Welcome to Platypus class!

My name is Mrs Sanderson. I am class teacher to a class of 30 amazing individuals.

It's going to be a year packed with new learning, new adventures and new discoveries! We are going to answer many, many questions, meet lots of interesting people and learn more about ourselves along the way!

This is our class webpage. I will be posting lots of photographs and work so that you can share these with your friends and family at home too!

On Tuesday 29th June 2021, we were finally able to celebrate 'Euro 2020'. Platypus learnt about the European cup and which teams were involved.

We're all very excited about the 'England v Germany' match tonight so we practised our cheers for when England score goals.

Then, in  PE we learnt some football skills and played our own match!

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We have been reading 'Class 3 all at sea' in English! First we made predictions about what might happen (before we read the story!). Then, we wrote character descriptions of 'Rotton Teeth' and a setting description of the island that they sail to while hunting for treasure. Finally, we wrote a diary entry about what it might be like as a member of Class 3 aboard the ship!

This week, Harrowgate Hill Primary School are celebrating Science week. Platypus class are learning all about the human body and the importance of keeping it healthy and safe.

First we learnt about the main part of our bodies and labelled them.

'I learnt that there are two tubes in the neck, one for food and one for air' - Ethan

Then, our life sized school skeleton, who we called Mr Bones' helped us to look at the 206 bones in the human body and why they are important. So, we built and labelled out own Mr Skeleton from 'Funnybones' By Allen Ahlberg'. We labelled him too!

On Tuesday 8th June, the children in Platypus class took part in an 'Emergency Services' day.

We met PCSO Benjamin Scott, who came into school to talk about how everyone is different.

'A hate crime is when someone says something that the other person may not like' (Jacob)

' A hate crime is when you aren't nice to someone because they are different' (Noah)

We met PCSO Claire Kerr who brought along police dog's Jet and Ben. She explained how to stay safe and that the police are our friends and are there to help us.

'The police dogs help the police find clues by sniffing out the evidence' (Alyssa)

'The police dogs can sniff the ground to find people' (Lucy)

We drew pictures of what we think we might like to be when we're adults.

In the afternoon we got to investigate an ambulance. We learned about the lights and sirens (it was very loud) as well as have a look at some of the equipment the paramedics might use in an emergency.

In English, we have been reading 'The pirate Cruncher'. We began by predicting what we thought would happen in the text using the clues on the covers! It looks sooooo exciting!

Today we read up to page 20. We decided whether we thought the monster that the man with the fiddle was talking about was real or not. Then, we became illustrators and drew what we thought the monster would look like, before becoming authors and writing a description of it using some amazing adjectives and expanded noun phrases! Here are just a few pieces for you to see!

Before we began today's lesson, we continued our observations over time -looking at the growth of our bean plant.

We measured our seeds growth and recorded this into our 'Bean Seed Diary'. We drew a picture of what it looks like this week and discussed how it had changed from last week. 

Then we learnt how to identify and name some common garden plants. We came up with some questions that we wanted to answer during the lesson:

Which plants are garden plants and which plants are wild plants? - Lucy

What is the plant with the red ball called? - Abigail

Why do the yellow flowers look like bumble bees? - Louie

What is the orange flower called? - Amelia

Then we answered the question:

Do garden plants only grow in the garden?

'Garden plants aren't just planted in gardens, they may be planted in fields' - Jacob

'Garden plants can grow anywhere that we plant them'- Alyssa

We then created our own garden, drawing and labelling the plants that we 'planted'.

This week in Science, we have been learning about plants! We asked questions about plants that we might like to find answers to:

'What happens if we don't water plants?'

'Why are flowers all different colours?'

'Why do plants need light?'

The children looked at the bean seeds and described how they felt and looked.

The children then planted their bean seed into a pot of compost using a trowel before watering it so that they are able to watch it grow over the next few weeks

We then completed our 'how to grow a bean' booklet to show what equipment that we had used and made instructions for others to follow if they were planting beans too.

We can't wait to see what happens over the next few weeks to our beans! We have a bean each as well as 3 extra: one will have no water, one will have no sunlight and one will have no soil. We wonder what will happen?

On Monday 22nd March, the children of Harrowgate Hill Primary School embarked on one of their biggest challenges yet! Running 2 marathons! (Yes, that' the equivalent of running from Darlington to York!)

Each child (and staff) needed to run a minimum of 2 laps of our 200m track. They did this and more! We are so proud of all of the children that participated, to support us in raising money for Comic Relief!

Today, in Science, Platypus class have been investigating their senses. Once we understood what our senses were and how we used them, we investigated what we would see and hear if we went outside on a learning walk.

First, we made a prediction about what we thought we might find and explained why we thought this.

