Year 1 - Mrs Hawthorne/Mrs Greer | Abercorn Primary School

Welcome to Year 1!

Mrs Hawthorne & Mrs Greer

Hello to all our wonderful boys and girls,

We hope you are settling into a new learning experience at home with your home learning packs. Home learning is a new concept for all of us and we are all learning together. Remember, home learning isn’t the same as school. You have other important things to enjoy at home, like spending time with your families, fresh air outside where possible, and hopefully a lot of helping out with housework, baking, cooking and more! Try to do the tasks you can, when you can, we know you’ll try your very best. We are super proud of each and every one of you and miss you all very much!

Mums and Dads, we have an exciting and important development for Primary 1. We are planning to use an online tool called Seesaw. Seesaw is an online tool that will allow us to set tasks for pupils and provide some suggestions for more activities at home, while also giving our pupils a chance to stay in touch with us.

You will receive a letter about Seesaw and how you can access this soon. Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions in the meantime.

Thinking about you all. Stay safe.

Mrs Hawthorne and Mrs Greer

If you would like to contact us please feel free to email us at jhawthorne910@c2kni.net (Mon-Wed) or

lgreer656@c2kni.net (Thurs-Fri)

Learning through play at home. Some activities to enjoy with your child from the various areas of our curriculum :)

Learning Through Play Foundation Stage Abercorn.docx

Say cheese!

World Book Day

To celebrate World book day, we came to school all cosy in our favourite pyjamas. Some of us also brought along our teddies and favourite bedtime story book to share with the class. We had a great day!

Birds

In February we enjoyed finding out about garden birds. We made our own bird feeders and enjoyed using our bird hide to keep a look out for visitors to our school garden. We dressed up in camouflage gear and used binoculars so the birds wouldn't see us! We spotted blue tits, black birds and a robin. During PBL we built nests and wrote descriptions of some garden birds. Our class library had lots of books to help us identify different birds.

Science Sue

Science Sue visited our school and we got to see exciting experiments. Some people from our class were picked as helpers. We discovered lots of new things and had lots of fun!!

Winter Broth

We made vegetable soup together. One group peeled the vegetables and another group chopped them into tiny pieces. Next we added them to the soup maker machine and poured chicken stock over the top. We pressed 'go' and waited for our soup to cook. Once it was ready we all tasted some. We had a vote to see who liked it. Most thought it was yummy but some weren't so sure!

Cold Lands

In January our classroom turned into the arctic! We found out about the Inuit people and how they live and work in cold lands. In Play Based Learning we had great fun dressing up as explorers, penguins and polar bears. We used our magnetic fishing lines to try and catch fish in the ice hole. We used furs and blankets to make our igloo tent warm and cosy. In the water try we experimented with ice cubes to see how long it would take them to melt. At the construction station we used duplo lego to build igloos and dog sleds. At the art table we loved creating our own snowmen and experimenting with making cold colours to paint frosty pictures on tinfoil. We also painted penguins and used cubes to measure their heights. We found out lots of interesting facts about arctic animals. Make sure and ask us what colour a polar bear's skin is!

Christmas

Christmas has arrived at Abercorn! We are having great fun creating decorations for our Christmas tree and writing cards for our family. Santa and his elves are very busy in our Santa's workshop wrapping presents and delivering gifts! We are also building Santa's polar express train and using our duplo blocks to make snowmen and igloos. At the dough table we are using magic foam to decorate gingerbread men and Christmas trees. We are also getting faster at beating Mrs Hawthorne at the Christmas shape game!

Light and Dark

In November we explored the magical world of light, darkness and shadows. We created a dark den and used torches, lamps and battery powered candles to help us see in it. We loved reading our topic books by torch light! At the light table we used mosaics to create beautiful patterns and the LED writing board turned our writing crazy disco colours! We used the projector to tell stories using shadow puppets. We even had a go at creating shadow animals with our hands. One afternoon we pulled the curtains, turned off the lights and had a go at writing our letters in the air using glow sticks. It was great fun! After reading 'Owl Babies' by Martin Waddell we sponge painted owls and used our topic books and the computer to find out interesting facts about owls. We loved learning about nocturnal animals.

Autumn Scavenger Hunt

We went on a class walk in our school grounds to look for signs of autumn. We worked with a partner to find all the items on our scavenger hunt list. We found red, brown, orange, green and yellow leaves. We also threw leaves in the air and watched them swirl, dance and drift to the ground. When we walked through the leaves they made a crunching, scrunching noise. We collected conkers, acorns and leaves to look at with magnifying glasses in our classroom.

Vehicles

In October we investigated vehicles. We created a garage and had lots of tools to service and fix vehicles. We made two cars and everyone had to make their own driving license so they could drive around the classroom! In junk modelling we made trains, rockets, boats and planes. It was great fun sticking and pasting. At the art table we worked together to create a plan of our town.

Parties

In September we had fun learning about parties. We used our cutting and sticking skills to make paper chains and balloons to decorate our room. We also made party invitations, birthday cards and party hats. We had a birthday party for our class teddy Shaun the Sheep. He turned 5! At his party we played musical statues, pass the parcel and last over the mat. We made delicious top hat buns and enjoyed birthday cake. Jay helped Shaun the Sheep blow out the candles. We had great fun!