Emmaville Primary School

Scotland Yr 1

Welcome to the Scotland Year 1 Class Page.  Here, you can find out about everything that we've been doing this year.
Friday 8th April
 
I can't believe we are already at the end of another half term! It has been a great half term in Scotland with so many new things learnt.
 
This week on English we have been learning all about The Easter Story. The children were able to use their fantastic Oracy skills to re-tell the story. We also used our drama skills to think about the different parts of the story and created 'freeze frames' to show what was happening during the story.
 
We also wrote some Spring acrostic poems. Here are some for you to read...
 
Spring makes flowers
Pots of soil good for plants
Running lambs feed
I love chicks being born in Spring
Now Spring is for robins
Go skipping lambs
 
Fraser
 
Sunny weather
Pretty flowers
Running fluffy lambs
In Spring birds sing
No more snow
Great days
 
Niamh
Friday 1st April
 
This week we have been enjoying our Enrichment week all about the theme of Diversity. It has led to some very interesting discussions with the children in Scotland. They have approached this topic with such sensitivity and deep thought.
 
We have covered so many topics this week but I really wanted to celebrate the children during our History lesson. We were learning about people who have made a difference in the world. The lady we focused on was Rosa Parks.
 
We were able to watch a dramatisation about her life. This really helped the children to understand a little bit more about this incredible lady and her actions. The children learned how she was a just a normal lady on her way home from work during a time when black and white people were segregated on the bus. When a white lady got on the bus Rosa was supposed to give up her seat but this time she 'would not budge!' This led to huge protests and a boycott of the buses in Montgomery, USA, where she lived. Eventually the law was changed and black and white people could travel on the bus together without segregation.
 
This linked with our previous work when we learnt about Dr. Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. the children were able to talk about these famous people and how they were linked. I was very impressed with the children and how they referred to their previous learning.
 
They really understood how all people should be treated the same no matter what their differences are. It has been a great week learning all about Diversity.
Friday 25th March
 
This week we have been completing some Geography 'fieldwork.'
 
We discussed what the term meant first. After that we were went out to investigate our school grounds to see what we could observe in 4 different places in our school environment. We went to the front yard, the field, the back yard and the fire pit area.
 
We were given the challenge to record what we could see, hear, smell and touch in each of the different areas. We then recorded this on our field work grid.
 
When we came back into the class we were given another challenge to use our observations of the school building to see if we could draw an aerial view of the school.
 
We did find this quite a challenge indeed! We had a look at Google Earth to see how our school would look if we were a bird flying over the buildings. It was amazing to see how the children could identify different parts of school from above. Our final challenge was to add a key to our map.
 
As you will see from the photos we had a great time.
 
 
Friday 18th March
 
This week in Scotland I want to celebrate the way in which we work as a team.
 
Every Monday the children are given new work partners who they complete different work activities with every week. This week I have been particularly impressed with how the children have ben working with each other.
 
They are so kind and use lovely kind words with each other to motivate and support each other. They have been thinking about this when they go outside to play too and and have been creating some lovely imaginative games together.
 
It really is a pleasure to see them working together. Their listening skills are fantastic. They take the time to listen to what their partner wants to say and then they are able to discuss different points of view.
 
One of the children was put on the Rewards sheet this week be cause of his kind actions to one of the other children in the class. She couldn't tie her shoelace so the little boy just quietly sat down and did them for her. What a star!
 
A fantastic week for a fantastic class! Well done Scotland team. 
Friday 11th March
 
What a busy week we have had! Scotland class have had a lot of fun in PE this week learning lots of different Net and Wall games.
 
We really enjoy learning new skills and the children particularly enjoy earning points for their different house teams. Currently Team Tyne is winning but this can change every week!
 
As part of out Net and Wall skills this week we have had to learn how to throw more accurately. We worked on our own and then in pairs to practise this skill. We had to try to throw a ball underarm bouncing once in a hoop for our friends on the other side of the hoop to be able to catch. We then looked at how we could make this easier or more challenging depending on our skill level.
 
The children were able to come up with lots of ideas about how we could adapt this game to enhance our skills.
 
We then moved on to using our cones as a low level 'net.' Our partner made sure that they were in the 'ready' position to be able to catch the ball before it was thrown.
 
The children became very proficient at throwing and catching and earned lots of points for their house teams.
 
Well done Scotland!
Friday 4th March
 
This week in Music our focus was on musical composition using untuned percussion. 
 
