Year 1 Blogs
w/b 5th May 2025
We have had a great week of learning in Year One.
In English we have continued to write more of our return narratives and wow… these are very impressive! It is great to see the children taking such care with their handwriting and presentation.
In phonics this week we have focused on the sounds u-e (huge brute) and ai (snail in the rain). Our how to help document will focus on reading longer words with air and are sounds.
In maths, we have finished our mass and volume topic and have started multiplication and division. We have been focusing on counting both forwards and backwards in 2s and 10s.
In DT this week we decided that the main construction materials we would use to create our model playgrounds would be: card/paper, straws, string and tape to join structures together. We spent time looking at the best ways to create different pieces of playground equipment before creating our playground designs.
In RE this week we explored the Islamic faith and how Muslims welcome a new child into the world. We had three wonder questions to explore in depth today:
- I wonder what words you think should be the first that a baby hears?
- I wonder what sweet tasting thing you would give to a baby?
- I wonder why names are so important?
We discussed this in depth as a class and then the children worked in groups to present their ideas to the rest of the class on their posters. The children had some interesting and lovely ideas.
On Thursday 8th May it was VE Day and we took part in a variety of activities to celebrate 80 years since the end of the Second World War. We enjoyed a lovely picnic on the field at lunch time, made our own VE day book marks and drew poppies.
On Thursday we were very fortunate to meet Mr Foster and his friends Lunangpoh, a Buddhist Monk, and Mae Chee, a Buddhist Nun. It was interesting to listen to how they live their lives in Thailand and how they believe that everybody should live in peace.
Thank you for coming to our learning exhibition on Tuesday! We really enjoyed sharing the wonderful things we have been learning already about this term.
The school photographer will be in next Friday 16th May, all the children need to wear full school uniform please.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the sunshine!
Miss Roxburgh
w/b 28th April 2025
We have enjoyed another busy week of learning in Year One and playing outside in the sun with our friends!
In English this week, we have started to plan and write our own return narratives based off the story ‘The Secret of Black Rock’ by Joe Todd-Stanton. We have focused on adding adjectives to describe the character and location and the suffixes -er and -est to our writing. These plans are looking fantastic so I am looking forward to seeing the writing process next week!
In phonics this week we have focused on i-e (nice smile) and o-e (phone home). As a reminder, to replace our look, write and check spelling homework we will be sending home real and nonsense words for your children to practice reading. This will be good practice for the phonics screening assessment starting the week commencing 9th June. Children will read some words on sight but for others please encourage them to recognise ‘Special friends, Fred talk and say the word’. This is the language we use in school so to reinforce it at home will be useful. Please revisit words/ special friends your child finds tricky throughout the week.
In maths this week we have come to the end of our mass and volume unit.
We have been focusing on the following:
- Making basic comparisons between different sized containers to see which has the greater capacity. We have been describing the volume in a container using phrases such as “empty”, “nearly empty”, “nearly full” and “full”.
- Comparing volumes using the language of “more than” and “less than”
- Measuring the capacity of different containers using non-standard units of measure. Children formalise their understanding that the capacity of a container is how much of something it can hold. This can be cups of water or sand, cubes or marbles and so on.
- Comparing more than two containers, putting them in either ascending or descending order of capacity
In DT this week, we used the knowledge we gained from our park visit last week to begin to look at construction equipment that we could use to make our playground equipment from. We looked at how to make strong shapes out of the construction equipment and thought about ways to join materials.
In history, we looked at how Florence Nightingale improved the conditions at the Scutari hospital. One of the ways that Florence improved the conditions was that she insisted that wounds were washed with a clean cloth and that the cloth must not be used for more than one soldier without being washed in between. We were interested to find out that Florence was nicknamed ‘the lady with the lamp’ because she would walk around the ward at night, caring for the soldiers.
In PE, we focused on performing a long jump with balance and control. We particularly enjoyed competing in a race to see which team could jump the furthest. What great fun we had!
In RE, we focused on the baptism of Jesus. We found out that Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist in the River Jordan.
In science, we learnt about vertebrates and invertebrates. Vertebrates are animals with a backbone, while invertebrates are animals without a backbone. Vertebrates include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, while invertebrates include a vast array of creatures like insects, spiders, worms, and jellyfish.
I hope you all enjoy the weekend!
Miss Roxburgh
