Important Documents
History
How am I making history?
Throughout this unit:
Summer 1
DT
Cooking and nutrition: Smoothies
In this unit:
English - dinosaurs
We have been looking at the different dinosaurs. I learnt so much about dinosaurs. Dinosaurs have so many different features from sails, to frills to plates. We have had great fun with this unit. We created our own dinosaurs and wrote sentences about them. We designed a new set of underpants for the dinosaurs and wrote about them. We created fact files on different dinosaurs.
Measuring
We have measured objects using cubes - non standard measure.
We have measured objects using a cm ruler - standard measure.
We have measured how many of our feet it takes to fill one dinosaur foot. We couldn't believe how big a dinosaurs' foot is.
Doubling to 10
We have been working really hard on our double to 10 facts. We have tried to cover them in many different ways. We used the IWB games, songs, cubes, double butterflies and ladybirds and of course Double Dude himself.
Here is the link to play at home.
World Book Day - Thursday 7th March 2024
Today, was world book day. They started the morning with a whole school assembly. We learnt a song. See below for the link.
We had a look at all the different outfits. We designed a book cover. We made a paper plate character. They turned out fantastic! Of course, we read lots of books.
Spring 2
Art - Painting and Colour Mixing
We looked at the primary colours which are:
- red
- yellow
- blue
From this, we looked at secondary colours which are:
- orange
- green
- purple
We experimented to see which two colours mixed together would make green or orange or purple. We found out red and blue makes purple, blue and yellow makes green and yellow and red makes orange.
We looked at how to make different shades of green. We learnt that to make a darker green we add more blue than yellow. To make a lighter green we add more yellow than blue.
We looked at using a range of Lego pieces to print with paint. We made our own initial block to print and used Lego pieces to create a repeating pattern.
Computing
The children are enjoying our computing lessons. They have their own logins where they have to switch on the laptops, type in their login details and then navigate different programs. They like using Sketchpad.
Traditional Tales - English
In English, we have started to look at a range of Traditional Tales. We have covered so far:
- Little Red Riding Hood
- Goldilocks
- Jack and the Beanstalk
Next week, we will look at The Three Little Pigs.
They have produced some amazing pieces of writing from this unit. We have wrote letters, retold the story from beginning to end, created character descriptions, created our own adapted version of one of the stories, created wanted posters, wrote a set of instructions and much more.
As well as the written side, we have worked very hard on our oral literacy skills. We retold the stories listening to the language used and used expression and actions throughout.
Parent to Lunch
What a success this was! The children loved having their parents/carers come and have lunch with them in the dinner hall. The curry was very popular! After, we went back into the classroom and showcased our Dear Zoo English unit as well as our Geography unit called 'What is the weather like in the UK?' We had some lovely feedback from this event.
Chinese New Year
We have learnt about the story of the zodiac with the animals. The rat was very sneaky. This year is the year of the dragon. We tried our hardest to write Chinese numbers. We were very lucky and Tina's parents kindly made us some Chinese food to try from their shop called Haku (just near our school). It was very yummy! Tina also came to the front and taught us some Chinese words, counting and phrases.
Maths Project Week
We celebrated National Number Day where the children came into school wearing something to do with a math's concept. This might have been digits or shapes as examples.
Then, we introduced our book called 'The Picnic Problem'. It was about two children who were sent on a clue quest.
From this, each day we covered a different area of maths. We looked at:
- 2D shapes
- Division - sharing
- Addition and Subtraction
- Skip counting - money 2p. 5p. and 10p coins
- measuring heights
- counting in 1s and language
We then showcased all our learning to our parents. What a great turn out!
A few children went to Woodbank Primary School to share the learning we have covered and listen to their learning.
Spring 1
Millwood Visit
Year 1 were invited to watch Millwood's Christmas show. The children walked sensibly down to the school. They sat beautiful and watched the performance. They really enjoyed the show. Thank you again to the Millwood staff for invited us. We can't wait to go again next year.
Dear Zoo
We looked at the book called Dear Zoo in our English lessons. We liked that the story was repetitive. We followed a story map to retell the story with a partner. Then we created our own version of the story called Dear Farm. They did very well at becoming authors and illustrators.
They painted different zoo and farm animals. Also they looked carefully at a range of zoo animal's skin patterns. Through observational drawing their created different skin patters. We added a silhouette of the animal in front. They turned out really well.
DT - Making a windmill
In DT, we first had to plan and design a windmill that the mouse would like to live in.
Then, we made a stable structure.
Next, we made the turbine and the roof.
After our model was made, we tested them out.
Lastly, we evaluated our models to see what we liked and any parts we could have improved on.
Autumn 2
Maths - 2D Shapes
In maths, we looked at 2D shapes. We looked in more detail at:
- Circles
- Squares
- Rectangles
- Triangles
We looked briefly over Hexagons and Pentagons.
We created repeated patterns in a variety of ways, which they did very well. We had simple ABABABA patterns. Others challenged themselves creating patterns like ABCABCABC or AABAABAAB.
