Year 1 w/b 31st January
Date: 3rd Feb 2022 @ 4:52pm
In English this week we have continued to look closely at the letter written by Hermelin to Mrs Mattison. We have answered comprehension questions to develop these skills and to highlight our understanding of the text. We have boxed up the letter into the three sections and looked at the language/layout features. Finally at the end of the week we started to plan our own letters written by Hermelin to someone else on Offley Street – why not ask us at home who we will be writing to.
In maths this week we have looked at subtraction using counting back on a number line or in our heads. We then moved to learning new strategies to add two numbers when the answer the crosses ten. We looked at how we can partition the number we are adding get to the next nearest ten then add the rest. An example of this would be: 7 + 5 = __ we know 7 + 3 = 10 so we could do this first then add the rest of 5 which would be 10 + 2 = 12 we know is the same as 7 + 5 = 12. We first looked at this concept using two tens frames as it was very easy to visualise moving counters over to make ten and then add the rest. It was a little harder when using a number line as we had to remember to partition the number to get to ten rather that to just count on in ones. This was a tricky concept as we are now very good at counting on in ones to add numbers but it is a new skill that will support our maths as we move through the school.
In phonics we have focussed on wh (whisk whisk), ph (take a photo) and ir (whirl and twirl). Thes sounds will be reflected in next week’s spellings.
In Collective worship this week our journey through the Bible has taken us to the book of Samuel. We heard how Samuels’ mother had dedicated her son’s life to God and how he learned about God through the priest Eli. Yet, one day God spoke directly to Samuel as he slept. God had recognised Samuel had many wonderful qualities and chose him to be a prophet, the voice of God on earth. Samuel listened to God, and we thought about how and who we listen to in our lives. Do we ever really stop and listen carefully to our parents, teachers, friends, and peers? What stops us listening and how can we get better at listening? In addition, we explored Chinese New Year discovering Chinese traditions at New Year at home and with the wider community. This learning was developed in forest school where we enjoyed creating a Chinese dragon dance before we created our own dragons by folding card in specific ways. Adding details to our dragons involved careful cutting and sticking.
We completed our learning in RE on the Kingdom of God by creating our own tree of values that we considered where vital if the Kingdom of God on earth was to grow. Many of the children’s suggested values reflected those that underpin our school belief to ‘Love God, love Learning, Love one another.’
Our new Design Technology unit started today and involved the children identifying a range of fruit and vegetables that may be tempting to a mouse like Hermelin. Food was classified into groups by identifying whether or not it had seeds inside/outside or not. We had a few surprises! Several children were amazed to discover that cucumbers, tomatoes, avocados, and peppers were in fact fruits even though they did not taste as sweet as other more well-known fruits.
In Geography we found out more about Phil and Fairview Farm. This week we looked at navigating our way around the farm using a compass. We could give directions to different parts of the farm using North, South, East and West as directional language descriptions.
PE continues to build our ball skills/invasion game understanding. There are some great action shots below showing our targeted throwing of the balls to aim at a target. This was very fun and increased our accuracy and control of the ball.
Forest school this week included learning around the Chinese New Year 2022 celebrations of the year of the tiger. We came in from the wind to also create artwork centred around the celebrations.
In music we have pulled together our learning from the past two weeks about pulse and different percussion instruments to create a story board of music. We read the story of the Elves and the Shoemaker and considered how the pulse of the music may alter at different points depending on how exciting or worrying the sections might feel. By the end of the session all children were able to perform using musical instruments alongside the story being read.
Finally, in HeartSmart we watched a clip from ‘Monsters University’ (Disney/Pixar, 2013) where the ‘scarers’ enter the ‘Toxicity Challenge’. One team believes they have won but they have forgotten that they need to bring their whole team over the line (i.e. they were not working together). We then entered a discussion about what happened and came to the conclusion that being HeartSmart means working well as a team, considering all members. There is no “I” in team!
As you can see it has been another busy week in Year One and we would like to thank you again for your support from home, especially for those children who were accessing learning from home this week.
Mrs Pulle and Mrs Lindersen
