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Birchwood Primary School

Elm 1 Autumn 2025-26

 
Welcome to Elm 1!
 
 
2025 - 2026
 
Miss Aston - Class Teacher
Mrs Winyard, Mrs Whitlock, Mrs K Spencer - Teaching Assistants

Autumn 2 

School Days

This week Year 1 were transported back in time to Victorian times. It was very different to the Birchwood that we know and love! After a hand inspection we practised the 3Rs then completed an exercise drill. In the afternoon we did some still life drawing and played some traditional Victorian playground games.

We love our Friday BASE clubs. This half term, some of us have joined Miss Aston’s seasonal crafts club.

In our computing lesson today we discussed how we travel to school and used post it notes to create a block graph. After discussing how most children travelled, we created pictograms using the iPads.

In our science lesson, we explored which material would be best for a dog bed.

‘The fabric. It is soft, warm and absorbent,’ Sophie.

‘This plastic is good because it is waterproof,’ Arthur.

‘I think cotton wool. It is so cosy and warm and soft,’ Holly.

This month’s Autumn walk revealed lots of changes since October. There were a lot more leaves and acorns upon the floor, the trees looked much barer now. The apples in our orchard were ripe and ready to be picked…all of the pears had gone! There were still lots of berries on the bushes. The weather was cooler and we couldn’t find any crane flies!

Today we used number tracks and number lines to find the next three numbers in a pattern.

 
Autumn 1
 
Everyday Materials

During break this morning some of our children noticed the bulbs we planted together have started to sprout! We are excited to watch them continue to grow

In DT we explored the journey of wheat from seed to harvest, learning how it is made into flour and then into bread. Using the skills of measuring, mixing and kneading we then made a dough. After leaving it to rise we shaped the pitta breads and put them into the oven to cook. Finally we chose a filling and enjoyed eating the final product.

Pencil progression award! Well done!
Enjoying our weekly library visit.
With the arrival of October, we went on another Autumn walk to look for further changes. There were still lots of berries on the bushes but more leaves had started to change colour and there were lots more on the floor. It was cloudy and cooler today so we had to wear our coats. We also noticed lots of daddy longlegs!
For our final Forest school session we peeled pears, dipped them in sugar and cinnamon, and baked them over the fire. Finally, we had a little taste! We were very careful to show the fire lots of respect.
As part of our science learning we planted lots of bulbs in the troughs on our playground. We look forward to seeing the little shoots appear and watching them turn into beautiful flowers in the spring.
Creating our own repeated patterns in today’s Maths lesson.
Elm 1 have been exploring rolling and direction in our PE lesson.
In today’s English lesson, we looked at the features of non-fiction books. We then looked at a range of books and decided if they were fiction or non-fiction.
During this weeks ‘My happy mind’ lesson, we discussed ‘happy breathing’ and how it can help us when we feel sad, frightened or stressed. After having a go, we drew a picture of how it made us feel. We then scored our level of happiness out of 10.
In today’s Maths lesson, we explored if an even number of cubes could be shared equally and halved. We then did the same with an odd number of cubes.
 
'An odd number of cubes can’t be shared equally,' Oscar.
Today we enjoyed the first Forest Schools session of the year. After collecting items such as leaves, twigs and acorns we created some ‘outdoor art’. We then went back into the wooded area and explored the mud kitchen, the castle and the little people’s village.
For Science we went out into our school grounds to look closely at the living environment. We will be using our observations over the coming school year to make seasonal comparisons.