Blake Class

Welcome

Hello, 

Welcome to our Blake Class page! My name is Miss Wood and I am the Year 1 class teacher. Working in Blake Class we also have Mrs Gale-Robins, Miss Glassup, Mrs Powell, Mrs Macleay and Miss Lewis. Mrs Gale-Robins is my HLTA, supporting each day. Mrs Gale-Robins covers my PPA on a Thursday with Mrs Macleay and Mrs Powell supporting. Miss Glassup and Mrs Powell support in the mornings and Miss Lewis supports Blake Class in the afternoons. Between us we make up the Blake Class Team! We will be using this page throughout the year to keep you updated on our learning.

If you have any questions or messages to pass on, please do not hesitate to speak to a member of staff on the gate in the mornings. You can also speak to me at the end of each day or email me on 

blakeclass@northgateprimaryschool.org.uk 

which will be checked weekly (Thursday).

Learning in Blake Class

Summer B – Castles and Knights

Curriculum Overview – click here

Knowledge Organiser – click here

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Trip to Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm

Blake Class enjoyed a recent trip to Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm. We spent the morning exploring the zoo looking at all of the animals. In the afternoon, we had a special lesson all about animals in Africa. We got the chance to meet Lulu the Tortoise and a Giant African Land Snail. It was a fantastic day!

Place Value to 100 – Partitioning tens and ones

Blake Class enjoyed a practical maths lesson partitioning numbers to one hundred. First, we used manipulatives to partition our numbers and then we advanced onto using digits to represent our answers. The staff in Blake Class were super impressed with the positive attitude to learning across the classroom. 

                                    Summer A – Animals and Africa

Knowledge Organiser – click here

Curriculum Overview – click here

Easter Crafts Workshop

We had a great time making a variety of Easter Crafts out of paper plates with our parents. We got creative with a paper plate to make an Easter Bunny headband, mask and an Easter basket. We were challenged to make an Egg Surprise Pop Up Card too. They were eggcellent!

Trip To Wells Cathedral

We enjoyed our first trip on the coach this year to Wells Cathedral as part of our RE learning on the Easter story. We shared what we had learned and learnt lots more too! We showed our learning by answering some great questions and even asked some of our own. We were very lucky to have some volunteer tour guides who shared their expertise whilst showing us around Wels Cathedral. We listened to a story, saw some stained glass windows up close which told a story before making our own window collages. We even got to use the badge making machine to each make our own badge. We enjoyed lunch in the Camery Garden and finding out way to the Chapter House where we practiced our Easter Song.

British Science Week

This Year we explored ‘Curious Chemistry’ where we experimented with mixing materials and observing a chemical reaction. We enjoyed carrying out the ‘Magic Milk’, ‘Magic Skittles’ slime and gloop experiment. We watched what happened and recorded the process. We even got to display it and present it to the whole school.

Topic

We have enjoyed exploring our Space Topic. We have linked this with our Maths learning when problem solving and counting. We have also written about the Man on The Moon story in our English lessons. In History we have found out about the significant people and events, we then looked at sequencing these events in chronological order. We have thoroughly enjoyed exploring our loaned Space Box. We used the photos to place in order of events that took place, found out what equipment Astronauts need to take to Space. We have enjoyed looking at the Solar System and reading Space themed books in our ‘Space Tent’ to find key facts.

World Book Day

This year, we dressed up as a chosen character from a book. We had opportunities through the day to share what we dressed up as, design our costume and write about our character. We explored books and stories in our class and across the school. The whole school focus this year was on the book “Somebody Swallowed Stanley”. We listened to the story, used time connectives to sequence the story in our writing and we even used musical instruments to make the sounds that we could hear. 

 Spring B – To Infinity and Beyond

Curriculum Overview Spring B – Click here

Knowledge Organiser Spring B – Click here

PE

In our Real PE lessons we have focused on balance. We have developed our dynamic balance on different lines and our static balance, concentrating on our stance. We have been learning the skills of basketball with our PE coach this term. We have practised sending and receiving a ball by throwing, bouncing and catching.

Celebration of Learning

We invited our families into our classroom for a workshop to celebrate our learning from this Term. We had different table activities and stations set up in the classroom and in our courtyard area so we could teach our grown ups! Our learning linked to shape in Maths, joins in DT, materials in Science and the UK in Geography.

DT

In DT we linked our learning to our Topic ‘The UK’ to design, make and evaluate our final product. We learned about different joining techniques to help us to make a felt animal in the UK. We learned how to join two pieces of material together by gluing, pinning, stapling and sewing! We were so creative and used our imaginations to make our chosen animal and to decide which materials would be used for each feature. We were so resilient and persevered to complete our creations.

