Year 1

What a brilliant week Year 1 have had being artists! Daring Dragonflies have been creating their own splatter paintings inspired by our artist of the term, Jackson Pollack. They finished their art pieces by replicating the silhouette of a New York skyline through collage.

The Curious Caterpillars looked at examples of collage and the key skills involved in tearing and overlapping pieces of paper to create a collage. They all came up with such beautiful ideas that Miss Crawford is going to display them in the classroom! See photos attached for both classes.

In English, the children loved getting into character as Orion from our Power of Reading Text, Orion in the Dark. We used hot seating to explore what happened in the story and summarise the main points, see photos attached. Then the children used this to write diaries from the perspective of Orion. Miss Crawford and Miss Betts are so proud of how far the children have come with their writing and cannot wait to see what we can achieve this year!

The Curious Caterpillars have started a reading competition where your child gets a sticker for every read they have done at home and recorded in the orange reading record. Then when children get 5 stickers they get to choose a prize from Miss Crawford’s special jar! We have had so many winners that she needs to re-stock her supplies already!

In maths, we have been using number lines to answer subtraction equations. We have also been comparing subtraction equations by using the correct symbols.

In phonics this week the Daring Dragonflies have been learning the ‘ou’ sound (ou, ou, look out, bears about!). The children went on a bear hunt outside to find the bears that had gobbled up our ‘ou’ words. When they found a bear, they had to sound out the words from inside their belly! See photos attached!

The Curious Caterpillars decided they didn’t want to waste Miss Crawford’s flipchart paper after she had filled one side. So, we have been using the reverse side to practise our fine motor skills on a giant scale with some children even designing giant robots together! See photos attached of their masterpieces.

Quote of the week: Creativity is messy.

Year 1 have had a very exciting week in school as we have started learning phase 5 sounds in phonics. Children had so much fun learning the split ‘o-e’ diagraph pretending to be Monty the mole from our story ‘Monty the Hero’. We pretended to be moles and dug for words containing the ‘o-e’ split digraph. Why don’t you have a go using phonics play to practise your sounds at home? 

Phonics Play

Miss Crawford and Miss Betts have also recorded the phase 3 and 5 sounds and caption actions for you to use at home! They are available on this page in the Phonics section at the top.. 

In maths, we have started learning subtraction and how to take away a one digit number from a number within 10. The children were introduced to the subtraction symbol and have started practising using this in a subtraction equation. 

In English, we discovered that Orion from our new power of reading text, ‘Orion in the Dark’ has gone missing! Oh no! Despite our best efforts to find Orion, we have not located him yet so Year 1 have been busy writing a character description for their missing posters. We hope that these posters will help find him! 

The Curious Caterpillars were given a fine motor competition to see who could make the longest Christmas paper chain in the class. Instead of going against one another, they all decided to work together and make one giant one! See photos attached for their work in progress! 

The Daring Dragonflies have had lots of fun decorating their class Christmas tree with their tricky word baubles. 

Please remind your children that it is their responsibility to change their reading book at school. Children can do this as soon as they come in and will also be given time in the afternoon. 

Quote of the week: ‘To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.’ Victor Hugo. 

Year 1 have had a great week learning in school and have started preparing for the Christmas Carol School Concert, singing and adding actions for different songs. 

They have also been getting busy with their new maths app on their iPads called NumBots. (Your child’s username and password is on their iPad if you want to practise at home). In maths, we have been practising the counting on method in maths to add two numbers together or to find the difference between two numbers.  

In English, we have started our new power of reading text, ‘Orion in the Dark’. Children have thought of questions they would like to ask Orion and have been learning how to form a question mark. We discovered that Orion is scared of lots of things and the children even wrote their own fears using the conjunction ‘because’. Get your child to teach you the rhyme for ‘because’! Year 1 have also consolidated their understanding of capital, and lowercase letters by playing a ‘match the pig’ game in class. 

The Curious Caterpillars have loved learning about the abstract American artist Jackson Pollack and have even had a go at creating their own giant splatter paintings in the playground, experimenting and sharing different coloured chalk pa ints with one another. (See attached for photos). 

Please ensure that children are bringing in their books, orange reading records and Ipads fully charged in their plastic wallet every day. Reading at home regularly is the best way to help your child with their learning, in and outside school! 

Quote of the week: ‘Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.’ Albert Einstein.