St John
and St
Francis Church School 
Year 1 Blackbird
December 2024 - Merry Christmas!
We have been very busy getting ready for Christmas in Blackbird Class, but it has been lots of fun.
Some of the things we have enjoyed doing include our Christmas performance, making Christmas cards and calendars for our families, making Advent wreaths and Christingles in RE, and we also had a Christmas party. Santa even came to visit which was very exciting!
Here are some photographs for you to have a look at so that you can see what we have been doing.
I hope that you all have a lovely, restful Christmas and I look forward to seeing you in 2025.
Mrs Leach
November 2024 Year 1 English - Wow starter! Where the Wild Things Are
Today we listened to the story of Where the Wild Things Are. We then looked at some pictures of different cartoon monsters and agreed that a monster was quite unique and could have all kinds of different features. look at the fantastic monsters that we have created today using recyclable materials.
November 2024 Year 1 History - Wow starter!
First Flight
This morning we had a visit from Don Thomas. He was a pilot who worked for the Air force and flew very fast planes. Don was also an astronaut and had also travelled in space rockets.
Don told the children all about how the Montgolfier brothers invented the hot air balloon, and how they first sent up a duck, chicken and sheep to see how far it could fly.
Don then taught us about how the glider was invented and how people tried to fly.
We then learnt all about Orville and Wilbur Wright and how as children they loved to read and fix things and how from a very young age, they had dreamt of flying. Wilbur and Orville were the sons of Susan and Milton. When they were young adults, they worked in a bicycle shop, where they fixed and made bicycles.
Wilbur flew their first aeroplane on 14th December 1903. The flight lasted for 3 seconds. Orville attempted his first solo flight which lasted for 12 seconds. On the 17th of December 1903 the Wright flight, as it was named lasted for 37 minutes. The Wright brothers had invented and flown the very first aeroplane.
The children were able to get into character and help Don retell the life story of The Wright Brothers and to learn about first flight.
September 2024 Geography. Walk around the local area.
What a great morning we have had today looking to see what is in our local area. Just round the corner from our school we saw the co-op and other local shops including a bakery and a hairdressers. We also saw a post box, where we can send our letters. We then carefully crossed the main road using the zebra crossing and went in search of St John & St Francis Church, a green space and The Salvation Army. We had our own recording sheets so could tick off some of our landmarks that we had seen. We were really lucky as several of our parents were able to join us. A big thank you to all of our helpers.
September 2024. English Wow Starter!
Today we received a letter from a new friend. He is called Dave and he is a skeleton.
In his letter he told us that unfortunately some his friends, Bob, Brian, Brenda and Betty had got broken up and needed some help to put them back together again.
We worked in groups to hunt for the parts of the missing skeletons. Then we worked together to put the skeletons back together.
We then heard the story of Funnybones written by Janet and Allen Ahlberg. It was really funny. We discussed the parts that we enjoyed the most.
Over the next few weeks we will listen to some more stories by these authors as they are our focussed authors this half term. Do you have any of their stories at home?
September 2024 Welcome to Year 1!
Welcome to Year 1. We have had a very busy first couple of days in school, we wanted to share some photos of the activities the children have been doing. The children have settled beautifully and we have enjoyed getting to know them.
Blackbird Health and Sport Week : June 2024
What a great week we have had this week during health and sports week. We began the week with Kirsty Way a European champion trampoline gymnast. We have also had a circus skills workshop, a tennis session along with a range of other activities promoting the importance of sun safety, healthy eating and road safety. Here are some pictures from our very busy week.
English Minibeast Wow! : June 2024
Today we started our Minibeasts topic in English. We began by sharing our ideas about ‘What is a Minibeast?’ before going on our own minibeast hunt around the school grounds. We took a check-list with us to record all the different types of minibeasts we could find and magnifying glasses so that we could see any details.
We loved being explorers, here are some photos of some of the mini-beasts we found!
