Category: Year One

This week we have continued learning about castles of the United Kingdom. We then made our own castle complete with turrets and arrow slits.

On Wednesday we enjoyed our KS1 Christmas party. It was great to see the children in their party outfits singing along to Christmas songs.

After the Christmas holidays we will be starting our new topic ‘Into the Woods’  where we will be learning about our local area and plants. In English our new core texts will be ‘Into the Forest’ by Anthony Browne and ‘Billy and the Beast’ by Nadia Shireen.

Mrs Sharon and I would like to say a huge thank you for your extremely generous Christmas gifts.  We hope you are able to have a rest and be with your loved ones during the break.

Miss Luetchford and Mrs Sharon 🙂

 

This week we read the poem ‘The Sound Collector’ by Roger McGough .

We looked carefully at the poem and identified the ‘secret strings’ that held the poem together:

• Includes sound words
• The sound describes the object
• Each new description is written on a new line
• Each stanza is four lines long
• The second and fourth line rhyme

We then wrote our own version of the poem where we described the sounds that The Grinch might steal at Christmas time.

This week we recorded our Christmas Show. We are looking forward to editing the scenes together and sharing the performance with you. The children have worked very hard to learn all of the songs and it was wonderful to see them perform their lines with such clarity and confidence.

On Wednesday 16th December it will be the KS1 Christmas party. The children must bring in their own party food in a snack/lunch box as we are unable to share food this year due to  COVID guidelines. The children are invited to change into a party outfit for the afternoon. Please can the children bring in their outfit on Monday 14th December in a named bag so that the items have enough time to be quarantined before the party.

On Thursday 17th December we would like to give the children the chance to make their own castle as part of a  D.T. project to consolidate our learning about castles of the UK. Please can the children bring in a cereal box on Monday 14th December which they will use to create their castle . This gives enough time that they can be left in quarantine  before we make the castles on Thursday morning.

We hope you have a restful weekend,

Miss Luetchford and Mrs Sharon 🙂

In English this week we have read the story ‘The Way Back Home’ by Oliver Jeffers.

The children wrote shape poems describing the rocket used in the story. They also wrote a list poem describing the setting and boy’s emotions when he found himself stuck on the moon!

In maths the children have been learning to compare numbers and amounts using the mathematical symbols < > =.

On Monday the children enjoyed making Beegu’s favourite fruit salad. They enjoyed learning how to peel and chop all of the delicious fruit.

Next week we will be filming our performance of ‘The Most Disgruntled Snowman’. We are looking forward to sharing this performance with you.

We hope you have a restful weekend,

Miss Luetchford and Mrs Sharon 🙂

This week we’ve been busy in year one preparing to write our own version of the story ‘Beegu’. We used story maps to help sequence the events and on Thursday we wrote our own versions of this story. The children worked hard to include lots of descriptive language such as ‘eerie, tentatively, anxious, stern and cruel’. We were so impressed with the children’s fantastic stories and as a treat, we will be spending Monday afternoon making Beegu’s favourite snack; a tasty fruit salad with toppings!

In maths we have been learning how to partition a 2-digit number.  We used dienes to help us identify how many tens and how many ones were in each number.

We have started rehearsing for our Christmas performance of ‘The Most Disgruntled Snowman’. Last week the children took home a letter describing what clothing is required for their costume, along with a copy of their line to practise at home. An email was sent out to all parents explaining how this would be filmed and shared with you all.

Next week we will be starting our new class text ‘The Way Back Home’ by Oliver Jeffers.

We will be using this text to write a shape poem and list poem. In maths we will be learning how to calculate one more and one less of a given number as well as using the mathematical symbols < > = to compare objects and amounts.

Next week we will start learning about the castles of the U.K. On Thursday 17th December we would like to give the children the chance to make their own castle as part of a  D.T. project. Please can the children bring in a cereal box on Monday 14th December which they will use to create their castle . This gives enough time that they can be left in quarantine  before we make the castles on Thursday morning.

We hope you have a restful weekend,

Miss Luetchford and Mrs Sharon 🙂

This week we have been teaching Beegu about our planet Earth. We have learnt lots of facts about Earth. Did you know that Earth is called the Goldilocks planet? This is because it’s not too hot, not too cold, not too dry and not too wet which allows life to grow. We grouped the facts we had learnt and wrote information pages about Earth.

In maths we have been learning how to represent numbers using ten frames and numicon.

In science we have been learning about carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. We created a food chain to show what different animals eat.

We have started rehearsing for our Christmas performance of ‘The Most Disgruntled Snowman’ This week the children have taken home a letter describing what clothing is required for their costume.

Next week we will be writing our version of the story of Beegu and learning how to partition a number into tens and ones.

We hope you have a restful weekend,

Miss Luetchford and Mrs Sharon 🙂

This week we have been learning how to write a diary entry. We looked at a good example and one that needed improving. We learnt that a good diary entry must have:

• The date at the top
• Open with ‘Dear Diary’
• Been written in the first person
• Been written in the past tense
• Descriptive detail
• A few questions
• Close with ‘Love from’

On Thursday we wrote diary entries as Beegu, describing the day she crashed on planet Earth.

In maths we have continued learning about 2D and 3D shapes. We have used the shapes to create a repeating pattern.

In R.E we have been learning about the Saint of our school ‘St Matthew’. We have thought about the values of different Saints and looked at how they are represented in different art works. We then created our own stained glass windows to represent these values.

Congratulations to Bobby and Senara who have been appointed as the Faith Champions for our class.

On Wednesday we took part in a two minute silence for Remembrance Day. All of the children in the school learnt about this important day and why we wear poppies at this time of year. We made a wreath to hang in our classroom. Here are our Faith Champions holding our Willow Class wreath.