They used 2D shapes to make their own pictures. We had robots, humans, suns, flowers etc.
We also created shape pizzas. They loved doing this!
Maths - addition and subtraction
We have been solving number sentences on addition and subtraction. We have been using concrete resources to help us solve the number sentences. We looked at the vocabulary associated with addition and subtraction such as total or minus.
English - Cookie’s Week
We read a book called ‘Cookie’s Week. It is about a black and white cat called Cookie who gets into mischief. He destroys something in the house each day of the week. We looked at ordering and spelling the days of the week. I introduced a story map to the class of Cookie’s Week. In pairs we retold the story in chronological order. Then we created an innovated version where we changed the animal and The different mischief they got up to. They produced their own story book being the author and the illustrator.
Geography
Our unit was called ‘What is it like here?’
The children were introduced to Google Earth and what an Ariel view photograph is. We located the United Kingdom and could name the 4 countries. They learnt we live in England. We moved in closer to our local area which is Radcliffe. Then we looked even more closely at our school and grounds. They created ‘messy maps’ to show an alien arriving how to get around our classroom. We used directional language such as left, right, across, in front or etc
Stay and Play - Halloween addition
What a great turn out! Thank you so much for attending. The children throughly enjoyed having their parents in the classroom. There were a variety of activities they could complete.
Art - Drawing shapes with different media
We started by seeing what 2D shapes they could remember from Reception class. We practised drawing carefully and slowly around some shapes. Then, we moved on to looking at how we over lap the shapes. Next, we used felt tips, wax crayons and pencil crayons to colour all the different parts of the shapes. Finally, we outlined our shapes with a black fine liner.
They all turned out amazing!
Phonics
Phonics is so important because it teaches us how to read and write. We are having two sessions of Little Wandle a day, to close the gaps, before we start learning phase 5.
As well as our phonics sessions, we are having continuous provision based challenges throughout the week.
The activities involve the children blending or segmenting.
Year 1 Curriculm Maps
National Read a Book Day.
For national read a book day we created our own book marks to use, when we are reading our own books in class.
The children and the staff picked a book they would like to read and then found a relaxing place to read. Under the table was very popular.
They ended this session by coming to the front and sharing the book they had read.
Autumn 1
Class of 2023 - 2024
Music
In Music, this half term we have been learning how to play the Glockenspiels. They learnt the name of the stick is called a beater. We played the notes C and D. We learnt the songs In the Groove and Hey You! The rhythms were different.
We also learnt how to play the Djembe drums. We learnt to play different rhythms using tone and bass. We played:
walking walking
fish and chips
walking outside
hot chocolate
hot chocolate
I love apple pie
They did amazing! They are excited to play these again in Year 2.
A big thank you to the FCL for our ice-cream treat today! The weather was not great, but that did not stop us enjoying ours.
English
In English, we looked at a book called Pet Potato. Albert is a little boy who longed for a pet. His dad kept saying no. Until one day, he gave Albert a present. Albert thought it was a pet. To his disappointment he was given a potato. His dad said this is your new pet. Albert took his pet potato on a train ride, to the park and much more. He got to like this new pet.
We created our own pet potatoes. How amazing do they look!
We had an elephant, an owl, a hedgehog, a cat and many more.
Summer 2 - Golden Treat
Our last golden treat. What a fantastic time we all had! A water fight followed by a film and ice-cream. They got Miss Partington wet through!
Art - Woven Wonders
In our last art unit, we learnt a range of skills.
The first was wool wrapping. We had to tightly wrap wool around a stick. We could change the colour of the wool. We had multicoloured ones and some created a repeating pattern.
Then, we moved on to weaving. We had to cut the warp strips along the dotted lines. We then used strips of coloured paper to weave. These strips are called the weft. We went over and under and over and under. Then on the next weft we went under then over then under then over.
Next, we looked at plaiting and how to tie a knot. We started plaiting using wool. Then we moved on to plaiting human hair. They loved having a hair salon in our classroom.
Sports Day
They did amazing! They had great fun competing in their sports day. They were all winners in our eyes.
The races which they completed were:
Well done to the parents, who competed in the parent running race!
In Maths, we have looked at the unit money. We started by looking at the value of each coin. Then, we looked at the different coin families (bronze, silver and gold). After that, we ordered the coins from the smallest value to the greatest value. Next, we added coins together to see the total value. We all went to the supermarket and bought different food items and paid with the exact amount of money.
In art, we all worked as a team to make a big 3D spider out of newspaper.
First we had to roll, very tightly pieces of newspaper to make the 8 legs.
Then using masking tape, we secured multiples rolls together to make the legs.
Next we made 2 bodies for the spider.
Once our spider was fixed together, we all painted the spider black.
Finally, using a sponge and gold paint we added the final touch to our spider.
What do you think?
Maths - Time
We started looking at the vocabulary associated with time such as before and after. We then looked at the seven days of the week. Then we used a clock to tell the time. We learnt O’clock and half past. They enjoyed playing What time is it Mr Wolf? on the playground. As well as using a stop watch to see what we could do in 1 second, 1 minute and 2 minutes etc. We had lots of tired children after star jumping for 1 minute.
