To all the grown ups in Willow and Bramble Class,

As the final blog post of the year, we wanted to take the opportunity to say a huge thank you to all of you for all of your hard work and support with all of the children this year.

We are so incredibly proud of how hard the children have worked, how far they have come since joining Year 1 in September, and we cannot believe how ready they are for the new and very exciting leap into Year 2!

This week we have had a fabulous time making our repurposed items using our old t-shirts. The children were super creative in their designs and the make process was very interesting, the children found cutting the fabric very tricky and lots of children decided that they would need to alter their design to make it a bit simpler. Some children changed their design altogether!

The children had big ideas, and we ended up with some clothes for toys, some outfits to wear at home over the summer, some toys and beds for cats, dogs and hamsters, baby blankets for siblings, sweat bands and headbands, football shirts, stuffed toys and basketballs. The children then evaluated their final product against their design and talked about what went well and what they would improve if they were to make it again – we decided sharper scissors would definitely be beneficial!

We also spent the whole of Thursday undertaking our skills builder project, Community Café. The children were put into teams and were tasked with coming up with a theme for their café and a name based on their theme. They were then asked to make menu’s to show what their customers could purchase, decorate their café by making a banner and pictures/decorations for the walls and tables and set up their tables ready for their customers to come and visit! Part of the team were tasked with preparing the sandwiches, biscuits and drinks, which were all sent to the kitchen ready for the waiters to serve the patiently waiting customers.

Bramble Class came and visited Willow Classes’ cafes, where the children took orders, served their food and ensured that they provided fantastic customer service to their guests. We then switched roles and enjoyed some yummy Jam and Cheese sandwiches, biscuits and orange squash!

We were incredibly proud of how the children worked together, collaborating and communicating effectively to ensure a smooth service. Some of the children we didn’t expect to showed us their organisational skills, leadership skills and communication skills to work fantastically well within their teams.

Friday has been a lovely day where we have had the opportunity to make the most of the time we have had left with our wonderful classes – it has been so lovely to chat with them, find out what they have enjoyed this year and to find out what their plans are over the summer.

We are going to miss the children so much – they are a fantastic group of children with incredible personalities, they are a credit to you all and we have been incredibly lucky to work with them this year.

I personally will be looking forward to bringing my little boy in to meet the children at some point in the new school year once he has made his arrival and I have settled into life with 2 under 2 - I will miss the children so much and can’t wait to see how they all progress in Year 2!

Have a fantastic summer break, get plenty of rest, enjoy the sunshine and we look forward to seeing you all in September!

Best wishes,
The Year 1 Team