Our first full week in Y1!

Wow, year 1 what a busy week we have had for our first whole week back. It's definitely been an exciting week.

We started our week off with English and what a scary start we had. On Monday we entered the classroom to a pile of straw and sticks and a house made out of bricks, there were three little pigs and a sign saying help. We investigated and looked for clues around the classroom to find out what had happened. We soon came up with the idea that the BIG BAD WOLF had broken into our classroom and blew down the house of sticks and straw. We decided that we wanted to help the pigs find the wolf so that we could give him a consequence. In your independent learning, you have spent the week making wanted posters so that you could put them around the classroom and send them to PC Nick so that we can try and catch the wolf. You have also been closely observing the pig's area each morning when you first come in as every night something changes or gives us a clue that the wolf is still coming back. You have been completely immersed in your traditional tale topic and we are now learning the story of the three little pigs with actions. You have been completing some fantastic short burst writing this week as you have written sentences about your favourite traditional tale and wrote questions you would like to ask the wolf. You have been learning about adjectives and how these are describing words which then helped you to write a list of adjectives to describe the pigs and wolf's personality and appearance. You have used drama skills to hot seat the three little pigs and question them. You really have been superstars this week and it has been a joyful experience to watch you so engrossed in the topic and with your writing. I can't wait to find out what will happen next week....Do you think we can catch the wolf?

In maths this week you have been busy recapping topics taught in reception. We have been very busy looking at all of the different learning you did from counting to 20, to comparing weight and to creating our own repeated patterns. You all completed a little quiz with either Mrs VR or I and you have impressed me so much that I think we are ready to start our Y1 power maths topic on place value. We will still spend time recapping our reception topics and plugging our gaps during our learning in provision and through maths starters.

This week, we had our very first science lesson together and we started our topic on everyday materials. We discussed what materials were and then we went on our own material hunt around the school. We found out that some objects are made from many different materials, for example, the outside of a car is made out of metal but the tyres are made from rubber. It has been so lovely to hear you have your own independent conversations about the materials of things you are playing within provision. You have also used our science area in class to sort out and group different objects together depending on what they are made out of.

We had our very first music lesson together and what a blast we had! We started the lesson by hearing the song 'hey you' that we are going to learn and perform. We thought about the genre of music it was and we soon realised that it was rap. We learnt the meaning of rhythm, instrument and pulse which then helped us to find the pulse in the piece of music. We clapped, danced and used body percussion to mimic the pulse in the song. We finished the lesson by learning the words to 'hey you' which we rapped out together. What amazing rap artists you are all going to make!

In our first computing lesson together we completed an unplugged activity on performing algorithms. We learned that an algorithm is a set of instructions that computers and robots follow in a particular order. We learned the symbol forwards and you performed different algorithms to the class by following the instruction. You understood that if there were 5 forward symbols then this is a repeated pattern and you would therefore have to walk forward 5 times. You finished the lesson by creating your own algorithm to get the naughty bus back to the city.

In art, you finished your big art by painting your hot air balloons with your partner. We now need to attach our baskets onto them so that we can then hang them up on the ceiling. We have also found out some more information and facts about the Montgolfier brothers by reading a storybook about them.

What a fantastic but busy week you have all had. I have been so proud of how well you have settled in, the beautiful behaviour that you show, and the high levels of engagement to learning. You should all be super happy with yourselves.

Have a restful weekend and I will see you on Monday,

Miss Haynes