Summer 2 Term

We cannot believe that this is our last news update of the year.

What a very busy and hot half term we have had, with phonics screening check, sports day, transition day, visits from a police officer and much more.

In English we have completed the learning journeys of and The Enormous Turnip and Beegu. We had a large parcel delivered to the classroom and had to guess what we thought might be inside. It turned out to be a large and a small turnip. We then practised lots of skills, such as writing simple and compound sentences, using the suffixes -er and -est, writing questions using a question mark, before using pictures to retell it. For Beegu we received a letter from the police asking us to check whether we had spotted her in the school grounds. We then went onto write a description of her in order to help find her and reunite her with her family.

In maths we have been learning how to measure mass using non-standard units. We have looked at items and have been able to say whether they are heavy or light and compared them using the language of heavier and lighter or heaviest and lightest. We have developed our ability to count in 2s, 5s and 10s and used this knowledge to be able to solve problems, involving grouping and sharing. Our other learning journeys have been geometry where we have been recognising, describing and comparing 2D and 3D shapes. We then moved onto position and direction, being able to recognise left and right as well as describing whole, half and quarter turns.

We have continued our big question in science, ‘How do plants grow?’ We have been focusing on how plants get what they need to survive. We practiced reading the temperature on a thermometer. We have been to apply our substantive knowledge from this learning journey to answer a number of questions, such as, which direction do shoots and roots grow after germination? If a seed is planted upside down will the roots pop out of the soil? How long does a stem need to be before it produces leaves and is it the same for all plants? We carried out our first enquiry - How does the amount of warmth affect how well my plant grows? We worked together to decide how to find out the answer to this question and then to collect our evidence. We then moved onto seasons, naming and describing each season. We have learnt about ever green and deciduous trees (often referred to as delicious!) Also, about how animals have adapted to survive different seasons by hibernating or migrating.

In RE our key concept has been remembering. Something Mrs Keat need to work on! We have talked about special people we like to remember and why and thought about how this makes us feel. We then moved onto looking at how Hindus remember Krishna and Krishna’s birthday.  

For DT we have been learning about cooking and nutrition. We looked a different fruit and vegetables and practised our cutting skills to prepare some of them to make a smoothie.

In geography our unit of work has been about what it is like to live in Shanghai. We used our prior learning to name the 7 continents of the world and the 5 oceans. We have learnt what a human and physical feature is and have identified some of these features that we see on our way to school. We then compared these to human and physical features of Shanghai, discussing similarities and differences.

In music we have been learning about dynamics and tempo. We have learnt some new vocabulary. Do you know what these words mean? Crescendo, diminuendo, accelerando, rallentando. If not, ask your child to explain them to you. We learnt a song about toys putting actions to it. We then listened carefully to a range of music and tried to match it to a toy, before then choosing our own instruments to match. We used this to create our own class composition and performed it.

What an amazing Year 1 we have had! The time has flown by and Year 1 have grown and learnt so much they are now definitely ready to become Year 2! Thank you for your support this year. We hope you all have a lovely and restful summer.

Summer 1 Term

Year 1 have been working really hard again this half term. We can’t believe that we are now in the summer term and do not have long left in Year 1.

In English we have completed a new learning journey ‘Kitchen Disco’ by Clare Foges and Al Murphy. We found out that are fruit snacks had been secretly having discos when we were not at school! We practised using verbs to describe what the fruit were doing and then also added some exclamation marks when something was exciting or loud. For our final piece of writing, we tried to write our own food poems. Some of us chose to write about fruit and others did different types of food, like a roast dinner!

We then moved onto the ‘The Disgusting Sandwich’ by Gareth Edwards. We started by finding a dirty and smelly lunch box on the class rack that didn’t belong to anyone. Inside it was a disgusting sandwich! We wrote a description of it and tried to guess who it might belong too. We found out it belonged to a Badger! We then practised using verbs to give instructions to a friend about how to make a delicious sandwich. Our final piece of writing was to write instructions for how to make a disgusting sandwich. We had to use all the things we had learnt so far, such as writing sentences, joining some of these with ‘and’, using full stops, capital letters, finger spaces, verbs, adjectives and also some exclamation marks! There is such a lot to remember when writing and we are working so hard to remember it all!

In maths we have been learning about money. We started by looking at coins and understanding the value of each one. We then used out knowledge of counting 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s to find one more and one less and ten more and ten less using coins. Next week we will be learning to order and compare different amounts of money and finally, using our number bonds to 10, solve money problems.

We have continued our big question in science ‘How do plants grow?’ We have been focusing on how plants get what they need to survive. We planted some bean seeds and waited for them to start growing. We learnt that this is called germination. We observed our seeds to see the different parts and the thought carefully about what each part was for. We have practiced reading the temperature on a thermometer so we are able to use this skill to answer the question how does the amount of warmth affect how a plant grows? We carried out our first enquiry. We worked together to decide how to find out the answer to this question and then to collect our evidence.

In RE we have been learning about specialness. We thought about our own special places and where we could create one in the classroom. We then looked at the church as a special place for Christians and the mosque as a special place for Muslims.

