Thursday 19th December

We have a lovely festive week this week. The nativity went incredibly, all of the children sung beautifully and we are very proud of them.

We have enjoyed making Christmas cards, meeting Santa in his grotto, eating popcorn around the campfire and eating our delicious Christmas lunch along with crackers. 

We finished the week by singing Don't Worry Mary at the church, and enjoyed a lovely Christmas church service. We had a fun Christmas party and loved playing party games to conclude the term. 

We wish all of the year 1 families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Have a lovely, restful Christmas break and enjoy time with your families. We look forward to seeing you all in 2026!

Friday 13th December

Wow, what a week! Nativity rehearsals were in full swing and the week concluded with a stella dress rehearsal performance in front of the staff and Key Stage Two. Everyone did very well and sang beautifully! We cannot wait for you to see the performances next week!

In English, we planned and wrote instructions on how to catch a cheeky elf! The class elves escaped, and we had to get them back. We had to use imperative verbs and "bossy" language as well as writing a list of needed equipment (ranging from chicken noodles to entice them back to cookies and donuts).

In maths, we spent the week consolidating what we have been learning across the last two terms, including word problems, shapes, addition and subtraction. 

In RE, we thought about thankfulness, especially around Christmas time. We wrote about why Mary and Joseph would have been thankful, and we can be thankful for ourselves at Christmas. The children wrote some very sweet answers, including how thankful they are for their friends, family, and food!

We went on a nature walk around the school to find wildlife, such as worms, toadstools and ants. We liked meeting little friends in the mud. 

 

Friday 22nd November

What a busy week for year 1! The children have started to learn their songs for the Nativity Play and are doing very well. The Christmas feeling is setting in; in RE we have been learning about the nativity story and sequencing the pictures, and have discussed why Christmas is important to Christians.

 

In science this week, the children have been conducting an investigation. We are looking at patterns in the weather and have placed a thermometer and rain gauger outside. Every day, the children take a trip outside to read the temperature, check how much rain we have had and test how windy it is. We are trying to find out what a week of Autumn weather looks like, and so far it has been getting colder and colder!

In maths, the children have been consolidating their knowledge of taking away in a variety of ways: taking away using a number line, taking away using the ten frames and counters, and today they have been working out their take-away sentences from a part-whole model. 

 

Year 1 have been writing their own version of the story Rapunzel by changing the name of the main character and making some adjustments to the story line. It has been amazing to see the knowledge that they have learnt throughout the term come into fruition with sentence building and very exciting vocabulary. 

 

Non-uniform day was great fun, and the overall message of anti-bullying week (to be kind to everyone and celebrate differences) has been taken in well - we also learnt the importance of Speak Out, Stay Safe.

 

 

Friday 15th November 2024

The week began with Remembrance Day,  we spent the afternoon creating some beautiful poppy art work and writing a poem to help us remember those who fought for our country.

In English this week we have been continuing to look at our Rapunzel story. The children had a go at writing noun-verb poems as well as using powerful adjectives such as 'courageous' and 'adventurous' to write a character description of Rapunzel. They have been extending their sentences using 'and' and 'because'.

In Maths, the children learnt how to add on a number line and then we began learning to subtract using manipulatives. The children were able to write their subtractions as a number sentence and fill in part-whole models.

At Forest School in 1PU, we learnt to identify different types of trees such as oak and beech trees. We also played lots of games with our year 6 buddies and also had some free time within forest school to explore and create what we would like. Some of us built a drum kit out of tyres and logs, some children did mud painting and others played in the mud kitchen.

In computing, we learnt about algorithms and how computers can use these to check our answers. We then completed some sorting quizzes on Purple Mash, by sorting shapes by colour, shape, amount of sides etc. You could have another go at home!

We also got to see the gallery of artwork for the competition about The Wise and Foolish Builder. We were so proud of our year 1s who entered! We had a special assembly to hear the winners and we also got to see Miss Atkin's be pied! It was so funny!

