We watched a clip showing a real police officer talking about his day and all the different equipment he uses. The children learnt that police officers keep us safe and that they make sure that everyone follows the rules. The children loved learning that some animals help the police with their work and that dogs are great at finding missing people and that horses can help keep large crowds safe.

The children enjoyed learning about the past when we researched the history of police cars. The children were surprised to learn that in 1900, horse-drawn carriages were used by the police and that these were a common sight on the UK roads. Discovering that there was a time before cars was quite a surprise to most of the children! We also discussed why the photographs were black and white and how technology has developed and changed over the years.

There has been lots of fun in the Police Station role play this week and the children have loved working at the front desk and putting people in jail! They have been making notes in their police notebooks, answering the phone and looking after the police dog (who was enroled from the puppet basket!)

We have been getting creative and using collage to make a giant police car. The children looked carefully at a picture of a police car to make sure they got the colours just right and thought about the texture and shape of each part of the car. There was great teamwork, sharing and conversations about which parts they were working on and how to approach the task. The Form 1 police car looks great and it is in pride of place above our topic table.

The children loved learning about how to take fingerprints and learnt that each person has a unique pattern of whirls, arches and loops. We discussed how we leave our fingerprints behind wherever we go and that this can help the police find out who committed a crime. To take our fingerprints first we coloured in a piece of paper using a pencil. Then the children rubbed their fingertips over the pencil marks to make their fingertips really dirty. We pressed a piece of sticky tape to their fingertips and then stuck the tape onto white paper. Their fingerprints then showed up against the white background. The children loved looking really closely at the patterns that were left behind.

In maths, the children have been learning about numbers to 20 and beyond and have been making their own track games this week! The children enjoyed not only the challenge of learning how to form each number correctly but also exploring how the number system works beyond 20. The children have started noticing that pattern in two-digit numbers and their sequence. We have also been practising the skill of subitising (recognising a number without having to count) and looking for groups of numbers to help us identify the amount quickly - they are getting really good!

Modern Foreign Languages Day on Thursday was lots of fun and the children all looked amazing dressed in costumes inspired by a country of their choice. The children shared why they had chosen their particular country and explained why it was special to them. So many of the children have connections to different parts of the world and it was lovely to take the opportunity to talk about these as a class. We all had fun repeating some phrases in as many languages as possible! 

Another fantastic week in Form 1.