Term 6 – Week 1

Monday – We have read the book the queens knickers and thought it was very funny that the Queen’s knickers could turn into a parachute or a boat!

The children then designed a pair of special knickers for the Queen. They had great ideas…

‘ These pants have crabs in them and when the Queen can’t reach to pick something up a crab goes down from them and grabs the thing on the floor and pulls it back up for the Queen.’

‘I have designed church knickers. The Queen wears them and if she wants to go to church she presses a button on them and a church pops out around her.’

‘ These are hot tub knickers. If the Queen wears them and she is feeling cold she pulls the cord and they turn in to a nice and warm hot tub.’

The children wrote speech bubbles for what the police officers in the illustrations could have been saying.

We noticed that coins have the real Queens face on them. We made a replica of each coin and note for our royal wallets/purses.

The children built castles for Kings and Queens. They had to work as a team and compromise with each other.

 

Term 5 – Week 4

We have been revising multiplication this week.  We worked practically to start.  We then drew the ‘groups of’ (hoops) as circles and the amount  as dots within each circle to support our workings out when multiplying).  We counted all the dots to find the total.

We used different vocabulary to help our mathematical understanding,  for example, ‘5 groups of 3’, ‘5 lots of 3’, ‘5 times 3’.  We also drew arrays to help us find the answer.  All the children enjoyed multiplication and asked if they could carry on rather than rotating to their next activity.   The super challenge involved using their knowledge of the 2, 5 and 10 times table to find the answer rather than drawing circles and dots.  For example, 8 x 10 would have taken a long time to draw as circles and dots so the children put up 8 fingers and counted each finger as a 10, they soon got to 80.  They also used this method to count in twos and fives.

In English this week we have been learning about the Great Plague of 1665.  The children pretended they were a plague doctor and wrote about the causes and the symptoms of the Great Plague.   I reassured the children that fleas do not carry the disease today and they will not catch the plague.  We compared the differences in the doctors and the conditions between 1665 and today and we all agreed that we would rather be alive now rather than in 1665.

In the afternoons this week we have been looking at different faiths and asking the question ‘Where do I belong?’  We started by talking about all the different organisations and clubs that we belong to, for example, Beavers, Rainbows, sway dance, swimming, gymnastics, football.   We then agreed that we all belong to our own families as well as to the St. Anne’s family and it made us feel good.  We understand that not every family will look the same.

We talked about some of the things that are the same for different religions.  We learnt that Christians get baptised to show that they belong to God’s family.  We learnt about infant baptism where the ‘vicar’ christened the baby and he parents and godparents promised to bring the baby up to be part of God’s family.

The children shared a special family memory with their talk partner and then drew and wrote about it.  Family holidays, celebrating birthdays and Christmas featured a lot.  As a crew we made a poem about what family means to us.

We watched the story of Jesus baptism in the River Jordan.  We learnt about believers baptism and watched clips of what this looks like. We re enacted Jesus being baptised in the River Jordan.

We heard about the ‘Holy Family’ and how worried Mary, the mother of Jesus was when she realised she had lost him when he was only 12 years old.  We wrote speech bubbles to show what Mary and Jesus might be saying to one another.  Jesus said, ‘I was in my Father’s house., ‘I was doing my dad’s work’, ‘I was in my Father’s house doing his work; I was talking to the teachers.’

We also looked at how other faiths share special family times and why they are important to them.  We learnt about how Jewish people celebrate Shabbat (their Sabbath Day, day of rest) and role played sharing a special plaited bread called Challah in a family.  The children got in to families and drew all the food that they would have when sharing a special family meal together.

The children have been practising their sports day races. In the donkey derby the children have been applying their galloping footwork and jumping landing on one foot or two feet together. These have been apart of our real P.E skills this term.

A few photos from the week…

Term 5 – Week 3

London is burning!

To inspire our writing this week we set fire to our Tudor houses and St. Paul’s Cathedral.  The children recorded what they could see, hear, smell and how they felt whilst they watched their houses burn.  They then used these notes to write a poem about the Great Fire of London.  I was very impressed by the adjectives and adverbs they used to describe the fire and their emotions.

In maths we have been solving missing number problems. Foe example 15 – ?  = 6. We told stories to help us put the problem in context.