Friday 8th November 2024

Wow we have had such a busy week! We started looking at our new English text, Rapunzel by Bethan Woolvin. It is a version of the traditional fairy tale however this Rapunzel does not need a prince to save her, she is a braver, more resourceful Rapunzel! We had some mysterious items delivered to the classroom to give us clues about the text and once we had had read it, we sequenced images from the story and answered some comprehension questions.

In Maths, we have been looking at addition problems, and learnt how to solve word problems by looking for key numbers and words in the sentences. 

We had the church service on Thursday morning and enjoyed seeing the year 6's get their ties, learning about how to be gentle, meeting the church dog and joining in with some songs. 

In the afternoon, we had the amazing Miriam from The Amelia Centre come to deliver a workshop all about toys. We learnt about some toys that were over a hundred years old and the differences between them and the more modern versions. We met a teddy that belonged to a child who was evacuated in WW2, and got to play with Jacob's ladders, thaumatropes, spinning tops, cup and balls, wooden train set, Noah's arc and kaleidoscopes. It was so much fun, we all learnt so much and had such a brilliant afternoon. We wrote recounts of the workshop on Friday using the past tense.

On Friday afternoon, we had a BCS day afternoon where we recorded the song Our Lighthouse for our partner school Matengoro Primary School who we support and raise money for. 

 

Friday 18th October 2024

In English this week, we have been writing letters. We planned our letter and used our notes to write full sentences. We wrote some lovely letters to the toys, pretending that we are stuck in the attic and asking for help. We tried to include some conjunctions in our writing. We have made so much progress in our writing already!

In Maths, we have been continuing to look at part whole models but also introduced bar models. The children have been able to fill in part whole models, bar models and complete number sentences to match them.

In Science, we went on an exciting materials hunt. We found objects made of metal, wood, plastic, glass, paper etc and discussed the properties of these materials that made them right for the job. For example we discussed how the windows in school are made from glass because they need to be really strong to ensure they don’t break, waterproof to ensure the rain doesn’t come in, and transparent to let light through so that it’s not too dark inside.

In PE, we made the most of the beautiful sunshine and went outside to practice our catching skills. We practiced with different sized balls and bean bags, and learnt how to get our body and hands into a ready position (knees bent, feet shoulder width apart, slightly on our toes) to catch. We learnt that if the ball is coming high then our thumbs need to be touching, and if it’s coming low our little fingers need to be touching. Ask us to show you!

In art, we continued looking at colour mixing and relating it to the work of Wassily Kandinsky. We learnt about how he was the first painter to stop painting things and instead paint just using colours and shapes. He believed that this let him paint honestly about his feelings. Often Kandinsky would listen to music while he painted and try to paint what he heard. So this is exactly what we did too. We listened to lots of different moods of music to inspire our paintings. Do you like them?

Friday 11th October 2024

In English, we have been continuing with our Old Bear story and produced some lovely writing, including a missing toy poster. We really enjoyed creating our own ways to get to the attic with our class toys and then writing down our ideas.

In maths, we have introduced the part-whole model, and the children have had a go at working out different parts for a given whole number.

In Science, we looked at the word waterproof, and conducted an investigation to decide what material would make the best rain hat for Old Bear. We poured water on each material to test whether it was waterproof, then discussed out of the ones which were which would make the best rain hat and why. 

In PE, we continued with our gymnastics unit and played a jungle game as well as learning some new positions and balances.

In History, we went back in time to discover 20th Century toys such as My Little Pony, china dolls, a handheld game console, Mouse Trap and many more.

In Geography, we looked at different types of houses and built them with construction toys. 

Friday 4th October

What a busy week! Year 1 have been working hard preparing for the Harvest Service on Monday by practising their lines for The Little Red Hen and making animal masks. 

In Art this week, we continued to explore colour mixing, except this time someone took our paintbrushes away! Year 1 set off exploring the playground to find natural resources to use instead . They found stones, grass, feathers, sticks, ferns, leaves and some dried flowers to explore different painting techniques.

