Happy half term Y1

We have made it to our half term break Y1! This has definitely been a crazy start to our spring term but we can only hope that things will get better. Whether you have been a provision learner or a home learner, all Mrs VR and I have to say is that you have been a fantastic learner! You have all achieved so much and learned lots of new things and that is because you have lots of wonderful adults around you. Your families have helped your learning to continue and we are so grateful for the time and effort they have all put into teaching you at home. We definitely make a fantastic team! This week has been a shorter week nevertheless we have been busy bees learning about lots of new stuff.

In phonics and reading, you have been continuing your journey on recapping and learning set three sounds. By the time you come back to school properly, you are going to be set three experts! Your spellings of these sounds have come on so well and you are starting to differentiate the different spellings of the same sounds. This is only because you are all phonics experts. You have been building upon all of this learning and using it in your own reading of your books. This is helping you all become very fluent readers that have lots of confidence.

In English this week, you finished the last part of your mischief stories that were a delight to read through. You worked so hard on writing sentences that tell a narrative by using a clear structure of a beginning, middle and end. It was fantastic to see how many of you used sentence openers, adjectives and the correct punctuation. I hope you were all beaming with pride because I definitely was! You finished the week by completing some SPaG work on plurals. You learned all about adding the plural -s and -es to nouns to show that there is more than one. You wrote sentences, matched words and even played some games. It looked like you had lots of fun!

In maths, you finished all of your learning on addition within 20 by completing an end of unit quiz which showed me everything you had learned and retained. You did a fantastic job especially as the questions were rather challenging as well! We then started to focus on our subtraction within 20 topic. We started off by recapping our subtraction skills when subtracting numbers within 10. You then transferred these skills and used them to subtract numbers within 20. We focused solely on using a number line to help us this week but after half term, we will learn other ways too. You then spent the last two days challenging your families to a subtraction game. You were all that good a lot of you beat your parents and siblings!

In your afternoon learning, you have had lots of different learning opportunities that have allowed you to gain lots of new learning and experiences. On Monday you started with PE which had a focus on cricket. You were learning the fundamental skill of controlling a ball. You dribbled a ball and carefully balanced it on your bat. It was great to see all of you using your outdoor space even with the freezing temperatures we have had this week. You have also been very innovative on the choice of bats you have been using with some of you using a spade as a bat which I thought was fantastic! On Tuesday, you carried on learning about plants in science and you looked more specifically at trees and leaves. You learned that there are two types of trees that are called deciduous and evergreen. You analysed and compared these trees in different seasons to understand that deciduous trees change colour and lose their leaves whereas evergreen leaves always stay the same colour all year round. You then finished your lesson by investigating different leaves and labelling their features. On Wednesday you joined Rachal and Johanna whilst virtually visiting a synagogue and a Jewish home. You created your own Torah and practiced writing in Hebrew. On Thursday, you completed your history task which focused on old and new toys. It was fantastic to see you comparing these toys depending on what material they were made out of. For your wellbeing task you finished the focus of expressing yourself by thinking about who inspires you to be the best person you can be. You created lovely drawings of your families and wrote sentences about why they inspire you. You then finished the week with a quiz from Alfie for some fun! He was very happy that you enjoyed his quiz!

I just want to reiterate how thankful I am to you all for completing your learning on seesaw this term. It has definitely not been an easy term for us all as our routines have completely changed and although we enjoy seeing each other over zoom it is not the same. I am definitely missing you in the classroom and hearing all of that beautiful laughter. However, everything is looking brighter and soon we will be back together again. Your only homework for half term is to rest, spend time with your families and stay safe. Have the best time, you deserve it!

See you after half term,

Miss Haynes