A zootastic week in Y1! 21.5.21

We have had a zootastic week from celebrating theme day to learning about the history of Chester zoo.

We've heard of elefish, cheegulls but this week you introduced me to lots of different animals such as turtsnakes, elebirds and even leeters . This week you researched, planned and wrote your own information text. You linked your information text to our shared write and wrote in the same style. It was amazing to see the super vocabulary choices and the range of adjectives you used. You linked a lot of your science learning to your writing to explain which family your animal was in and if it was a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore. You have become such independent and confident writers, I couldn't be any more proud of you.

In phonics this week, you worked very hard to gain a quicker reading speed. It's lovely to see you become so confident. This week we saw 5 more children get their bronze award because they had read 10 challenge books. There are so many children who are very close to it now, which is amazing. Well done for working so hard on your reading at school and at home.

In maths this week we have been focusing on counting in our 2's, 5's and 10's. We were able to use our multiplication knowledge to create equal and unequal groups. Next, we moved on to adding equal groups. We were able to add equal groups of 2's, 5's and 10's using number lines and practical resources. We finished the week by learning about arrays, we created our own arrays using paint to identify rows and columns. It was very tricky to understand the difference between a row and a column, to help us we practiced by using actions.

During history, we have extended our learning on George Mottershead. We learnt about the opening of Chester Zoo! We explored lots of pictures from the past and learnt that Oakfield house is still in Chester Zoo now. We were able to role-play the events of George Mottershead's life before sequencing the events from past to present in our groups. After learning our new information, we were able to add this to our timelines of significant people and events.

In Geography this week Rose arrived back at school from her trip to Kenya. The scientists in Antarctica sent us a postcard to ask Rose to help them with their research. We found out that Antarctica is in the winter season. We sorted out all of Rose' clothes to ensure she was protected from the cold and windy weather. You added fantastic ideas for instance, a hot water bottle and a blanket to keep warm.

In Science this week, you looked at classifying animals depending if they had scales, feathers, fur/hair or slimy skin. You used a classification system to answer questions about your animals. This then helped to classify your animal and to see if it was a mammal or not. We focused on pets for this lesson and you were very good at naming all of the pets and thinking about their body features.

This week our HeartSmart task was to reflect on our unit 'Don't Rub it in, Rub it Out!' We recapped our lessons and thought about how they have helped us to address our negative emotions. As a class, we looked at a picture of Boris and shared how we may help ourselves when we feel mad or sad. We sat in a circle and shared our thoughts. We then completed our reflection sheet and added in some 'next steps' if we felt we needed to.

Our music lesson was an active one this week. We used the percussion instruments to accompany our song – 'Who's at the zoo?' We remembered our partners and worked really well together. Some of us decided to add in hand gestures and movement to the song. At the end of the lesson, we shared our thoughts on our performance. What went well? What do we need to improve on? Well done Year 1!

In wellbeing club this week, you focused the first part of the session on what you were thankful for. You wrote these on paper aeroplanes and flew your thanks and happiness through the air. We then focused the second part on team building activities. You were put into two teams and had to work together to get a hoop from the ground and back up again without it falling...you did so well considering you could only use your fingertips to lift the hoop. To build upon your team skills, you then had five minutes to build the strongest and tallest tower. Once the five minutes were up you were given three throws of a ball to try and knock the tower down to test its strength.

Who let the animals out of the zoo? On Friday, we had as one child quoted 'the best day of Y1' as we celebrated our theme day. Your costumes were absolutely fantastic and I couldn't thank your parents enough for all of the food donations for our tea party. We started the day by giving a fact about the animal we were dressed as. We then spent the morning singing and performing the song 'who's at the zoo'. You really enjoyed using the instruments. We will use a QR code to put this song in your study work books. We then wrote an invitation to our friends to invite them to the tiger tea party and created our own tiger masks. After break, we had a very yucky mystery to solve! We read the story 'poo at the zoo' which became a big focus as we found out that Chester zoo had an animal poo explosion. They needed our help to match the poo to the animal by finding out about what the animal eats. You became poo investigators and looked inside the animal's poo to find out what it had eaten. If the poo had bones in and plants we knew the animal was an omnivore. I can reassure all parents that the 'poo' was only play dough...it just looked very realistic! Once we had finished, we then looked at some animal skulls to look at their teeth. We found out that herbivores have flat teeth and carnivores have sharp teeth. In the afternoon, we had a tiger tea party whilst singing and dancing to animal songs. We also played some party games. You finished the day by watching Madagascar. After a crazy year, it was so lovely to see you all smiling and laughing together. I hope you enjoyed the day as much as I did.

Although Friday was a great day, it was also very sad as we said goodbye to Miss Nash. We have been so lucky to have Miss Nash with us since November and in that time she has taught you so much and helped you to develop in your learning. We would just like to say a huge thank you to Miss Nash and we all wish her the best of luck in finishing university and starting her teaching career.

School jam homework has been sent out and it is called 'big top balance' there is also a video to help you consolidate your learning over arrays. Remember you have your bingo homework to complete by the end of the summer term as well. All of your bingo homework can be uploaded on seesaw where I will comment on it from there.

We have had such a busy week and I'm sure you were all very tired on Friday after all of your dancing and singing on Friday. Rest up this weekend ready for another four days in school before the half term.

Thank you for always being the superstars that you are,

Miss Haynes