Term 5 – Week 2

I have been extremely impressed with the written recount of the story ‘Toby and the Fire of London.’  Everybody in the Year One Crew  produced quality writing. Have a look  …

Term 5 – Week 1

Welcome back, we hope you all had an enjoyable Easter break.

What a fantastic first week we have had! We have gone back in time to 1666 when The Great Fire of London happened and learnt that the fire started from a tiny ember in a bakery. We looked at a map of London to see how far the fire spread.

We have had fun setting up our own bakery making our own salt dough food creations as well as designing paper bags for the shoppers to carry their food in. The children have enjoyed playing imaginatively. The St Anne’s bakery has caught fire a few times already!

The children have written questions of what they would like to know about the event.

‘Why did the fire spread so far?’

‘Did anybody die?’

‘Did the fire reach the animals?’

‘How did the people put the fire out?’

 

We have started our new book called Toby and the Great Fire of London. The children have been learning to tell the story using actions and by creating story maps. Ask your child to show you the actions for: diary, Mr Pepys, Toby, London, flame and oh no!

The children have been developing their sketching skills while drawing Tudor houses much like the ones that burnt down in 1666. We learnt that they were mostly built of wood and were very close together.

In P.E we rode imaginary bikes and it was fun! We improved our skills in changing direction, moving safely and footwork.

Next week we will be revising the following phonics sounds: ew (few),  aw (yawn), au (Autumn), ou (shout but can also be soup), are (care). Please help your child spot these special friends in words whilst reading with them at home.

 

Term 4 – Week 6

 

Term 4 – World Book Day

Term 4 – Week 1

At the start of the week we thought about things we have been successful at. we celebrated these by making success coins and a success box to keep it in. The success boxes came home on Friday, every time the children achieve something or feel proud they can make coins at home to add into their boxes.

We thought about a goal that we would like to achieve. We thought about how to achieve a goal you have to work one step at a time. We jumped over the stepping stones saying each step as we moved. After we used our fingers to be a little person and jumped them over the stepping stones talking to a friend about what our goal is and how we could get there.

We played partner games like apple, oranges and pairs linked by arm to a partner and we also played reflection when we took it in turns with our partner to be the leader and the mirror.

We then worked together to meet a goal. We had to design a pair of wellies with a partner. To make a matching pair we had to discuss ideas and compromise.

‘We had to carefully talk about what we wanted and where we were going to put a picture or colour because we wanted a pair of wellies.’

‘It was a little bit hard because we both wanted to do different things. At first it was a problem but we sorted it out’

 

Next, we thought about how learn things. just like a flower we start of like a seed and then steadily grow in our learning. We want to be stretchy learners and challenge ourselves, just like how the flower and leaves stretch towards the sun. To reach our goals we must try hard and keep believing in ourselves! We made our stretchy learning flowers and they looked beautiful. (We will keep them safe at school for now as have decided to give them to someone special on an upcoming special day!)

In maths this week we have been learning how to multiply. We have used counters to represent the groups, drawn circles to represent the groups and drawn the right amount inside each group and have learnt how to draw an array.  I have been so impressed with all the children with their perseverance in their learning and the way that they explain their mathematical thinking.

Next week we will be concentrating again on split digraphs in our phonics lesson because the children are finding it hard to recognise these special friends in words when reading: a-e (cake), i-e (bike), o-e (home), e-e (evening), u-e (huge).

Term 3 – Week 4, 5 and 6

The children bring their brilliant body books home on the last day of term. We hope you enjoy them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying the sunshine!

 

Term 3 – Week 3

In maths we found out that if you measure in cubes sometimes one person measures 6 cubes and the other person measures 12 cubes but they were both right. How can this be? We realised that the cubes were different sizes and that if you telephoned a friend to tell them to measure in cubes they would not know how big a cube is! We learnt that this is why we need standard units. We have measured in cm and m this week and have tried to measure accurately.

In English we have been adding the suffixes er, est and ing to words where no change is needed to the root word.

We have learnt about the amazing journey of a blood cell. When the cell has no oxygen left, it has to go back to the heart for pump one to the lungs. Here, the blood cell picks up oxygen. Back to the heart it goes for pump two. Then it travels around the body making deliveries. We made comics of the journey of the blood cell. Some peoples comic had a blood cell on a lorry, others a go kart and we even saw a rocket ship for the blood cell to travel around on.

