Year 1

This week Year 1 had a special visit from two police officers. The children loved learning about all of the different equipment, watching the flashing lights and especially enjoyed watching Miss Crawford and Miss Betts getting arrested!

In maths, we have been practising writing the ‘addition’ + and ‘is equal to’ = symbol in a full equation. We had lot’s of fun using our adding machine to help us add different amount within 10.

The children were so excited to start learning our new phase 5 sounds!

You may have noticed that we have not read with your child this week due to carrying out a practise phonics screening in the afternoons. It is really important that you continue to read every day at home with your child in order to practise applying the sounds they have learnt in school.

Thank you,

Miss Crawford and Miss Betts

In phonics, this is our final week on phase 3 sounds, and we are so excited to move onto learning our new phase 5 sounds. There is a video on our Year 1 page above this message showing Miss Betts and Miss Crawford going through the caption actions for each sound.

Please continue to read every day at home with your child so that they can practise applying the phase 3 sounds.

In maths, we have enjoyed trying new way to add two numbers together and write this an addition equation (EG: 5+4=9).

In English, we have learnt the ‘ed’ syffix that goes on the end of a verb to put in the past tense like ‘I jumped’ or ‘I walked’ and have loved applying this to our sentences about our book.

In the afternoons we have been practising using different sized paintbrushes in art. We had lot’s of fun experimenting with thin and thick paintbrushes and painting a rocket picture.

We had an interesting discussion about how to define a ‘hero’. From that we have learnt all about Nelson Mandela and how he fought to end apartheid in South Africa. We have also started practised for our Nativity Play for Christmas and will be sending out lines to the narrators to learn at home.

Miss Crawford and Miss Betts

Year 1 have had a great first week back to school and have launched straight into writing about their new book ‘Our Way Back Home’ by Oliver Jeffers in English.

In maths, we are continuing to work with numbers within 10. Why don’t you create a mind map with you child with all the number bonds to 10?

During the afternoon sessions, we have been learning about Black History Month. We have been discussing the importance of everyone being represented in literature, regardless of race, gender, background, or ability.

We have loved sharing how hard your children have worked since joining Year 1 in parents evening and are looking forward to a fantastic year together!

Miss Crawford and Miss Betts

Year 1 were introduced to poetry this week through the poem ‘By Myself’ by Eloise Greenfield. Both classes identified the different aspects of a poem and then performed it to each other with actions.

In maths the children practised comparing numbers within ten using the greater than, less than or ‘is equal to’ symbols. The greater than and less than symbols look like crocodiles ‘<’, ‘>’ so we say that the crocodile always eats the biggest number!

On the final day we had lots of fun doing different craft activities for Halloween and enjoyed playing party games together. They have worked so hard and thoroughly deserved a class treat to end a brilliant term!

Please don’t forget to read with your child over half term and make sure that all of their uniform is clearly labelled for when we return.

Have a wonderful break and see you all in November!

Miss Crawford and Miss Betts

This week Year 1 finished their big write re-telling the story of Stardust. We are so proud of how far they come in their writing in such a short amount of time!

The children recapped the short ‘oo’ and long ‘oo’’ as well as ‘ar’ and ‘or’. They especially enjoyed finding that tricky troll had ‘torn’ up every sound on our phonics wall except the ‘or, or, worn and torn’! See pictures attached.

We also enjoyed learning the different parts of the body and exploring our senses in Science as we focused on smell and taste.

We are going on a lovely walk to Victoria Park looking at deciduous and evergreen trees to end off a brilliant week and look forward to telling you all about it.

This week Year 1 have discussed how we are all unique and why it is important that we are not all the same. We explored the different people or animals that live in our own homes. We learnt that different families or households may believe in different things or different religions and that’s ok.

The children have enjoyed finding all of their number bonds to 10 and have practised writing these as an addition equation like ‘5+5=10’.

We have also practised re-telling and sequencing our familiar story, Stardust by Jeanne Willis.

In phonics we have focused on the sounds ‘ee’, ‘oa’, ‘oo’, ‘igh’, and the tricky words ‘he’ and she’.

The last few weeks we have focused on the presentation of our writing and will continue to work on this as the year goes on. We practise using ‘get reddies’ and ‘flicks’ as we prepare for joined up handwriting in Key Stage 2 and are making sure our letters sit neatly on our lines.

This week Year 1 have enjoyed finding all of their number bonds to 5 and have started practising their number bonds to 10! A number bond is two numbers that add to together to make another one like 4+6 make 10. Why not practise these at home with Jack Hartman?

In English, the children learnt that a noun is a person, place or thing and loved identifying and labelling the nouns found in our story called Stardust by Jeanne Willis.

In history, we have been discussing how photographs can be used to show us a moment in time when we are not ourselves present. We looked at our teacher’s timeline and then discussed and created our own timelines from a baby to Year 1.

We have continued revising phase 3 sounds and have focused this week on the ‘sh’, ‘th’, ‘ng’ and ‘ai’ sound found in words. Please continue to read daily with your child at home. Reading is the best gift to offer which in turn provides access to the rest of the curriculum.

Thank you,
Miss Crawford and Miss Betts