This week the children have attended the stations of the cross, they were immersed on the story of Jesus travelling to his crucification by Mr Cunningham, Mrs Buckingham, Mr Croizer and Miss Heath. They viewed 4 of the 15 stations: Jesus is sentenced to death, Jesus carries the cross, Jesus meets his Mum and Simon helps Jesus.

The children got to explore beebots this week and had great joy in putting algorithms to make the beebots move.

The children then had to write their own algorithms for the beebot to collect their items on the beebot grid!

The children had a special delivery from Jack and got to plant their own magic beans!

To end the week the children shared their crime reports with Judge Cunningham who came to a final verdict: Jack! Jack should not have barged into the castle and stole the coins.

Trip letters have gone out this week. We are visiting Arundel Castle on 19th May. Please see the trip letter for further details. Continue reading →

On Thursday we had a diversity afternoon where the children learnt about Judaism.

They got to explore some important symbols and artefacts to those of a Jewish religion.

The Children then used what they learnt about Judaism to design a family table.

In English this week the children had the opportunity to ask Jack some questions when he came to visit!

A day later we had a note from the giant! He wash shocked that we thought jack was a good boy and wanted to have his say!

The children made puppets in DT, bringing their designs to life!

Next week:

English – Using all the evidence gathered from the Giant and Jack the children will be writing a crime report for a judge. This will help them decide which character is bad and therefore should face a consequence!

Maths – The children are continuing their journey of weighing and finding the difference in weight of two objects. They will be recording this in their book pictorially.

How can you help at home?

As always keep reading at home. The more confident the children come with the book the more fluent they become. Please also practise writing at home and using their sounds, particularly if your child is now learning phase 5 sounds the more exposure they have to words the more confident they will come with selecting the correct sound.

When practising maths at home ensure your child is confident with using the correct lanaguage, such as heavier/lighter, heaviest/lightest. Ensuring they use the correct language will stop misconceptions forming. 

This week we have started a new English unit – Jack and the Beanstalk!

The children retold the story, using actions and reading our story map to help to retell it accurately.

The children developed their computer skills further this week by using the space bar and the return key on the keyboard to start a new line! The children were really good at helping each other by reminding them what the important buttons were on the key board.

We have moved in to weight for maths. We have reminded ourselves how to use the scales and work out what postition the scales need to be in for something to be lighter or heavier. We have used the sentence stem: _____ is lighter than the _______ OR ________  is heavier than the ______.

Next week:

Topic – Jack and the Beanstalk 

Maths – We will all be looking at comparing objects we are weighing. Most of us will be using multilink to explore units of measurement when weighting objects, such as the car is as heavy as 10 multilink cubes. Some of us will be talking about the difference in the weight of objects.

English –  We will be collecting evidence on Jack and the Giant from Jack and the beanstalk. We I’ll have the opportunity to ask Jack some questions and explore the language used in the book to help us form an opinion.

How can you help your child at home? 
Please keep practising numbers at home. Children need to be confident with numbers up 100  by the end of the school year. Ask your child to find one more and one less any given number.

As we will be using inference skills in English this week, you could practise with some of the books you read at home with your child. See if they can find the message behind the story, what is the author trying to tell you?

We are writing questions, so you could practise talking about what questions are and the children can try writing the down. What internet them? What do they what to find out? REMEMBER to include a question mark at the end of your question!!

This week the children have created their own bug book! 🐛 🕷 🐜

We have reached the end of our English journey and our outcome was to create page from a bug book. The year 1 team are so impressed with what the children have created!

As it was world science week this week the children took part in some scientific exploring. We looked at parts of a tree and sorted them. We sorted them by size, shape, colour, growth.

The children then inspected the parts of the trees very closely and tried to identify what tress they came from. With the help of a tree identification chart they were able to find the correct tree, they drew what they thought it looked like it.

Next week:

English – We are starting a new journey, one with a giant! We will thinking about the characters and their feelings. We be revisiting adding -ed on the end of words.

Maths – We are sticking with coins! We will be using 10ps to buy a variety of objects and solving word problems.

How can you help at home?

Some children are struggling with remembering their capital letters and full stops. When writing at home please remind your child to include these in their writing. This is something we have been working on since Year R, so it is really important they are able to do this by the end of  Year 1. 

This week the children have been coins to buy items from our school. We focused on 1p, 2p, 5p and 10p.

Later in the week they used their knowledge of counting in 2s to use 2p coins to solve a problem to help Mrs Cass’ son.

We have been learning about nouns in English and sorted words into nouns and not nouns. The children know that nouns are a naming words and these are for objects, animals, people and places.

We finished the week by focusing on our personal development and how to be better people on the playground, to look out for one another. We made some playground rules and then created posters to put up around the playground to help remind us what is expected when we play together outside.

Next week:

English – We are going to be looking at questions again this week, adding it to our big book. The questions will entice the reader to open the flap in the book to reveal what is underneath!

Maths – We are using counting in 10s to solve word problems involving 10p.

