St Wilfrid's Catholic Primary School - Class 1

Pumpkin Soup

This week our focus story has been 'Pumpkin Soup'. The children had a great time roleplaying the story with masks and props, they did a great job of remembering what jobs each animal did. We did a pumpkin investigation where the children cut open and explored the insides of a pumpkin. They used great vocabulary like slimy, and slippy to describe the insides. The best part of the week was making our own pumpkin soup. The children helped prepare the pumpkin by cutting it up into small chunks. They then helped stir it when we added the water and the salt. We had lots of children try the soup and some even had empty bowls!

Autumn

We started exploring the season of Autumn this week. We talked lots about the different changes we have been noticing around us especially outdoors. We went on an Autumn walk around school looking for signs that Autumn has started. We saw lots of signs from acorns, colourful leaves and conkers. The children used the leaves they had found to create observational painting. They looked closely at all the little details and included these in their paintings.

Colour Week

FSU have had a wonderful week celebrating all things colourful. We linked our learning to the zones of regulation where we learned about different feelings and emotions and what we can do if we feel a certain way. The children enjoyed sharing their most happiest memories for green day and retold the story of Ruby's Worry for yellow day. We rounded the week off by having a colour day and doing a colour experiment using skittles!

All about me

We have been finding out lots about ourselves and getting to know one another as we settle into the new school year. We have looked closely at what we look like and described our appearance. We have even found out how tall we all are! We then moved onto our families. The children enjoyed drawing pictures and talking about the different people in their families. We have also enjoyed sharing the 'all about me' books which the children completed over the holidays.

Class 1 - 2026-2027

Big Sheep Little Cow 2026

We had a great time learning about Dinosaurs! We learned lots of interesting facts about dinosaurs and used this to help us paint our own dinosaurs. We looked carefully at the features that the different dinosaurs had and made sure to add those to our paintings. The reception children did a great job of writing facts about dinosaurs including dinosaur names and wow words that we had learned like herbivore, carnivore, omnivore and extinct. We also became archaeologists and looked closely at fossils and dinosaurs bones. We created our own dinosaur bone pictures using cotton bubs and enjoyed digging for dinosaur bones and matching them to the correct dinosaur.

This week we looked at the story 'Handa's Surprise'. We learned about Africa and where it is in our world and how it is different to where we live in the UK. The children looked at the Kenyan flag which is the country Handa lived in and had a go at making their own Kenyan flags. The children enjoyed making their own music similar to African music using the drums. They listened carefully to the beat and tried to keep to the rhythm. We used different patterned papers to create our own basket using weaving. The reception children did a great job of writing sorry letters to Handa from the different animals.

We have been learning about Minibeasts for the last few weeks. We have enjoyed lots of different stories including 'Snail's Trail' by Ruth Brown and 'Mad about Minibeasts' by Giles Andreae. We started our learning by going on a minibeast hunt. We thought about places that might be good for different minibeasts and did a great job of looking under and in things that the minibeasts might like. The reception children used the knowledge they had learned about different minibeasts to write their own fact files about them.

We had a great time using the bee-bots and programming in different codes to get it to reach different minibeats. The children used great directional and positional language during this activity.

The story 'Snail Trail' influenced our writing this week as we wrote about the different things the snail did as he went on his adventure round the garden. The children did a great job of remembering the positional language plus the descriptive words used like gloomy cave and pretty flowers.

This week planting started in the Foundation Stage Unit. We are lucky enough to have a lovely outdoor area which includes our very own garden. The children have the opportunity to plant lots of different seeds and beans which we then look after and observe as they grow. We looked at the important steps we need to follow when planting a seed/bean to make sure that it has the best chance of growing. The reception children then did some amazing instruction writing for how to plant a bean.

We have been lucky enough to have 'Magic Dave' from 'I want to ride my bike' with us over the last couple of weeks. The children have had a fantastic time learning how to ride a balance bike, ride a pedal bike and even learning some important bike skills.

Thank you Dave for giving our children a fantastic experience and helping them learn a very important skill!

This week we have been looking at the story 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' due to us having our own class caterpillars! The children have enjoyed doing lots of creative activities including making caterpillars using balloons and oil pastel butterflies. The reception children looked closely at the life cycle of a butterfly and observed the process happening as our caterpillars went into their cocoons. The writing this week was all about retelling parts of the story which the reception children did a great job of recounting using images from the book.

This week we had some special visitors in school - Vinnie's chicks. The children had a great teacher in Vinnie who showed them how to hold the chicks carefully and safely. Thank you to Vinnie and his family for bringing your chicks in to see us!

We started the new term by looking for signs of Spring. We explored the school grounds and looked for things we might see in Spring. We looked at how the world around us had changed now that it was Spring and why. We focused on daffodils as we saw lots of them around school. We labelled the different parts and the children did a great job of painting them, concentrating hard on all the features they have.

Summer 1

Easter 2026

Easter 2026

This week we have been looking at 'real life superheroes'. We have been able to explore and learn about lots of different jobs including ones where people help us. We started our learning with a WOW moment of having the firefighters come to visit us with their fire engine. We learned lots about their important job and what is on their fire engine. The children's favourite part was either sitting in the fire engine or holding the hose!