Maths – Money
In this unit, we looked at the value of each coin and notes. We grouped the coins into the bronze, silver and gold families. We ordered the coins from the smallest value to greatest value. In Continuous Provision, we created a little shop where we had to get the correct coins to pay for an item.
Summer 2 - Our school trip
What a fantastic trip to Blackpool circus we all had! They were all amazingly behaved. They didn’t stop laughing at the show.
We saw:
- acrobats
- dancers
- motorbike skills
- clowns
- aerial stunts
- gymnastics
- fire
We all enjoyed eating our dinner. We sang songs and chatted on the coach all the way there.
DT - Puppets
In DT we designed our own puppet. This could be a person or an animal. We then looked at how to join two pieces of felt together. We used safety pins, fabric glue, staples and sewing. We found using a stapler quite challenging. We used the under and over stitch to make our puppets. We then added extra details like eyes, items of clothing etc to our puppet. We had great fun!
Numbers to 100
We have covered numbers to 10, then 20, followed by 50 and now we are covering numbers to 100.
We are counting forwards and backwards to 100 from 0 and from any other given number.
We are making a number using Base 10. For example:
- make me a number that has 3 tens
- make me a number that is greater than 21 but less than 25
- make me a number that is a multiple of 10
etc
We loved watching our caterpillars turn into butterflies over a period of time. They loved eating sugar water and pieces of fruit like banana and orange. We then released them into the wild. We had 4. We still have our insects and they are growing week by week. They eat fresh ivy.
What a fantastic time we all had for our golden treat dressed as pirates. It was a fun jam packed day! We played pirate games, went on a treasure hunt following our map to find some precious treasure, walked the plank, sang pirate songs and made pirate crafts.
We can't wait to see what our final Year 1 golden treat will be next half term!
In science, we went on our school field and looked at the different trees. We tried to name the trees as well as decided if they were evergreen or deciduous.
Art – Sculpture and 3D: Paper Play
This unit was using paper to make different 3D structures. We started this unit by rolling paper to create a 3D structure. We changed the thickness of the tubes as well as the height of the tubes.
3D Drawing - Lesson 2
We then shaped paper to make a 3D drawing.
We created a table.
We created curves.
We created a spiral.
We created zig-zags.
We created zig-zag spirals.
We created loops.
Here is the final product. We can't wait to use our new skills to create our final piece of 3D art.
The Tree Of Life
We used our skills that we had learned in our previous lessons on shaping paper to create a tree of life picture. The turned out fantastic! They have really enjoyed this unit on 3D sculptures using paper.
History – The Moon Landing
I would like to firstly thank your efforts in helping your child to complete their project homework. What an amazing turn out we had! How spectacular does our classroom look!
From their research, we began to cover our key questions which were:
Q1 – Has man ever been to the moon and how can we know for sure?
Q2 – Why did the astronauts risk their lives to go to the moon?
Q3 – How were the spacemen able to get there and back safely?
Q4 -What did they do when they got to the moon and how do we know?
Q5 – Does everyone agree we should continue to send men to the moon?
Q6 – How should we commemorate this great achievement?
Here is some of our work we produced based on the above questions. We now have some children who want to be astronauts when they are older.
We hoped you liked our mini assembly showcasing all their work and knowledge learnt in this unit.
The children had great fun making 3D rockets with you.
The King's Coronation
On Saturday it is King Charles III Coronation. We learnt some facts about the King, wrote a letter to him, learnt the National Anthem and made some crafts. The children really love watching drawing with Rob. He showed us how to draw the royal crown. The FCL (Friends of Cams Lane) kindly came into visit us today where they helped us to make our own royal crowns. We had great fun. We also read a book called ‘The King’s Pants’ and the children created a new pair of pants for the king to wear.
Maths – Multiplication and Division
We have been looking at the operations multiplication and division in this unit. First, we started by counting in 2s, 5s and 10s from 0.
What is the missing number? Tell your adult.
0 2 4 6 ? 10 12
0 5 ? 15 20 25 30
0 10 20 30 ? 50 60
We looked at making groups equal and adding equal groups together.
Then we moved on to arrays.
Then we looked at making equal groups by grouping.
Then we finished the unit by making equal groups by sharing.
We have now covered the 4 operations which are:
We will continue throughout the year solving calculations and worded problems which cover the 4 operations. They will also be set these for consolidation for homework.
Science - life cycle of a butterfly
Here are the facts we learnt:
We can’t wait for our caterpillars to arrive and watch this process in our classroom.
Summer 1 Term
Spring 2 – Golden Treat
For our half term Golden Treat, we had an Easter themed session.
We decorated hard-boiled eggs and then had an egg rolling competition down our hill.
The winner for the most unique and creative egg was Nancy. Runner up was Bella.
The winner for the egg that rolled the furthest was Ethan. Runner up was Ava
Then we had an egg and spoon race. Well tangerine and spoon race, as we couldn't find the wooden eggs. Hudson had the steadiest hand and won the overall race. Sofia came runner up.