Circuit training has been fun but tiring!

I have been very impressed with the how the children’s reading skills both in decoding, comprehension and vocabulary knowledge has been continually growing. This shows how quality reading both at home and school on a regular basis really does make a difference! Thank you.

Enjoy your weekend. If you have some spare time maybe you could practise counting in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s or practise spelling the days of the week. I look forward to lots more learning together next week.

 

Term 3 -Week 2

Wow, what a busy week we have had in Year One! The children continue to be enthusiastic and resilient learners and I am very proud of how they help and support each other.

In Maths this week the children have continued to find a half and a quarter of an amount.  Some of us challenges ourselves to find the groups of tens and ones in a number and then halved and quartered them instead of counting individual counters for larger numbers. I have been impressed with the perseverance shown when solving the maths problems. We have also been measuring using non-standard units. We compared the measurements of items and had a go at finding the difference between measurements.

In English this week we have been learning to write numbered instructions for the recovery position.  First we researched what instructions looked like.  We used bossy verbs and challenged ourselves to use adverbs and conjunctions too. We created sentences verbally by instructing our friends before using the vocabulary in our writing. We used photos of ourselves learning the recovery position to support us. This piece of work will be going into our ‘Brilliant bodies’ books that the children will be bringing home at the end of our learning theme.

After learning about skeletons and the role our bones play to support and protect our body.  We looked at real x-rays and guessed which part of the body each one showed. The children  used chalk to do an observational drawing of the bones in our hands.

Lizzie is a children’s nurse and she visit us on Thursday afternoon.  She explained about the function of each of our organs and where they are in our bodies.  The children had fun placing the organs on the correct part of our body and learnt lots of facts. We had the opportunity to ask her the questions we had previously written to find out more about our body.

Playing mummy and baby …

Next week we will be recapping split vowel digraphs in phonics: a-e (cake), e-e (evening), i-e (bike), o-e (home), u-e (use).  I have noticed that these are the sounds that children are finding the most difficult to read and use in their writing.

Term 3 – Week 1

Welcome back!

We have enthusiastically started our new learning theme – ‘How amazing are we?’ and this term we will be focusing on the human body. The children will be making a brilliant body book that they will bring home and share with you at the end of this term.

The year Ones worked in teams to show the understanding that they already have about the human body, They had lots of interesting ideas! We will re-visit these later in the term to add and edit from what we have learnt.

Sarah from St John’s Ambulance came in to teach us when and how to put somebody into the recovery position. We learnt step by step and practised with a partner. We found out that if somebody is unresponsive their tongue could slip back into their airway and stop them from breathing. Tilting the chin gently upwards can stop this from happening. We saw this on Fred the red, showing how this stopped him from being Fred the dead.

In English this week we have been learning how to use imperative (bossy) verbs to instruct each other. At first we partnered up and took it in turns to instruct our robot around the classroom. After that we used our bossy verbs (tilt, lift, pull, put, place) to instruct how to put somebody into the recovery position. Next week we will use these words to write instructions for the recovery position. We have also been using the sentence starters- who, when, how, why, and what to write questions that we want to find out about our bodies. We punctuated these sentences with a question mark. Next week we will have the opportunity to ask a nurse our questions.  We thought of some great questions…

‘Why do we have veins?’    ‘How does your brain switch on?’   ‘Why does your heart beat?’   ‘How do your eyes move?’

The year 1 received another visit from one of our Year 2 parents – Helen Howells , who is a radiographer. She brought her skeleton, Mr Bones in to teach the children about the bones in their body. She answered the children’s many questions and showed them examples of x-rays . We found out that the smallest bone is inside your ear and the largest bone is in the thigh of your leg. We also found out that children have more bones than an adult because as you grow some of your bones fuse together. It was also interesting to learn that one of the jobs of our bones is to protect organs inside your body and your brain.

We have had our first gymnastics session of the year. We will be progressing our skills every Wednesday this term. Our other P.E lesson will be circuit training.

In mathematics this week we have been learning about half and quarters. First we looked practically, then with shapes and have now moved on to halving and quartering amounts. The vocabulary we have been using is whole, parts, half/halves, quarters, equal, same.

Computing fun…

Please continue to read as often as you can, this really is making a difference to both their reading and writing skills!