We had so much fun deciding which musical instrument we were going to chose and how we would play it. We had a range of instruments to choose from - drums, tambourims, triangles, guiros and tambourines. We were able to investigate how these instruments could be played and what sort of noise they made before we began our compositions. 
 
We then used a 4 by 4 grid to make our music. If a square had a picture of our instrument in then we played it once. If the square was empty then we had to take a rest. We composed our music and then practised to using our instrument. We counted to 4 before we began and then we had to try to keep in time as we played our music. The children did find it tricky at first but as we practised it did become easier.
 
For a further challenge we turned our books around to play our 4 by 4 grid in a different way.
 
What a lovely musical sessions we had. We are going to build on our skills again next week!

Friday 18th February

 

This week in class we were studying the city of Moscow in Russia. We looked at the city and some of the main features of the city. One of the buildings that we particularly liked was St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square.

As part of our Art lesson we followed a tutorial about how to recreate the building using collage. We had to concentrate on using thick and thin lines when adding detail to our towers.

Firstly, we drew the columns and then we looked carefully at how we could decorate them. The ‘onion’ domes on the top were quite tricky to draw.

We carefully cut out our towers and then arranged them on black card before we glued them down.

As you can see from the picture below we made a really god job of our collages.

Friday 11th February

This week in Scotland, we took part in Internet Safety Day on Tuesday. The theme was looking at ‘Fun and Games online.’

We talked about what being online meant and the children took part in some very interesting activities to help them think about staying safe online.

We made some ‘Emoji’ fans that we used to show each other how we might feel in a range of different scenarios. For example, what would we feel if a pop up appeared on our screen. The children said they would feel a bit worried – but they knew what to do to solve this problem. They knew to ask a grown up!

We also took part in a whole school competition to design a SMART rules poster. The winning design is now featuring on our Year One Ipads! Our class winner was Molly. You can see her poster below. She won a lovely book about staying safe online.

I was very impressed with all of the children in class and they certainly know what to do if they ever have any problems online.

Well done Scotland class!

Friday 4th February

We have been lucky enough to go the local library in Crawcrook for a visit. We had a really nice time.

When we first got there Kyle read us a story all about a character called Lulu and a treasure hunt that she went on. When the story was finished the children were very excited to discover that they were going to do their own treasure hunt around the library.

They had to look for pictures of the story characters and the write down the letters they were holding. After that they had to complete a tricky challenge to re-arrange the letters to create a word. The winner would win a book.

It was great to see the children all searching high and low for the clues. There was some healthy competition but they worked so well with their friends to solve the anagram – which was Treasure.

The children all put their answer sheets in a pile and Kyle shuffled them up and the winner was Eden. She was really delighted to win a Winnie the Pooh book to take home. We were all really lucky too as we also got a copy of the Winnie the Pooh book to take back to school to read.

Friday 28th January

 

Every morning in Scotland class we get our day off to a fantastic start by completing our Maths Mastery challenges. We have been working on these short burst sessions every day. They are making such a difference to our Maths knowledge.

 

Every week we learn something knew or consolidate what we have already learnt. We have amazed some of the adults in school with our use of Mathematical vocabulary. Mr Saddington couldn’t believe we were using the word ‘subitise’ and knew the meaning too!

 

We use lots of different resources to help us with our learning Rekenreks, tens frames, dice, double sided counters and interlocking cubes.

 

This week we were using interlocking cubes to find patterns using the number ten - which has been our focus number for this week. As you will see from the photos we worked with our work partner to find number bonds to ten and number patterns with ten.

 

A masterful week Scotland!

Thursday 20th January
 
This week in our Geography lesson we were learning all about Washington DC in America. We learned about the many interesting places you would see if you were lucky enough to visit this city.
 
In our Art lesson, we focused on sculpture using clay. We had a picture of five of the famous places you could see in Washington on our table. We all had a piece of clay that we then used to try to replicate the building.
 
The buildings were, The White House, The Lincoln Memorial, The Smithsonian, The Capitol building and the Washington Monument.
 
The children absolutely loved the way they were able to sculpt and mold the clay to make the different shapes of the buildings. It was fantastic to see them working as a team to create different parts of the buildings together.
 
There were some very tricky elements of the build to complete - the Washington Memorial was definitely the easiest - but the children really had lots of fun trying to sculpt Abraham Lincoln!
 
