The Gates Primary SchoolYear 1- Puffins: Blog items
Date: 14th Oct 2020 @ 9:45pm
Love was in the air in Puffins class this afternoon as we attended our pretend Puffin wedding! We have been learning about how love in important in all religions but today we focussed on the Christian faith and how they celebrate love. We also got the opportunity to look at some of our own parents wedding photos that had been sent in on Seesaw. So we held our own Christian Wedding ceremony! We had the bride, groom, ushers, bridesmaids, flower girls, best men, photographers, DJ's, musicians, fathers, mothers, a vicar, guests... Everyone had a role to play.
At the end of the lesson we looked at two clips; one from the film Frozen and the other from Despicable Me 2. We looked at why Elsa didn't want Anna to marry Hans because she had only just met him in comparison to Lucy and Gru who had been on 147 dates before they said 'I do'!
Thank you everyone for a wonderful afternoon, and for excellent confetti tidying! :)
Date: 13th Oct 2020 @ 10:30am
We had a brilliant Science lesson today learning all about food chains. We learned what the words carnivore, omnivore and herbivore mean. A carnivore eats only meat, a herbivores eats only plants and an omnivore eats both meat and plants! We had a go at sorting the animals into the three different categories; carnivores, omnivores and herbivores. There were some great discussions and difficult decisions to make! Then, as a class, we sorted them into the correct categories. Some of them surprised us! We also had a go at drawing our own food chains on Seesaw, trying to identify which animals were herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. We also discussed our Science SMSC Question 'How can we take care of animals?'
Super Science Puffins! :)
Puffins - Star of the Week, Reading Challenge Winners and Key Questions
Date: 8th Oct 2020 @ 11:05pm
Well done to our Star of the Week this week! This little girl is an absolute pleasure to teach and always gives everything she does 100% effort. She always produces wonderful work but this week her art work was exceptionally beautiful, so much attention to detail! Well done Little Miss!
Here are our Reading Challenge Winners! These children have all been on Green reading 5 times per week and uploading their diaries to Seesaw, well done!
Another busy week in Puffins! We have been learning about different types of jumping, creating human and physical geography models, designing habitats that would attract more wildlife to our school, looking at the ways Muslims and Christians welcome a new baby into the family, creating minibeast collages... Lots as you can see! Here a few key questions/activities to help consolidate your child's learning.
- What four countries make up the UK?
- Can you tell someone in your family which habitat would you most like at our school? Where would you put it and why?
- Can you remember something Muslim's do to welcome a new baby into their faith?
- Can you think of 2 things you might see in a town? What 2 things may you see in the country? Can you think of something you may see in both?
- Can you demonstrate the 5 different types of jumping?
- hop - one foot to the same foot
- leap - one foot to the other foot
- hurdle - one foot to two feet
- hopscotch - two feet to one foot
- broad jump - two feet to two feet
Happy Weekend Pufflings! :)
Date: 8th Oct 2020 @ 12:40am
Puffins had an absolutely wonderful Geography lesson this week. We have been learning about the difference between Physical Geography and Human Geography. So the children created their own examples of human or physical geography using the art materials or Lego! Take a look at some of their amazing work!
Date: 8th Oct 2020 @ 12:24am
We had a lovely RE lesson today looking at the ways different faiths welcome a new baby. We looked at Aqiqah, a Muslim celebration and a baptism, a Christian celebration. We then acted out the Christian Baptism Ceremony. We also listened to a vicar telling a story. We followed her instructions in the story and by folding and tearing, we turned our paper into a house, a bible and then we discovered we had created a cross.
Puffins - Star of the Week and Key Questions
Date: 2nd Oct 2020 @ 7:26pm
This little star blew my socks off in Computing this week. He logged on and created his own avatar completely independently and could tell me lots of different ways to keep safe online. He also blew Mrs Bevin and Miss Laher's socks off with his fantastic work in Maths. Well done Mr! Keep it up!
Well, it's been another busy week in Puffins. We have created caterpillar collages, learned how to run effectively, about what information is safe to put online, about the difference between town and country, how to follow symbols to play a piece of music... So many things! Here are some key questions to ask your child at home.
What habitat would an octopus live in?
Can you think of an animal that might live in the Arctic?
Would you usually find a shopping centre in a town or the countryside?
Can you remember what good running looked like?
Can you think of three bits of personal information you shouldn't post online?
