Year 1 weekly news 14.05.21

In year 1 we have had another jam-packed week filled with adventures to Kenya to see the animals in the savannah, celebrating mental health week in the outdoors and starting our new multiplication topic. If you would like to hear more about our superstar work keep reading...

Did you know a cheegull has sharp teeth to defend and fight? In English this week we have been writing our shared non-fiction text on the cheegull. You have worked so hard on trying to change certain parts of the shared text when you have been writing at your tables so that you can use your own amazing ideas. I am incredibly proud of the determination that you show towards your writing. We finished our writing and we were so proud of them we decided to write them up for our study work books. To build upon your learning, you will be writing your own independent non-fiction text on another animal next week.

In phonics, you have continued to make me proud by trying your hardest to retain the additional set three sounds and read them in words. To build upon your learning, you applied your phonics knowledge to read your phonics stories. We are still focusing on our reading speed to try and read as quickly as possible by segmenting and blending sounds in our head. Fluency is a key factor to understanding the story. I am so proud that we have another person in our class with a bronze badge and a lot of children are not far away from receiving it too. Keep reading those challenge books. Remember that you need a comment in your reading diary before you can get your point!

In maths, you finished your measuring capacity and weight topic by answering word problems. We found these questions rather challenging so we decided to work as a team and answer it practically as a whole class. We then finished our end of unit review quiz and I was so proud of how much knowledge, language and skills you have retained. We will keep practicing our measuring skills in our outdoor provision. At the end of the week, we moved onto our new topic of multiplication. We recapped our learning of counting in 2s,5s and 10s by playing 'fizz, pop, bang'. A game that is definitely a favourite in our year 1 classroom! We then moved onto learning about making equal groups and we did this very practically by using chalk on the playground. You used circles as your groups and dots for your objects. You then had to tell me how many groups you had and how many dots you had in each group. We only put 2,5 or 10 dots in each group so that we could use our counting skills to count how many dots you had altogether. Next week, you will build upon these skills by answering your power maths questions on equal groups.

Geography was very exciting this week as we had to pack a suitcase for our teddy bear 'Rose'. We found out that Rose was going on a trip to Kenya to do some research on the animals there. Rose didn't know what to pack in her suitcase but luckily she had the help of Y1. First, we looked at the weather forecast and found out that it was going to be a hot week in Kenya and we then decided what we would have to pack. You had amazing ideas such as: sun cream to protect Rose' skin and sun glasses to protect her eyes from the sun. In your books, you drew and labelled everything that Rose should pack. We then found some live webcams in Kenya and we were very excited when we saw African buffaloes, gazelles and elephants in the wild. Y1 wanted me to share the link with you so that they can watch the animals at home too: https://explore.org/livecams/africam/tembe-elephant-park . We continued to look at the weather forecast all week and we tracked Wybunbury's weather forecast so that we can compare it to Kenya and Antarctica next week.

Did you know amphibians have slimy skin and reptiles have dry scales? This week we have looked at the amphibian and reptile family. We looked at how each animal in the family is similar and what they all have or do. You then used this learning to choose two animals that are vertebrates and you compared them on their appearance and you then challenged yourself to say what is similar. I was amazed at your comparisons and how hard you have worked. You are definitely becoming animal experts!

During computing this week we independently finished creating our talking animal videos. We used our computing skills to take a photo of an animal picture, and then recorded ourselves saying our facts. We played back the sound to ensure we were happy with our recording before moving on. Next, we were able to edit our pictures and add text. Finally, we stored our video from chatterkid by saving them onto the ipad. We enjoyed sharing our videos at the end of the lesson and I was so proud of how confident you were to share your video. We will be storing these videos in your study work books using a QR code.

In history we created a timeline of all of the significant people we know so far from the past to the present. We were able to ask questions and discuss the pictures from the past. We also began our learning on George Mottershead. We learnt about the zoological gardens George Mottershead created in Shavington due to his love of animals. Can you believe this would have been so close to our school? It is a shame it isn't open now but next week you will learn about what he created next and it ay just be a place you have been to.

In RE we focused on bringing all of our learning about the Easter story together. We looked at different Easter objects and completed our writing on why the empty tomb was good news. We are definitely confident in our learning about how some Christians celebrate Easter.

This week in our HeartSmart lesson, our lesson was called Builders and Wreckers. We built a tower of kind and encouraging words. Each time we added a kind word, it helped the tower to grow. This in turn made us feel good in ourselves. When we thought about words that could upset us or someone else, the blocks in the tower became smaller and smaller and made us feel small and sad. We know we can talk to a grown up when we are upset by unkind words we may have said to us or someone we know. As a class, we decided we would prefer to be builders than wreckers!

In music, we learnt about our Musician of the Month – Annie Lennox. We enjoyed listening to the lyrics of one of her songs and we thought she had a really good voice. Our 'Your Imagination' song was our last part of today's lesson. We sang the song all of the way through. We then watched it back. We assessed ourselves. What went well? What didn't go well? How could we improve? These were the questions we spoke about as a class.

We finished the week with a wellbeing session to celebrate mental health week. In worship, we focused on the idea that everyone has a mental health and that it is important to keep it healthy by completing wellbeing activities. We thought about the activities we like to do to keep our minds healthy and active. A lot of you spoke about how you enjoy the outdoors and going on walks and exploring nature. We decided to finish our week by exploring our outdoor environment and taking our sketch books so we could draw what we could see. It was so lovely to see you all so calm, relaxed and in tune with nature.

There has been no school jam homework set as we have completed all of the ones for our current topic so you can use this time to finish any ones you haven't completed yet .Your next one will be set next week when we start our multiplication topic in our power maths books. Please remember to read every single day to build on your fluency and reading speed. This Friday coming will be our zoo theme day and I know we are all very excited.

It's been one very busy week filled with lots of learning opportunities so please relax this weekend and enjoy this time with your families.

See you on Monday morning,

Miss Haynes