Well done on using your Growth Mindset with this tricky task!
Friday 14th January
 
In our PE lessons this week, we have been concentrating on gymnastics. It was such a lot of fun!
 
We had to move like different animals during the warm up session and it was great to see what animals the children thought of to be. We had to be a fast animal - there were a lot of cheetahs! Then we had to be a slow animal - we even had a sloth that didn't really move much at all!
 
Following that the children had to think about how they could combine their movements with a balance. It was quite a tricky task to be moving about and then to hold a balance for the count of five. We did talk about what could help us to improve our balancing skills.
 
As you can see from the photos below we had a great time!
Friday 7th January
 
Already the end of our our first week back and what a lovely week it has been!
 
Everyone in Scotland came back with such happy smiling faces and excited tales of what they had been lucky to receive from Father Christmas. All the children had been very lucky indeed!
 
We have had a busy week and all of the children have been fantastic.
 
We had a great 'Jigsaw' lesson this week to think about our Dreams and Goals for this coming year.
 
The lesson we completed today focused on what we were already successful at. All of the children were able to discuss with their work partner the many different things that they felt that they had achieved. 
 
It was really lovely to hear the many things that the children were able to do:
 
 - riding a bike
 - passing Stage 2 at swimming
 - riding a scooter
 - jumping in a swimming pool
 - working hard at Judo and Tae Kwondo
 
We wrote all of our successes on a coin and have put them into our success treasure box to share in class.
 
A fab week back Super Scotland!
Friday 17th December
 
I cannot believe that we are already at the end of our first term! It has been an amazing start to our year and we have done so much. 
 
This week we have had so much fun - we had a visit from an elf and Mrs. Claus on Monday which the children absolutely loved - their laughs and giggles could be heard throughout school! It was great to see them enjoying themselves so much.
 
It was Christmas dinner day on Wednesday and the children looked very festive in their Christmas jumpers.
 
Thursday was the day of our Christmas party and all the children came to school in their lovely party clothes. They all looked incredible! They had a great time playing lots and lots of different party games. I think they would definitely have slept well last night!
 
We also were able to record a special 'Nativity' themed song for you to watch. As you will see from the attached video, the children did a beautiful job of the singing the festive song. I really hope you enjoy it. They did work very hard to learn the song and all f the words. They are true superstars!
 
I hope you all have an amazing Christmas and that Santa is good to you all. See you all in the New Year.
 
 

Friday 10th December

This week we have had an amazing time during our STEM week. We have been completing lots of different challenges linked to Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

We have used the Busy Bundle app in Computing to begin coding which we thought was great fun! We enjoyed giving the instructions to the helicopter pilot to rescue the animals and put them in the bath.

At the beginning of the week, we were given a challenge linked to Jack and the Beanstalk which was to create a structure that would take Jack and the Giant back up to the Giant's castle. We ‘brainstormed’ some ideas about what sorts of things we could use from in the classroom to help us build our structure. We used Lego, blocks, lolly sticks and recyclable materials. We thought that we would have the most success with the recyclable materials but in the end the blocks were our most successful material.

Linked to this STEM challenge we talked a lot about having a ‘Growth Mindset’ and what that meant. We found that we had to use our Growth Mindset to have some success with some of the more challenging resources – especially when our structures kept falling down and we had to start all over again!

Towards the end of the week we completed an Oracy task linked to STEM. We shared the book ‘Until I Met Dudley.’ It is about a little girl who thinks she knows how things work – but she isn’t quite right. Her friend Dudley helps her to know how things really work. We had to think about how we thought that a rubbish lorry might work. Firstly, we drew our ideas and then we recorded them. Enjoy listening to our ideas in the attached video clip.

Well done for your super ‘Growth Mindset’ and good creative thinking skills Scotland!

 I built a tall tower and then at home I built a castle out of an ice-cream tub. Fraser

 We built a tower with lolly sticks. It was easy. Isabella

 We built towers out of Lego. Hannah

 We did a little video to tell people how a rubbish truck works. Niamh

 We thought Dudley was happy that he was telling people how things actually worked. Ivy

Friday 2nd December

In Science this week, we have ben continuing to find out about our body and how our senses work. We have already learned about taste and hearing. This week we were learning all about our sight.

We investigated to find out if we could see better with one eye or with two. In our experiment we had to try to drop a counter into a cup from a height. First, we had to predict which we thought would work better – with one eye open or two.