 

Term 2 – Week 5

The highlight of our week was the amazing nativity performance of ‘The Magical Christmas Jigsaw’.  The children were absolutely fantastic!  We are sure you will agree, the children sang, danced and spoke brilliantly.

Term  2 – Week 4

In English this week the children told their innovated story based on Julia Donaldson’s ‘The Snail and the Whale’ using some great story language and adjectives to practise their oracy skills.  The children then wrote their story using their ‘every time we write’ skills.

We have been practising our Nativity performance and all of the beautiful songs.  Thank you for helping your child to learn their lines at home.  I hope you will enjoy it as much as I am enjoying rehearsing it. We are looking forward

Term 2 – Week 3

This week we have been learning to solve missing number problems that involve subtraction.  The children used number lines successfully to find the missing number by counting the number of jumps between the whole and the remainder to find how many had been taken away.  They also pictorially represented the whole number then drew a line around the amount that was left and counted those outside of that group to find how many had been taken away.

In English we have continued reading the story of ‘The Snail and the Whale’ by Julia Donaldson.  The children have written about two destinations that their innovated characters visited.  They had to decide which continent their characters would visit and what physical and human features they would see.  The children have also written about the problem their characters faced and thought about a solution.  Next week they will be using their story map to write their whole story. I can’t wait to read their stories.

Term 2 – Week 2

This week in Maths we have been solving missing number problems that involve addition.  The children were given the total (the whole) and one of the parts and had to find the other part.  They used unifix cubes to support their learning.

In English we have started the story of ‘The Snail and the Whale’ by Julia Donaldson.  The children have used adjectives to describe their innovated characters.  They have also used the conjunctions ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘because’ when writing about what they would pack in the suitcase for their journey.

Term 2 – Week 1

This week we have been learning about why we celebrate and remember certain days.   On Monday the children enjoyed hearing about the original gunpowder plot and Guy Fawkes and his friends.  They asked many questions and wrote a sentence or two about why we have bonfire night still today.

We also had a special visit from Rob French to share his experience of being in the military and the importance of Remembrance day.  In Parliament , all children discussed Remembrance day and shared the poppies they had made and talked about relatives who had fought in the wars. Thank you to those children who also wore their uniform on Friday – you all looked smart.

 

Term 1 – Week 7

  

Term 1 – Week 6

 

Term 1 -Week 4

In RE we have been learning about the Hindu story of creation and comparing it to the Christian story of creation.  We learnt that the Lotus flower is a very important symbol for Hindus and that they have lots of Gods who have different roles.  We made a wheel to help us to remember the cycle of creation according to Hindus. Drawing a different part of the story on a section of a circle and turning it to re-tell.

In maths we have been looking at ordinal numbers. We linked this to when we compete in sports day. Outside in the playground we had a bean bag throwing competition and recorded which colour bean bag came in each position. We have also been ordering  and comparing numbers using our knowledge of place value to explain our thinking.

‘I know 21 is bigger than 12 because even though  they do have the same numbers in it the 2 is in the tens column in 21 this means two groups of ten and 12 only has one group of ten.’

The children have been great geographers this week.  They have really got to grips with map reading and identifying symbols on a map. They drew a symbol and then used the key to find out what the symbol represented.

In English the children have sequenced the story ‘Journey’ in writing using time conjunctions – first, then, next, after that and finally. Some of the children challenged themselves to include the adjectives we have been discussing too. On Thursday we found the Diary that the character from the picture book had written. We all became word detectives searching in the diary text for personal pronoun I, adjectives and time conjunctions. We were super at spotting these! At home maybe while you enjoy a story together you could ask your child to pick out these words within sentences. Next week we will be writing our own diary entry in role.

We continue to listen to the children read daily in guided reading sessions. We study each book over a few days with the focus changing allowing for a deeper understanding . The focus may be on decoding the text, comprehension of what we have read,  finding information within writing, vocabulary within the book or re-reading for increased confidence and fluency.  We teach the children that reading is a key skill in life and that having this skill is to enable them to enjoy stories, research anything they are interested in and become what ever they wish to be! Reading lots is also a great way to help us learn ways to write. Thank you so much for your support with home reading too, it truly does make a difference.

Next week we will be recapping the following sounds so please spot them whilst reading with your child at home:

oa (boat), ow (snow), oe (toe), o-e (home), ph (phone).