Next week we will be teaching Beegu about planet Earth and learning how to represent numbers using various mathematical equipment such as numicon, dienes and ten frames.

 

We hope you have a restful weekend,

Miss Luetchford and Mrs Sharon 🙂

Welcome back, we hope you had a restful half term.

This week we have started our new core text ‘Beegu’.

In the story Beegu is a kind and curious alien who crashes on a strange and mysterious planet (Earth). We learnt about Beegu’s experiences on our planet  and thought of adjectives to describe her appearance such as ‘bright yellow’. We also thought about how Beegu might have felt and generated adjectives to describe her emotions such as ‘anxious’. On Thursday we will be writing posters describing her characteristics and appearance, to help her family find her.

In maths we have been learning about the properties of 2D and 3D shapes using the language of: sides, corners, quadrilateral and faces. We also sorted the shapes based on their various properties.

Next week we will be learning to continue a  repeating pattern that uses 2D and 3D shapes. We will also be writing shape riddles to consolidate our learning.

To help Beegu learn about our planet Earth we also made an animal fact file for her, starting by identifying if an animal is a mammal, bird, fish, reptile or amphibian. We have learnt that not all birds can fly but they do have feathers, fish breathe using their gills and that we are a type of animal called a mammal.

Below are links with videos and a quiz that the children can complete at home about each type of animal to consolidate their learning:

Mammals- https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z6882hv/articles/zp92xnb

Birds- https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z6882hv/articles/zyd6hyc

Reptiles- https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z6882hv/articles/zyd6hyc

Amphibians – https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z6882hv/articles/zc6br82

Fish – https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z6882hv/articles/zxgq2hv

Attached is the link to the Spelling Shed for the children to be able to revise their sounds and complete three quizzes linked to their shape learning: https://play.spellingshed.com/#/login

Once the children have logged in, the screen should look like this:

The children then need to click on the assignments tab:

It will then take them to their three spelling lists and three shape quizzes:

 

In these ever changing times, we hope you all have a restful weekend.

Many thanks,

Miss Luetchford and Mrs Sharon 🙂

This week we have been writing fact files about astronauts. We made sure we included a title that was big and bold, an introduction and grouped our information into: amazing astronauts, jobs and famous astronauts. Here are a few examples of our fantastic fact files:

After half term we will be starting our new class text ‘Beegu’ for our new geography topic ‘Welcome to Earth’.

This week in maths we have been completing our half termly assessments. The children completed some arithmetic questions as well as reasoning and problem solving. Below are some examples of the questions the children answered.

 

 

 

 

Thank you to all of the parents who were able to attend our virtual Parents Evening this week. During the meeting I discussed some websites that will be useful for any half term activities.

Whiterose maths- On the home learning link they have some useful teaching videos that show all of the learning the children have completed this half term. https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-1/

Phonics Play- This website has some phonic games to help the children practise decoding real and ‘alien’ words. https://legacy.phonicsplay.co.uk/Phase5Menu.htm

Class sound mats- During Parens Evening I discussed sound mats and how they are used in class. Below are the sound mats for you to access at home.

To help the children access books over half term, I have created a class account on Oxford Owl where the children will have access to an e-library. The username and password will be sent out via an email.

We hope you have a restful half term,

Miss Luetchford and Mrs Sharon 🙂

This week we have been writing fact books all about the Moon Landing. In our books we have made sure to include all of our history learning about this historic event and have written about:

• Explorers
• The Space Race
• The Moon Landing
• Missions after the moon landing (Apollo 13, Mae C. Jemison)

Next week we will finish our work on space by writing a fact file describing life as an astronaut.

In maths we have been revising addition. We have learnt how to write ‘addition stories’ and used part whole models and pictures in our calculations.

Next week we will be learning about subtraction using the vocabulary ‘less’ and ‘take away’.

Below is a link to White Rose maths resources which have useful videos that show what we have learnt this week.

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-1/week-6-number-addition-subtraction/

In D.T we made our own alien puppets. We learnt how to sew the two pieces of material together and then glued the features onto the puppet.

This week there are review sounds for the children to practise available on the Spelling Shed website: https://play.spellingshed.com/#/login

There are also some maths games and quizzes linked to our learning this half term for the children to complete.

We hope you have a restful weekend,

Miss Luetchford and Mrs Sharon 🙂

This week we started our new book ‘Sidney, Stella and the Moon’.

This a story about twins Sidney and Stella  who love doing everything together – everything except sharing. In the story a quarrel over a bouncy ball creates a moon-sized problem when they accidentally smash the moon into pieces!  The siblings have to work together to solve the problem and find a new moon.

When we finished this story, it got us thinking about fiction and non-fiction. We knew this story must be fiction because the moon wouldn’t be broken by a bouncy ball. This got us thinking about everything else we knew about the moon and we wrote information pages to share are fascinating facts.

Please quiz us at home about our knowledge of the moon, as we are now ‘Moon Experts’. We can tell you all about what it’s like on the moon, missions to the moon (including Apollo 11 and Apollo 13) and we have learnt some great ‘Did you know?’ facts.

In maths we have been learning how to add two numbers together and then calculate related addition facts. For example, if 12 + 8 = 20 then 8 + 12 = 20. We used part, part whole models to help us in our calculations.

In science we have been learning about man-made and natural materials.

In phonics we have been reviewing the sounds we have learnt this half term:

ee (see)

oo (zoo)

igh (high)

ay (play)

air (fair)

or (for)

ir (girl)

There are words containing these sounds for the children to practise available on the Spelling Shed website: https://play.spellingshed.com/#/login

Next week we will be making fact books about the Apollo 11 mission to the moon and finishing our work on addition before moving onto subtraction.

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

Miss Luetchford and Mrs Sharon 🙂