Year 1 – Toftwood Infant and Junior School Federation

Year 1 Visit from Wycomb Mobile Petting Farm – Autumn 1 2023

On Monday 9^th October, the year 1 children were lucky enough to have a visit from Ian at Wycomb Mobile Petting Farm. Ian brought with him some familiar animals who came to school last year like Thumbelina the Shetland Pony, Marvin and Minnie the goats as well as sheep, guinea pigs and rabbits. There were also some new animals like Chocolate Buttons the poodle and a chicken!

This was all part of the children’s topic ‘Animal Life’ where the children have been learning about grouping and classifying animals as well as identifying their body parts. The children are also going to use this visit to write a recount in English too.

Jasper said, ‘It was the best day ever!’ Louie said, ‘My favourite animal was the black goat, Minnie!’

‘I wish the farm could come every day,’ Freddie said!

Year 1 Wellbeing Workshop – Autumn 2023

On the 19^th Sepetmber, the year 1 children were lucky enough to have a visit from the Healthy, Happy, Active (HHA) lead, Ellise from the West Norwich and Dereham Schools Sports Partnership.

Ellise talked the children about the changes that they have had to go through recently from their transition from Reception to Year 1. They also talked about were reminded of the ‘5 ways to wellbeing’ that we use within the federation.

1. Connect

2. Keep learning

3. Be active

4. Give

5. Take notice

The children also took part in some active games linked to the 5 ways to wellbeing.

The children in reception and year 2 will enjoy these workshops later in the year.

Year One Holkham Hall 2023

On 9^th June 2023, the children in Year One were lucky enough to visit Holkham Hall. We started the day with a long bus journey and were very impressed with how well the children were behaving. When we arrived, the children took part in two activities. They were given a tour of the hall and were amazed with all of the sculptures, carpets and ceilings.

They then got to find out about toys from the olden days. They played with ‘pick up’ sticks, marbles, yoyos and tiddlywinks as well as many other toys. The children even got to make their own Victorian toy; a thaumatrope! They drew two pictures on two circles and then stuck them to either side of a straw so that when they spun the straw, the images would blend together to create one image. They loved learning about this optical illusion. The children then said goodbye to Holkham Hall and reflected on their favourite parts of the day during the bus ride home. ‘I loved every part of the day’ said Demi.

Year 1 Planetarium – Spring 2 2023

On Tuesday 21st February, as part of their new topic, ‘Our Planet and Beyond’, the children in year 1 were able to experience a mobile planetarium. A visual display of the night sky was brought to Toftwood Federation! The children crawled into the self-contained darkened classroom dome and were given a presentation about our solar system including facts about the sun, moon, and planets including our planet Earth. They then could lay back and experience stargazing, whilst also learning about the constellations in the sky. It certainly got the children excited for their up and coming topic and was a fantastic WOW moment for the children.

Lilly in CC1 said, ‘It was so amazing!’ River is TC1 said, ‘My favourite part was when the lights went off and we could see the stars’.

Visit from Mr Bell the Weatherman in Year 1 – Spring 1

Year 1 children were treated to a visit from Mr Bell from Weatherquest as part of the start of their Weather Experts topic this half term.

Mr Bell explained to the children that the scientific name for someone who forecasts the weather is a Meteorologist. He showed the children how he presents the local weather on BBC Look East and what the different images on the screen mean. He talked about how they show rain, the temperature and the wind speed.

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Mr Bell then told the children about different types of extreme weather. He showed them some pictures from some of his storm chasing visits to the USA which the children were really interested about. They particularly loved seeing the videos of tornadoes and the size of some of the hailstones!

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Mr Bell then talked to the children about the different instruments that are used to measure the weather. We learnt that a rain gauge measures the amount of rainfall, a thermometer measures the temperature and an anemometer measures the wind speed.

The children also had some interesting questions to ask Mr Bell;

Albie asked ‘Why are there so many different types of weather?’

Ava asked, ‘Why do the sun and rain make a rainbow?’

The children really enjoyed the session and were engaged throughout (as well as the grown ups)! Arthur said, ‘I liked the tornadoes! Big ones like that won’t come to us, they will smaller!’

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