Year 1 weekly news 13.01.23

Our first full week back has been full of lots of different learning opportunities. You have worked hard and I continue to be so amazed by your hard work and determination.

In English, we kept track of our lost penguin. We set up cameras around school to see if we could catch any sightings. We saw him in the toilets, hall, corridors and we even found out Mr Dale, Mrs Parker and Miss McCurrie have all seen our penguin! We couldn't believe it. We have been learning about our penguin through the story of lost and found. You have wrote questions to ask the penguin. You have continued to use the conjunction 'and' in sentences to join words and sentences together to describe the penguin. You have also used a 'role on the wall activity' to describe what the penguin looks like and how he feels throughout the story. On Friday, you boxed up your story so that on Monday you could start changing the story by adding new characters and settings.

In phonics, you have all been attending your new phonics groups with your new phonics teachers. You have been working really hard to start learning your set 3 sounds and reviewing set 1 and 2. You are building upon your pace so that you can be fast readers. We have also been completing our afternoon phonics sessions too.

In maths, you have been continuing to learn how to add numbers within 20. This week our main focus has been adding numbers within 20 whilst making 10 first. We found this quite difficult at first but by the end of the week you were starting to do it independently. I have set your homework on this so that you can consolidate your learning further.

In our afternoon learning we have been super busy bees.

In geography, we finished our topic off from last term by answering the question what is it like in our local area? You thought carefully about your journey from school to church back in the Autumn term. We spoke about what we could see on our journey. You then matched up pictures of our journey to places on a map of Wybunbury. We then sang a song about our journey in the tune of 'this old man'.

In art, we continued to finish our big art off so that we could display all of our work in the classroom. You worked hard to build your animal on a 3D form using tissue paper.

In RE, you were introduced to our big question of the term which was 'Why is the cross important to Christians?'. Our focus question for the lesson was 'Where can you see the cross in the Christian religion?' To start our lesson off the children looked at some different crosses on the carpet. We thought about why the symbol was important and how some of the crosses are different. The children realised that sometimes crosses are empty or some of them have Jesus on. We then went on a hunt around school to see where we display the Christian cross. We found lots of different crosses and we realised that most crosses are made out of wood and some are made out of metal. You then finished your lesson by learning about where we may find a cross in our community e.g. church, monument, hot cross buns.

Arms, legs, ears, brain...yes you've guessed it! In science, we are learning about the human body. This week, you focused on naming different body parts. You learnt lots of different names but also what these body parts do. You were surprised by some of our facts. Did you know that we have lots of hairs in our nose to trap dirt and dust? You did a matching up activity on your table where you had to label the different body parts. You also thought about how our bodies are not all the same because we have been made differently from each other.

In computing, you completed your E safety lesson on the importance of putting our devices down when adults tell us to. We learnt the pause, breathe and finish up routine so that we knew what to do when we were feeling frustrated when we get told to turn off our devices. We acted out lots of different scenarios in front of the class where we can use our 'pause, breathe and finish up routine'.

We had a very busy music lesson this week. We all had the chance to play our new Boomwhackers using our new beaters! This was so exciting! We chose our favourite note and explained why we liked it. We then sang and danced along to Boom Chicka Boom. Using the call and response technique, we got right into the song!

In my happy mind, you were introduced to the character 'appreciate'. We learnt about what the word 'appreciate' and 'gratitude' means. We thought carefully about who we are thankful for and wrote these people in our journals. We were told that appreciation isn't just for objects e.g. toys but you can appreciate yourself, others and experiences.

Homework for this week was emailed out on Friday to parents.

Wow, what a busy week we have had. We have filled our week with so much learning and different experiences.

I hope you have a restful weekend and I will see you on Monday.

Miss Haynes