Year 1 News 12.9.25

Happy Friday Team!

In our English lessons, we have been carefully following the rules and reading the story Dragons Don't Share very slowly--just one page a day. We have loved looking closely at the pages and meeting new characters through notes and letters. We discovered that Ruby has a special Dragon Rule Book with three important rules she always follows:

1. Dragons must be scary.

2. Dragons must steal lots of treasure.
3. Dragons must NEVER share their treasure with ANYONE.

We have written lists of Ruby's treasure and even helped her by making signs to keep others out of her den, so she can stick to her rules. We have also written to Pegasus to give her advice on how to get her golden apples back, and we think Frog and Goose might be able to help. To add to the fun, we created WANTED posters to find Ruby after she stole the Frog Prince's crown! Lots of us have also enjoyed making Ruby's den, designing posters, or retelling the story during our continuous provision time.

In our maths lessons, we have been continuing to explore numbers and place value to 10. We have used Numicon to build number lines, spot missing numbers, and work out one more and one less. When finding the missing numbers, we thought carefully about "flat tops" and "odd tops" to help us. We also had a fun challenge where we had to work out the number Miss Willis was thinking of by listening to the clues and using the sentences "is more than" and "is less than" to support our understanding. We have compared sets of objects using the words "more than," "fewer than," "the most," and "the fewest."

In our RE lesson, we started by thinking about how we can help others during Harvest. We explored lots of different types of food and talked about how some foods are the same but can have different flavours. We tasted apples from different places, including some from our very own school orchard, which was very exciting! We noticed that each apple had its own flavour. We also looked at the labels on the food we had brought in to find out where it came from. Some of our food was local and home-grown (thank you!), while other food had travelled from countries all over the world. We placed this food on a world map, finding out which continent each country belonged to. We even looked at food made in the United Kingdom but originally from around the world. To finish, we spent some time sharing and thinking about our favourite foods.

In our HeartSmart lesson, we started by thinking about what it means to "get HeartSmart." We talked about power and where it comes from before going on a power hunt around the classroom. We even listened to the song "I've Got the Power" and sang along with lots of energy! Miss Willis then shared the Bible verse John 3:16: "For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son. God gave his Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life." We discussed how we are actually the most important power sources in the room because we have the power to make someone else's day better. We suggested different ways we could use our power to help others and make them feel good, but also thought carefully about how power could be used in unkind ways to hurt someone or make them feel bad. Being HeartSmart is all about recognising the power we have and choosing to use it well.

In our Geography lesson, we began by recapping what we had learned previously and looking at the atlas. We talked about where the story Poles Apart began and thought about who lived where. We reminded ourselves of the seven continents before looking more closely at the North and South Poles. We discussed the differences between the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica and sorted facts into columns under each heading. We discovered that the Arctic is an ocean, which makes it warmer than Antarctica, because the sea absorbs heat, while Antarctica is land. Finally, we identified which hemisphere each place is in.

In our PE lesson, we started with a fun warm-up game of Traffic Lights. We moved around the space, remembering that red meant stop, amber meant change direction, and green meant go (or speed up!). We had lots of fun dodging each other as we moved. After that, we played Spider's Web, where we had to pass the ball around our group in different ways--throwing, kicking, and rolling--to create a web shape in the middle. We finished the lesson with an exciting game of Duck, Duck, Goose, which had everyone laughing and running with lots of energy.

In our Music lesson, we listened to a new song called "Hey You." We answered questions about the song and then explored the pulse in different ways, including moving our bodies to the beat. We also had the chance to learn the lyrics and practise singing together. Everyone loved joining in, and it was great fun!

In our Computing lesson, we began by talking about technology before focusing on computers and laptops. We spent time getting to know the different parts of a computer and learning how to turn them on. We also practised using the trackpad or mouse by playing a game where we had to drag and drop the different parts of a puzzle.

In our Art lesson, we continued learning about sculptures and reminded ourselves that a sculpture has to be 3D. There were lots of different resources on the tables, and Miss Willis explained that we would have time to create our very own sculptures. We followed the prompts on each table to guide our designs. It was really interesting to see what everyone made, as we all had the same resources but different prompts, which led to some very creative and unique sculptures.

In our Science lesson, we started learning about the seasons, focusing on Autumn since we have just entered this season. We talked about which months belong to each season, the typical Autumn weather, and the activities we enjoy during this time. We explored how plants are affected in Autumn and went out onto the field to observe the trees. We drew the trees as they looked, thinking carefully about the colours we would use to show it was Autumn and noticing how the leaves had turned brown.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Miss Willis