Spring 1 Memory Box

Week Commencing 1^st January 2024

This week, we had a very short week as well. We spoke lots about the New Year and New Year resolutions. We also had a go at using our new school orienteering course.

Week Commencing 8th January 2024

This week, we started our new topic called ‘Memory Box’. We bought in baby photos and talked about how we had all grown and changed. We also watched some of the younger nursery children playing to see how much extra support they needed from the adults. In English, we learned all about recipes. We read a book called ‘Sam’s Sandwich’ by David Pelham and made lists of all of the sensible and silly ingredients that were used. We then designed our own sandwiches and wrote recipes for how to make them. In maths, we worked on our number and place value skills. We explored spelling number words, counting accurately, counting on and back within 20 and also understanding the value of the ‘1’ digit in teen numbers. In science, we looked at different baby items such as plates, clothing, toys etc. We explored materials and properties. We also explored senses and thought about activities that used more than once sense such as eating. With eating, you can touch the food, smell the food, taste the food, see the food and sometimes hear the food when it is in your mouth.

Week Commencing 15th January 2024

This week, we read the Gingerbread man and thought some more about recipes. We looked at different recipe examples to see what words were used and what things they all had in common. We then had a go at making icing for a gingerbread face biscuit followed by writing instructions in a recipe format. In maths, we learned about place value to 20 and how numbers in the teens have a group of ten but 20 has two groups of ten. We then moved onto explore one more, one less and where numbers sat on a number line. In art, we explored celebration paintings and talked about the techniques and colours the artists had used. We then explored self-portraits through sketching and print making. After this, we explored painting self-portraits in the style of Picasso.

Week Commencing 29th January 2024

This week, we read ‘Owl Babies’ by Martin Waddell and ‘The Ugly Duckling.’ We spoke about the feelings and emotions covered in each book and then wrote about our own personal experiences. In maths, we worked on our adding up skills. We worked on using counting on by putting the greatest value first e.g 3 + 11 = would be easier if we swapped it round to be 11+3 and then we could put 11 in our heads and count on 3 more to be 12, 13, 14. We then moved onto adding up using number bonds to help us. In history, we looked at old artefacts. We thought about what they looked like, what they were made from and how they might have been used. We then looked at transport over time and how it has changed and evolved. In geography, we looked at natural and man-made materials. We went on a walk around our school to see what we could find out.