The children enjoyed playing Bingo.
We ended our treat with an Easter egg hunt. They were all very excited. We hope they are happy with their prize.
Have a great Easter half term!
English – Riddles
We started this unit by listening to some riddles and trying to solve them. We found some easier than others.
Can you solve these:
You may enter, but you may not come in.
I have space, but no room.
I have keys, but open no lock.
What am I?
I am a bird.
I have wings, so I can fly.
You find me in the wild or I can be kept as a pet.
I have multicoloured feathers.
I copy what adults say.
What am I?
I am a 2D shape.
I have 4 sides.
My sides are equal in length.
What am I?
We then looked at the features of what makes a good riddle. We learnt that:
The children were set the task of writing a riddle about an animal of their choice. Here are some of their amazing riddles for you to read.
We had some amazing bunnies today! They didn't stop hopping. Cato was our highest hopper in Year 1 with 165 with Noah following behind at 160.
Thank you to FCL for organising this event.
DT – Food
We started this unit looking at a range of fruits and vegetables. They had to decide if they thought it was a fruit or a vegetable. Lots thought tomatoes and peppers were vegetables and not actually a fruit.
We then moved on to where fruit and vegetables grow. We learnt that they grow:
Can you tell your parents two fruits or vegetables that are found on vines or trees, two above the ground and two below the ground?
Next, we had our taster session and we tried a range of fruits and vegetables from spinach to cucumber to raspberries to peppers.
Lastly, and most importantly we created our own smoothies. We had to include three fruits or vegetables. We decided which of the following smoothie choice we wanted to make:
1 - strawberries, Bananas and spinach
2 - apples, oranges and carrot
3 - raspberries, blueberries and kale
4 - pineapple, strawberries and spinach
We washed the fruit and vegetables, then we cut them into smaller pieces, before placing them into the smoothie maker.
Here are some of the smoothie recipes, we made.
Miss Partington’s favourite smoothie is banana, strawberry and raspberry.
Thank you for kindly bringing in the fruits and vegetables, so we can successfully deliver this unit.
Maths – Length and Height and Measurement and Volume
These two units have been very practical, which the children have thoroughly enjoyed.
We started with the unit on ‘Length and Height’. This involved us using language such as shorter, taller, longest and shortest. We found out that Rory is the shortest boy and Louie is the tallest boy in the class. We found out that Lola is the shortest girl and Autumn is the tallest girl.
We then began to measure length using non-standard measures, such as cubes or our hands. Then, we moved on to looking at measuring with a ruler using the units cm (Centimetres). We had great fun going around the classroom!
Then we moved on to the unit ‘Measurement and Volume’.
We looked at the weight of different objects. We used balancing scales to see which object was lighter or heavier. Then we used non-standard measures (cubes) to measure and compare the mass of different objects. Again, the children had great fun completing these practical lessons.
Red Nose Day – 17th March 2023
How amazing do they all look! Today, we added spots to our uniform for Red Nose Day.
English – Where the Wild Things Are
We started Spring 2 by looking at a book called Where the wild things are by Maurice Sendak. This book is about a little boy whose name is Max whose mother calls him a ‘wild thing’. In his imagination he sails off and meets some more ‘wild things’ and they together have a ‘wild rumpus’.
We enjoyed getting in role as Max and the wild things and having our own wild rumpus in the hall. We imagine what movements they would do and how noisy it would be. We used also added instruments.
From this in groups we wrote down words to describe a wild rumpus. Then we turned these notes into a group poem. We added actions to our poems and performed them to the rest of the class.
Art - Painting and Mixed Media
This unit was broken down into 5 different lessons. The children built the skills across each lesson to create a final piece of art in lesson 5 in the style of the artist Clarice Cliff.
We looked closely at creating secondary colours using only primary colours.
We learnt that our primary colours are red, blue and yellow. When we mix two of these colours together, we create green, orange and purple.
From this, we learnt that when you mix two primary colours together, you can create different shades of a secondary colour. We investigated this in lesson 4 creating different shades of green by mixing blue and yellow together.
We listened to this story when learning about Primary and Secondary colours.
World Book Day 2023
As a school, we suggested some well known characters for the children to dress up as.
Can you tell by their costumes which they were?
That's right we had:
- Where's Wally
- Burglar Bill
Paddington Bear
Mr Bump
Dennis the Menace
Tracy Beaker
How amazing do they all look!
History - Toys
We looked at our first History unit called ‘Toys’. This unit focused on how toys have changed over time.
We went write back and looked at toys from the Victorian times. Then moved on to the early 20th Century. Next our grandparents’ toys. After that our own parents’ toys. Lastly toys we play with today.
We found out the most common changes with toys over time which were:
We ended our unit by having an afternoon playing with our favourite toys. We have a wide range of toys from our favourite doll to a board game. They had a great afternoon!
