Year 1 Weekly News 21.11.25

Happy Friday Team!

In our English lessons, we have been finishing our Old Bear stories and planning our own Elephant Ending. We imagined the toys flying up to the attic in the plane and discovering a lost toy waiting to be found. We are taking our time writing our Elephant Ending, carefully editing our work and making it the best it can be. Everyone has really enjoyed creating and writing their own stories.

In our math lessons, we have been exploring different types of word problems, including first, then and now problems, and finding the missing number. We have also begun learning about subtraction, looking closely at the subtraction symbol and discussing how the answer becomes smaller than the number we started with. To help us understand, we sang the “Five Current Buns” song, and as we sang, we practised writing the matching number sentences. We then moved on to taking away more than one and used the current buns to help us work out the answers.

In our Monday PE session, we continued learning about netball and began by recapping the best ways to throw and catch the ball, focusing on making a strong W shape with our hands. We also learned how stepping forward with one foot can give us more power behind the ball. After practising these skills, we spent some time playing line ball, working on finding space and getting in front of other players to receive a pass. With Coach Beth, we continued developing our kicking skills, and we also took part in a healthy living club, which was great fun.

In our RE lesson, we learned more about Jesus’ childhood and talked about how his life was different from ours today. We discussed the place where Jesus lived in Israel, the Holy Land and looked at pictures of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Galilee, and Nazareth to see what these places are like now. We also thought about what Jesus might enjoy if he were living in our world today, and then shared what we would most like to see from Jesus’ world. Many of us especially liked the idea of riding a donkey to school! To finish, we spent time sorting images into “now” and “past” to help us understand how life has changed over time.

This week, we had the special treat of a Forest School session. We began by looking at different types of structures and discussing how to make sure they were stable and sturdy. Working with partners, we designed and created a structure for Spike the Hedgehog, using sticks and clay to build the bases and roofs. We then took our creations outside and added more sticks and leaves to make the shelters cosy and comfortable for hedgehogs. We ended our Forest School session gathered around the firepit, toasting marshmallows. It was great fun, and we can’t wait to return for more Forest School sessions in the new year.

In our computing lesson, we learned about the artist Henri Matisse. We looked at his picture and discovered that he was born in 1869 and died in 1954. We found out that in his later years, when he became ill, Matisse created beautiful collages using cut-up pieces of coloured paper. We discussed how we thought he made his artwork and looked closely at the shapes and colours he used. We talked about how these shapes might have been created and how we could make similar shapes on our devices. Afterwards, we used the Paintzapp app on the iPads to try recreating Matisse’s artwork ourselves.

In our history lesson, we explored the question “What toys did children play with in the past?” We looked at toys such as marbles, skipping ropes, wooden yo-yos, spinning tops, snakes and ladders, and slingshots. We talked about whether we recognised these toys, if we had used them before, and what materials they were made from. We learned that many old toys were handmade, often from wood, and that some toys from Victorian times were very different from today’s—for example, children once made footballs from a pig’s bladder! To finish, we sorted a range of toys into groups: toys we play with now, toys our parents played with, and toys our grandparents played with in the past.

In music this week, we worked really hard practising our Nativity songs. We remembered many of the actions and sounded fantastic. We also had our first full run-through of the Nativity, and we’re getting much more confident with our songs and starting to learn where we need to be on stage. We’re all working so hard and can’t wait for our adults to come and watch the show!

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

Miss Willis