Then we went outside to investigate...

To support our children in retuning fully to school, we implemented a 'recovery curriculum'. This allowed the children to talk about their experiences of lockdown, share their thoughts and feelings, and think about the future!

While most of you have been learning at home, here in school we  used this as an opportunity to make some changes to our Key Stage 1 outdoor area! You all saw snippets on Zoom, but when you all returned to school you were all so excited to see that renovations had been completed and in our first week back to school we planned a bit of a garden opening party!

Welcome back to school everyone! It's been so lovely to see you all again in person, rather than as a little box on my computer screen! You have all been amazing and have tried so incredibly hard with your learning both at home and in school (for our key worker children).

Thursday 17th December was Christmas jumper/ elf day! The children loved showing off their jumpers/ costumes to each other!

As a celebration of  the end of our space topic, and the fact were nearly at Christmas, Platypus class baked some star biscuits!

They enjoyed measuring out all of the ingredients, rubbing the flour and butter together, before adding egg and milk to create their dough. The children had to work out whether they needed to add more flour or milk to their dough before they rolled it out and cut out their stars. There was a delicious smell floating down the corridor all afternoon!

Thursday 10th December was Christmas Lunch Day at Harrowgate Hill. Platypus loved trying new foods (particularly ones they thought that they didn't like, but actually did), listening to Christmas songs and sharing a cracker with a friend! Merry Christmas!

Platypus class have been working as a team to produce some beautiful bird feeders and magic Santa keys to sell as part of enterprise week!

'It is squashy!' - Ranae

We used our hands to mix the bird seed together with the lard, before moulding it into Christmas shapes!

Children in Key Stage 1 have been learning about Christingles. We learnt about how each part of the Christingle represents something. We have created a Christingle 'service' which you will find in the 'video centre' part of the website.

On Wednesday 2nd December, Liz Million (our school's patron of reading) joined Year 1 as part of aspirations week (on Zoom!). She talked to us about how and why she became an illustrator. After that we joined in with a drawing work shop where we learned how to draw different animals. our efforts were fantastic!

In English this half term, we have been reading 'Tidy' by Emily Gravett.

This week  we have been thinking about what it might feel like to be Pete, the badger, in the story. We then wrote the story again, but from Pete's point of view. Here are some examples of our stories!

On Friday 13th November, Platypus joined in with Children In Need. We learnt all about the role of the charity and where the money that we raise is spent. We had a non-uniform day to raise money as a school. We did lots of activities and even joined in with the end of Joe Wicks' 24 hour exercising! We were very tired at the end!

On Friday 23rd October, Platypus joined in with 'Crazy Hair Day'. There were definitely some very creative styles and they were all of the colours of the rainbow!

In Platypus class, we are learning all about Space!

We have played with the space rocket in the Small World area, Made space rockets of our own in the construction area and even made Space rockets out of Numicon in the Maths area!

We have looked at 'A Starry Night' by Vincent Van Gogh. We investigated the colours, tones and textures that he used in the painting, before having a go at using these ourselves to create our own version of the painting. These are now on display in our phase corridor!

in maths, we have been learning to count forwards and backwards to 10 (or more!), adding one more and one less AND using the < & > symbols to compare numbers.

We read 'The amazing story of Belka and Strelka - Dogs in Space' and ordered the events carefully!

Our fantastic parents have helped us to create some fantastic rockets as part of our homework task! These are all now proudly on display in the corridor for everyone to see! Well done everyone!

A few facts about a Platypus

Duck-Billed Platypus

Duck-billed platypuses are small, shy animals. They have a flattened head and body to help them glide through the water. Their fur, dark brown on top and tan on their bellies, is thick and repels water to keep them warm and dry even after hours of swimming.

The duck-billed platypus's head and body grow to about 15 inches (38 centimeters) and its tail grows to about 5 inches long (13 centimeters). Their most remarkable feature is their amazing snout. It looks like a duck's bill, but is actually quite soft and covered with thousands of receptors that help the platypus detect prey.

Males are also venomous. They have sharp stingers on the heels of their rear feet and can use them to deliver a strong toxic blow to any foe.

Platypuses spend most of their time alone, sleeping or eating.

These mammals are bottom feeders. They scoop up insects and larvae, shellfish, and worms in their bill along with bits of gravel and mud from the bottom. All this material is stored in cheek pouches and, at the surface, mashed for consumption. Platypuses do not have teeth, so the bits of gravel help them to "chew" their meal.

Platypuses are long-lived, surviving 20 years or more in captivity and up to 12 years in the wild. Scientists think these fascinating creatures are the earliest relatives of modern mammals. Recent studies show that they first evolved more than 112 million years ago, well before the extinction of the dinosaurs.