Giant objects arrive in Blackbird Class : May 2024
We have been so impressed by all the giant objects that have arrived in Blackbird Class this week. The children have enjoyed sharing them with the class and we have all enjoyed looking at them. A huge thank you for all the hard work that has been put into making them.
English Wow! Jack and the Beanstalk : May 2024
Today we found a strange suitcase in the middle of the classroom. We wondered if we should open it.
We carefully opened the suitcase and took out the items that were inside one by one. We noticed that everything inside was much bigger than normal. We tried to guess who it could belong to. Maybe a giant?
We realised that the story of ‘Jack and the beanstalk’ had a character who was a giant and decided to read it. We all joined in with the fun bits ‘Fi Fi Fo Fum’!
We thought of some words to describe the giant objects, these are called adjectives.
Planting a bean : May 2024
Today we heard the story of Jasper's Beanstalk. We learnt how Jasper planted a bean, then had to wait a long time for the bean to start growing. We then had the opportunity to plant our own beans, we can't wait to see them grow!
Year 1 Church Visit : March 2024
Blackbird Class walked to the St Francis of Assisi Church this morning as part of our Salvation Unit in RE. We have been learning about Symbols of Christianity and the Easter Story so we were very interested to see if we could see any representations of these in the church. We noticed that there are lots of crosses in the Church and were extremely impressed when we were shown a quilt that one of the members of the Church had made, with lots of details to represent the life of Jesus. It took her 6 months to sew!
World Book Day
Look at our amazing costumes that we wore to school today to celebrate World Book Day. We enjoyed sharing some of our stories with the rest of the class.
RockTopus
What an amazing time we had today working with RockTopus, a real life rock band. We created our very own rock song all about the ten times tables. Here are some pictures from our session and we can't wait to view our rock video once Andy and Tom publish it.
Year 1 Trip to Somerset Rural Life Museum
Today we visited the Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury.
We took part in a workshop where we conducted a scientific investigation using everyday materials. We also looked around the museum to learnt how materials are an important part of domestic and farming life in Somerset.
We had a great day!
Fencing with Coach Jim
Blackbird Class had a fantastic morning learning how to fence with Coach Jim. We were taught how to stand, how to move backwards and forwards and three special words that are used in fencing. Did you know that the equipment used in fencing is called a foil? Here are some photos of our fun morning of fencing.
Year 1 Visit from Storyteller
Today in year 1 we were lucky to have a visit from Sharon Jacksties, a professional storyteller. It was very exciting, Sharon brought some musical instruments from all over the world which she used to help her tell us her story.
Her story was all about a quiet, shy, young boy called Davey who loved to sit in his boat on the River Parratt. One day he caught a massive, slimy, scaly fish, which sadly he had harmed with his fishing hook and made the fish's mouth and cheek bleed. Suddenly he heard a small voice asking him to kiss his wound better. At first Davey wondered where the voice was coming from. He then realised it was the fish. He quickly kissed the fish and to his surprise the fish shred its slimy scales and turned into a beautiful young girl. Davey was not shy around the girl and had found himself a new friend. They spent lots of time together and fell in love. They later married and had children of their own. However, all of the children and grandchildren and great, great grandchildren that they had, all had the same scar on their cheeks just like the young girl had from the fishing hook. The children enjoyed their visit and I am sure will enjoy making up some of their own stories about Davey and the fish from The River Parratt.
Hedgehog Workshop
Year 1 were very lucky this afternoon as we had a visitor from the RSPCA. She taught us what RSPCA means and all about the very important work that they do.
We learnt about caring for all kinds of animals and particularly how to care for hedgehogs. We didn't know that they could get stuck in tin cans so it's important that we are careful with our recycling. We also learnt what to do if we think they are in trouble.
We finished the session by making our own hedgehogs out of clay. It was a great afternoon!
