Stanningley Primary School

After all the excitement of finding an egg in the classroom, it has now gone missing! The children went on a hunt for clues around school, using their map skills to add them to a map of the school grounds. The children found parts of the nest, egg shells, footprints and burnt paper. We are still not sure what happened to the egg but with the year 1 detectives on the case, we will soon solve the mystery!

This week was peace week. The week began with 'odd socks day' where the children all wore odd socks to celebrate how each of them are different. We linked this to the protected characteristics and thought about how even when people are different, they have the right to be treated equally. Year 1 thought about ways they could be a good friend. They thought about ways they could compliment each other. They all chose a friend and wrote a compliment for them. The children LOVED hearing their friends saying nice things about them!

The children loved hearing about why we remember on 11th November. The children talked about some people in their family who had experienced wars. The children who brought money into school were able to buy poppies, but then each child designed their own medal to help them remember why we mark this important occasion.

Today the children learnt which body part is used for each sense. The children carried out a simple test to explore each of their body parts and recorded their findings in different ways. Smell Many of the children already knew that their nose was the body part they used to smell. The children were given the challenge to create the smelliest sock they could using a range of ingredients. They had to smell the ingredients to find the smelliest ones to combine together to make the smelliest sock. Touch A lot of the children knew we used our hands to touch but they were surprised to think about how we actually felt things. We talked about how our skin is designed to feel texture and temperature. We usually use our hands to touch so in this experiments we felt items in a feely bag so we could not see them. We used given words to try to describe them, before we found out what they were. Taste The children knew that we tasted using our mouths but only a few had heard of our taste buds. They were surprised to learn that different parts of our tongue will taste the different flavours. The children closed their eyes and tried some sour, sweet and salty foods. They were all very brave and gave most of them a good go! We tried lemon, honey and olives. Sight The children knew that they used their eyes to see but they all enjoyed testing their eye sight when we played ‘Kim’s Game’. The children had to look at the items on the tray and then try to name the missing item when one was taken away. Hearing The children got to put their ears to the test when they were played a selection of very random sounds they needed to identify. We turned down all the lights and closed our eyes to help our ears work. The children heard birds singing, an egg frying, fingers scratching a blackboard and cats meowing. The children then voted for their favourite sound. Most children liked the cat meowing and the birds singing – not many liked the scratching sound!

To celebrate the end of our Elmer topic, the children all dressed up in their colourful clothing, just like Elmer. We had a circle time where we thought about difference. The children were so mature in their thinking and made some very thoughtful comments. They all agreed it was a good thing to be different. In the afternoon we read our own finished Elmer stories with Early Years. Then we came back to complete a range of Elmer crafts. The children loved designing their name plates, their own milk bottle Elmers and creating their own colourful collages.

The children all identified the parts of their body featured in the song 'heads shoulders knees and toes'. The children then drew around a child and labelled all the body parts they knew. The children located the head, neck, arms, elbows, legs, knees, face, ears, eyes, hair, mouth and teeth on their drawing. We used our own bodies to identify exactly where the body part was on their drawing.

In maths, the children have been working hard to understand new vocabulary in year 1. They consolidated their learning by completing stem sentences comparing numbers. They used the terms less than, greater than and equals to and applied them to practical objects. They used the natural resources in the playground to complete the sentences and compare numbers.

The children have been enjoying using Elmer to help them with their art skills. They learnt the 3 primary colours were red, blue and yellow. They started to use ONLY these colours to decorate their own Elmer. We then looked at ways to shape paper. The children rolled the paper using their fingers, they coiled them around their pencils and then they practised folding the paper in different ways before adding them to their Elmer. The children LOVED this activity and many wanted to continue their skills at home.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this morning so successful. The children all enjoyed a delicious bun in the hall. It was lovely to see so many grown ups there to share this special time.

The children had a Zoom lesson with Sarah from Kirkstall Toy Museum. Sarah showed us some of her older toys – some were over 100 years old! We learnt older toys were less colourful and usually made from darker wood. We found out that in the past, children would have had less toys than we have today. They would have only had one so the toys were harder to master.

We were so lucky to have some very special visitors in school today. This morning, we some of our grandparents joined us to help us learn about the past. We all wrote questions to find out more about their childhood and what the past was like. We moved around the grandparents and they answered our questions, telling us all about their school life! We completed a timeline together then had the chance to play with some traditional toys from the past. Thank you to all the grandparents who gave up their time to be with us!

The children have loved exploring their new space. They have played inside and outside, exploring all their areas of provision.