Can you play this piece of music if a circle is clap, star is stomp and the triangle is pop?
Happy Weekend Puffins! :)
Date: 1st Oct 2020 @ 1:39am
We have been learning about habitats in Science this half term. Take a look at our science working wall to see what we have been up to so far. This week we worked in pairs to sort the animals into the correct habitats. I saw some great team work and discussions about why animals were suited to their habitats.
Puffins - Topic Homework Update
Date: 1st Oct 2020 @ 1:32am
As promised, an update of our fantastic homework! Well done everybody!
Date: 28th Sep 2020 @ 9:47pm
A couple of parents have asked about seeing a copy of our Topic Homework Web again so I have attached one to this blog. Thanks again for all the work coming in, it's slowly taking over our classroom, we love it! Homework photo update coming soon!
Puffins - Star of the Week and Key Questions
Date: 25th Sep 2020 @ 11:02pm
What a week this young man has had! He always gives 100% effort in every lesson and this week he has blown me away in Science. Well done Mr!
We have had a super busy week in Puffins with lots and lots of learning. We have been looking at the difference between physical and human geography, how people show they belong to a faith community, ways to keep safe online, what a habitat is, the work of Eric Carle... Plus so much more! Here are some key questions to ask your child at home about their learning this week.
- What is a habitat?
- What four countries make up the UK?
- Is a town part of physical geography or human geography?
- What technique to Eric Carle use to create his illustrations?
- Can you think of one thing Muslims use to show they belong?
- Why do we use an avatar instead of a photograph?
Have a lovely weekend Puffin families! :)
Date: 24th Sep 2020 @ 11:15pm
Puffins have been trying really hard to log on the computers and purple mash independently. Please practise this as much as you can at home as this will be really beneficial for our Computing lessons. This week we read the story 'Chicken Clicking'. We discussed all the things he did wrong and found that; he'd used someone else's computer, he didn't ask to use the computer, he was unsupervised, he spent money that didn't belong to him, he put photos of himself online, he spoke to people he didn't know online and he went to meet someone without telling his parents! Puffins were able to identify all the mistakes he made and learned a lot about online safety. We decided to focus on using photographs online and began exploring how creating an avatar is much safer than using a photo. Take a look at some of our creations.
Date: 22nd Sep 2020 @ 9:30pm
Take a look at some of the fantastic homework Puffins have been bringing in! Creating habitats has been a particular favourite. Can't wait to see what else you create over the next few weeks. Well done Puffins!
Date: 18th Sep 2020 @ 10:54pm
Well done to this wonderful little lady! She has made an amazing start to Year 1. She has impeccable manners, is always ready to learn, makes great contributions to class discussions and is a great model to others. Well done!
Miss Southern & Mrs Bevin
Date: 18th Sep 2020 @ 10:27am
This week in maths we have been finding 1 more by making number towers. We have practised writing number sentences to show our new learning and have even solved some problems by using our new skills. We have really impressed Mrs Bevin with our counting.
Date: 17th Sep 2020 @ 11:26pm
We have had a great time in our PSHE lesson this afternoon. We have been learning all about the importance of sleep and resting. We talked about what a good bedtime routine looks like. Children drew their own and then mimed them to their friends. To finish we did a little bit of yoga as a way to relax.
Puffins - Our First Music and Geography Lessons
Date: 14th Sep 2020 @ 10:33pm
Today we had our first music lesson. We were learning how to stop and start using visual clues. We also explored how one insrument can make different sounds. I was so proud of all the children, they used and explored the instruments really sensibly. Fanastic listening Puffins!
We also had our first Geography lesson today. This half term we will be learning all about the United Kingdom so we began our topic by asking what the UK was. We had a variety of answers ranging from 'a place with electricity to charge ipads' to 'a little tiny thing with all the world like around it'. So today we looked at the four countries that made up the United Kingdom. We then drew our own maps of the United Kingdom and labelled it. Take a look at some of our amazing maps. Can you remember the four countries that make up the UK?
Date: 10th Sep 2020 @ 10:01pm
What a wonderfully busy week it has been! Mrs Bevin and I are so proud of how well you have come back to school! We have been reading, writing, counting, colouring, painting, exercising, playing, talking, listening, learning about ways to keep safe online... The list goes on! However, I think one of the activities the children enjoyed most was using the iPads. This year we will be using an app called Seesaw, it is a brilliant tool which will improve our learning even more! One skill this requires from the children is for them to be able to take a photograph so we started practising this, this afternoon. We talked about how to hold the iPad correctly and safely and the children were so careful with them. We practised taking photos of some of the books from our Puffin library. I was so proud of every Puffin! Look at the concentration on their faces. See you all tomorrow!