How can I support my child at home?

Lots of children are forgetting the basics of writing a sentence, such as full stops and capital letters. Please remind your child to use these when writing at home.

Recap counting in 10s at home, ahead of our learning next week.

Please remember to write in your child’s orange phonics communication book after they have read to you each week. It is an expectation that your child reads a minimum of 3 times a week.

… Ash Wednesday!

The children celebrated Ash Wednesday in school this week. We had a small worship with Mr Crozier and the children received an ash cross on their foreheads.

Children had a STEM day on Monday where they went on a bug hunt and made food for the birds after finding out that there weren’t many bugs around at this time of year, which is the birds main source of food!

And of course we celebrated world book day on Thursday! We loved seeing all the children dressed up! We had a whole range of characters, Elmer to Willy Wonka to Harry Potter! Here are a few images from the day.

Next Week:

Maths – The children will be continuing their exploration of coins and use them to buy things. They will also have to solve

English – The children will be learning facts about Bugs to write their very own bug book!

This week marks the end of spring 1 and your child’s halfway point in year 1. We have been busy this week, learning about puppets, subtraction and riddles.

The children have been using their number facts to 10 to figure out subtraction problems. We used the part whole model to find our answers, a few of us got a bit confused because we have previously used part whole models to add but we got there in the end! Some of us were even able to record a number sentences!

We have written our own riddles for English. We first had to choose a toy that we like and then wrote a riddle that included adjectives, a question, and an exclamatory sentence. The children had fun reading it to one another and guessing what the toy was.

For DT this week the children explored at the best way to join the felt to make their puppets. They could glue, staple, sellotape and sew their bits of felt together. Lots of the children thought either the staples or the stitching would be best way to make their puppet stay together.

After half term:

Maths – The children will be exploring money. They will be sorting it into different amounts and looking what each coin is worth.

English – The children will be bug detectives, searching for bugs around the school grounds before using adjectives to describe what it looks like. We will also be looking at plurals and learning that we need to add an s or es to the end of words when there is more than one.

What can I do to help my child at home?

Over the half term please try to find the time to complete the phonics home learning that has been sent home. Each group have a specific task to support them in closing any phonics gaps they may have. If your child is struggling with any sounds please make sure you recap them and encourage your child to use them as much as possible.
Keep practising number recognition to 100, children should be confident in identifying numbers to 50 and then to 100.

Have a good half term break. Stay safe and we will see you on 28th February.

We started off the week with children’s mental health week and we learnt about the importance of keeping our minds and emotions healthy. We know it is important to make sure we keep our body healthy by eating veg and exercising, so it’s important we keep our mind healthy too. The children designed a balloon and then wrote the grown ups who help them to grow and who they turn too when they feel a bit upset or worried.

Later in the week it was internet safety day so the children thought about how they could safe online. We were very pleased to see that many children asked their grown up before going online or downloading any new apps or games!

Next week:

Maths – Children will be learning about subtraction. They will subtract a single digit number away from 10. Using the part whole model to work out the answer.

English – Every child will be writing a riddle! They will choose a toy and create their own what am I? by using adjectives to describe the toy they have chosen.

What can I do at home to help my child?

Children have now partitioned numbers from 2-9, so should be confident to find part of these numbers, ask your child to find all the ways to make these numbers.

We have had a look at every child’s phonics this week and have noticed some gaps in some of the children’s leaning. Every child has learnt phase 3 at least 3 times. If your child is still finding these sounds (particularly air, ure, igh, ear, er) please practise them daily. In addition, if your child has started to learn phase 5 sounds please use the sound mat to check their understanding of each sound and talk about words you may find the sounds in.

The children started the week learning about mass. They held the toys and tried to decipher which ones they thought were heavy toys and which ones were light.

The children then progressed on to using scales and compared toys. Using the language heavier and lighter.

For English we looked at a character’s feeling (from Toys in Space) and thought about how we would feel if someone had taken our toy and kept it. We then interviewed each other to understand how each of us would feel.

This week we did a science experiment! We tested how far a car would travel on different services. The children had great fun!

Finally we saw the week out with celebrating Chinese New Year and made our very own Chinese dragon puppets!

Next week:

Maths – We are going to be partitioning numbers 7-9 next week. Finding all the different ways that we can make the numbers. We will use a part whole model to help us and record our findings in a number sentence.

English- For English we will be writing a letter to hoctopize asking for our toys back! Our letter will include questions, feelings and a exclamatory sentence.

Computing – On the 8th February it is internet safety day. We will be discussing how to keep safe online and when playing games on our tablets, computers or phones. Take time at home to talk to your child about what they are doing online and to let you know if they see something that makes them feel sad or uncomfortable.

How can you help your child?
When writing at home encourage your child to use capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. A lot of children are forgetting these features when writing at school.

If your child likes to write number sentences ensure that they are writing them correctly and know what they mean. For example, 2+5=7 can be explained as 5 add 2 is equal to 7.