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

This  has been such a busy week for the children in year 1… as well as the teachers! We have had a fun filled time with lots of practical activities.

In English we have continued to explore our pirate theme. We have revisited our core vocabulary that we want the children to use and introduced some ‘ing’ words to describe what their pirates have been doing. We have been doing lots of acting of our simple stories using our new words, making pirate hats and finally putting it all together to write some super sentences using both an adjective and an ‘ing’ word. They all did so well!

In maths we have continued to explore shape but this time solving problems with pattern and halves. How do we know if a shape is in half?  We have explored shape using lolly sticks and by folding paper shapes as well as asking ‘explain your reasoning’ questions.

In science we have been learning about materials. We worked in groups to explore a range of objects. We thought about the materials used to make the objects. We also thought about the properties of the different materials.

In our topic work we have been focusing on geography, this week looking closely at a range of different maps: Polynesian stick maps, maps of the sea bed, geological bedrock maps, town maps and maps that sailors use! We even found our school on a town map! We really had fun exploring the different features we could see and talking about why we would use each map.

Finally, we have had our Liturgy this week which focused on our ideas of what Heaven is like. Mr Cunningham, Mrs Knight and Miss Chapman came to listen to us. We particularly enjoyed performing to the other class! We all shared prayers together to think about those who we know who are in Heaven.

Welcome back after half term. It may be lockdown in the wider world but our learning continues at St Peters!

We have been doing lots of lovely work about pirates this week to support our new book of ‘ The Night Pirates.’ The children found a message in a bottle of Monday from a pirate who seems to think that we have stolen his treasure! We wrote down some questions to ask him and had a visit from Pirate Pete and Pirate Penelope. They were very funny! We have also been learning lots of new words we can use when talking and writing about pirates and we have started to think about how we could make up pirate stories to tell each other.

In maths we have been learning all about the properties of 2D shapes and using the the language we need to to describe them.

Today, Friday, has been the schools History deep learning day. We learnt a little about how Martin Luther King wanted the world to be a fairer and better place. We then went on to think about how schools have changed over time, thinking about disabilities, how and who we can sit next to and who was allowed to learn in schools. The children had some very good ideas. We compared this with the schools of today where differences are celebrated and all children are allowed to learn together. Finally we thought about how we could make the world a fairer place.

We have also been practising our Liturgy. If your child has come home with some words to learn please could you help them to do so. We are so sorry that you will not be able to share this with the children but the children will tell you all about it!

Well done to all the children for getting to the end of their first half term back in school after a very strange few months. We have been extremely busy with our learning and the children seem to enjoy being back!

In maths this week we have been learning about when we use the words ‘tall/taller/tallest’ and making towers and measuring things to apply our new language.

In English we have been writing about our class mascots using the prepositional language that we learnt last week…. also remembering our punctuation of course! The children wrote some lovely sentences.

This month has been Black History Month and this week we learnt about Claudia Jones who was sent to the UK from the Caribbean in 1955. She didn’t find it easy when she got here and we talked about some of the reasons why that might be. She was instrumental in getting laws changed here in the UK. She also started the Notting Hill Carnival! We made some carnival masks and listened to some steel band music while we worked.

Have a good week one and all. Please keep up with the daily reading if you can.

The year 1 team

We have been busy being active and practical in all areas of our learning this week. And the weather has been kind!

In English this week we have been looking at the book ‘Each, Peach, Pear, Plum’. We started by searching for the characters in our outside areas and then thinking of and practising saying sentences to describe where they are. We also enjoyed playing ‘eye spy’. We then spent a session thinking about prepositions to describe where the children placed our class mascots. The children really enjoyed playing with Pufferfish and Timmy the turtle and using full sentences to explain where they were.

In maths we have been learning about measurement of length, teaching and using the language of long, longer, longest, short, shorter and shortest to compare different objects. They measured animal footprints using different tools and used ribbons to make comparisons with things in the environment.

In science we have been using our senses to smell different things. We explored whether or not we could tell what was in the pots just by smelling. We discovered we needed our sense of sight to know for certain.

We have spent some time this week thinking about how to keep safe. We talked about a whole range of different areas such as being near water, hot ovens and how to behave when crossing the road. We also spent some time talking about how to be safe when working on computers / tablets etc at home.The main message was to tell an adult in your house straight away if something you do not expect to see happens while you are using equipment at home. It is so important that we teach good use of ICT at an early age and that they know that you are involved in their online exploration at home.

Have a good weeeknd

The year 1 team

What a wet week we have had in places! It is great that so many of the children can do up their own coats independent. We have been very grateful of this on occasion!

In maths this week we have been introducing the children to the ‘part – whole model’. We have shown them how one ‘whole number’ can be partitioned into 2 parts and then how to record this. We have been using practical resources and recording more formally in their maths books. They have all tried really hard with this!

In English we have been writing descriptions of our animals / dinosaurs to make class alphabet books. We have been using the adjectives / describing words that we learnt last week.

In RE this week we have been learning all about Judaism, specifically focusing on the weekly Shabbat celebrations. The children did some lovely writing about what they had learnt.

October is the month of Mary and so in our daily worship we have been learning the Hail Mary. It would be lovely if you could practise this at home. Our daily worship this week has been recognising that God is in everybody regardless of what they look like or where they come from. It has provoked some interesting conversations.

Have a good weekend !

The year 1 team

Dear parents

We hope that your children are now well settled in their new routines and that they are coming home and telling you all about what we are learning in school.

This week we have been looking at the alphabet and thinking about alphabetical order. We have also been learning about adjectives (words that describe nouns). Next week we are going to make our own  alphabetically  ordered class books using adjectives to describe either an animal (in Puffer fish) or a dinosaur (in Turtles).

In maths we are learning the concept of ‘whole’ and ‘part’ and recording our findings using pictoral representations.

This week at school has been anti bullying week. We have talked as a  class about what bullying means.

Well done to everyone who is bringing in their phonics packs everyday. These are essential because we use these everyday in our phonics teaching. There is no need to send back to school any of the homework sheets but the expectation is that the tick sheet for your child’s will be completed at home and returned to school everyday in your child’s pack along with the homework diary.

Have a good weekend

The year 1 team

Dear all

We are sorry but due to timetabling issues with the new school start and finish times our PE days have changed once again. This will work much better for us as a year group and bring us all into line!

Both classes will have PE on a Friday on week 1 (next week beginning 21st September)

Both classes will have PE on a Wednesday week 2

Thank you

Dear Parents

Welcome to year 1!

It is so nice to welcome you and your children to year 1 after such a long summer for many.

We are really looking forward to getting to know your children and helping them to get going with their learning in year 1.

These last 2 weeks have seen us all getting to know each other!  We have been having our daily phonics sessions (we hope that you have all seen your child’s new book in their book bags) as well as regular maths and English inputs on specific themes to enable the children to be gently moved back into their learning. New books will be issued every Monday along with phonics sheets. These books MUST be returned on Friday to ensure that hey are ready to be reissued on Monday. Please keep the books in your child’s book bags after reading so that we can access them in school.

This week we have been focusing on counting with one to one correspondence as well as more an less on numbers to 20.

In English we have been focusing on some core segmenting and blending skills for reading and writing simple words and playing eye spy using our book ‘Shark in the Park’ as a stimulus.

In RE we started to look at the Creation story and in science we have started our longitudinal study looking at seasonal changes on the school field as well as starting our unit on our bodies.

Please take some time to view the attached year 1 welcome meeting. Please look carefully at the timings for library and PE as these have changed and are different for each year 1 class.

The year 1 team