Spring 2
DT - Structures
They were set a task to create a windmill a mouse to live in. They had a criteria to follow. First they designed their structure, remembering it was for the mouse and not what they like. Lots went for yellow and cheese. Then, they assembled the structure. Next, they assembled the windmill. Lastly, we tested our windmills and evaluated them.
They did a fantastic job!
English - Traditional Tales
We have been reading some Traditional Tales in our English lessons. We covered Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. In groups we played 'pass the teddy' and retold the stories. We brought our prosody from our Group Reading sessions, which they are now amazing at. The children have loved our mini drama lessons and loved taking the roles of different characters in the story.
English - Instructional Writing
They had great fun helping Goldilocks. We were sent a letter by Goldilocks asking for our help. She wanted us to write her some instructions on how to make porridge, so she could make some for the bears to say she is sorry.
We tested jam porridge, chocolate porridge and honey porridge. Can you guess which flavour porridge was most popular? Yes, you guessed correctly. It was the chocolate porridge.
We hope Goldilocks could easily follow our recipe.
Maths - Addition and Subtraction to 20
We have been using a range of concrete resources to help us answer addition and subtraction calculations. We have been working hard using our number fact knowledge to help us solve our calculations. We have been learning lots of stem sentences this half term. For example; I know 3 + 4 = 7, so I know 13 + 4 = 17. Then we looked at doubles to 10. Our doubles to 10 can help us solves calculations like 6 + 7 or 5 + 4. For example; I know double 4 is 8, so 5 + 4 is double 4 plus 1.
Science - Materials
In science, we have been learning all about materials. We learnt the difference between an object and a material. For example a chair is the object and plastic is the material, or a window is the object and glass is the material. We then looked at properties of materials, such as hard, smooth, transparent and stiff. We carried out a variety of investigations, which we enjoyed.
Investigation 1 - which objects can float and which will sink
Investigation 2 - absorbency test
Chinese New Year - 2023
This year is the year of the rabbit. We listened to the story of the animals racing across the river and how the rat was very sneaky. We made our own rabbit paper lanterns. We watched a dragon dance and as a class created our own dragon. We went into the hall and made our own dragon dances. We had great fun. Bella's mum and dad kindly brought some Chinese food in for us all to taste from their restaurant Hakka in Radcliffe. It was delicious! Lots of the children thought it was a little spicy. Bella came to the front and taught us how to say hello, thankyou and Happy New Year in Chinese. We ended the day by making a 2023 rabbit calendar to remember it is the year of the rabbit.
English - Emperor's Egg
In English, we are looking at a book called ‘Emperor’s Egg’. It is all about Antarctica and Emperor penguins.
Throughout this unit, we have learnt many facts about Emperor penguins and created fact files to share our information.
We started by gathering our information using the book we are reading, other books about Emperor penguins and the Internet. We made notes using a mind map of our findings.
Then, we looked at turning our notes into sentences. Once we had our sentences, we placed them under different sub-headings such as diet or appearance. From this, we could write our own fact – files.
As a class, we learnt many new facts, such as, it is the male’s job to care for the egg for 2 months or the female penguin is sick into the chick’s mouth when they meet.
Maths - Numbers to 20
This half term we are looking at numbers to 20. We are looking at how to represent numbers in different ways. We are also looking at how many more than 10 is a number, so for example 12 is 2 more than 10. We have been introduced to Base 10 to help us make numbers to 20. We are continuing to work on our number formation. We still have p instead of 9 and backward 3s.
Spring 1
Science – Animals including humans – all about animals
In Science this half term, we have been learning all about animals. We started by looking at common animals such as dogs, sheep, sharks, robins etc and we had to sort them into 5 groups which were:
The children couldn’t believe we are mammals. We learnt the characteristics and features of each animal group. For example: fish have gills to breathe or birds have feathers and a beak or mammals give birth to live young.
Here we are working as a group to sort the animals into the correct groups:
Then, we looked at the foods, which animals eat and used a Venn diagram to sort the animals into herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. Can you tell an adult the definition of each of these words?
Here we are working as a group to sort the plastic animals into the Venn diagram.
Next, we learnt why some animals are wild and some are pets. We know that a domestic pet needs:
We learnt that wild animals have to do everything for themselves.
Lastly, we ended the unit by picking an animal and creating a fact file to explain that animal. We tried to include the group they belong to, what food they eat and if they are a wild animal, a pet or if they can be both.
Here are a few to read:
Geography - food tasting
Today, we tasted a range of foods from the countries Africa, Australia, France and China.
We had:
-Noodles and boiled rice from China
-Fairy bread and beetroot from Australia
-Watermelon from Africa
-Brioche and croissants from France
The children then wrote which food item they liked the best and where it came from.
They are excited to try some more foods from other countries once we have learnt about them with Buddy the bee.
Geography - Africa and Australia
We have learnt some facts about Australia and Kenya this week.
In Australia we learnt:
- They use Australian dollars as their currency.
- In their flag is the Union Jack of Great Britain to represent the British people who settled in Australia.
- There are Aboriginal people who live in Australia. They play the didgeridoos.
- 7 million people a year visit Sydney Opera House.
