Year 1 News 9.5.25

Happy Friday Team!

In our English lessons, we have been busy writing the Octopus Opening of our stories, where we introduced our main characters and described the mysterious, scary place they are not allowed to visit. We carefully edited our openings to make them the best they could be. Next, we planned our Build-Up Bears, thinking about how our characters might travel to the frightening location, how the weather might change along the way, and what strange or exciting events might happen during the journey. After writing up all our ideas we edited this part to improve the description and flow. We've also started to work on the Problem Penguin, where the real trouble begins--and our stories are starting to sound very interesting!

In our Math lessons, we completed our end-of-unit check on capacity and mass, showing what we had learned. Then, we began a new unit on multiplication and division. We started by counting in 2s, noticing that only even numbers are said when we count this way. We also counted in 10s, learning that all the numbers end in zero and are always even. When we counted in 5s, we discovered something exciting--some numbers appear in more than one pattern! We noticed that numbers overlap when we count in 10s and 2s, and again when we count in 10s and 5s. We really enjoyed spotting these patterns!

In our RE lesson, we read Puddles and the Christening Splash! and talked about what happens during a Baptism. We learned that holy water is used and that Godparents make special promises to help guide the child in following God's footsteps. We discovered that people can be baptised at any age, and that even Jesus was not baptised as a child, but chose to be baptised as an adult. We read the story of Jesus' Baptism in the River Jordan from Matthew 3:13-16, Mark 1:9-13, and Luke 3:21-23. We then explored different artists' interpretations of this event, discussing what we noticed in each image. Inspired by these, we spent time creating our own interpretations of Jesus' Baptism through art.

In our Science lesson, we checked on the seeds we planted and were excited to see that everyone's plants had started to grow! We filled in our plant diaries, noticing that some of the plants already had long roots and lots of leaves. We then looked more closely at the different parts of a plant and learned what each one does. We found out that the leaves use sunlight to make food, and Miss Willis taught us a big word for this process--photosynthesis. The stem carries water and nutrients to the flowers, the roots help keep the plant stable and absorb water from the soil, the flowers and petals attract insects, and the fruit contains the seeds so more plants can grow. To help us remember, we drew our own plants and labelled all the different parts.

In our History lesson this week, we learned all about VE Day in honour of its 80th anniversary. We discovered that VE Day stands for Victory in Europe Day, which took place on 8th May 1945, marking the end of World War II in Europe. We explored how people celebrated at the time and found out that Winston Churchill, who was Prime Minister, and King George both gave speeches from the balcony of Buckingham Palace. To begin our own celebrations, we made red, white, and blue bunting for the classroom, decorating it with pictures of soldiers and planes. We had a fantastic time wearing our party clothes and enjoying a special picnic in the hall on VE Day.

In our PE lesson this week, we focused on improving our technique to increase the height and distance of our jumps. We explored different styles of jumping in fun and creative ways, including leaping, jumping, and hopping. We even held friendly competitions to see who could jump the furthest, which made measuring our partners' jumps exciting and motivating. To finish the session, we challenged ourselves with skipping ropes, testing our coordination by jumping while swinging the rope. Although many of us found it tricky, it was wonderful to see so much determination, perseverance, and resilience throughout the lesson.

In our Computing lesson, we explored the different tools available in Google Docs. We began by looking at the keyboard, focusing on the letters, numbers, space bar, enter, and backspace keys. We then practiced typing and learned how to edit our text using the toolbar at the top of the screen. We discovered how to add capital letters and how to make text bold, underlined, or italic--italic was a class favourite! Using these tools, we improved our "lost" posters, making them more eye-catching and effective in grabbing attention.

In our Art lesson, we continued exploring the theme of spirals by looking at how artists incorporate them into their work. We focused particularly on the traditional art of Kolam, created by women in front of their homes each morning in parts of India. We watched a video that explained how Kolam patterns are made and learned about the cultural significance behind them. As a class, we studied the different types of lines used and discussed the details we found interesting, including the colours and intricate designs. Inspired by this, we created our own Kolam artwork in our sketchbooks. Although we didn't use rice flour like in traditional Kolam, we still produced some beautiful and thoughtful designs.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Miss Willis