Year 1 Weekly News: 8.12.23

What a brilliant week we've all had in Year 1!

In Phonics this week, we recapped 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 explore our Rapunzel story. We reread our story but were interrupted by a strange letter from Rapunzel. She had written us a set of instructions on how to catch a troll. We used this to spot lots of imperative (bossy) verbs. We will be writing our own set of instructions on how to catch a witch as we head into Christmas!

In Maths, we spent time this week completing our maths assessments. We worked hard to complete two quizzes. We demonstrated our amazing knowledge and understanding throughout. Well done, team!

In P.E, the weather ensured that we would spend our lesson inside. We made the most of it by completing a number of reaction games and partook in some fantastic yoga.

In our well-being time, we thought about what we miss most and our favorite time of year. It was great to take a moment to chat with everyone and see your amazing pictures.

This week in our music lesson, we practiced our Kindness song. We did amazingly well! Our actions were brilliant, and our singing was just fantastic! We can't wait for our performance!

In History, we completed our final lesson on the history of toys. We made some fantastic posters that demonstrated our knowledge. From this, we were able to answer our big question on how toys have changed over time. We completed a big class mind map to illustrate our knowledge.

In Art this week, we continued to build upon our knowledge of sculptures. We continued to think about the best materials and how these could be used for artwork.

In DT, we continued to focus on our topic of wheels and axles. We built prototype cars using pegs and cotton reels. We raced them and evaluated what worked well and what we could improve next time. From this, we labeled a range of wheels, chassis, and axles to demonstrate our understanding. We then completed a super fun STEM lesson whereby we only had certain materials to create a simple car. On Thursday, we got busy thinking about our final car designs. We started by designing and painting the wheels. What a fantastic week of learning!

In Heartsmart, we thought about the story of Boris and how telling lies can lead us to feel upset. We thought about how the impact of lying can hurt our own hearts and the hearts of others.

We watched and joined in with the next part of our BBC Philharmonic Orchestra video. We used our new hand tambourine bells to add to the music. We discovered that playing our instrument with the bells downwards was quieter than when playing with the bells facing upwards. We also joined in with the robot song we sang and danced to a few weeks ago. We haven't lost our moves!

In Computing, we completed our digital painting unit. We used the app Paintz to create sunflowers using the spray paint can. We then spent the rest of the lesson completing our own designs using all the tools we have learned over the last few weeks.

In R.E, we continued to think about creation. This week saw us compare creation stories between Christianity and Hinduism. We learned all about the key differences and similarities. It was fascinating to understand that different religions share many of the same beliefs but how differences are also apparent.

We also practiced our Nativity throughout the week. Well done, team!

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 enjoyed 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 weekend,

Mr. Dale