In Kenya we learnt:
- They use Kenyan Shillings as their currency.
- Nairobi is the capital city of Kenya.
-Tribes live in huts made out of straw and mud.
-The tribes wear brightly coloured clothes.
- Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa.
-In Kenya most of the land is a savannah.
-People go on a safari to see the wildlife such as giraffes, elephants and gazelles.
We had fun making African necklaces, Australian boomerangs and Australian Didgeridoos.
They made a great racket with their own Didgeridoos. Get the ear plugs at the ready!
Our Christmas Nativity
Children of the World
They have all worked very hard over the last few weeks learning the songs and their speaking lines.
Our class had the countries China and Ireland. How amazing do they all look in their costumes!
A massive well done to Ethan, who played Gabriel. He had lots of lines to learn in a very short time.
Also, well done to our two sets of children, who played Mary and Joseph as well as children from China and Ireland.
KS1 Christmas Party
What a fantastic afternoon we had! We danced, played games and had some party food.
The children enjoyed playing musical chairs, corners, musical statues and over and under.
A big thank you for all the food donating for their party. It was greatly appreciated by all the children.
Letters to Father Christmas
We browsed through the Smyths toy shop catalogue to see what toys we would like to ask Father Christmas for this year. We put 5 of our best presents on to our own stockings. Then, we each wrote a letter to Father Christmas saying we have been good children this year.
Here are their stockings Christmas wish list and also their letters to Santa.
Ernie the elf
When we arrived in school on Thursday 1st December, we came in the classroom to find, we had a new
visitor. It was Ernie the elf. He came on a zip line with a special note.
Year 1 enjoy coming into class to see what Ernie has got up to. We then write what mischief he has caused on special elf paper, so we can tell Santa.
Maths - repeated patterns.
We completed a range of challenges, where we had to continue a repeating pattern or make our own repeating pattern. We learnt that a repeating pattern must repeat at least 3 times for it to be classed as a repeating pattern.
We started by looking at a simple ABABAB pattern.
We then looked at other repeating patterns.
This one goes AABAABAAB
This one goes
AAABAAABAAAB
This one goes
ABBACABBACABBAC
Can you create some repeating patterns at home?
What a busy few weeks completing a range of Christmas crafts. We made Christmas cards, Calendars, Christmas trees using paper plates, Christmas snow globes, glitter baubles and much more.
A big thank you to Elliott’s mum and dad for buying the resources for each child to make a glitter bauble to take home and for the ones we put on our class tree.
English – How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth
In English, we have been looking at a book called ‘How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth’. Throughout the picture book it teaches children simple instructions. The girl explains clear steps on how to successfully give a woolly mammoth a bath. From this book, we explored the features of instructions. We had fun making chocolate Rice Krispy cakes, but they were definitely more excited about taking them home and eating them. We then wrote our own set of instructions for Reception children to make some chocolate cakes of their own. They worked very hard to write a set of instructions.
Can you tell your adult what features we need to include when writing a set of instructions?
Geography continued ...
Buddy visited a different continent next. He went to Asia. He decided to explore the country China. He had a great time in China where he tried their food, visited The Great Wall of China, saw the pandas (which are class as endangered) and saw the Chinese dragons.
Ask your child to tell you 3 facts about China.
We had fun making our own Chinese paper dragons, having a try at writing Chinese numbers, using paint and trying to make an origami dog.
Maths - 2D Shapes
This is a rectangle.
This is a square.
This is a circle.
This is a triangle.
3D Shapes
This is a cylinder.
This is a cone.
This is a cube.
This is cuboid.
This is a pyramid.
This is a sphere
2D & 3D shapes
In Maths, we looked at a variety of 2D shapes and 3D shapes. We had to match the shape to the correct name. We then started to look at some of the properties of 2D shapes.
Pick a 2D shape and ask your child to tell you how many corners does that shape have and then how many sides does that shape have. We looked in more detail about the properties of a rectangle and a square. Can they tell you how they are different?
A visit from Mrs Graves and her dog, Rosie.
Mrs Graves brought Rosie in to visit our class. She told us all about Rosie.
We learnt that:
Rosie has two dog walkers. (Lily A)
She can do some tricks for her dog treats. (Noah)
She likes to lick. (Isla)
She uses her nose to smell. (Joel)
She has her nails clipped at the groomers. (Efe)
We then got to stroke Rosie. Her fur was so soft.
We all hope she will visit us again!
Geography - Around the World
Today, we started our new geography unit called 'Around the World'.
The unit is taught through a bee called Buddy who wants to visit a different country from each continent.
We have learnt a song to help us remember the names of the 7 continents. See if they can sing along to the link below.
He starts off by visiting the continent Europe, where he explores France. Ask your child to tell you 3 facts about France. We also learnt how to say hello in French.
Art
Artist - Kandinsky - Concentric Circles
We looked at the artist Kandinsky and focused on his piece of art called 'concentric circles'. We discussed the shape we could see has been used throughout.