Miss Southern & Mrs Bevin
Puffins New Class Blog - 17.07.20
Date: 17th Jul 2020 @ 1:28am
Happy Friday Everyone!
I can't quite believe it's the last transition blog already! I have really enjoyed watching you complete these activities and getting to know you a bit more. Thank you so much to all of you who have taken part, and thank you parents for supporting, you're all amazing! Can't wait to see you all in September now! However, before you go I have one last activity... This is something I tried with my class a little while back and the things they come up with amazed me! Knowing you all a bit more now, I know you will blow my socks off! This challenge is called 'One Black Dot Can Be...'. Can you ask a grown up to draw a black dot (around the size of a £2 coin) somewhere on a piece of paper? Now your job is to turn that black dot into something new! Please see some examples below.
Cannot wait to see where your imagination takes you!
Miss Southern & Mrs Bevin :)
Puffins New Class Blog - 16.07.20
Date: 15th Jul 2020 @ 10:56pm
Morning Puffins!
Thank you so much for your responses on the blog, well done! I've attached some photos and videos some of you have sent in for you to have a look at. I loved the superheroes with all their different powers, from flying to entertaing to biscuits! Someone decided to draw their real life superhero whom they share a very special superpower with. I loved listening to and reading the stories about your superheroes, thank you.
Activity 9: Today’s challenge is all about books. Mrs Bevin and I love books and we would like to know what your favourite book is? Can you tell us any of this information the about your favourite book…
Title?
Author?
Why you like it?
Your favourite character?
Your favourite part?
It was very, very difficult to choose a fovourite book as I have so many but I think my favourite book is The Gruffalo. Julia Donaldson wrote this book, she is my favourite author. My favourite character is the mouse because he is very clever. I like it when he tricks the Gruffalo.
Mrs Bevin's favourite book is The Rainbow Fish. This book was written by Marcus Pfister. She likes this book because he learns how to share and how sharing makes him feel happy inside. She also likes the sparkly scales in the book.
Again, you can present this in however you like. Have a lovely day!
Miss Southern & Mrs Bevin
Puffins New Class Blog - 15.07.20
Date: 14th Jul 2020 @ 11:07pm
Hello Everyone!
Hope you're all ok. I have had such a lovely time with the children who are in school. We've had a very creative day today. This morning we read Supertato: Veggies Assemble and went on to create our very own superveggies! Then we completed the animal challenge in the classroom this afternoon. Take a look at some of the animal the children in school and at home completed. I've also attached some more work some children have completed about their time during lockdown so thank you very much to those!
Activity 8: I thought it would be nice to continue the creative theme so today I would like you to turn youselves into a superhero! If you were a superhero what would be your name? What superpowers would you have? What would you wear? You can present this however you wish! Can't wait to see them.
Miss Southern & Mrs Bevin
Date: 14th Jul 2020 @ 9:48am
I have counted up the overall scores for this years Home Olympics. The results were very close, so many of you took part and there were some amazing scores from pupils and parents across the school. The overall winners have been decided on the class which had the highest participation from its pupils.
This years winners are....
Well done to Mr Simpson and his new Eagles class!
Some indiviudal winners include -
Well done to everyone who took part - you all posted excellent scores and it is important to take into consideration to range of ages across school. Use it as motivation to train and try even harder for next time. If you are somebody who feels disappointed when you do not win, remember that it is OK to feel this way. What is important is how you react to this. You should always show dignity in defeat, congratulate the winner or winners and use your disappointment to motivate you next time. Every single professional athlete will have experienced defeat at some point in their life, especially in their younger years, and if you ask many of them they will tell you how much losing can help motivate them to succeed in the future.
Long Jump -
Oscar Mc (Eagles) - 1.65m
Washing Basket Challenge -
Casey D (Owls) - 17
Star Jump Challenge
Neve F (Kingfishers) - 104
Burpees
Chloe P (Kingfishers)
Parent Champions!
A special well done to Mr Winstanley and Mrs Prescott for your excellent scores! You are this years Parent Champions!
Thankyou to everyone who took part. I am looking forward to next years already.
