Margate Trip

What a fantastic trip we had to Margate on Friday.

 Here are some of our memories.

Sharks

 We've been getting ready to our trip to Margate by starting to learn about sharks. We've been reading the book Surprising Sharks which is filled with fascinating facts about sharks. 

Did you know basking sharks eat plankton?

What shark facts do you know?

We have also started making models of basking and hammer head sharks. Here are some photos of us using our team work skills to paper maiche our junk models.

Margate

Exciting News

We're going to Margate to visit the seaside. On Friday 15th July we're getting the coach to Margate to make sand castles, paddle in the sea, explore the pier, eat some ice creams, play on the beach and visit the gift shops on the promenade. 

Would you like to come? We're still looking for helpers. Please speak to your child's class teacher if you would like to join us. 

Sports Day

What a fantastic sports day! A massive thank you to all Year 1's parents', carers' and friends' who turned up to cheer the children on. Didn't they all do fantastically? I was so impressed with their skills mastering the obstacle race; especially their skipping and bean bag balancing. And well done Zyanna's Mum for winning the parents race!

Parents Evening

A massive thank you to all the parents and carers who came to the year 1 parent's evening. We were blown away by your commitment to your child's learning. Thank you for all your support this year.

Here are some of your comments about Hill Mead and your child's learning;



"He has improved a lot and that gives me great pleasure. I want to thank you all."

"She has had a good year in Hill Mead school"

"Since he started in Year 1 I have noticed a lot of change in work and behaviour. He is sounding out words really well and his reading is coming along very well."

"I could not be happier with myself when I make the decision to choose Hill Mead. Well done."

"I have no further comment except my daughter is happy."

"My child is very happy at school. He is making great progress. The school works well with parents to ensure the child is receiving the very best."

"Very happy with his progress, thank you. God bless."

"Over the years all my children have attended this school. I strongly believe this is a real place of learning."

Our Amazing Year 1 Garden

"Today me and my friends picked the radishes we had grown and some of the leaves were spiky. We ate some of the rocket leaves as we picked them!"

"Also in the garden we tied pea stalks to canes so they can grow upwards, because at the moment they are not big enough. With the onions we pulled up ones which were too small, this will give more room for the other onions to grow."

 My friend took the radishes and rocket to Mikey the chef. On Friday he is going to put them in a salad for us to eat at lunch time. We are so excited because we haven't tasted the radishes before!

Blind Man's advice

We have been reading the traditional tale of The Blind Man and the Hunter. The story starts like this....

"Once upon a time there was a blind man who lived with his sister in a hut in a village on the edge of the forest. Now, this blind man was very clever. Even though his eyes saw nothing, he seemed to know more about the world than people whose eyes were as sharp as needles. He would sit outside his hut and talk to passers-by. If they had problems, they would ask him what they should do, and he would always give good advice. If there were things they wanted to know, he would tell them, and his answers were always the right ones."

What would you ask the blind man? What could he help you with?

Parents' Evenings are this week

Year 1's parents' evenings are this Tuesday and Wednesday. Remember to speak to your child's teacher to book a time to come and talk about your child's progress.

We're looking forward to showing you all the fantastic learning your child has been doing in Year 1 this year.

Love My Books

Yesterday we had a very successful Love My Books Cafe in Year 1.

We introduced the website: www.lovemybooks.co.uk. It's full of free resources for parents to support them when reading with their children. We especially loved the videos on the website where the children can listen to the stories and the fantastic activities to go alongside each book to make reading FUN! 

Some highlights:

"I got facepaint on my hand and made a mask"

"I make a book with mummy. She did good drawing"

 Let us know what activities you try at home! 

"When I got home I went on Love My Books and I watched 'Shhh We Have a Plan.' I liked listening to the story at home, it was funny when he tried to catch the bird!"  

Love My Books Reading Cafe in Year 1

This Thursday at two o'clock

This will be a chance to learn how to access the new Love My Books website. Where there are lots of exciting new ways to read story books with your child while sharing refreshment. There will also be free resources and worksheets for parents and carers to take home that are about reading.

The Blind Man and the Hunter

This half term Year 1 will be basing their literacy work around the traditional West African tale The Blind Man and the Hunter. 

What do you know about the character of the Blind Man?

Brixton Library

Brixton Library (http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/places/brixton-library)

If you have a free library card you can check out 20 books at a time! 

Year 1 have borrowed some great news books from Brixton Library this week.

What book did you choose to borrow?

Save Our Trees

Year 1 march to protest Hill Mead School's trees being cut down. 

'Save our trees! Save our trees!' 'No ifs, no buts, no cuts!' The sound of heartfelt chanting filled our school playground as Year 1 protested against our school trees being cut down to be used for paper or furniture.

We made our placards and marched through the playground to convince the tree cutters to stop. After listening to our convincing arguments and chants the workmen lay down their tools and left our trees alone. 

How did you convince the work men to leave our trees alone? 

Star Blogger - April

Steven Seagull Action Hero Trip Review

This a blog post written by Tanisha and Jevaunte, 

"We went to see Ely to chek the book so we kood look at the paeges and reed all of the books and it is vere vere vere vere good and I like this book" Jevaunte

"Yesterday we went on our trip. We drew Steaven the seagle and we were sitting on the confortable chairs. That Ely read the book Steaven seagle." Tanisha

Meet the Author - Elys Dolan

Yesterday we went to Dulwich picture Galley to hear Elys Dolan read her new book Steven Seagull Action Hero. We loved listening to her story about one seagull cop's mission to clean up Beach City. She drew some illustrations live infront of us and even taught us how to draw Steven Seagull. We asked lots of questions and she signed our class copy of Steven Seagull Action Hero. 

What question did you ask Elys?

The Sea Serpent's Daughter

What an amazing performance yesterday! We loved performing with Dom, Ruth and Ted the Story Fishers. 

What was your favourite part of the performance? 

Our Growing Garden

Our Year 1 nature tables are becoming a gardeners delight! All our pea shoots are ready for 'pinching out' to encourage them to grow more bushy. 

What have you noticed about our pea plants growing? 

How are we taking care of our plants?

National Theatre

It's our trip to the National Theater tomorrow to perform our soundscapes and movements. We had our final rehearsal this afternoon where both classes watched each other perform. 

Looking forward to seeing all our parents, carers and friends at the Dorfman Theatre  tomorrow afternoon at one o'clock. 

Technological research

Researchers

We have started to use data loggers to find out about the light levels, noise levels and temperature in our classroom.

We have even started to plan our own research using data loggers in our garden. We have been thinking about what plants need to grow and how we can measure it.

What do you think we should measure? What do you predict the results might be?

Eating green.

 Growing vegetables

Over the last couple of weeks we have been growing cabbages from seeds in our garden.

Our cabbages had finally grown this week and we pulled them out the ground. Our chef in the kitchen then cooked the three cabbages for lunch. 

Our cabbage tasted fantastic!

What did you think?

What would you like us to grow next?

Growing our Garden

After clearing our garden we are finally ready to plant!

Today we each planted sweetcorn and peas.

Outside we planted radishes, rocket, chard and other salad leaves.

What plant do you think will grow first?

What do our plants need to grow?

Garden Center Trip

To start our learning on our topic Rainforest Plants we visited Croxted Road Garden Center in Herne Hill on Wednesday. We looked at all the different seed that they sold and then used our seed shopping lists to select which we should buy to grow in our Year 1 raised bed garden. 

What seeds did you choose for our garden? 

Why did you choose them?