Happy half term Y1! 21.10.22

We've made it to half term Year 1! What a fantastic start to our school year we've had. It's been lovely to see how well you have settled into our rhythms and routines over the weeks.

In English this week, you created an information text all about the terrific train. You used our shared class piece on 'All about the naughty bus' to help you learn the layout of an information text and the difference between fiction and non-fiction. You built on your knowledge of information texts by learning about headings, subheadings and facts. You wrote about the appearance of a steam train, where a steam train may take you and you even found out an interesting fact about your steam train to use at the end. Did you know that the first trains were pulled by horses? What amazing writers you all are.

In phonics this week, you revisited or learnt your set 2 special friends ay, ee, igh, ow, oo, ar, air, or, ou, ir and oy . You are now focusing on retaining these sounds and reading them in different words. You have all been assessed in your phonics this week and you may find that you have a new colour book because you have gone up a level. I was so proud of all of your amazing reading during the assessment. Well done Year One!

In maths this week, you finished your unit of addition within 10. You learnt to add two parts to find the whole, finding a part by completing missing numbers sums, learning your number bonds to 10 and even solving word problems. You definitely showed me that you were ready to move onto our next topic after half term which will be on subtraction.

In RE, this week you finished your RE topic on God by writing and drawing about what you have learnt from the creation story. You thought about who God is and what he created. You had lovely ideas like 'God is the creator. He made the world so that we have a home.' and 'God made the animals so humans could have friends'. You have definitely learnt a lot and I was so pleased with all of the learning you remembered.

In heart smart this week, we focused on our feelings and emotions. We discussed what these were and where we might feel them. We also discussed about how our emotions can change very fast and we don't feel the same emotion for the whole day. We had looked at a range of emotions discussed what they were, how we might show that emotion on our face and when there has been a time we have felt that emotion. We then played an emotion bingo which we all loved! A good person has good things saved up in his heart. And so he brings good things out of his heart. But an evil person has evil things saved up in his heart. So he brings out bad things. A person speaks the things that are in his heart. Luke 6:45

In my happy mind this week, you came to the end of the topic 'meet my brain' and you recapped all of your learning over this term. You all remembered team H-A-P and what it stands for. We still need some practice remembering what all of these parts of our brain help us with. You remembered neuroplasticity and how if you keep practicing at something it will soon come very natural to you e.g. riding a bike, swimming. We then thought about what happens when our team H-A-P don't work together and that we need to do some happy breathing to help wake our team up again. You then completed some work in your journals where you drew a picture of when you would use happy breathing. We have found that happy breathing is a useful thing to do everyday in our classroom and we tend to do it after playtime so that we can calm our brains down again and wake up our hippocampus and pre-frontal cortex so they are ready to learn.

How have train changed over time? This has been our big question throughout our history topic. You came back to this question in our history lesson this week and answered it beautifully. You shared all of your ideas as one big class and I am so pleased with your knowledge and understanding of George Stephenson's influence to trains, how the Grand Junction Railway had a huge impact on Crewe and the positive and negative impacts the railway have had on people and places. You even know how trains have been powered from trains that were pulled by horses to trains now that are powered by electricity.

Also in history, we celebrated black history month by learning all about Rosa Parks. You role played getting onto a bus where only blonde hair children could go onto and then on a bus where blonde haired children could go at the front but brown haired children could only go at the back and had to give their seats up if the bus was full. You learnt that this is called segregation. You then role played getting onto a bus where everyone was allowed on and had free choice of where they would like to sit, you were told this was called integration and inclusive. We then read a story about Rosa Parks and you thought about what a brave and incredible woman she was. We thought about how we can be like Rosa Parks and how we can stand up for inequality.

In art, you used your designs of your clay tile to create it and paint it. You all designed a flower on your clay tile to fit in with our theme of canal art. You rolled, pinched and pressed your clay together to create a beautiful tile. You then used your knowledge of primary and secondary colours to paint your tiles in bright and bold colours just like the canal art that we have seen in photographs. We remembered that canal art is bright because people wanted their boats to stand out because they weren't being used after the introduction of railway. You are all so pleased with your clay tiles and so you should be! It was so lovely to hear how proud you were after learning a new skill.

For our final music lesson of this half-term, we took part in a music quiz! This was very exciting! We had to listen to: different languages, long and short notes, a variety of instruments, high and low sounds as well as counting notes! Even after doing our quiz, we still found the energy to clap to the beat to, not one, but two songs!

Our forest school sessions came to an end this week and although you are sad that they are over, you are so grateful for all of the fun you have had. This week, you learnt about how the seasonal change of Autumn can have an impact on animals. You learnt that some animals like squirrels forage for food and hide it under the ground so they can still eat during winter. You learnt that some birds migrate to warmer countries. You learnt that deers use their fully grown antlers to fight to show which male is the strongest. You even found that some animals like hedgehogs will start to make their homes ready for hibernation in the winter. You started your learning off by playing a squirrel game where the girls had to hide lots of acorns around the forest school area and the boys had to go and find them. You then swapped roles. Afterwards, you created a hedgehog habitat in the forest school area using a whole range of natural resources. You learnt how these homes should be camouflaged and near a fence because hedgehogs only walk around fences and not across fields. You then finished your last forest school session with building on your fire skills and toasting your marshmallows. A huge thank you to Mr Hadfield for all of his hard work in helping you in forest school. I know you have all absolutely loved it!

You have all been a part of many worships this week. Your favourite was the Y6 worship which introduced us to their courageous advocacy of the blue cross. We enjoyed seeing all of their pets and listening to their beautiful singing of 'you've got a friend in me'. Well done Y6!

I hope you have a very restful half term Y1. There has been no homework set so you chill out and enjoy time with your families.

See you on Monday 31st October,

Miss Haynes