Happy sunny half term Y1! 28.05.21

Happy half term Y1! Can you believe that we are going to be in our final half term when we come back to school. This week we have had lots of fun finishing off our 'animals in the zoo' topic.

In English this week, we spent a lot of time focusing on our SPaG focuses. You built on all of your learning around using the -ed verbs and wrote your own sentences or short narrative using these verbs. You then moved onto your final SPaG focus which is to use the prefix -un at the start of the word. unhappy, unzip, uneven, unfair....all have something in common they all start with UN. You understood that -un means not and changes the meaning of the word to the opposite. You went on an -un word hunt and when you found your word you had to use it in a sentence. Independently, you changed lots of root words and gave them the prefix -un. Once you were feeling confident in saying these words in a sentence you built on this learning by writing sentences in your books. I was so proud of how hard you worked in English this week and how much time and effort you took to keep your writing neat.

In phonics this week, I was so proud to complete all of your assessments and to listen to you read. You have all made so much progress from September and you are all incredible readers. It was lovely to celebrate some more children who achieved their bronze and silver awards in their reading challenge.

We have been creating arrays, doubling and learning everything about multiplication in maths. After finding the concept of arrays really difficult we completed another practical maths activity where you were creating your own arrays on a grid. We focused on what a column, row and multiplication sum was. You were able to use your knowledge of counting in 2s, 5s and 10s to work out how many objects you had in your array. To build upon this learning, you answered some problem solving and reasoning questions in your power maths book. Once we understood arrays, we moved onto doubling and you built on your learning from reception. You were able to show doubling through painting dots on one side of a strip of paper folding it over and then unfolding it to realise that your dots had doubled. I was impressed with how quickly you understood doubling and were flying through your power maths questions. We built on our fluency of doubling by playing quick fire games at any time of the day.

In RE this week we started our new learning around the Holy Spirit. We listened to the story of the Pentecost and how all of the disciples were given the Holy Spirit. You created your own fire headbands and wind so that as a whole class we could re-enact the story of the Pentecost. You had so much fun and I was amazed by how much of the story you had retained when I quizzed you the day after. We built upon our learning by focusing on what happened to the disciples on the day of the Pentecost and what the Holy Spirit means. You said and wrote some lovely sentences such as 'The disciples felt fire like the burning love of God'.

In history, you focused on why George Mottershead was a significant person in History and should be someone we always remember. You found out that he was significant because he wanted a zoo without bars. George Mottershead did not want animals to feel trapped like he once did when he was in a wheelchair after the war. You created your own fact file on George Mottershead and did your own research to find some interesting facts. To finish our learning off in this area on Friday you all designed your own zoo enclosure and you then created it using Lego. You had to decide if you wanted a zoo without or with bars and you had to explain why. Some of you said you wanted an enclosure with bars so that visitors feel safe and some of you wanted a zoo without bars so that the animals could feel like they were in the wild. I loved hearing about your ideas and looking at your creations. Next term, we will build upon this learning by comparing George Mottershead to Grace Darlington.

Our 'Your Imagination' song went really well this week. We practiced singing each verse, the chorus and the coda. The coda was quite tricky for us as group 2 was an echo of group 1. We tried to stay in sync and stay focused ready to sing our highlighted parts. We got there in the end! Using an agogo bell, a cow bell, a two tone wooden block and a jingle stick we added extra sounds to our song. We used these percussion instruments as they complimented the song's pitch. 

There is no homework that is being sent out for this half term break except for your reading. I have given you all two reading books so you have enough reading to keep you going over the half term break. For your other homework, I want you to spend time venturing out of your houses with your families. Most importantly, I want you to smile, laugh and have fun. Spend every moment creating memories (hopefully in the sun).

Have a lovely half term break and I will see you all next Monday,

Miss Haynes