Year 1 weekly news

Well Y1, let's start our newsletter with our transport theme day on Friday. What a blast we had! As you all came in we shared our wonderful outfits with each other. We had the naughty bus, racing cars and lots of children dressed in the blue, red and white theme. We then completed a London/transport themed hunt. There were clues hidden all over the Y1 garden and classroom, we had to read the clue, answer it and then find the picture which would link to the answer. The hunt led us to a very special surprise which was our dragon, naughty bus and our elf that had gone missing. They had fallen in our trap that some of you had set up in the garden! We then got on to finishing our D&T project which was to create our own naughty bus with wheels and axles. These were amazing and even though at times it was difficult to fit the wheels and axles on you all showed great resilience. Once we finished our naughty bus we then raced them outside. We finished our morning playing lots of transport themed games. In the afternoon, we found out that when it's the queen's birthday or jubilee lots of people have tea parties. So, of course, we had to have our own tea party in the classroom! A huge thank you to all of your parents who had bought tasty treats for your tea party! After a few party games we settled down to watch our movie flushed away which was filmed in London. We looked closely to see which parts of London we could spot! What a fun-filled theme day you all had!

Back to our learning now...

On Monday we found out that our class elf had gone missing. We were ever so upset! We decided that we would create some instructions on how to catch an elf. You started by independently planning your own instructions using the skills and techniques that I had taught you. You worked closely with our text map to change different parts. Once planned, you set off independently to write your own instructions. These were absolutely amazing and you have made all of your teachers in Y1 ever so proud. We had instructions where you were digging pits and covering them with snowballs, candy canes, cookies, tinsel, fake Father Christmases. The list really does go on which shows the wonderful imagination that you all have. This piece of writing showed the true progression that you have made from the start of Y1 to the end of Autumn 2. Well done superstars! We finished our week with a SPAG lesson on writing 'ing' words where the root word does not change. We will build upon this learning next week.
In reading, you have been working super hard in retaining your sounds. I have completed some of your assessments this week, which help me to understand how you are progressing and what colour book you should be reading. These assessments were amazing and you are all becoming confident and accurate readers. Books were not changed on Friday because assessments had not been finished. Books will be sent out on Monday instead and the children will be given two books to read over Christmas.

In maths, the children have been working super hard on shapes. You are now very knowledgeable about your 2D and 3D shapes. You can name them and describe some of their properties. We had to stop our learning to complete a maths quiz. This was your first ever maths quiz but you were all fantastic. You showed me that you had all retained lots of your learning in this first term. I was one super proud teacher!

In our afternoons we have been super busy bees by finishing our learning off in some of our subject areas.

In D&T you planned and designed your own naughty bus with wheels and axles. You built upon this learning by creating your own naughty bus. We will then further build upon this learning by evaluating our creation on Monday.

In history you finished your topic off by focusing on our local area and why Crewe is famous in the history of transport. You learned that Crewe opened up a railway station so that we could link the cities Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and London together. You learned that in Crewe works they made lots of steam locomotives and we watched a video on this. You then learned that Crewe is also famous in the making of cars because of Rolls Royce which is now Bentley. Through our research, we even found out that the queen had received a Bentley from Crewe for her jubilee in 2002. You were amazed that somewhere so close to us is very significant in the changing of transportation.

In mindfulness, we looked at trees and how trees are on our planet for a very long time. We linked this to our science learning and discussed how deciduous trees lose their leaves each year and how our trees still never look sad even though they are bare. We decided to create our own tree decorations using pine cones. We painted them in red and green to give them a Christmas effect. We then hung them up on the trees in the orchard. This was to try and make the trees feel happier. We then came inside and joined in with a tree-themed meditation that helped us to stand tall whilst focusing on our breathing.

Have a wonderful weekend Y1 and I will see you on Monday morning,

Miss Haynes