Our sight words for reading and spelling will be:

little, there, when, what and were.

We are also looking forward to meeting a baby alien who is coming to visit next week. The children have a special mission to teach the alien to read.

Term 1 – Week 3

In Maths this week the children have been learning the value of numbers.  We started by counting out teen numbers with straws.  When we reached 10 we bundled the straws together with an elastic band to make one lot of ten and then counted how many ‘ones’ we had over.  The children soon got the hang of using the language of tens and ones.  Later on in the week we moved on to representing 10 by using one stick for ten and we used individual cubes to represent the ones.  The children were able to record this in their books by drawing lines for sticks of ten and dots for ones for numbers up to 99.   For example 52 would be represented as IIIII..

IMG_3776

In English the children used their word bank of adjectives  from last weeks spoken sentences to write their sentences to describe the pictures  taken from our book, ‘Journey.’  We went on to verbally re-tell the story using the time conjunctions – first, then, next, after that and finally in preparation to use in our writing next week.

On Thursday the Year 1 crew used their oracy skills to retell the ‘Journey’ story to their partner.  They used  time conjunctions: first, then, next, after that and finally.  The second partner had to use the same time conjunctions but they could not use the same adjectives in their sentences.  I was really impressed by the complex nature of the sentences and everybody used the time conjunctions in the right order.

On Thursday afternoon Mrs Collery visited Year 1 to talk to the children about Northern Ireland.  They noticed she had a different accent straight away.  She told the children lots of facts about Ireland and finished with a beautiful story about how the Giant’s Causeway came to be.

 

Next week will be recapping the following sounds during our phonics lesson:

oo (zoo), ue (blue), u-e (flute), ew (few).

When reading with your child at home please look out for these in their books.

Term 1 -Week 2

In maths this week the children have been solving missing number problems, counting backwards and finding a number that is one more and one less than a given number.  We have been counting to 100 every day.  We have played games of snakes and ladders in pairs to help us to recognize numbers to 100 too, perhaps this is a game you could play together at home.  Next week we will be concentrating on the value of numbers (how many tens and how many ones).

This week in English we have had a go at writing in role as the character in our book Journey. We were successful at remembering that I (as in me) is always written with a capital letter. We looked at the illustrations in the book in detail and thought of adjectives to describe what we could see. We then put these adjectives into  spoken sentences in preparation to write descriptive sentences next week.

We have found out what countries and capital cities are in the UK and located them on a map. Next week we will be finding out some facts about England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Maybe over the weekend you could support your child to research a fact about each country to share with us. We have learnt the difference between physical features and human features and have drawn a map showing the human and physical features we flew over last week on our imaginary plane journey.

In music we have been learning to keep the beat with the very catchy song called ‘Hey You!’ and in football we have been practising ball control when passing.

It has been wonderful to see how much home reading the children have been enjoying! Reading at home regularly really does make a difference. Reading books can be changed as needed so please remind your children in the morning to put their books in the book change boxes as required.

Term 1 – Week 1

What a great start to the school year! It has been fantastic to see all the children arrive back keen to begin their Year 1 journey.

This week we have been getting to know each other better, finding out about the class routines, how to learn like a champion and have learnt our three school rules. Respect yourself, respect each other and respect the environment.

Today we started our learning theme ‘Where in the world am I?’  We traveled on an aeroplane arriving deep in the rainforest in the Congo. Did you know these incredible places have many animals.

• The okapi is an animal that looks like a cross between a giraffe and a horse. In fact it is often called forest giraffe. It is brown and has white striped legs. It is found only in the rainforest of the Democratic Republic of Congo . We also found out that the rainforest is a hot and wet place to be and that tribes live there. Lots of us were surprised that humans can live in the rainforest.  Later in the day the children went on a visit to China and found  out the Great wall of China is over 2000 miles long .
• In English we have looked at the book ‘Journey’.  The children were surprised that the book didn’t have any words so they discussed in small groups what they would write if they were the authors by looking very closely at the pictures.  Their stories are worth publishing.  What great imaginations you have Year 1!

 

Thank you for a great start to the year. Please feel free to come in if you have any questions, concerns or just want to say hello. Looking forward to seeing everybody on Monday. Have a lovely weekend.