Dear parents

Well. It is the end of an unusual term in so many ways but the children have made it seem normal at the same time ! Their enthusiasm for learning and joy of life have kept us all on our toes and have helped us to forget from time to time the strange world we are living in at the moment!

This week we have watched the pantomime, designed and made cards using sliders, pivots and hinges and finished our stories. Please look carefully in the children’s book bags for the presents they have made you. They have worked so hard to make them . We hope you enjoy reading them together.

Mrs Jonas has had her last day with Turtle class. She is sad to be leaving them but will see them again from time to time when she comes to work back in school in the new year on a supply basis.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Please all keep safe and enjoy quiet family times together.

The year 1 team

We have had such a  busy week! As well as our learning in maths and English we have had our Nativity play, Christmas jumper day, Cafod Advent assembly and drama workshops. We are certainly getting excited about Christmas now with the children bringing in their cards for the whole class which are being displayed in our rooms.  If your child would like to bring in a card for the class please bring it in at the begnning of next week. They are enjoying sharing these with the class.

In maths this week we have contiuned with solving problms involving 2’s and have completed out challenge counting in 2’s to see how many bricks were used to make our animal home!

In English we have starated to write our own versions of the Christmas story, thinking about the beginning, middle and end of the story and using our ‘ed’ words in our writing. We have seen some amazing use of vocabulary and the children are really beginning to think about their handwriting, presentation, capital letters and full stops. If your child is doing any writing at home please remind them about these things and encourage them to use the correct spellings of the common exception words that have come home on green card for your child.

We had great fun doing our Nativity, getting dressed up and performing to staff in school. Well done children! You worked very hard!

OnWednesday we had a drama workshop with an outside agency whcoh went down very well! We look forward to the pantomine next week! On Friday we had or Christmas jumper day. The children were very excited to share their jumpers with their friends and it made Christmas seem all the closer!

As we enter the last 2 weeks of term we really begin to get into the spirit of Christmas in year 1! We have been thinking a lot about this period of preparation, Advent, and are preparing for the birth of Jesus in our own way with our Nativity play.

In English last week we started to think about the Christmas Story. We role played different scenes to help us get into the characters way of thinking and seqeunced the story. We also looked at some new vocabulary and ‘traffic lighted’ the words to consider which ones were not familiar to us. We focused on words in the past (ed words). This week we will start to write some sentences using these words.

In maths we were counting in 2’s and considering in what different ways we could represent what we find. We used repeated addition, part whole models and numberlines to show what we know. We will be continuing with this work this week.

During our STEM deep learning day on Friday we considered which materials might be best to use to build our own boats. Which would be the most waterproof and which would float?’ The materials were tested to find out. Here are some of the children’s quotes!

“The coin is made of metal.”

“We thought big things would sink but we were wrong!”

“Heavy things will sink.”

“We thought that little objects would float but the little glass marble sunk because it is heavy.”

“When I push the lolly stick down it stays like that but then comes up again!”

“The duplo sinks this way and floats this way.”

“You can put the man on the wood and it still floats.”

Fianlly please can we remind you to send your child into school dressed warmly. It is getting cold outside and layers may also be needed inside as we are keeping the windows etc open in order to keep the classrooms as safe as possible.

Year 1 team

Dear Parents

Sorry this is a little late! Time is whizzing away and Friday’s just pass us by!
In English last week we looked at a number of poems about pirates. We thought about which ones were our favourites and then had a vote. We all really liked the funny ones best!   Later in the week we wrote our own repeated phrases and made poems in small groups. 

In maths we continued our work on halves or numbers using our bar models to share equally and solving problems.

Later we moved on to counting in 2’s which we are continuing with this week, learning how to count in 2’s on a number line and looking for pairs in different places! We had fun sorting the shoes and wellies!

We have started rehearsing our Nativity and a letter will be coming out tomorrow with the costumes that your child will need in school for the performance.

In RE we have been learning all about Saint Francis of Assisi and thought about the qualities that Saints have. We also looked at the Liturgical Calendar and thought about special times for Christians during the year.

The year 1 team