Year 1 News: 6.10.23

We are fully immersed in the swing of things now in Year 1. This week has seen us become photo editors, scientists, and Harvest celebrators...

In Phonics this week, we reviewed all of our sounds and even practiced reading some tricky red words. We read a range of RWI books to improve our blending and fluency.

In English, we continued to use the story of Old Bear to fuel our ideas in writing. We were met with a strange message on Monday from Tin Dog. He is still stuck in the attic! We wrote down ideas about how he was feeling, created a missing toy poster, and, of course, continued with our sentence accuracy throughout the week. We also spent time looking at our Year 1 spellings and even practiced a few of them!

In Maths, we started a new unit on addition within 10. We focused a lot this week on the part-whole model. We used practical resources to help us understand this, as well as completing many Power Maths questions. We thought about number bonds and also used our rekenreks to help us develop a more solid understanding of the number 5.

In R.E., we continued our unit all about Harvest. This week saw us start our Questful Map. We reviewed our learning and answered questions about our favorite foods and reflected on how we ourselves had helped to share the message of Harvest. On Monday, we invited parents and carers to join us in Messy Church. It was brilliant to see everyone enjoying the Harvest crafts and discussing the messages of generosity and thankfulness.

In Science, we continued to explore materials. We focused on properties this week and learned some new vocabulary, such as transparent, opaque, and waterproof. We then went on a huge materials hunt around the school. We got hands-on with a range of materials and discussed their properties too. Well done, team!

In P.E., we continued to build upon our fundamental movements. This week saw us focus on jumping and balancing. We played a Jack in the Beanstalk-style game. We had to hop from one end of the hall to the other using foot mats. We had to freeze in certain positions to work on our balances. Well done!

In Computing, we continued with our investigation of "What is Technology?" We learned all about the word 'upload' this week. We were able to upload a picture using the paintz.app website. We then built on our skills of adding text, color, and shapes to this image.

In Music, we explored shapes! We thoroughly enjoyed this song! We already knew some shape names, but we learned that a pentagon has 5 sides and an octagon has 8 sides! We danced and sang along to the song and drew the shapes in the air with our fingers.

In Heartsmart, we thought about how others can make us feel. We took part in a game of guess who and drew our favorite people in the classroom. We listed their qualities too.

In Geography, we continued to focus on our local area. We looked at sketch maps this week and tried to use different maps of our classroom to spot mistakes. Well done!

Throughout the week, we also had lots of provision time. During this time, we enjoyed the garden, explored the provision areas in the classroom, and played some role-play games with our friends. It was great to see the construction and mud kitchen areas in full use once again.

What a brilliant week!

Enjoy your Sunday,

Mr. Dale