We then had a visit from the Guide Dogs. We got to meet the most gorgeous puppy called Otter who was in training to be a guide dog. We talked lots about how guide dogs help people with visual impairments and even got to experience what it feels like to see with different impairments using special glasses. The children loved giving Otter a pat at the end!

We have also learned about oral hygiene this week and how important is it to visit a dentist. The children enjoyed practicing brushing their own teeth making sure they brushed them for a whole 2 minutes. We also talked about what dentists do and what foods are bad for our teeth.

Thank you to all our wonderful visitors!

World Book Day 2026

This week we have been looking at 'Superheroes'. We read a great story about 'Super Milly' who did not have super powers like flying or super speed but she did have other powers like being kind, funny and a good friend. The children used paint to create their own superhero and then wrote about them. We also had a great time making our own superhero masks.

This half term in PE will have been practicing our gymnastics skills. The children have been looking at skills like jumping, rolling, balancing and creating their own sequences which they show to the rest of the class.

Lunar New Year 2026

This week's Traditional Tale was The Gingerbread Man. We enjoyed baking again this week by making our own gingerbread men. We then got to enjoy eating them but we had to do it in a certain way like the fox did. "Snap, the fox ate his feet. Snap, the fox ate his head". The reception children then did some writing about how they ate their gingerbread man. The children then did their own science investigation about how to get the gingerbread man over the river. The children used different resources around the classroom including lego, cardboard and plastic to test out what would make the best boat for the gingerbread man.

Our next Traditional Tale is The Three Billy Goats Gruff. The children enjoyed creating their own troll using oil pastels, we looked at different photos of trolls to help us create our own. We used our design skills to create our own bridges in the classroom using different construction materials. We worked in little teams and had to listen to each others ideas and work together to build a bridge together. We then went around and looked at every groups model saying what we liked and what could make it even better. Our favourite activity of the week was making our own jelly trolls using different sweets for eyes, hair and mouth.

This week we moved onto Traditional Tales. The first story we looked at was The Little Red Hen. The children enjoyed making their own bread which we hope they shared with their families when they brought them home. We also learned about windmills and how they make flour for bread. The children made their own windmills using a toilet roll and decorated the sails on the front. We talked about how the animals felt throughout the story and we realised that both the little red hen and the other animals did not make the right choices as the animals should have helped her and then she would have been able to share the bread with them instead of eating it all for herself.

This week we looked at animals who like cold places. We started our week by doing an ice investigation where we planned how we were going to help get the animals out of the ice who had been frozen. The children came up with some great ideas of how we could get them out including using hot water and salt to melt away the ice. The children showed great determination and did not give up even when it looked like we were never going to get them out. They persevered and as a team got every animal out of the ice! We then started to look at Polar Bears. We found out lots of facts about polar bears including that they live in the Arctic which is near the North Pole. We did some great art work to make our own Polar Bears and the Reception children had a go at writing some of the facts we have learned.

We have enjoyed learning about the season of Winter to start our new term and a new year! We were very lucky to get some actual snow when we came back to school, we decided to make some marks in the snow using different resources. The reception children talked about what sort of clothes we need to wear in Winter and why, they then had a go at labelling some of the different items. We have also had lots of fun doing different winter themed creative activities including painting, small world and role playing.

Spring 1

Christmas 2025

This half term the children have enjoyed practicing fundamental physical skills in their PE lessons. They have done lots of moving in different ways including balancing, hopping, skipping and jumping.

This week we have been learning about Road Safety and how to be a good pedestrian. We talked about what things we have to do before crossing the road and learned the stop, look, listen and think sequence so we can cross the road safely. We did lots of roleplay in the classroom using chalk roads and small word areas putting the sequence into practice and then had a go at doing it properly by crossing a road near school with their friends and Mrs Slaney.

This week we moved onto the story of 'The Gruffalo's Child'. The nursery children enjoyed making their own footprints like the prints in the snow in the story, pity we did not have some snow of our own! The reception children did a great job of drawing and labelling the big bad mouse and exploring light, dark and shadows. They made their own puppet show retelling the story of the Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child.

Our story for this week was 'The Gruffalo'. The children enjoyed doing lots of different activities including exploring the woodland cafe, making Gruffalo crumble, making Gruffalo headbands and painting the Gruffalo. The reception children did a fantastic job of drawing the Gruffalo and labelling some of the things the Gruffalo has like purple prickles, orange eyes, a poisonous wart and a black tongue.

Remembrance Day 2025

With Bonfire Night coming up, we did some learning around fireworks and the history of Bonfire Night. We looked at Guy Fawkes and what he plotted to do to the Houses of Parliament which is why we celebrate Bonfire Night now. The children enjoyed making their own firework rockets using junk modelling and we learned all about firework safety and how we can keep ourselves safe around them.

Fireworks and Bonfire Night

Diwali 2025

We celebrated Diwali this week and learned all about the Hindu Festival of Lights. We roleplayed the story of Rama and Sita and how good conquered evil. The children enjoyed learning how they prepared for and celebrated the festival. We found that it was similar to some of the festivals that we celebrate like Bonfire Night. The children made their own Diya lamps and Rangoli patterns like the Hindu people do when they celebrate Diwali.