Year 1 News 25.4.25

Happy Friday Team! What a lovely first week back we have had!

In our English lessons, we've started an exciting new story where the classroom transformed into a seaside filled with sea creatures! We made predictions about what might happen next, using clues like a mysterious lighthouse and a sailing boat. We've read the beginning of the story and were thrilled to meet the character Black Rock, but Miss Willis stopped reading and left us in suspense. To understand the story better, we imagined ourselves as Erin, thinking about what she could see, hear, smell, taste, and feel at different moments. We also explored adjectives and nouns to create interesting setting descriptions, using images from the book to inspire the best descriptive words.

In our Math lessons, we have started learning about capacity and mass. We used balance scales to explore the ideas of heavier and lighter, and discovered that mass is how much something weighs. We learned that if the balance scales are level or balanced, it means the objects are equal in mass. We had fun comparing the mass of different items and found different ways to measure and record mass accurately.

In our RE lesson, we began exploring our new big question: Why is Baptism special? We started by thinking about what it means to 'belong'. We talked about how we belong to friendship groups, clubs, and our school, and made a list of all the people and places we belong to. Each of us was given a jigsaw puzzle piece to draw ourselves on, and when we put them together, it showed that we all belong in Year 1. We discussed why being part of a group is important, how it makes us feel included and happy, and how it feels when we're left out.

In our Science lessons, we've started learning about plants. We began by looking at photographs of different plants and seeing if we could name them. We learned that plants are living things, but it got a bit trickier when we looked at seeds and bulbs and had to guess what they might grow into! We had fun making predictions and finding out if we were right. We also compared different plants, looking at their similarities and differences. Then we explored various seeds, talked about their properties, and planted them. We used three different types of seeds, and we're really excited to watch them grow and see what they turn into!

In our PE lesson, we started our Athletics unit with lots of fun games to get our bodies moving. We kicked things off with the bean game, where Coach Beth introduced us to new and silly bean characters that made us laugh. We played tag, trying to dodge each other, and had a go at racing, learning how to stand in our starting position with the opposite arm and leg forward. We finished with a relay race in teams and really enjoyed cheering on our teammates. We also began our Personal Challenges topic, where we'll play games to help us work together. This week's lesson was Minecraft-themed, and we had to complete different fun challenges inspired by the game!

In our Computing lesson, we started learning about 'Digital Writing'. We talked about the different ways we can write and discovered that we can also write using a computer. We learned that the keyboard is what we use to type and explored the different keys, especially the letter keys. We coloured in a keyboard, finding and colouring the letters in our names, remembering that we only needed to colour each letter once. Then, we had a go at typing our names on a Word document--some of us even remembered to use the space key to type our full names!

In Music this week, we learned a new word – improvisation! We found out that to improvise means to make something up on the spot. To help us understand, some of us pretended to be animals, using sounds to give clues while the rest of the class guessed which animal we were being--it took a few tries to figure out the turtle! After that, we worked in pairs to create short body percussion performances, using our bodies to make different sounds while making sure we mirrored each other's movements.

In Heartsmart this week, we thought about the Bible verse: "I praise you because you made me in an amazing and wonderful way" – Psalm 139:14. Miss Willis showed us some everyday objects and made us laugh by pretending to use them in silly ways, like using a banana as a phone! We then had fun thinking of our own funny uses for objects, like brushing hair with a fork, using a peg as a pointing finger, and wearing cups as hats. We ended the lesson by learning that while it's fun to pretend sometimes, we are at our very best when we are ourselves--just the way we were made to be.

In our History lesson, we started exploring how Wybunbury has changed since the 1970s. We began by talking about what comes to mind when someone mentions Wybunbury and listed all the places we know in the village today. Using a map, we drew what the different buildings look like in Wybunbury now. We had lots of fun noticing all the details, and we can't wait to compare them with how things looked in the past during next week's lesson!

In our Art lesson, we recapped on the artist we studied last term, focusing on Flora and Fauna. We then started exploring spirals, discussing how drawing can be a physical activity. We experimented with making different types of spirals, using a variety of resources to create our own unique designs. As we worked, we thought carefully about our choice of colours and how they would overlap, creating interesting patterns and effects in our spiral artwork.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Miss Willis