket with moving parts and water power to zoom to the moon. We looked at the sliders and the pivots and discussed mechanisms. We used the pump to push the air into the bottle, half full of water. We discussed liquids and gasses and the materials the rocket was made up of. 

In the classroom we used joining techniques to create our own rockets before heading to the field for launch day. 

The elves have all gone and been replaced by trolls and a few goats.

We listened to In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg and discussed how this made us feel. The story and the music work very well together.

Happy Learning

Food Chains

Scott Grason-Taylor

In Science this week, Learners have been finding out about food chains. We recognised that the sun gives energy to a producer, which is then eaten by one or many consumers. In the classroom, we made our own food chains, using pictures.  This then helped us to create our own food chains, using our own drawings and adding the terms herbivore, carnivore and omnivore correctly.

In History, we have been finding out ‘who is in a monarchy?’. Learners were very interested in identifying the members of our current Royal Family. We discussed the terms heir and heiress and Learners were keen to understand the rules of succession. Learners were particularly interested to find out what abdication was and they agreed this was a fair choice for a prospective King or Queen.

Learners have begun dance sessions with Hannah Verity this week and are looking forward to practising their new routine over the coming weeks.