Class 1 (Reception and Year 1) 2022/23

In Class 1 there are 22 wonderful children who have a great imagination and a love of learning.  Miss. Knight has the pleasure of teaching them with help from Miss. Taylor, Mrs. Radage, Mrs. Greggory and Miss. Hall. Scroll down to see some of the exciting adventures we have been on so far this year!

Spring Term 2023- Homes and Gardens 

Geography Day

The children had a brilliant time yesterday focusing on their fieldwork skills. We wanted to work out which roads are the safest to cross in Ambergate. We decided to do a traffic survey to find out some more information. Here we are comparing traffic on the A6 and on Toadmoor Lane. We also discussed how to stay safe when walking near and crossing roads.

Lost and Found 

This half term we are using the text 'Lost and Found' to steer our learning. The children were excited to receive a parcel addressed to them with lots of story props and a story to share.

DT project research 

We loved our walk to the park this week to do some research on what makes a good park!

Our design brief in DT is to design a park for a small toy.

First, we followed the map to get to the park. Then we had a talk about the different types of play equipment and drew a plan of the park. After that it was time to play! As we were playing we decided which piece of equipment was the best.

Next week we will start thinking about what we would like to include in our mini parks, complete our design then make and evaluate our parks.

DT project- free standing structures 

The children have AMAZED us today with their creativity and determination. Here they are testing their free-standing structures with a small toy. We all had lots of fun and practised lots of DT skills: researching, designing, using new joining skills, testing, and evaluating.

Autumn Term 2022-All About Me!

Reception 2022-2023

A huge welcome to the Ambergate family to our 10 new Reception children. We can't wait to start our learning adventure together!  

Our first week together

This week we have been focusing on making new friends in our class, exploring the school, meeting all members of staff at Ambergate and having lots of fun playing in our classroom in our different areas: the water tray, self-regulation zone, reading/ games corner, home corner, art area, maths area, mud kitchen, sand pit, the story telling stage and the large outdoor construction area. 

Welly Wednesday

Every week we visit the local woods with Miss Hall, who is forest school trained. We enjoy exploring the woods, making swings, spotting the seasonal changes, going on treasure hunts, making fairy houses, and letting our imagination run wild! 

The Enormous Turnip

This morning we found an enormous turnip at the front of school! We had to work as a team to pull it out using 'The Enormous Turnip' story to help us.

Here we are pulling it out of the ground. Over the next couple of weeks we will be learning and exploring this story.

Making Soup

What a wonderful week it has been! The children have amazed us with their teamwork skills and determination this week to make their own soup!

They loved walking to the shop with their own shopping list and buying the ingredients we needed before making their soup yesterday and trying it today. What an eventful week.

Toys from the past 

This week, we were very lucky to have Freya's Grandma join us in school to share some toys from the past! The children listened beautifully, asked some brilliant questions and got to have a turn playing with the toys afterwards. Here we are having lots of fun!

History Day- toys from the past 

The children loved coming dressed as a toy and enjoyed talking about their toys with friends for History day. The children decided we should set up a 'toy museum' and invite some of the older children to visit. We drew pictures of our toys, wrote facts about them, researched when they were invented and made a timeline. Finally, we made invitations to invite the children in Class 3 and enjoyed being the experts, talking about our toys, when they visited our museum.

Conkers Trip 

Class 1 had a fantastic time at Conkers. In the morning, we met our ranger to go on a bear hunt through the woods, she was very impressed at how well we could retell the story! Then we had a play in the park, explored the indoor exhibitions and went to the 4D cinema. Before we went home, we completed a barefoot walk. Here are some pictures of our exciting day. 

Supertato!

The children have had lots of fun exploring our new text- Supertato. We have washed, peeled, boiled and mashed our own potatoes to make mash. Just like Evil Pea attempted in the story! We then decided we needed to stop Evil Pea and his pesky plans so we made our own 'Evil Pea' jelly to trap him! 