Mr Horsley
Puffins New Class Blog - 14.07.20
Date: 13th Jul 2020 @ 9:30pm
Hello Puffins,
Look at what this little superstar has been up to over lockdown, he’s also been coming to school too! You’re a real life superhero! Thank you so much for sharing these.
Activity 7: Today’s challenge is a creative one! We’re asking you to make your favourite animal using things in your house. I’ve attached an example for you. Please send us a photograph of your creation. Can you tell us what you used to create it and why you like that animal?
Miss Southern and Mrs Bevin
Puffins New Class Blog - 13.07.20
Date: 12th Jul 2020 @ 11:10pm
Good Morning Puffins!
Hope you’re all ok! I went for a walk in the woods with my babies this weekend. Arthur really enjoyed splashing in the water and watching the waterfall. Emily found it very funny watching him jump. Mrs Bevin also went for a walk around the park with her baby girl. What have you been up to this weekend?
Activity 6: We know that this year has been very different to what any of us expected, one positive thing about the situation is the fact we have all got to spend lots more time at home with our families than we usually do. So Mrs Bevin and I would like to know all about the things you have done during lockdown. You can choose to present what you’ve done however you wish. It could be on the computer, drawings, writing, photographs… We are going to display these in your new classroom in September. We’re so excited to see what you’ve been up to!
Miss Southern & Mrs Bevin
Date: 10th Jul 2020 @ 8:40am
Today will be our last day of the Virtual Health and Fitness Week - in my opinion it's the best one yet. I would like to start by thanking all of you who participated and challenged yourself this week. I have honestly been blown away by how many people participated this week and I hope that you have all had fun. Hopefully, some of you may have taken something from this week that has inspired you to try and make every week a Health and Fitness week in the future!
Activities for today
1) Let's get warmed up with a 5 minute workout from Joe.
If you are feeling an extra challenge - you could try one of his full workouts on the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5DlVnxLjk
2) Activity Bingo - today is your last day to finish the activity bingo - can you get gold?
3) Balloon Tennis -
Challenge someone in your house to a game of balloon tennis! I used two chairs and tied a piece of string to make a net. If not, a piece of string, ribbon, scrunched up t-shirt etc. would do the job! Try not to let the balloon land on your side of the 'net'!
Extra challenge - tie an old rag or dishcloth into a knot and use that as a slightly heavier 'ball'. You could use an even heavier pair of socks for an even harder challenge!
Water Bucket Shuttle Run
I saw this idea on Twitter and thought this would be great fun. Get two buckets, one empty and one full. Place them at opposite ends of the your garden. See how much water can you transport to the other in 5 minutes. Measure the water you have transported at the end and let me know how you got on - I am going to give this a go tomorrow! (A bit of Maths involved in there for you too Mr Simpson!)
@PEStJamesNN5 PE challenge with wather and sponge made Wiktor very tired and excited;););) Enjoyed so much !!! pic.twitter.com/l6Sg1Tiiqo
— joanna (@joasia8522) April 27, 2020
Home Olympics - Final Event
In my opinion - the hardest yet! They may look simple but this is a very tiring activity which will test your core stregth and stamina. This is a core activity that many professional athletes do daily to help keep them super fit and healthy.
The task is to see how many you can do in one minute.
Have a rest in between and try this 3-5 times to see how high you can get your score!
There will be a survey sent out on School Spider later today to submit your final scores for the week. Then we can see which class has won this years Home Olympics!
Have a great day everyone. I hope you enjoy the activities planned. Send in your pictures and videos for me to check out and repost.
Mr Horsley
Here's a video I found which might brighten up your morning...
Puffins New Class Blog - 10.07.20
Date: 9th Jul 2020 @ 10:09pm
Hello Puffins!
Have you enjoyed completing the activities on the blog this week? Thank you so much to the children who sent us photos and videos of their kitchen skills! Well done!
Activity 5: At The Gates we think it’s really important to develop a growth mindset. This means that we think positively about the way we do things. I’m sure you already know this but we don’t say ‘I can’t do it’ in our school, we say ‘I can’t do it… yet!’. We know it’s important to keep our bodies healthy but it is important to keep our minds healthy too. Can you think of a time when you couldn’t do something but now you can? Can you think of something you can’t do yet but would like to do in the future? Please let us know. It will be great to look back on these further on in the year and see if any of you have achieved them.
Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Southern & Mrs Bevin
