Welcome to Willow Class
We are a friendly class of children in Year 1 who are taught by two experienced teachers: Ms Perry and Mrs Forward(Monday) and our creative teaching assistant, Miss Sherwood, who supports our learning throughout the week.
On Wednesdays, we also have Mrs Fourie teaching us Science and the talented Mr Gardner from Aspire, teaching us PE and sportsmanship skills.
Please have a look through our ‘Meet the Teacher’ file, half termly curriculum overviews and knowledge organisers to explore more about our exciting year ahead and to support many areas of the curriculum. Please share these with your children and use them as reference throughout the year.
We are delighted that you are visiting the Willow Class page today and hope that you will come into school soon to see our wonderful and aspirational work in action.
Weekly Updates
Autumn 2
Week 2
This week we have been learning more about the Gunpowder Plot, specifically the plotters and the problems they faced. We learnt about Guy Fawkes' life and timeline and re-enacted the plotters' journey through the cellars under the Houses of Parliament to plant the gunpowder barrels.
The plotters and their problems
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Crawling along the cellars under the Houses of Parliament
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The plotters and their problems
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Crawling along the cellars under the Houses of Parliament
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Crawling along the cellars under the Houses of Parliament
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Crawling along the cellars under the Houses of Parliament
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The plotters and their problems
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Confessions on the rack!
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The plotters and their problems
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In Maths we have been focusing on First, Then and Now stories to help us with addition problems. We have been reading, interpreting and creating our own - for instance: First there were 5 birds sitting in the tree. Then 4 more flew to join them. Now there are 9 birds in the tree.
First, Then and Now stories
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First, Then and Now stories
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First, Then and Now stories
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First, Then and Now stories
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First, Then and Now stories
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First, Then and Now stories
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First, Then and Now stories
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During our English lessons we have been identifying adjectives, nouns and verbs in our class text, Rapunzel, which helped us create our own poems. We also learnt what a paragraph is!
On Friday, we supported Children in Need by wearing our home clothes for a mufti day!
Adjective, noun, verb poem
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Adjective, noun, verb poem
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Adjective, noun, verb poem
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Adjective, noun, verb poem
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Adjective, noun, verb poem
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Adjective, noun, verb poem
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Children in Need mufti day
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Children in Need mufti day
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Week 1
We started our new half term off with a bang this week with the introduction of our new topic, The Gunpowder Plot! We discussed how Bonfire Night is remembered every 5th November because of Guy Fawkes' acts of treason against the then king, King James I. We learnt how Guy Fawkes and the other plotters very secretly planted gunpowder barrels in the Houses of Parliament. We did our very best to be secretive and tiptoed around the school with our own lanterns (just like Guy Fawkes had) to collect our barrels of 'gunpowder' to take them out onto the playground for our very own firework display of biodegradable confetti!
Gunpowder Plot
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Gunpowder Plot
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Gunpowder Plot
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Gunpowder Plot
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Gunpowder Plot
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Gunpowder Plot
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Gunpowder Plot
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The children have had great fun exploring our new role play area, The Plotter's Den and have been creating secret plans and maps on scrolls of aged paper.
We had a very exciting end to the week with some sparkler fun! We enjoyed making shapes and writing our names in the air. We also earned our school house teams extra points as Mr Tidey was so impressed with how sensible and safety conscious we all were!
Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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Sparkler fun!
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The Plotter's Den
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The Plotter's Den
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We have begun reading a new book for our English sessions this half term - Rapunzel by Beth Woollvin. The children delighted in the illustrations and twisted version of the fairytale. We had enormous fun stepping into the roles of the main characters and practicing facial expressions for each!
Rapunzel is feeling bored, lonely, sad and frustrated.
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Rapunzel is feeling bored, lonely, sad and frustrated.
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Rapunzel is feeling bored, lonely, sad and frustrated.
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The witch is feeling sneaky, secretive and mean.
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Rapunzel is feeling bored, lonely, sad and frustrated.
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The witch is feeling sneaky, secretive and mean.
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The witch is feeling sneaky, secretive and mean.
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The witch is feeling sneaky, secretive and mean.
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Autumn 1
Week 7
This week we have been focusing on art through dance. We were inspired by Luis Casanova Sorolla, a movement artist. We watched how he created works of art by dipping ballerina's shoes in paint and we discussed how the artworks differed depending on the type of music they danced to. We had a go at exploring this technique, dancing to music from The Nutcracker, and had tremendous fun tip toeing, balancing, spinning, stomping and changing tempo.
Art through dance
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Art through dance
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Art through dance
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Art through dance
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Art through dance
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Art through dance
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Over the course of Black History Month, we have been learning about the life and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr. We have talked about how people of different skin colours have not always been treated fairly. We used an egg demonstration to discuss how we may look different on the outside, like our brown and pale eggs, but that they looked the same on the inside.
The children have been really taken with Martin Luther King and came up with a range of words to describe him: heroic, brave, took risks, kind, helpful, sharing, smart, clever, not violent.
Egg demonstration
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Egg demonstration
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Egg demonstration
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Egg demonstration
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We have been learning about creatures that hibernate during the winter in Science this week and then created our very own hedgehogs out of clay, complete with quills and googly eyes!
Week 6
In Geography this week we discussed the reason why we have seasons and have explored how, because the Earth is tilted, we have different types of weather during different stages of our orbit around the sun.
This week in Maths we have been looking at different ways to make and represent numbers. This is helping us solve our addition number sentences by giving us lots of number knowledge to refer to.
