The weather certainly lent itself to discussing how to stay safe in the hot weather and the children all understood they needed to stay hydrated, wear sun hats, stay in the shade and apply sun cream. On Monday, Form 1 enjoyed cooling off in the swimming pool and enjoyed their last ever swimming session of Form 1! The swimming teachers made sure it was an enjoyable lesson and the children took part in swimming challenges, swimming races, floating challenges and jumping games! They had a great time.

In literacy, the children have been reading the story The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch by Ronda and David Armitage. The children loved the cheeky seagulls stealing the poor lighthouse keeper's lunch and all the inventive ways Mr and Mrs Grinling tried to stop them.  Our focus this week has been diary writing and the children enjoyed learning how to spell the days of the week as they wrote their entries into their own little diaries. The children thought of their own sentences to explain what Mrs and Mrs Grinling did each day to stop the pesky seagulls and we encouraged adventurous vocabulary choices such as marvellous and furious. 

All this talk of lunch was a great opportunity to create our own lighthouse keeper's lunch sandwiches and snacks. The children buttered their bread, grated, chopped and spread their fillings and then cut their sandwich in half. The children chose from cheese, ham or jam. To accompany their sandwiches, they made a delicious fruit salad with watermelon, apple, strawberries, oranges and bananas. We decided to take our picnic to the field and enjoyed it whilst listening to a story. Lucky for us, there were no seagulls around!

In maths this week, the children have been learning about money. They have been identifying coins and getting to grips with their different values. Using the maths resource Numicon, the children were able to match the different coins to the corresponding tile. This supported their understanding of the different values and that some coins were worth more or less than others.  Using their addition skills, the children made various totals by combining 1p’s, 2p’s, 5p's and 10p’s. During our small group work, the children found the totals of coins to pay for ice creams and recorded the totals they had found. In the role-play, which is currently an ice-cream parlour, the children continued to explore money. The ice cream parlour incorporated a till, price tags, different flavoured ice creams (coloured cubes) and bowls and spoons. Some children also made their own ice creams using lollipop sticks and card. Some children have also enjoyed sorting and grouping the coins in the sorting tray.

Form 1 have been enjoying drawing again this week and learned how to draw a step-by-step lighthouse. Step-by-step drawings is an activity they have all really loved as a class and this was no exception. Using pens, the children carefully followed the steps and created some lovely pictures. They were careful to include all the elements needed, such as the light, the little balcony, the door, windows, the rocks and the sea. Their pictures look wonderful!

Another busy but brilliant week in Form 1!