Year 1 News 3.10.25

Happy Friday Team!

This week in English lessons, we started with lots of toys, both old and new, in our classroom. We spent time looking at the new items and making predictions about what we thought our story might be about. After listening to an extract from the story, we discussed what we thought would happen next and worked out which character was which. We have role-played different parts of the story and written sentences about how the characters might be feeling. We also focused on sentence accuracy, thinking carefully about when to use capital letters and how to form plurals. We explored adding -s or -es to words and wrote our own sentences using plurals.

In Maths this week, we began our work on addition and subtraction within 10. We started by exploring number bonds for numbers 1-10. Using a greedy cup that "ate" counters, we worked out how many had been eaten each time. We were introduced to the addition symbol (+) and learnt that it means combining numbers together. We also learnt about the equals symbol (=) and discovered that it shows balance. We enjoyed watching Numberblocks: Fruit Salad to help us with our learning. We explored part-whole models, understanding that whole = part + part, and then turned them around to write them as part + part = whole.

In RE this week, we recapped how a harvest could fail and discussed what people might do to help those affected. We looked into the work of Christian Aid and researched how they support people whose harvests have failed. We thought about different ways people can put their faith into action, such as teaching new farming techniques, sharing food, and providing clean water and drinks.

In PE this week, we focused on using different levels of speed when running and practised moving in, out, over, under, and through equipment. We began by exploring different ways of moving around the equipment and learnt the best techniques for jumping. We also talked about tracking and played a very competitive game of Domes and Dishes. Through this, we learnt that it is okay to win and okay not to win, and we spent time saying "well done" to each other either way. We also practised scanning for space while catching balls from the children on the outside of the group.

In Art this week, we looked back at our plans and collected the resources we needed to begin our work. We started by drawing the main shapes of our medals and carefully cutting them out. We discussed how there should be no cardboard left on show and spent time adding our chosen resources to decorate the medals. We are very excited to see what they will look like once they are finished!

In Science this week, we continued learning about materials, focusing on their properties. We talked about what the word properties means and then explored different materials, thinking about how we could describe them. We played a fun game with a feely bag, where one person described the properties of a hidden material and the rest of the class had to guess what it was. We are looking forward to having a go at this next week!

In Geography, we practised recognising the seven continents before sharing lots of information about Antarctica. We learnt that people don't live permanently on Antarctica. Instead, they choose to stay there for short periods of time to carry out research or enjoy adventurous holidays. Our new vocabulary this week included human features and physical features. We began by describing these features in Wybunbury, and then completed a sorting task using a variety of features from Antarctica.

Our Heartsmart learning gave us the opportunity to reflect on who we are grateful for. We shared lots of reasons why we feel grateful and thought about how expressing this can make our hearts -- and other people's hearts -- feel happier and stronger. This links to our quote: "Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God." -- Philippians 1:3

This week in music, we watched our favourite tempo video. We love watching the hare and the tortoise race! Focusing on the syllables in our names, we stood in a circle, clapped and sang the syllables in our names. We sent this clockwise, and anti-clockwise around the circle. We had to decrease the time it took us each time.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Miss Willis