Science

In Science we have been using our knowledge on materials to extend our thinking. We have built on our knowledge and we have been testing materials to find out whether they are waterproof, whether they float or sink and whether they are magnetic over the course of the Term. We explored materials first to help make some predictions before testing the materials and evaluating our findings. We used our imaginations to make a waterproof shelter and a boat that can float.

Spring A – The United Kingdom 

Newsletter Spring A – Click here

Curriculum Overview Spring A – Click here

Knowledge Organiser Spring – Click here

The Wriggly Nativity

We enjoyed being either a sheep, shepherd, cow or donkey in The Wriggly Nativity for this years KS1 Nativity Performance. We joined in with every song and learned the actions. We practised and performed our class song ‘Skip skip skippity hop’ along with sign language. We all joined in by remembering the lyrics and actions. We enjoyed each performance. We just kept getting better and better every time!

Christmas Crafts Workshop

We enjoyed getting creative during our Christmas Crafts Carousel. We made  Christmas cards, Christmas decorations, as well as tree decorations using a selection of materials as well as our imaginations to create our own. 

Art

In our Art lessons we have experimented with Printmaking by using different tools such as potatoes, leaves, fingers, ink, playdough and string. We used inspiration that we gathered from Artists whilst impressed printing with natural objects and  human made objects. We even made our own tools using card and string to print in relief. Here are just some of our creative creations.

Forest School 

We enjoyed our Forest School session this Term as we explored our Forest School area on the hunt for leaves. We made a leaf crown and were challenged to find different size leaves as well as different colours for our nature inspired crown. 

Great Fire of London Workshop

We were very lucky to have a special visit from Sam from The Museum who shared some more interesting facts from around the time of 1666. We had a go at writing with a quill and liquid ink, even using the secretary’s alphabet! We worked as a team in a chain to put out a ‘fire’ with only materials available during The Great Fire of London. We had so much fun getting into character in costume and holding different objects used from the past. 

Great Fire of London

Our Topic this Term has been The Great Fire of London, we have explored this Topic during our History and English lessons. We explored some of the objects used during the time of 1666 and compared this with equipment and materials used for the same purpose today. We used this significant event to inspire our writing also in the form of diaries and poems. 

Children in Need 

We enjoyed wearing pyjamas, yellow or something Pudsey for Children in Need. We took part in Pudsey themed activities in the afternoon in Blake Class and had lots of fun!

Remembrance Day

We have been remembering all the people that served in the war, all the animals and finding out about poppies and what makes them special. We had a week of poppy themed activities. In Art we have been learning about print making. We used one of the types of print making to make a Poppy Picture for our whole school display. We also used playdough to sculpt some poppies in Golden Time. 

Autumn B – The Great Fire of London

Curriculum Overview Autumn B – Click here

Knowledge Organiser Autumn B – Click here

Learning

This half term we have continued to develop our learning by choosing phonics challenges, counting activities as well as opportunities to develop our writing. We linked our writing to our phonics and Topic work. We have been busy learners!

Science

In Science we have been using our senses to spot signs of Autumns as well as exploring all four seasons. We made rain gauges in four groups to monitor the rainfall over a week. We compared all four rain gauges and used our counting and measuring skills to find the results. We also made snow crystals by carefully measuring and mixing the equipment used. We even went cloud spotting using our cloud frames to observe which one/s were present.

PE

In Real PE this half term we have been focusing on a one legged balance to develop both our balance and co-ordination. We developed this skill on our own as well as in pairs.

Multicultural Week

During the week we learned all about Brazil. We found out the capital of Brazil, the famous landmarks and the colours in the flag. We used this knowledge to create our own posters to put up on display. We had daily Samba Class lessons and learned a routine to perform during our whole school parade. We continued our creativity to each create a headdress, some of us made eye masks as well as a a flag for the occasion. We even had a salsa making and tasting class!

Carnival Workshop

We were very lucky to have two visitors from the Bridgwater Carnival Committee to tell us all about the history. Sarah and Chris came with a real squib, costumes and lots of knowledge about how the Carnival has changed over time. Some of us even got to hold the squib and try on the costumes! We had lots of great questions at the end and found out more about how the carts move, how the wheels work and how the lights are connected.

Carnival Carts

As part of our DT Topic this half term, we have been finding out about wheels and axles. We designed our own carnival carts with a moving part and focused on using our Topic terminology with our vocabulary mats. We then made them and evaluated the end result. As you can see they were amazing!

Autumn A – Me in My World 

Newsletter Autumn A – Click here

Curriculum Overview Autumn A – Click here

Knowledge Organiser Autumn A – Click here

 Curriculum Meeting Powerpoint – Click here 

 Town Trip 

In Geography we are learning about the local area. Blake Class enjoyed a walk around Bridgwater to find Human and Physical Features. We visited Bridgwater Docks, The River Parrett, Blake Statue and King Square.