We love celebrating the amazing work that Olive class do! Take a look at the pages below and join us in celebrating how awesome they are!
After receiving some wonderful training and advice from our own art teacher, Mrs Julie Wise, all the staff here at Abbey campus felt equipped and ready to lead our children on a creative journey with their own sketchbooks.
The children in Olive Class have become designers! We learnt about the artist Henri Matisse and designed hanging mobiles in the style of his Cut Out work.
Year 1 have been learning about toys from olden times.
Exploring the Year 1 curriculum through a cross - curricular approach allows the children to see how certain subjects overlap with others, such as Art and Geography.
Throughout the Autumn term, Olive Class have been learning about geography by looking at maps and exploring the local area of Lenton.
Our weekly RE lessons provide the children in Year 1 with lots of interesting things to think about and the children are beginning to develop their questioning and debating skills in a simple way.
This week we talked about Muslims and why they are fasting and praying during the time of Ramadan.
We compared this to the other times that we have discussed fasting. Such as Jesus fasting in the desert and how fasting can help us to understand how it might feel to be hungry all the time. The children are learning that although lots of people have a religious belief, we do not have to be religious to show care and charity to others. Many Muslim people will be giving money during the time of Ramadan, but other people also gave lots of money to charity for Red Nose Day (Comic Relief).
We combined R.E and D.T to create woven prayer mats. The patterned strips showed geometric Islamic patterns and the children added their own drawings and doodles, including some of Spiderman!
Year 1 have been learning about the Artist Henri Matisse and in particular his abstract drawings and cutouts. In larger groups the children have been creating a large frieze, demonstarting their drawing and cutting skills as they have been producing their own cutouts to look just like those of Matisse.
The autumn term is rich with religious festivals such as Diwali. In Year 1 we have encouraged the children to think back to a time of personal celebration. They suggested birthdays, weddings and the festival of Eid.
We have engaged in class discussions about big issues, like remembering people who died in World War 1 and 2, poverty and what Christians do to address this at the time of Harvest. Our class contribution to Harvest was to donate items to our school food bank.
In keeping with our school promise to ensure that diversity is taught, we have focussed on the Jewish festivals of Rosh Hashanah and Hanukah, as well as talking about non- religious festivals, like music festivals and what we might wear on our heads if we attended one.
To keep the learning fun and creative, the children have taken part in singing, creative crafts and simple drama, and we showcase photographs of this in our class floor book!
Recently, Olive Class went for a walk around the local community of Lenton. Lenton is an area full of history and interest. One of the things that caught the children's attention was the war memorial and Albert Ball Alms houses. The children looked at poppies and stones laid by people and when we returned to school, we created our own poppies, using a fixing and fastening method. If you ask the children, they may be able to tell you why poppies are different colours for Remembrance day, and who was Albert Ball?
Part of our Year 1 curriculum is learning about people that help us and raising the children's awareness of people such as NHS workers, emergency services and especially the Police. We are lucky to be visited by our named community Police officer, Lucy. This is the second time she has visited Dunkirk and some of the children in Olive Class remembered her name and aspects of her job. Today we were able to have some special time with her and her colleague, asking questions and trying on different Police hats!
During the first part of the autumn term, Olive class have been learning all about how amazing our bodies are. How they work, move and what our 5 senses help us to do. We have used these senses to investigate things, such as discovering smelly plants in the school garden and what happens to our taste buds when we eat lemons!
During our recent work on Myself and Caring for others from the Nottingham RE Syllabus, pupils have been building on their sense of individuality learnt in reception. They have been thinking about how they can care for others within the community by taking inspiration from religious stories. Pupils have been understanding; the significance of Shrove Tuesday and learning about how Jesus helped and cared for the sick; Mother's Day and how this relates to Lent; fasting during Lent and Ramadan and why people fast; the significance of Ramadan and how Muslims show care to their wider community; and the significance of Easter and why Christians celebrate Easter.