DT Week

During DT week, we learnt about mechanisms. We researched picture books with moving parts. Then we learnt how to make a lever, wheel and slider mechanism. After, we chose our favourite mechanism to make our own moving picture book page. When they were finished we took them to Class 2 to share. 

Pancake Day!

After listening to the story Mr Wolf's pancakes, we decided to make our own. First we researched how to make pancakes, then we ordered the instructions. After, we followed the instructions to make our pancakes. They were very tasty! Finally, we wrote our own instructions to take home. 

Geography Day

In the morning, we explored school using a floor plan. We also looked at maps of Ambergate and programmed a Beebot to travel to places on the map. After that, we did some orienteering around the school, which was lots of fun!

This afternoon we walked to the park, following a map. We completed an orienteering task using a bird's eye view of the park before having a play in the play area.

It has been a great way to start our new topic, 'Let's go on an Adventure!'

Whatever Next? 

After the surprise arrival of Baby Bear earlier this week the children in Class 1 we have been thinking about how we could help Baby Bear travel back into space and how to make the landing safe! Yesterday we learnt about parachutes, here we are testing them. Today, the children have designed their own rockets/ space ship with a partner and this afternoon they have made them. On Monday, we will be using these rockets/ spaceships to travel to the Moon with Baby Bear to have a picnic. 

Class 1 2020-2021

Firefighter Tom Visits Class 1

We were very lucky to have firefighter Tom come and visit us in Class 1.  He explained what his job entails and showed us some of his special clothing that he has to keep him safe.  Everyone was able to ask him questions and we watched him perform a fireman's lift.  

Father Christmas Visits Class 1

Class 1 discovered that someone had been in the classroom this weekend.  They found half a mince pie, an empty glass, some left over carrots and some glitter.  They decided to check the CCTV.  Click the link to see what they found!

https://youtu.be/ZXvcpdUbCzo

They each had an envelope left under the tree.

Questions for Father Christmas

After Father Christmas had visited, Class 1 were left asking lots of questions.  So they decided to make a video of their questions to send to Father Christmas.  To their surprise he replied!  Follow the link below to see what they received.

https://youtu.be/jek6aZMTpkw  

Porridge Thief at Ambergate Primary School

Yesterday, when the children arrived at school they discovered that someone had broken into school and eaten a bowl porridge.  Mr Kelby had taped off the crime scene and the children searched for clues to help the police.  These are the clues they found.An empty porridge bowl.

A lock of blonde, curly hair.

A green ribbon.

They decided that they should check the CCTV footage from the cameras.  Click on this link to see what they found!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIUM7yYlilQ

We were able to watch the police interview with Goldilocks.

https://youtu.be/zHP_HpLGFbY

All the children wrote questions to ask Goldilocks and enjoyed conducting their own interviews.  Please see the link below.  

https://youtu.be/IXZuC4oNsL4

Autumn 2020

This term the whole school have a History themed topic.  Our topic is 'Old and New'.  The key question that we will keep coming back to is 'Are old things more important than new things?''  This topic is based on the key concepts of Curiosity, Tradition, Value, Beauty and Love.  The children will travel back in time to learn about toys and books from the past. 

They will discover the work of Mackenzie Thorpe and will recreate some of his art work.

The children will enjoy many different texts that have been carefully chosen to complement this topic. 

Throughout the school we use White Rose to support our Maths curriculum.  Below is the long term Maths plan for Class 1.

Recommended Reads

Below are two files packed with brilliant books for children to read. Whilst we may not have several copies of every book in school, we have put together this list as a place for both children and parents to go when they need a little help finding that next guaranteed-to-be-awesome read. I promised that you can’t go wrong by choosing any. There is also a checklist which you can print and keep track of how many you have read. Happy reading!

Measure in Maths - March 2020

This week in Maths we have been learning about measuring length.  The children have learnt how to compare lengths, how to measure with cubes and how to measure in centimetres and metres.  The children decided that they wanted to measure the trees in the woods so they took their tape measures with them and did just that! One child taught us how to measure the height of a tree with a square piece of paper.