Y1 weekly news!

Well, this week took us on a journey where we all became scientists and superheroes. We have had a very fun-filled week where the laughter hasn't stopped. We have been bubbling with excitement just like our science experiment this week....

In English this week, we have been immersing ourselves into the tiger who came for tea. You can now recall this whole story using our story map whilst using actions and enthusiasm in your voice. Do you think you can show your families what fantastic story re callers you are? We have completed lots of short burst writes to build upon our SPaG knowledge. Our first focus was being introduced to the conjunction 'and' so that you can extend your sentences to add more detail. You learnt that you can use and to join words and sentences together so you got to work by creating your own tiger sentences. These were fantastic and I was just so proud of how easy you grasped this concept! Towards the end of the week, we looked back on using the tricky -ed ending on verbs. This is something that we struggle with when writing independently but we will keep practicing it. You used your -ed knowledge to write nonsense sentences about what our tiger did yesterday. We had 'The fluffy tiger skipped to the mountain' and 'The stripy tiger pounced on the ant and gobbled him up.' These sentences were a pleasure to read and you have made all of your Y1 teachers smile and laugh with them.

In phonics this week, you have worked really hard in your smaller groups learning and recapping your sounds. We have had a huge focus on reading multi-syllabic words and you have done amazing at these. Your love of reading Y1 just shines through every single day. Thank you for working so hard at home when reading your stories too. It is a delight to read through your reading diaries.
From using tens and ones to represent numbers to using the crocodile symbols to compare numbers you have been true maths superstars! We are really grasping the understanding of numbers to 50 as we slowly build upon our knowledge each day. This week we started with the tricky concept of tens and ones to understand the amount of a number. This was tricky but by the end of the week you had mastered it through lots of practice and short bust games. You are now able to confidently show me how many tens and ones are in a number to 50. By the end of the week, we were comparing and ordering numbers and you just worked so hard!
In our afternoon learning you have been artists, scientists, seamstresses and superheroes. You must be exhausted!

This week it has been science week and we have turned our focus onto outer space to celebrate the achievements of N.A.S.A successfully landing the rover onto mars. When thinking about space this week it has blown our minds. You were introduced to the learning of the rover through our picture news worship and we were amazed at all of the fantastic and clear pictures of our 'red planet'. On Tuesday, we went outside to watch a weather balloon inflate and lift off. This weather balloon can float up all the way to the atmosphere whilst carrying a thermometer and a camera so that we can record the temperature and look at pictures of the atmosphere. We all had the chance to hold the balloon whilst battling against the strong winds. We didn't realise how heavy and big it would be! To build upon this learning, we had a letter sent to Y1 from N.A.S.A themselves. We trembled with excitement and listened very carefully to what the letter had to say. The letter informed Y1 that they had to design a rocket that would go to mars in the future. The children were so excited to get started! We watched a video of a rocket take off in America and then learnt about the different parts of a rocket. You then used all of this learning to design your own rocket that could blast off to outer space. To finish our science week, we completed a science experiment where we watched our own rockets blast off! We learnt that fizzy tablets like berocca create a chemical change when mixed into the water where carbon dioxide is produced. In our experiment, we learnt that it was rather difficult to get our rockets to blast off but we found out that the more tablets you use the more of a chance you have of your rocket blasting! What great science skills you learnt this week Y1.

In art this week, you have been busy mixing colours together. You learnt about warm and cool colours and how this can change how we feel when we look at a piece of artwork. You then worked hard in the garden during your independent learning time to build on your mixing skills that you learnt last term to mix your primary colours together to create your secondary colours whilst using food colouring. You loved this activity and it will definitely be one we will do again. We finished our art this week by looking at how we can make a colour light (tints) by adding white to another colour. To make a colour darker (shades) you then had to mix black to the colour. This will help us when we create our final piece of art next week in the style of Henri Rousseau.

In D&T this week we received a letter from Chester Zoo asking for our help! First, we explored different types of puppets. We then discussed what was similar and different about the puppets. You were introduced to the running stitch, which was very tricky! However, I was very impressed with your enthusiasm and how quickly you grasped our new sewing skill. You should be very proud of yourselves! Well done Y1. We will build upon this further by designing and creating our hand puppets next week.

In RE this week we explored different symbols which enabled us to think about how important the cross is in the Christian faith. We enjoyed designing our own symbol for love and thought carefully about the Easter story. We were very impressed with your thoughtful responses and the depth of your answers. Well done Year 1!

We finished the week by dressing up as superheroes. All of your costumes were amazing and there was a buzz of excitement when we shared our costumes with our friends. Thank you to all of your kind and thoughtful families for all of your donations to comic relief.
It has been a super busy week and I hope you have loved it as much as I have.

Thank you for being superstars and working very hard.

See you all on Monday,

Miss Haynes