After we had written down our predictions the fun really began. We worked with our work partner to find out which was best. Our partner told us when to drop the counter into the pot and then we had to record our results.

We talked about what we found out. Some of us thought that one eye would be more successful than two but we did discover that in the main, most of us had more success when we used two eyes.

It was a lot of fun and we can’t wait to find out all about our sense of touch next week.

Friday 26th November

 

This week in Design and Technology we tried something totally new!

We have to learn how to create some model designs using computer software. We were able to logon to a computer programme called ‘Tinkercad’ on the iPads.

This week we were just learning how to use some of the very basic tools in the programme to create our designs.

As you can see from some of the images, we were able to add shapes and text to our designs. We investigated how to change the size of the shape and the orientation of it too. It was good fun to use the tools to be able to see our creation from all directions – even from underneath.

 

We were able to talk about how this programme could be useful when creating designs in the real world as we would be able to create something and have a good look at it before we actually had to build it in reality.

 

Another great lesson Scotland! Well done…super ‘tinkering!’

Friday 19th November

 

As part of our work to learn how Technology helps us in our lives, we learnt how to set up a TEAMS meeting with one of the other classes in school. This meant that we were able to see our friends in a different place in the school.

We decided that we would like to speak to the children who are the furthest away from us in school – the children in Year Six.

We set up the meeting using the calendar and then we were able to talk to our friends. It was really nice to see them and learn what they have been learning this week.

We talked about how important it was to make sure that we were keeping ourselves safe while using the internet to see other people.

I saw my brother! Ivy

They told us what they did. Fraser

We waved at them. Justin

We said “Hello” to them. Imogen

It was nice to see them. Cressida

Friday 12th November
 
This week in Scotland class, we have enjoyed working on our Maths Mastery. It is a quick 10 - 15 minutes session that we do every morning. We work with our Maths work partner to complete different activities.
 
This week we were learning about odd and even numbers. We talked about items that came in pairs and talked about what we would call these numbers and what we would call the numbers that were left over.
 
We were able to use a variety of resources - cubes, counters and tens frames to help us to see if a number was odd or even. It was great to be able to watch a short clip form the 'Number blocks' too to help us see the difference between 'oddtops' and 'eventops.'
 
The children in Scotland class were amazing at knowing the odd and even numbers - great Maths work!
Friday 5th November
 
In our Computing lesson this week, we have been looking at technology in our lives. We first talked about what technology was and what it meant to us.
 
We talked how technology made our lives easier We tried to identify different things in our classroom that helped to make our lives easier. We learnt that technology didn't always have to be linked to the computer.
 
Our task this week was to use technology to talk to someone in another place. We decided that we would talk to the other Year One class. We thought about all the different ways we could do this.
 
The children were introduced to TEAMS and we set up a meeting with England class. It was great to see our friends in the other class via our big screen. The children were shown some of the different features of TEAMS and how this technology made our lives easier - especially during the recent pandemic. The children could remember using it when they were away from school to see their teachers.
 
We were able to learn how to use the camera on and off function, the microphone on and off and off and we even had fun changing our background. The children thought it was great fun to talk to other people as if we were living in a Minecraft world!
 
The children really enjoyed our lesson which also involved a recap of internet safety.
 
Well done Super Scotland!

Thursday 21st October

We have been learning about Stonehenge this week in our Geography lesson. The children in Scotland looked at the site and talked about how the stones might have got there. We also wondered what they might have been there for.

We were very lucky to have some first-hand help from our Headteacher Miss Armstrong who had visited the site on her holidays this year. We were able to put some questions to her via a TEAMS meeting.

It was great to be able to talk to someone who had actually seen the site. Thanks Miss Armstrong – you make a great tour guide!

After this lesson about Stonehenge the children were able to try to build the monument using a variety of different materials. As you can see from the photos and quotes below – they really enjoyed their learning about Stonehenge.

 

I liked it when I made the model. Dylan

I liked making Stonehenge out of cubes because when I started to make it, it looked super easy! Imogen

I did like using the blocks because they stuck together. Fraser

I enjoyed the Lego best because it was easy for me. Luke

I found the clay hard because it was hard to make the shapes. Frankie

I made a little Stonehenge out of the wood blocks. I put a little golden thing inside of it. Mia-Star

I built a big tower made of blocks. Eden

I had fun! Isabella

I was making Stonehenge out of clay. AJ

I had fun in the clay. Maci

My favourite thing about Stonehenge was the Lego because I like building with Lego. Jaxon

 

Friday 15th October
 
Over the last half term we have been learning lots of different gymnastic skills in our PE lessons. 
 
