We had the opportunity to play with Scalextric and explore lots of other amazing toys made by Hornby, including model trains and cars. We loved seeing how these toys work and noticing all the tiny details that make them look so realistic.

During our visit, we also learnt how toys have changed over time and how design and technology help make them move. We spotted gears, tracks, wheels and motors, and started to understand how these parts help toys function. It was exciting to see how ideas from the past have inspired the toys we still enjoy today.

We had such a fun, hands-on day and came back to school full of ideas and excitement!

We were then shown some very unusual and exciting instruments. We saw a theremin being played — an instrument you don’t even have to touch to make music! We were also amazed to discover that even vegetables can be turned into instruments and make different sounds.

We had the best time listening, experimenting and discovering just how many different ways sound can be made. It was such a fun and memorable experience!

Using torches, we shone light through our tubes and projected our drawings onto the wall. It was amazing to see our tiny pictures turn into big shadows! We were very sensible when using the torches and took turns to share our creations with our friends.

We had so much fun exploring light and shadow and loved seeing our designs come to life in such a creative way.

After that, we had the chance to explore puppets ourselves and put on our own puppet shows! We had so much fun giving our puppets silly voices, dramatic voices and even whispery voices, and making them move in funny and creative ways.

We have now designed our very own puppets and can’t wait to start making them on Thursday.

Parents and carers are very welcome to come in and help us on Thursday between 1pm and 3pm — we’d love to see you there!

We had to think really carefully about the instructions we gave. If something didn’t work, we didn’t give up — we debugged our code, fixed our mistakes, and tried again. It felt amazing when our character finally did exactly what we told it to do!

We showed brilliant problem-solving, perseverance, and logical thinking skills. Some of the challenges were tricky, but we kept going and helped each other like a team of expert coders.

We took part in a fun experiment using special “glow” cream on our hands to see how quickly germs can spread. After that, we washed our hands carefully and checked them under a special light. If our hands were still glowing, it meant we hadn’t washed all the germs away!

It was so interesting to see how important it is to wash our hands properly, and we had lots of fun learning how to keep ourselves healthy.

These activities help us slow down our bodies and minds when we feel overwhelmed, cross, worried or over-excited. Learning how to manage our emotions is an important skill because it helps us focus on our learning, build friendships, and feel safe and confident in school. We are beginning to understand that all feelings are okay — it’s what we do with those feelings that matters.

We loved sharing these strategies with our grown-ups and showing them how we use them in school. Afterwards, we proudly showed them where we eat our lunch and how lunchtime works, including where our food comes from. It was such a lovely experience to learn and share together.

We loved developing our play across the tables, using our ideas to create roads, towns and journeys. We worked together to figure out how to make bridges, tested different ways for vehicles to travel, and thought carefully about what we could add to cars to make them even better.

There was lots of teamwork, problem-solving and imaginative play as we shared ideas and built on each other’s thinking. It was great to see how our play grew and changed as we explored movement and travel in so many different ways!

We are very excited to share that during the week beginning Monday 2nd February, Ramsgate Arts Primary School will be celebrating a whole-school STEAM Week.

STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics. This special week is designed to bring learning to life by combining creativity, problem-solving and real-world thinking across these subject areas.

Throughout the week, children will be completely off their normal timetable and immersed in a range of exciting projects, workshops and trips. These experiences are carefully planned to enrich their learning, spark curiosity and encourage collaboration, creativity and resilience – all key values at Ramsgate Arts.

As part of STEAM Week, we will also be holding a Number Day, where children will work in groups and move around different classrooms taking part in a variety of fun and challenging maths activities. This will give pupils the opportunity to apply their mathematical thinking in new and engaging ways.

It promises to be a fantastic and inspiring week for all our children, so please keep an eye on the class blogs for updates, photos and stories about what they have been getting up to.

Parent Workshop Invitations

We are delighted to invite parents and carers to come into school to support some of our exciting STEAM workshops during the week. You are very welcome to stay for the whole session or pop in whenever you are able.

Date and times:

• Thursday 5th Feb 2026- join us to support puppet making between 1 and 3pm on Thursday 5^th Feb

Thank you, as always, for your continued support. We are really looking forward to sharing this exciting week with our school community!

We’ve loved getting hands-on with lots of icy activities. We painted ice blocks with flowers frozen inside, carefully watching the colours melt and mix. We worked together to free frozen toys from the ice, trying different tools and ideas to break them out. We also spent time doing observational drawings, looking closely at what we could see and recording the details we noticed.

These activities helped us practise our creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork, all while having lots of fun. We’ve really enjoyed exploring ice and winter through our play!

We also learned about who can help us if we are worried, such as trusted adults at home and at school. To help us remember, we made lolly stick people showing someone we could talk to if we were feeling worried.

After that, we role-played what we might say to these people to share our worries. This helped us practise using our words and feel more confident about asking for help when we need it.

It was a thoughtful and important lesson, and we were so proud of how kind, open, and caring everyone was during our learning.

This term is packed with exciting opportunities, including STEAM Week, library visits, and lots more fun learning experiences that we know the children will love.

A few important reminders:

• PE Kits:

  • Team Merry – Tuesday and Thursday

  • Team Morris – Tuesday and Friday

• Reading books should be in school every day.

• To help promote independence, parents and carers are asked not to come into the classroom during the mornings.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support. We’re really looking forward to another fantastic term together!

We couldn’t believe it when we got a reply — the elves sent us a video of their favourite cheeky moments! We were so excited and laughed so much while watching it together.

The elves must have seen how much we loved it because they surprised us again by sending us another video! What a magical and exciting surprise it was.

https://vimeo.com/1147331761/3b42272358?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci

We had lots of fun making Christmas cards, and then we watched the film 'The Nativity' — it was very fancy (a bit fancier than ours!), and we loved joining in with “Sparkle and Shine” right at the end.

We were so lucky because we even got to enjoy hot chocolates and snacks, which made the day feel extra special.

Miss Merry, Miss Morris, Miss Easton and Miss Fields are all so proud of us for being wonderful, kind, and festive Year 1 children! 🎅✨

Santa’s elves were very cheeky, making us laugh and adding to the magic of the visit. It felt very special and exciting to be there.

When we got back to our classrooms, we were amazed to find that we each had a present waiting for us! We felt so grateful and incredibly lucky to have met Father Christmas.

What a truly magical experience we will always remember! ✨🎄

Everyone was so brave on stage, and it was wonderful to see all our smiles as we performed. What a special way to share the Christmas story together!

If you’d like to see our dance to “Sparkle and Shine”, please follow the link below:
🔗 https://vimeo.com/1145241909/49d114370f?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci password: Year1.2025

Well done, Year 1 — you were amazing! 🌟

https://vimeo.com/1140371053?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci

The password is Year1.25