Year 1 weekly newsletter 2.12.22

We have become very festive in Y1 this week and we are now onto our Christmas countdown.

In English this week, you made me the proudest teacher ever as you all completed fantastic independent writers. Our work on Mrs Armitage's wheels came to a close as you planned and wrote your very own Mrs Armitage stories. This time she had more problems and wished for even more stuff to add to her car. We had radiators, fans, speed boats and other crazy but imaginative ideas. You thought carefully about your targets of writing narrative sentences, using -ing words and always remembering where your full stops go. Well I must say team you are fantastic writers and I have loved reading every single one of them.

In phonics this week you have continued to learn your new sounds and to read them in lots of different words. Your reading is becoming better and better each day. We are trying our best to become fluent readers and recognising lots of different words. This will help us towards our reading quiz at the end of the term to see if we are ready to move onto different sounds and books.

17,18,19,20. You have continued to build upon your learning around your numbers to 20. This week you have looked at comparing your numbers to 20 by looking at different amounts and objects to then just looking at the numbers. You have used your greater than, less than and equals to symbols to compare your numbers. You found this so easy and we're able to justify why a number was greater or less than. We then used these skills to order numbers from the greatest to the least. You looked carefully at your tens and ones to help you to do this. You also completed your arithmetic maths quiz and you showed me just how incredible you all are at maths. Once again, I was left feeling very proud.

In between all of our nativity practices and Christmas fun you have completed lots of different learning in your afternoon activities.

In DT, you found out that Mrs Armitage wanted a racing car so you got to work and started to plan your very own racing car. You used your learning of axles and wheels to think about how many you need for your car. You carefully thought about your colours that you want to use and if you have any extra features. On Friday you became an engineer and started to build your very own car. We will finish these off next week and I can't wait to see what they look like at the end.

In RE, you found out more information about Jesus through looking in detail at the part where the three wise men go to find baby Jesus. You learnt that the three wise men were going to deliver three important gifts because Jesus was going to become the new king. You found out that a star led the three kings to Jesus and that the star revealed that a new king had been born. You also found out that King Herod was not happy because he didn't want someone else to take his role. You wrote some fantastic questions that you would like to to ask the three wise men in your books.

In computing, you completed an unplugged activity and learnt the code for forward. You then created your own algorithm codes using your transport and the code of forward.

In my happy mind, you finished this term's learning on celebration by thinking about character strengths. You celebrated your own different characters strengths and those of others. It was nice to hear what you thought other people were good at. We will continue to look out for these character strengths and celebrate them.

We were lucky enough to work with year 5 this week in music. They helped us to learn about body percussion and how best we could create sounds. In groups, we created rhythms and performed these to the other groups. We were so excited to join in with year 5 and their Young Voices' dance moves! We followed the onscreen moves and had lots of fun in the process! I must say Year 1, I was so proud to see a lovely email off Miss Holland to say how hard you had worked with Year 5 and that we achieved a whole class guardian angel. Well done superstars!

Over the week, you have taken part in lots of worships. Your favourite was when you looked at the first candle of advent and how this symbolises hope. You learnt that hope helps to guide us through our sad days. In your reflections you thought about how you could help someone who was feeling sad. You said you would 'draw them a picture, play with them, hug them and make them laugh'. I think you would cheer everyone up on their sad days.

You have worked so hard this week and deserve a very restful weekend. No maths homework has been set this week so that you can have time to complete your topic board homework.

Have the best weekend Year 1.

See you on Monday,

Miss Haynes