In English, Year 1 concluded writing their own version of Old Bear using the planning circles created last week.  They also thought about the feelings of all the toys in the stories at the different stages of their adventure, and received a letter from another dear toy who was also stuck in the attic. Some big achievements were made with their writing this week. The children also made freeze-frames to capture the toy's feelings.

In maths the focus was on consolidating the understanding of the terms more than, less than, greater than, fewer than and consolidating our number knowledge up to 10. The children also looked at number lines this week to enable them to use them as a helping tool in their independent work.

Science this week saw us experimenting to find out which material works best for absorbing water - the tracing paper didn't do very well, but we concluded that the tea towel was best!

Year 1 has started their History topic of toys this week, beginning with modern toys that they play with today. The children considered the properties of the toys such as what material they are made from, whether they are electronic, whether they make noise or not, and did they fit in their pocket? Next week we are going to start going back in time to explore what children before them used to play with.

 

 

Friday 27th September 2024

This week, the children have written their own versions of the Old Bear story, they have produced some lovely writing using capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. Some children have even managed to add in some descriptions.

In maths, our main focus has been comparing numbers using the words greater than, more than, less than, fewer than and equal too alongside the symbols > < =. We have done this practically as well as in written work.

In Science, 1PU did an experiment to see which material was the most absorbent. We discussed the key vocabulary as well as how we could make it a fair test. We decided that the fabric was the most absorbent, and will try to test some different materials. 1A will complete their experiment next week. 

We did a survey in Geography to find out how we all get to school, they recorded these in a table using stickers. 

In Art, we looked at the artist Wassily Kandinsky. He thought a lot about the colours we use and how they make people feel. The children used everything they have learnt about colour mixing, tinting and shading to create their own version of his work 'Squares with concentric circles'.

Friday 20th September 2024

This week we have been carrying with our Old Bear book, the children have been thinking a lot about characters emotions and have began planning their own retelling of the story.

In maths, we have been finding one more and one less than a number and have also been counting backwards within 10. We made some rockets to help us!

In art, we recapped the colour wheel and learnt that adding white to colours makes them lighter (tint) and adding black makes them darker (shade). We experiments with making our own tints and shades by colour mixing.

In PE, we bang our gymnastics unit, we explored different ways to move and balance including high movements and low movements. We created our own routines and some of us showed them to the year group. 

Friday 6th September 2024

Wow, what an incredible first week in year 1! We are so, so proud of how well all of the children have settled in and approached changes and new challenges. We are feeling like very lucky teachers!

In English this week, the children have spent time discussing their summer holidays and have written sentences about them to go on our Wow Writing board, so that every child has something on display in school to feel proud of. We discussed their ideas and how we could turn these into full sentences using capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. We were really impressed with how the children were using their phonics to support them with their spellings.

The children have also taken part in some Maths activities and fun games. We have been looking at counting up to 20, matching numerals to pictures and their number formation to 10.

In story time this week, 1PU have been reading Peace at Last by Jill Murphy. They now know the story really well and can join in on key parts, and even started adding actions. 1A have enjoyed reading a range of different stories such as Tiddler and The Smartest Giant in Town by Julia Donaldson.

We have been spending some time hearing the children say their phonics sounds and blending words, so levelled reading books should be ready to go out next week.

The children have also been participating in some getting to know you games and activities and also been doing some lovely arts and crafts. They have also had some exploring/choosing time so they can get to know the resources we have in the classroom and to support the transition from reception to a more formal year 1.

We are so excited to welcome the children back for week 2 and look forward to seeing you at Meet the Teacher next Wednesday at 6pm.

Optional activity Science:

In Science, we have begun looking at our new topic – Everyday Materials. The children have learnt the difference between an object and the material from which it is made. We are going to focus on wood, plastic, metal and rock and begin practical activities to sort them next week.

Activity: Find some objects at home. Say what the object is and then decide the material that it is made from and label it.

Week 1 Photos