First, the children used different coloured pieces of paper and cut out free hand circles. They stuck the circles on top of each other in size order. We looked at which colours are warm colours and which are cold colours.
Then, the children used the primary colours and mixed two of the colours together, to make secondary colours. Using the different colours, they painted concentric circles inside each other. We tried to ensure our brush strokes were nice and smooth.
Number bonds within 10
We are practising our recall of bonds within 10. Our favourite game is 'Hit The Button'. I have added the link for them to play at home.
Currently our winner is Cato, scoring a great 32! Efe came a close second with 31.
I have set a challenge to see if anyone can score 35 or more.
This class love a good competition!
Days of the Week
In English, we are currently looking at a book called ‘Cookie’s Week’. It focuses on Cookie getting up to mischief each day. This book has been picked so the children can learn how to read, write and order the days of the week. We have been singing this song to help us.
Remembrance Day
Today, we watched some age appropriate video clips to teach us all about Remembrance Day. We also as a school had a 2 minutes silence to remember the soldiers. We then spent the afternoon, making a poppy display for our window. It turned out really well. We decorated purple and red poppies.
The children had a great day today. They had a visit from some police officers. They learnt some facts about their job role. They also got to:
- go in their car
- turn on the sirens
- use the truncheons and shields
- dress up in their uniform
With Miss Aspden, they have a computing lesson each Thursday. They spent Autumn 1 learning about online safety. Today, was their first session of using the laptops. They were all very excited. They each have their own password and email address to log on to the laptops. Once they are on, they got to explore Sketch Art.
We looked at the artist Zaria Forman. We continued to explore lines, but in a more expressive way. We listened to music to draw lines and marks that reflect our responses to what we could hear. Our pieces we created represented the waves and the sea. We added some sea creatures and plants to make our final touches. We used a range of media.
Stay and Play
Thank you to all the parents and grandparents who attended our Y1 stay and play (Halloween themed). The children really enjoyed showing you the different challenges and learning we have covered so far. We had some great pumpkin lanterns, skeletons using cotton buds and spider webs using our handprint and string. Many children showcased their maths knowledge finding number bonds within 10 and to 10. Some children wrote sentences to describe the haunted house; others wrote facts about bats. We mummified the adults using toilet paper. This was great fun! We carved pumpkins and took out all the seeds from the inside. We performed our skeleton dance and the adults even joined in.
Art
Drawing - make your mark
In Art, we are looking at the element 'line'.
We looked at the work of Bridget Riley, as a stimulus.
Here are some examples:
They used this knowledge to create a series of line drawings by arranging pieces of string to create different shapes, which we then drew, using pencils and chalk.
Here are the different lines we looked at.
Maths - Number bonds
In maths, we are looking at number bonds within 10 and to 10. We have been using concrete resources such as counters and cubes to help us. We have enjoyed playing Hit The Button where we are timed on how many bonds we can recall in a short time. We were introduced to the word 'systematic' to help us answer our bonds in a logical way.
Please continue to get your child to recall bonds to and within 10 at home. For example, tell me the bonds that make 4.
0 + 4 = 4
1 + 3 = 4
2 + 2 = 4
3 + 1 = 4
4 + 0 = 4
Autumn 2
Golden Treat - Autumn 1
We decided to make an alien spaceship linking to our theme 'Beegu' in English. They had great fun making them. We had some really good end products. Here are a few examples. They asked could they all take theirs home and not go on display. Another thank you to parents as all the resources needed were bought with our class funds.
Geography - Seasons
In Geography, we have been looking at the four seasons. We have focused on the weather in each season. We looked at which months are in which season. Then, we looked at which season our birthday was in. In provision, we created different pieces of art to show each season, using a range of media. To end the unit, we tried to write a season sense poem.
English - Beegu
In English, we have read a book called Beegu.
Beegu is a little, yellow alien, who landed on Earth after her spaceship crashed. She was lost and missed her family. She tried to communicate, but everyone ignored her, apart from the children. Eventually she is taken back to her homeland. She tells her family all about the little people.
During our English lessons we:
​​​​​​​
Autumn Term 1 School Funds
Thank you for your kind donations. We have bought two new sets of construction which the children voted on to access when in provision. Here are some of their models they have made. We will post later in the term with some Halloween crafts and challenges we have been able to enhance their learning, using the money.
Construction
The children have really enjoyed our new resources.
Maths Year 1 Parent Workshop.
Thank you to the parents who attended. It was lovely to have a discussion around maths with you and to look at the coverage in year 1. Thank you for completing some of the challenges. I am sure the children were happy you went home with a sticker.
Phonics - During CP time
Each table had a different phonics game or activity to complete. Independently, they made words, sentences, wrote cvc words etc. They worked super hard!
Maths - Whole Part Models
We have just started our unit on ‘addition and subtraction’ We introduced addition by looking at wholes and parts. They were introduced to the whole - part model. We used counters to find different ways of making a number.