We have been building up a series of different gymnastic movements using balances and different level movements. It has been amazing to see how well the children have worked to put together a series of movements. They have worked alone and with a work partner to create their moves.
 
This week we have been concentrating on lots of different types of rolls. We have done barrel rolls, straight rolls and then we even tried the more complicated forward rolls.
 
To help with our forward rolls we used a slope to help us get into the correct position. The children were so excited to the the top of the slope to have a go. I was very impressed with their keenness to try something new - there was lots of 'growth mindset' on show as they tried time and time again to perfect their rolls.
 
Well done Scotland!

Friday 8th October
 
As it was National Poetry Day on Thursday, we have really enjoyed listening to lots of different poems. See some of the comments below about our 'poetic' week!
 
I liked reading poems. Imogen
I liked writing the poems down. Niamh
I liked doing the bee poem with Miss Armstrong. Fraser
I like the Autumn poem. Justin
I like the scary poems. Isabella
I like the poems that Mrs Lawrence reads to us. AJ
I like the spooky poems. Eden
I like the train poem. Sebastian
 
We were given the challenge to learn a poem called The Rhythm of Life by Michael Rosen. We watched a video of him giving us some top tips about how to make our poem exciting for people to listen to. We practised it all week using our dramatic voices and we added some actions too. We hope you enjoy listening to our poem. We were very proud of ourselves.
 
A brilliant week Scotland class.

Friday 1st October
 
In History this week we have been learning all about The Great Fire of London.
 
We watched a short clip which took us back in time to imagine what it would have been like when the fire was burning in the city. We were able to look at first hand accounts from Samuel Pepys and we read extracts from his diary that was written at the time. The children found it amazing that his diary had survived because he buried it in his garden! We talked about what we might have saved if it was us - not many of us thought that we would have saved cheese like Samuel Pepys did!
 
The children were able to think very carefully about how they would have felt if they were in London at this time in history. We used out different senses to role play our feelings. It was great to watch the different facial expressions as the children put themselves into characters.
 
Well done Scotland class - super historians.
 
 
 
Friday 24th September
 
In our Jigsaw lessons this half term we are looking at 'Being me in my world.' We have met our Jigsaw piece called Jigsaw Jack and we all introduced ourselves to him and told him a little bit about ourselves to make him feel welcome in our class.
 
We had to think about what we could do to be better learners in our lesson this week. We talked about if we liked to be told how to complete a task or if we liked to be shown the task. Lots of us thought we would prefer to be shown how to do something in order to be able to complete it well.
 
As you can see from the attached video clip we also learnt a little Jigsaw song. The children did such an amazing job and sang so beautifully. It was lovely to hear as we haven't heard singing in our class for a while!
 
Well done Scotland!

Friday 17th September
 
What a lovely week we have all had!
 
 
We have been finding out all about the local area of Crawcrook. We talked about the things we had seen in our village and then we all put on our coats and went out on a field trip into Crawcrook.
 
The children were able to look at all the different buildings and their uses. We saw a pet shop, a butchers and lots of places to buy a new house. We enjoyed choosing ourselves a new house from the pictures we saw in the windows!
 
It was very interesting to spot lots of different things. The children knew where to find the Doctor's Surgery and were surprised by how many churches they could see. 
 
Everyone was brilliant and so well behaved on our walk around - we even received an email from a local shop owner to say that we had brightened up their day as we had passed their shop waving and smiling at them!
 
Well done Super Scotland!
 
 
Friday 10th September
 
Wow! We have had an amazing week in Super Scotland class. It has been absolutely brilliant to meet all of the new children in our class and get to now all about them. All of the children have settled in so well to their new class and have been a total delight!
 
We have played lots of games to get to know each other better. We have also learnt some interesting facts about our class name - Scotland! Who knew that the National animal of Scotland was a unicorn? We do! Did you know that there are seven cities in Scotland - we do! 
 
On Wednesday afternoon we had the opportunity to try lots of different Scottish foods - porridge, oatcakes and shortbread biscuits. All he foods were enjoyed but the shortbread biscuits were the most loved!
 
Well done to all of the children in our new Super Scotland class - we are going to have an amazing year!