Year 1- Creating Repeated Patterns using 2D and 3D shapes
This week, Year 1 are enjoying completing existing patterns and creating their own patterns using 2D and 3D shapes. They have really impressed us with their ability to tell us what repeated pattern they have created using the correct names for the shapes.
Year 1 Maths- Sorting 2D Shapes
Year 1 have really enjoyed learning to recognise and name 2D shapes such as circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, pentagons and hexagons. They have really impressed us with their understanding of the properties of shapes. They are able to name the number of sides and corners of each of the shapes that we have studied and other properties such as whether or not they have curved sides. They used this knowledge to sort the 2D shapes into two groups. Well done Year 1!
Collective Worship- Year of Prayer
This morning in our Collective Worship we focused on our prayer for this week of the Year of Prayer from Blackburn Diocese. We discussed and shared our responsibilities in school and at home such as cleaning our rooms, loading the dishwasher, helping look after younger siblings, helping with the cooking and cleaning, counting values points (Heads and Deputies) and planning and leading sports events (Sports Leaders) . We then said together a special prayer for our responsibilities and discussed how God is always with us during those responsibilities and having a smile on face whilst carrying them out benefits others. Mrs Ham then shared the responsibility of selecting songs to sing and choosing children to demonstrate the actions at the front. The children chose to sing 'Life is always better when we share it with each other', 'Waymaker' 'My Lighthouse' and 'Build Up'. Build up is also the theme for our class Year of Prayer this week too. Our WOW group members informed each class of the special build up prayers they would be saying this week.
Year 1 Science- Identifying Materials
Today in their science lesson, Year 1 explored four common materials (wood, plastic, fabric and metal). They then sorted objects into a Venn diagram based on the material that they were made from. To help them to identify what an object was made from, Year 1 looked for key characteristics such as whether it was soft, shiny, hard, brightly coloured and strong. They even challenged themselves to find objects that were made from more than one material. They found that whiteboard rubbers were made of both wood and fabric, the sellotape holder was made of both plastic and metal and the Rekenrek was made out of plastic, wood and metal. Well done Year 1- you were all super scientists.
Year 1- Retelling the Story of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’
In English this week, Year 1 have been learning the story of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’. Today, they retold the story with accompanying actions and loud, clear voices. We retold the repeated part as a whole class but each took one of the settings to retell as a group such as the long wavy grass, the deep cold river, the thick oozy mud, the big dark forest, the swirling whirling snowstorm and the narrow gloomy cave. We are very excited to start planning our very own version of this story next week with our own choice of settings.
Worship with Rev. Ben- God is always listening
Rev. Ben's worship began with an engaging activity exploring creative ways to get people's attention. The children enthusiastically shared their ideas, suggesting: making gestures, creating signs, standing up, dancing, doing something funny, shouting names and waving. Rev. Ben then transitioned to discussing how, in Jesus' day, people had various ways of trying to get God's attention. He explained that Jesus told his people that it was very simple to get God to listen. The children watched a short clip that highlighted some of the ways people believed they could gain God's attention. They concluded that God is always listening, no matter what and that Jesus taught there’s no need for special rituals to communicate with God. Instead, Jesus encouraged everyone to talk to God anytime, anywhere and to speak to God like a friend. Following this, the children engaged in a thoughtful discussion. They explored the question, "What did Jesus say we should do when we pray?" and shared their personal responses to the idea, "If you could ask God for one thing, what would it be?" This reflection helped deepen their understanding of prayer and the nature of their relationship with God.
Year 1- Exploring 2D Shapes
This week in Year 1, we have had great fun naming, identifying and making 2D shapes. We have explored circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, pentagons and hexagons. We even took our learning one step further and were able to identify the 2D shapes that form the faces of 3D shapes. We know that cubes have square faces, cuboids have rectangular faces and can also have square faces, cylinders and cones have circular faces, triangular prisms have triangular and rectangular faces and square based pyramids have a square face and triangular faces. Well done Year 1- super maths!
Year 1 RE- The Calling of the Disciples
This week in RE, Year 1 explored the story of ‘Jesus Calls the First Disciples’ through a sensory story. We listened to this story whilst exploring various objects such as figures for Jesus and the fishermen, water to represent the lake, a boat, fish and fishing nets. After we listened and explored the story as a whole class, the children acted out this story in smaller groups. After the story, we thought about why the fishermen including Simon might have wanted to be Jesus’ special friends. We said that we thought it might be because the men could put their trust in Jesus, because he was powerful and could perform miracles, because he was a good person and because he was also very forgiving.
Snowy start to the Spring term
We have had a snowy start to the Spring term at St Barnabas with a snow day at home yesterday and snow much fun with our friends today! All of the snow fun pictures from home and school can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/snowy-spring-2025-1
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Collective Worship- Epiphany
It was wonderful to welcome the children and staff back to school today after the Christmas holidays. We wished everyone a happy new year and welcomed Mrs Irshad, our new Year 5 and 6 teaching and welfare assistant to our school family. We got to light all of our special advent wreath candles of hope, peace, joy and love and the special white candle that symbolised Jesus, as we weren't in school on Christmas Day. We then learnt all about Epiphany and joined in with the rhyming Bible story 'one hump. two humps, lumpety lump'. which tells the story of the wise men visiting Herod and the baby Jesus. We discussed how Mary, Joseph and Jesus had to flee from Bethlehem as Herod planned to kill Jesus. Desmond told us that they were refugees. We then explored what the special gifts were that the wise men brought to baby Jesus and what they meant. Gold symbolised a King, Frankincense symbolised God and Myrrh symbolised sacrifice. Harry noticed that they were the words from our hymn 'We Three Kings' We reflected on how God has given us all special gifts and talents and we talked to our partner about our gifts and how we could share them with others. We shared some wonderful gifts such as huge smiles, hugs, football skills, art skills, our family and friends and the gift of kindness. We finished with a special Epiphany prayer along with the Year of Prayer putting on Holy clothes prayer and sang 'We Three Kings'. How will you share your gifts with others this week and show respect for other people's gifts?
Year 1- Visit to Whitehall Park
Yesterday afternoon, Year 1 enjoyed exploring the ADVENTure Trail in the Rose Garden at Whitehall Park. We looked at all of the beautiful artwork that the very talented children across our school have produced and took part in a quiz. We answered questions which made us focus on various aspects of the Nativity Story. We then had a jolly sing along! To end our trip to Whitehall Park, we enjoyed a play on the park. So much fun was had by all and it was absolutely amazing to see all the children smiling and giggling away, taking turns, working as a team and making precious memories with each other.
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Christmas Lunch
We had a fabulous traditional Christmas lunch of roast chicken, roast potatoes, carrots, sweetcorn, yorkshire pudding, stuffing and gravy following by a Christmas shortbread biscuit. It was lovely to pull crackers with our friends and sing along to our favourite Christmas songs. Thank you so much to Mrs Norton, Miss Beech and Miss Norton for the wonderful food and to all the staff who helped serve the children!