Year 1 news

Welcome back year 1. I have loved hearing about all of your adventures over half term. This week we have been super mathematicians, animal explorers and time travellers.

In English this week, we have started our new topic on recounts. You started your topic by doing a 'cold write' on the recount of our theme day. You then got hooked to our new topic with BREAKING NEWS that class two had been eaten by an anaconda. You couldn't believe it! We had lots of ideas about what happened and how to save them. We then learnt our new recount text which is based on our class book 'class two goes to the zoo'. Can you use the story map to read it to your families? We have been doing lots of short burst writes to help immerse ourselves into the text. You have written a list of all the animals class two saw, you have wrote questions to ask class two about their trip and you have drawn a map of their journey. We have also had a SPaG focus on words that end with 'ing' and 'ed'. We now understand that 'ing' words are written in the present and 'ed' words are used when we are writing in the past. You have amazed Mrs Van- Russelt and I with how well you are writing and how much it has changed since September. All of our work in English is going to help us to write our very own recount on our trip to Chester zoo (which we are all very excited about).

In maths we are still continuing our work on subtraction. You have found this difficult but have shown great resilience. We have been working hard on how we can use all the maths resources to help figure out an answer to a maths sum or word problem. We have looked at fact families and understood that from 3 numbers we can get 4 number sums. You have understood that when we add the biggest number is the answer and when we subtract the biggest number goes through. This week we will be moving onto place value to 50.

In science we are looking at different animal classes. We learnt the 5 groups of vertebrates: mammals, reptiles, fish, birds and amphibians. We learnt that the structure of animals helps to define what group they are in. We started by sorting out different animals into two groups. Some of you grouped the animals into: Our favourite and not favourite animals, animals that live in the zoo and animals that are pets and then some of you grouped it into animals that live in water and animals that live on land. We focused on mammals and fish. You were shocked to find out that dolphins and whales are mammals and are not fish! We found out that mammals are warm blooded, have hair and breathe using their lungs. We found out that fish are cold blooded, have scales and lay eggs. You then re-sorted the pictures out into mammals and fish. This knowledge is really going to help us when we go to Chester zoo and look at all of the different animals.

In Geography, you have looked at animals that live in cold and hot countries. You then matched an animal to a country of where it comes from. You found out that polar bears live in the Arctic and penguins live in Antarctica and that they would never meet if it wasn't for zoos. You also looked at recording and creating a weather chart to see what the weather is like at this time of year in Wybunbury. We will then compare this to a hot country!

In history, we learnt about timelines. We started by learning about what timelines are used for and why we use them. We understood that they are linked to recounts because it is in chronological order. You created your own timelines of your lives in your groups. We then learnt more about George Mottershead and the history of Chester zoo. We then created a timeline on the order of how Chester zoo came about. We found out that George opened up a zoological garden in Shavington which was a family business, then he bought Oakfield house which then became a home to Mary the chimpanzee, Pelly the pelican and many other animals. We are hoping that we can pass Oakfield house when we are at Chester zoo to see where it had all started.

In music with Betty bear, you have been singing a Chester zoo song. 'We went to Chester zoo, we went there to explore'...We haven't stopped singing this all week and we are excited about seeing all of the animals that we have sung about! We are hoping to bring Betty bear if the weather is warm enough for her.

In R.E we finished our topic on the 'kingdom of God'. We found out that our sunflower that we grew at the start of the topic has started to shoot out of the ground. We understood that this is the same as God's kingdom because with love, care and attention they can grow. You worked really hard to answer questions which made us think further into the story of the 'mustard seed'. You thought of how small actions can grow into better things which can bring about change. We looked at how people want to reduce the use of plastic to save the environment and how someone has stopped plastic bags being free in shops. We understood that this was a small action that has spread to the whole of the country which will then help our planet.
In mindfulness Monday we focused on telling jokes to each other to bring joy to other people. Our favourite joke was 'Why did the old lady put wheels on her rocking chair? Because she wanted to rock and roll.' We were all in barrels of laughter. We have been continuing to go out for the daily mile and challenge ourselves to beat our last term laps.
What a busy week it's been. Next week is going to be even busier and better! I am very excited to be taking you all to Chester zoo this Tuesday. I have sent an email about some more details of the day.

Have a lovely weekend superstars.
See you on Monday,
Miss Haynes