Year 1 w/b 12th September
Date: 15th Sep 2022 @ 6:02pm
Our work in English this week led us to discovering a picture of 2 soldiers under wooden floorboards and they were surrounded by some of the toys from the past we saw last week. We made a list of all the things we could see in the picture and used adjectives to describe them. After this we imagined the conversation between the soldiers and some of us even dressed as soldiers. Finally, we discovered that the pictures and toys belonged in a book called ‘Major Glad, Major Dizzy.’ Next week we are keen to read the text and discover more about the life of these toys from the past.
In phonics we have reviewed some of the teaching in reception and focused on ss, ff, qu and x. As in reception this is structured 20-minute lesson where we say the sound, read words with that sound in them, count the phonemes using’ Fred fingers’ and finally write the word before using focus words in dictated sentences. Spelling homework will be sent home on Tuesday and will give the children a chance to practise what they have been doing in phonics the previous week. Can homework be returned to school by Friday please.
Guided reading has started this week and thank you to all those parents that have commented, signed planners and listened to your child each day this week. Books will be changed on a Monday and Thursday every week, if your child has read their book, and reading diaries should be in school every day. The guided reading book will invariably be different to their individual home reader.
In Maths, we have started our work in our Power maths books and our first unit focuses on children’s ability to recognise, represent and manipulate numbers to 10. We have been practising and developing our ability to sort and group objects using different criteria, then counting groups of objects up to 10. Children will learn to recognise and count different representations of numbers to 10 and use a ten frame to help structure the counting and reasoning. As children become more confident with counting they will be introduced to the appropriate vocabulary of counting: the word ‘digit’ and the written names of each number. They will move on to counting backwards and recognising ‘one more’ as a number increasing and ‘one less’ as a number decreasing.
Our key question in RE is ‘Why is the idea of God the creator important to Christians?’ Before we started learning about God the creator, we collected our thoughts about who we think God is, where is God and what God does. Next, we thought about how we felt when we made something and we were all given playdough to create something wonderful. After making something special we considered how we would feel if this was destroyed. Finally, we talked about the Christian belief in God being the creator of the world. We went on a detective hunt finding things God created in the natural world. We then identified objects that were man- made. We thought God would also feel sad, angry, upset and shocked if he saw us not looking after the world he created.
Our learning in science focuses on plants and we started by making a record about we what we already know and choosing our class tree (an apple tree in the garden area) which we shall keep a diary of over the next 10 months to record seasonal changes. We also identified different types of tree in our school grounds and were introduced to the vocabulary evergreen and deciduous. If you are out and about over the weekend perhaps you could spot some different types of tree and where they drop their leaves in autumn or not.
Our work in history links closely with our key text ‘Major Glad, Major Dizzy’. This is a story about two toy soldiers hidden beneath the floor of a London house in 1870, during the reign of Queen Victoria. As years go by, the children who once owned the toys grow up and have children of their own, and unknown to Major Glad and Major Dizzy, all kinds of changes happen above their heads until, when they are finally rescued 140 years later, the world they knew is almost unrecognisable. Today we introduced our history of toys topic by talking about our current favourite toys and describing them. Fidget toys and poppits were very popular choices. Children then began to consider toys from the past by thinking about what toys their parents, grandparents and even great grandparents might have played with when they were five or six years old. It was lovely to hear that so many children had gone home and asked their grown-ups what their favourite toys had been.
So a pretty busy but most enjoyable week. We shall focus on art and design and PE in our blog next week. We have also been fortunate to have welcomed Miss Sowter into our class. She is a School Direct student who will be with us in Year One for the Autumn term and then again in the Summer term. She will be in school 2-3 days each week up to half term so will shall endeavour to introduce her to you at the beginning/ end of the day.
We are very pleased with the way in which the class have settled into Year 1 and we hope now that you can all enjoy an extended weekend and time to reflect on Queen Elizabeth’s duty , service, faith and responsibility. We look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday morning .
Mrs Pulle and Mrs Lindersen
