Year 1 w/b 16th October 2023
Date: 20th Oct 2023 @ 4:14pm
In English this week we have written our own innovations based on our instructions of ‘How to trap a toy soldier,’ the children were very inventive with their ideas of how they could trap their toys. Following on from our work writing instructions there was great excitement on Thursday when the children practiced the skill of following instructions to make jam sandwiches! They all listened carefully and successfully made their sandwich; I’m sure a skill they could show you over the holidays.
We have been assessing the children’s reading progress this week and are pleased by the increase in the number of sounds the children can recall on sight and read in words. When a word is phonetically plausible, we encourage the children to identify the special friends (2/ 3 letters that make one sound), Fred the word, reading all the sounds in it e.g., b-l-ow and then read the word (blending the sounds). The red tricky words are looked at regularly so the children can read these on sight speedily. In this way the fluency and pace of reading is increased.
Phonics this week has been either ar (start the car), or (shut the door) or i-e (nice smile). We have also been practicing speedy reading of our common exception words (red words) to help when reading our books.
In maths, the children have continued looking at the part-whole model. We had spotted that the children found this most challenging when the whole came at the front of the number sentence, so we have spent time exploring moving the numbers and symbols around in a number sentence. For example, 3+2=5, 2+3=5, 5=2+3 and 5=3+2. We then moved on to look at number bonds, the children used their knowledge of the part, part whole model to demonstrate their understanding of making numbers up to 10. We are encouraging rapid recall of these number bonds and encouraging the children to work out all the different solutions working in a systematic way.
In Science, we have concluded our learning around deciduous and evergreen trees by looking back at what we already knew about trees at the beginning of September and thinking about all the extra facts we now know, there was a lot to add.
In History this week we looked at space travel. We thought about how people travel to space and watched footage of the first moon landing. The children dressed up as astronauts and re-enacted walking on the moon, we had to walk really slowly in our space boots!
In Collective worship, we have focused on pumpkins of prayer, praise and peace in preparation for today’s finale. We have been amazed by all the effort and creativity that have produced such wonderful carved pumpkins reflecting these words. As the school gathered it was an incredible spectacle to observe the pumpkin lit messages. Year One really enjoyed taking part in an activity back in class to create their own prayers, creating our own ‘prayer tree’.
Our work in PSHE focused on Harold's School rules. Harold, our healthy and happy giraffe friend told us all about the rules on his School Council. We agreed that rules help to keep us safe and we thought about the rules in our school which reflect our values :
- Respect
- Compassion
- Hope
- Wisdom
Next, we explored Harold's school rules, but we did not agree with all of them. We all thought you should be allowed to eat at playtime and talk in the dinner hall at lunchtime. We loved the rule to be kind, to look after property and to walk in corridors. Finally, we had suggestions about rules that could be added to Harold's School Council rules:
- Always care for everybody in your school.
- Always try your best.
- Look after your school community.
- Respect one another and listen to others.
Our final lesson in gymnastics recapped shapes and balances before we learned how to perform a bunny hop with hands first then feet. We used hoops first to practise placing our hands inside and jumping our feet in too. Our confidence grew quickly and by the end of the lesson we could all perform bunny hops and add them into a sequence with a partner or partners. We moved with control and smoothly in and out of balances, shapes and jumps. There were some great starts and finishes to our sequences too and you will see these in some of the photos attached to this blog.
Forest school was again great fun as we made traps for chatty soldiers. There were some great ideas and lovely teamwork observed by Mrs Lindersen.
Finally, can we take this opportunity to say a huge well done to Year One for all your hard work and enthusiasm this term. We hope whatever you do this half term will be enjoyable and be a lovely break from the routines of school. We look forward to welcoming everyone back after the holidays, rested and keen to learn new topics, skills, and experiences.
Take care,
The Year One Team