Science - sense of touch
we ended our first science unit focusing on our sense ‘touch’
We had a range of objects and some vocabulary. We had to feel the objects and match which word described each object the best. For example the ice cube matched the word coldest and the teddy matched the word softest. We then gave explanations to why a brick needs to be hard or a teddy needs to
be soft.
English
As part of our English unit, we looked at how the characters (cats in this case) were feeling when they thought someone was in their home. We looked at emotions they already knew such as, happy, angry and sad. We then learnt some new ones such as, devastated, miserable, jolly, petrified and nervous. We used our faces to express these different emotions.
PE - With coach Mr Ramsbottom
They have spent the last few weeks working on their ball skills. This week focused on throwing and catching. They have worked on their spatial awareness, working together and hand-eye co-ordination. They also learnt a new game which was called foxes and farmers. They had great fun playing this game. Well done to the farmers, who were the last ones standing.
Science - Sense of smell
The children enjoyed learning about this sense - the sense of smell. We placed a range of foods into containers, which were covered in tinfoil. We could only use our noses to guess which food item was inside. We had some really good 'smellers'! The foods which we smelt were:
-tuna
-onions
-dark chocolate
- vinegar
- lemons
-banana
English
Is there a dog in this book?
In English, we are continuing to develop our basic sentence structure. We are focusing on finger spaces, capital letters for the beginning of a sentence, capital letters for proper nouns (names), a full stop at the end of a sentence, correct letter formation and most importantly that it makes sense.
This book is about 3 cats, who find a dog in the book. They start off being scared of the dog, but eventually they become friends.
We wrote sentences to describe the three cats and the dog. We displayed our work in the classroom.
Then, we moved on to looking at the punctuation ‘question mark’ as it is used on the front cover. We asked the dog lots of questions like:
How old are you?
How did you get into this book?
Who is your owner?
What is your favourite toy?
Can you do any tricks?
Next, we looked at command sentences. We created a poster on ‘How to look after a dog’
We wrote things like:
Brush them
Feed them
Teach them tricks
Love them
Walk them
We also wrote sentences to describe our own pets. Miss Partington shared her dog with us, who is called Willow. She is a French Bulldog.
Science – continuing with our senses
(Taste)
We have looked at our taste sense today. We tasted a range of foods and had to describe if they tasted:
They all tried each food in turn. The most popular seemed to be the crackers and the pretzels. The least popular were the pickles. However, we had some good pickle eaters (Sofia, Bella, Elliott and Isla)
Of course we washed our hands before and after food tasting!
Maths - greater than, less than and equal to
This week, the children were learning about the words greater than, less than and equal to, as well as the signs = < >
Before completing our worksheets, we carried out lots of practical activities on our own and in pairs.
First, we all made different numbers to 10 on a Tens Frame.
Then in pairs, we compared our Tens Frames using the language greater than, less than or equal to.
Next, we each picked a number card and then compared our numbers using the signs = < >
English
In English, we are looking at a book called ‘Dogger’.
Dogger is a worn, old, brown teddy, who belongs to Dave. Dave misplaces Dogger and he is very sad. Dogger was Dave’s best friend. Dave and his family search for Dogger everywhere. In the end Dogger is back home with Dave.
We are looking at writing simple sentences with a capital letter, a full stop and finger spaces. We have then introduced adjectives. These are words which describe the noun (their teddy). The children have written sentences to describe their favourite teddy. We have used their writing for a display.
Maths
In maths, we are looking at the topic ‘place value’. We read a book called ‘Button Box’. The buttons were all mixed up. In class, we had our own box of buttons and in pairs we had to sort the buttons in different ways. The children sorted them into colours, different shapes and how many holes the buttons had. They enjoyed this practical activity.
We then looked at representing objects on a Tens Frame. The children could remember from Reception that a complete Tens Frame means there are 10 and if the top line is completed there are 5. We used buttons to make different numbers on our Tens Frame.
We have been using bricks to help us build towers to count forwards to 10, backwards to 10 and to know one more and one less than a given number to 10.
We have been working really hard with our number formation. Here are some examples. Also, we are looking at how to write our numbers to 10, including 0 as words. Please help your child at home with this.
Art
Linking to our science all about body parts, we looked at the artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo, who created his art using fruit and vegetables. We discussed and looked at a range of different fruits and vegetables and which would make a good mouth or an eye. We create 2 pieces of art in his style, first using printed fruits and vegetables and then we drew our own fruits and vegetables.
Science
In Science, the topic we are covering is ‘all about me’. It looks at the human body and our 5 senses.
Sight – we had to look closely at our friend, who was sitting nicely and draw all their facial features. We learnt about blindness. We had to close our eyes and try to carry out instructions, such as drawing or filling up our water bottle.
Hearing – we went on a noise hunt outside and inside of the classroom and listened to what we could hear. We learnt about deafness. We then learnt how to sign the alphabet and the letter of our first name.
Human body - we sang head, shoulders, knees and toes and sang the skeleton song to help us learn parts of the body.
Here is the link if you want to play it at home:
Autumn Term 1
Please have a read to see what your child will be learning this half term in Year 1.
Unfortunately not the ones with chocolate chips.
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