Blackbird ICT Lesson
Today Mrs Leach showed us how to upload a photograph from the camera onto our class page, as part of our online safety lesson. Everyone in the picture has permission to be on our school website. We have spent some time looking at the different parts of our website. We can not wait to see our picture once it is uploaded.
Happy New Year and Welcome Back!
Wow! what a busy three days we have had in year 1 this week.
In English we had our Wow starter- we came into school on Wednesday morning and it appeared that our classroom had been part of a crime scene investigation. Someone had broken into our classroom and not only left us with a trail of devastation but several clues for us to solve. A small child was apparently the prime suspect and had left a lock of long golden hair and a red ribbon as she fled the scene. Who could this person be? We are yet to find the suspect.
On Thursday we had our PE Festival which was truly amazing. We had the opportunity to participate in four different obstacle courses and competed against other groups in our class.
Today we bought in some of our favourite toys that we enjoyed playing with at home. Our History topic is on toys and we will be looking at how toys have changed over the years.
That's without our other lessons that we have been working hard in. Here are some pictures from our busy week.
Christmas Week in Blackbird Class
What a busy week we have had getting ready for Christmas!
We enjoyed sharing our Christmas performance 'Don't be Afraid' with you at the start of the week. Since then we have had our Christmas lunch, Christmas Disco, made Christingles as part of the Festival of Lights and played board games in our Christmas jumpers. We have also enjoyed some Christmas activities to share with you such as a calendar, a Christmas card, a letter to Santa and a Christmas tree decoration. We even had a visit from Father Christmas! We finished the week with a relaxing film.
We hope you have lovely relaxing Christmas and look forward to seeing you in the New Year.
Children In Need
Thank you to everyone who has supported children in need today. Here are a few piccies of the children wearing their spotty accessories.
CAD Character Visit - First Flight
This morning we had a visit from Don Thomas. He was a pilot who worked for the Air force and flew very fast planes. Don was also an astronaut and had also travelled in space rockets.
Don told the children all about how the Montgolfier brothers invented the hot air balloon, and how they first sent up a duck, chicken and sheep to see how far it could fly.
Don then taught us about how the glider was invented and how people tried to fly.
We then learnt all about Orville and Wilbur Wright and how as children they loved to read and fix things and how from a very young age, they had dreamt of flying. Wilbur and Orville were the sons of Susan and Milton. When they were young adults, they worked in a bicycle shop, where they fixed and made bicycles.
Wilbur flew their first aeroplane on 14th December 1903. The flight lasted for 3 seconds. Orville attempted his first solo flight which lasted for 12 seconds. On the 17th of December 1903 the Wright flight, as it was named lasted for 37 minutes. The Wright brothers had invented and flown the very first aeroplane.
The children were able to get into character and help Don retell the life story of The Wright Brothers and to learn about first flight.
Wow starter! Where the Wild Things Are
Today we started our new English unit, based on the story 'Where the Wild Things Are'. We listened to the story, then thought about what our own 'Wild Thing' might look like. We then made our own junk model 'Wild Things' using items that were ready to be recycled.
Here are some photos of us creating our 'Wild Things'.
International Languages Day - Italy
As part of our International Languages Day, Year 1 had a lovely day learning about Italy. We came to school wearing the colours of the Italian Flag - red, white and green. We found Italy on the map and learnt more about the places, people and food that can be found there. We even learnt to count to five in Italian. We finished the day by tasting some pizza then designed our own, thinking carefully about which ingredients we wanted to include.
Geography Local Area Walk
Yesterday Year 1 went for a walk in the local area. We had a lovely time exploring in the sunshine. We looked for some shops, a post box, the church, a green space and the Salvation Army as part of our Geography field work unit. Next week we will be creating our own pictorial maps and will be writing a recount of our walk using time connectives.
A super start to Year 1!
Blackbird Class have had a great start to the year. We have been extremely busy over the past two weeks and thought it would be nice to share some photos of what we have been doing. Please ask your children to tell you all about the exciting things they have been learning about.