For Art we have explored colour mixing. We can name the primary colours and know how to make some secondary colours. Next week we will be combining two skills, learning to create different shades of green and printing using blocks. Our final piece of work will link to the artist Clarice Cliff, we will be creating our own plate designs.

In History we have looked at explorers. We thought about what an explorer is, where and when they have travelled. We looked at the explorers we Christopher Columbus, Matthew Henson and Dame Ellen MacArthur. We then learnt how exploration has changed over time.

We have been using the laptops in computing to focus on digital writing. We started by exploring the keyboard and finding different keys. We have then tried to do our own writing. This has been very good for our resilience!

In music our learning journey has been ‘the old castle.’ We started by opening different doors and using our voices or bodies to make sounds to represent what was behind each door. We then moved onto using percussion instruments to make sounds in different ways. We discovered that it is easier to shake, scrape or tap some instruments more than others! We will have composed our own castle music and performed it to the class by the end of the half-term.

Spring 2 Term

Year 1 have continued to work really hard this half term. We have been focusing on the school value of independence, trying to complete our learning on our own. This has also meant that we have had to use a lot of resilience at times too!

In English we started the term continuing our learning journey ‘Lost in the Toy Museum’ by David Lucas. During this learning journey we have practised and consolidated a lot of skills, such as remembering to use finger spaces and capital letters and full stops, forming really good simple and some compound sentences, as well as using adjectives to add more detail. This has meant that we have been able to write a report about a toy for visitors to the museum. We are now moving onto another text ‘The Storm Whale’ by Benji Davies. We were super excited to see what the text was as when it was introduced it was wrapped up in paper!

In maths we have revised naming 2D shapes. We then used this knowledge to recognise half and quarter of shapes, being able to then use this knowledge to solve fraction of shape problems. We have also been counting in groups of 2 and 10 and using this to be able to solve one step multiplication and division problems.

Our big question in science is ‘How do plants grow?' We have started this learning journey by looking at seeds and bulbs and identifying if they are real or not. We then dissected a seed to look at the inside and identify the different parts.

In RE we have been learning about welcoming, linking this to the Easter story and in particular Palm Sunday. We have discussed why it is important to welcome people and how this would make them feel.

In DT we have been designing and making puppets. We practised different ways of joining materials and then decided how we would like to join our fabric together to make the puppet. Some of us used glue and others decided to sew. Miss Hare and Mrs Keat were very impressed with the Year 1 skills. We then decorated our puppet to make it into a book character.

In Geography we have looked at the question ‘What is the weather like in the UK?’ We are able to find the UK on a map and name the four countries that belong in it. We have also looked at a compass and can read north, south, east and west.

We are excited for the last few weeks of learning before the Easter holidays and especially to be going on our school trip.

Spring 1 Term 

Year 1 have had a brilliant start to the half term. We have been consolidating lots of our expectations for learning and behaviour. We are really good at following the school values especially with being kind and respectful. We have also worked hard on our independence while we have started to complete whole class learning and have adapted to it very well.

In English we started the term looking at ‘Lost and Found’ by Oliver Jeffers. We wrote what might happen next in the story, working really hard on using simple sentences, remembering to use finger spaces and capital letters and full stops.

In maths we have continued our number work; counting and representing numbers in different ways, such as using objects, pictures, numerals, part whole models or tens frames. We have worked on teens numbers and how to represent these, as well as continuing our work on partitioning, adding, subtracting and using all this knowledge to be able to solve one step problems. We have recently begun work on learning to tell the time. We now know when it is lunch time, as we can tell o’clock and half past times!

Our big question in science has been ‘What is a habitat?’ We have looked at where animals live and how they have adapted to their habitats. We found a range of habitats in the school grounds and looked for animals that lived there. Then we recorded our findings in a table and pictogram.

In RE we have been learning about belonging, linking this to the Easter story. We thought about sadness and happiness and will be relating this to where the parts of the Easter story were sad and then happy.

In art we have been making paper sculptures. We have practised making different types of 3D sculpture such as cylinder and bridges. We have finished our sculpture work by creating our own ‘Tree of Life’ using the paper folding techniques we have learnt.

In history we have been finding out the answer to the question ‘How have toys changed?’ We started by thinking about our favourite toy and then what our parents or grandparent’s favourite toy was when they were 6 years old. We looked at some toys from the past and how some of them are similar to the toys we play with today. We will be moving onto how teddy bears have changed over time. Did you know the first teddy bear was designed in 1902! That’s even older than Mrs Baskerville, Miss Hare and Mrs Keat!

For computing we have been learning how to program a robot. We have learnt that when we give a robot an instruction this is called a ‘command.’ We are really enjoying being able to send the robots around the classroom.

1H have had some soggy woodland school sessions this half-term. When safe to do so, we have been able to explore our school environment, we’ve definitely built our resilience outside. Mrs Taylor has shown us how to use some tools safely which some of us have enjoyed using by practising our drilling and sawing skills. Thank you, Mrs Taylor, for teaching us this half-term and for providing some yummy snacks and hot chocolate.