We joined forces with Chestnut Class for our wax resist Art session this week. We collected autumnal leaves which we then drew in crayon. Then we thought carefully about which colour inks we'd need to apply and explored which order would produce the best results. The children created stunning wax resist leaf paintings - Definitely worth a visit to see this in our Art Exhibition on Thursday 24th October!
Wax resist leaf paintings
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Wax resist leaf paintings
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Wax resist leaf paintings
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Wax resist leaf paintings
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Wax resist leaf paintings
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Wax resist leaf paintings
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Wax resist leaf paintings
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Wax resist leaf paintings
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Wax resist leaf paintings
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Making snowflakes
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Making snowflakes
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Making snowflakes
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Making snowflakes
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Making snowflakes
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Week 5
We've had an especially creative week this week! We made our own snowflakes from sparkly pipe cleaners and added crystals to make each one unique - just like real snowflakes.
We also explored the work of nature artist Andy Goldsworthy and tried to recreate similar patterns from natural objects we collected for ourselves.
In English, we have been putting our creativity to use in our storytelling. We have been using adjectives and the conjunction 'and' to join sentences and ideas within our versions of 'Finding Fred Bear', a class story we are writing. Watch this space!
Nature pictures and patterns
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Nature pictures and patterns
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Nature pictures and patterns
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Nature pictures and patterns
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Nature pictures and patterns
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Week 4
This week saw the arrival of our much anticipated Weather Station! The children have been watching weather reports in readiness and had such fun creating their own using the new vocabulary we have learned - see if they can tell you what a Meteorologist is!
Weather Station role play area
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Weather Station role play area
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Weather Station role play area
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Weather Station role play area
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Weather Station role play area
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In Maths this week we have been using the + and = symbols to write and represent addition number sentences. We have been adding all sorts of objects - train carriages, bricks, counters and children!
Addition number sentences
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Addition number sentences
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Addition number sentences
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In Computing, we have been exploring mark making in Paint. We used various tools to create our digital art work and then printed it out.
In Art this week we had a go at creating continuous line observational drawings of shells, crystals and stones. The children found it so funny and unnatural not to lift their pens off of the paper and to connect parts of their sketches they wouldn't normally do so! We all persevered, however, and the children loved it and didn't want to stop!
Continuous line drawing
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Continuous line drawing
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Continuous line drawing
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Continuous line drawing
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Continuous line drawing
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Continuous line drawing
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Continuous line drawing
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Week 3
This week the children were extremely excited to use our handmade brushes inspired by artist Laura Crane. We took them outside to test out using only black paint as we wanted to focus on exploring line and the different types of marks we could achieve with them. The children absolutely loved this and were keen to test out each other's brushes to compare results.
Handmade brushes
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Handmade brushes
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Handmade brushes
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Exploring the different marks we can make
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Exploring the different marks we can make
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Exploring the different marks we can make
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Exploring the different marks we can make
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Exploring the different marks we can make
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Exploring the different marks we can make
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In English we became Attic Explorers. The children enjoyed sifting through various items to look for Old Bear. We compiled lots of adjectives to use in our list poems whilst searching under, behind, inside and in front of weird and wonderful treasures.
We learnt how to use part whole models in Maths this week. We used our number bonds knowledge to help us split the number 10 into two parts.
Attic Explorers!
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Attic Explorers!
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Attic Explorers!
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Creating a word bank of adjectives
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Using part whole models
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Using part whole models
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This week we have continued with our topic on Weather and Seasons. Whilst listening to Vivaldi's 'The Four Seasons', we felt inspired to explore colour and line to express how each section of the music made us feel. The children were extremely engaged and created some beautiful pieces - feel free to pop in to have a look!
We continued this further into our PE session and explored different movements as if we were autumn leaves falling from the trees.
We had a visit from a local Jay this week, fondly nicknamed Jayson! He was extremely friendly and the children loved seeing him.
Drawing inspired by music
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Drawing inspired by music
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Dancing as leaves in the wind
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Dancing as leave in the wind
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Jayson
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Jayson
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Week 2
We've had a fabulous first full week in year 1, exploring our new classroom!
We also met our new Science teacher, Mrs Fourie for a very exciting first Science lesson on Seasons and Weather. We had interesting discussions about what we observed in different areas in our school grounds through magnifying glasses.
Observing our environment
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Observing our environment
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Observing our environment
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Observing our environment
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In Maths this week we have been focusing on subitising - being able to visually see a number of objects instantly without needing to count them out one at a time. We have used this to help us recognise that the numbers 6,7,8 and 9 are '5 and a bit'. We have also been comparing groups of objects up to 20 to decide which has 'more' and which has 'less'.
Comparing amounts of objects
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Comparing amounts of objects
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Subitising
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We understand that 6, 7, 8, and 9 are made of 5 'and a bit'.
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In our first Art session we looked at how some artists explore the world around them to help them find inspiration. The children were particularly taken with artist Laura Crane, The Brush Maker, and so we took to the school field and craft cupboard to collect various items in order to create our own paint brushes - We are extremely eager to paint with these next week!
Collecting materials to make brushes
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Collecting materials to make brushes
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Joining collected materials to make paint brushes
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Joining collected materials to make paint brushes
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Joining collected materials to make paint brushes
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Learning Conversations
Your Child's Learning
Please find below half termly curriculum overviews and subject knowledge organisers linked to your child's learning this year. These documents provide details of the key knowledge the children are expected to learn across the sequence of learning. We would encourage parents and carers to look at these with their children and regularly spend time discussing the facts on the sheets.