Year 1 w/b 7th March
Date: 10th Mar 2022 @ 4:19pm
This week we have really got into the swing of our topics and subjects for this half term. It has been lovely to see the hard work the children are putting into their learning. We had a school visit from the library bus to build on last week’s World Book Day celebrations. Some of the children from our class visited the bus to bring back even more books to support our love of reading and reading for pleasure in the classroom.
In English this week we have continued to look at our model text based on the story ‘There’s a Tiger in the Garden’. We have learnt the text using a text map and actions. This will help us when we come to innovating the text and we write our own search and return stories. We have analysed the text and looked at the language features used. After becoming very familiar with the model text we began to adapt the story by choosing our own main characters, selecting new creatures to be discovered in the garden and thinking of new locations to search in the garden. For the locations we had to think about using alliterations to add impact in our story telling a great example we had was the ‘shadowy shed’. On Friday we began writing our own search and return stories using our plans. This is a great point in the year to observe all the progress children have already made in their writing. We can’t wait to read the finished stories next week.
In phonics we have focused on are (care and share), are (bear with a pear) and air (that’s not fair) so spelling homework next week with reflect this focus.
In Maths we have continued to look at numbers within 50. In this unit of work, we have been representing numbers using tens and ones using base ten/dienes, tens frames and part whole models. This understanding of numbers has allowed us count in tens, compare up to 3-4 numbers by ordering or using <, > or = symbols and to count a number of objects with pictorial representations of 10 e.g. if there were 2 bags of sweets that contain 10 sweets each and 5 single sweets we could count 10 (first bag of sweets), 20 (second bag of sweets), then the individual sweets… 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. Finding and recognising numbers on a hundred square is a skill we are working on in school. Working on identifying individual numbers from 0-50 (and beyond) would be a great thing to also work on at home – Can you find 23 on the hundred square? What number comes after 45? Can you count on from 36?
This half term our PE unit of focusses on fundamental movement skills. This week it was fine motor skills. We warmed up for the session by playing electric cars where children moved around the room at different speeds depending on the gear the car was in with some added extra challenges such as reverse, roundabouts, traffic jams and speed bumps to contend with! After our warm up we played a game called ‘Rob the Dinosaur's eggs with pegs’ where children had to run and collect a dinosaur egg (bean bag) from the centre of the nest (hoop) using only a clothes peg as they couldn’t touch the eggs. This activity led into our main activities where children had to collect marshmallows with forks, jenga pieces with pegs and elastic bands on their fingers then stretched over paper cups. We had lots of fun with the activities and talked about the importance of working on even the small muscles in our bodies. These finger muscles are especially important for our super neat handwriting skills!
In History we continued to build on our introduction to homes from the past from last week. We looked at four key periods of time from the past and how houses have changed to reflect materials available and how we use our homes. We looked at stone houses from medieval times, black and white timber homes from the Tudor period, grand and symmetrical houses from the Georgian period and practical houses from the Victorian era.
In HeartSmart this week we all took part in a whole school assembly to introduce this half terms unit of work – don’t hold on to what is wrong. The message we took away from the assembly was that it is better to forgive and move on that to stay cross and hold on to our feelings of anger.
This week we looked closely at palm crosses. We read about Palm Sunday when they were waved as Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey. He was treated like a king as people shouted ‘Hosanna’ meaning ‘save us.’ We acted out the story throwing clothes on the floor and waving palm branches. We were shocked that less than a week later Jesus had been arrested and crucified. The palm crosses made us think about Jesus the king of the people but some people were jealous and did not believe he was the son of God and called for him to be crucified.
In Collective worship, the Ethos Council introduced to us the theme of Kindness. They helped us think about how we can follow Jesus’ example in showing kindness to others. Whether it’s small acts of kindness that brighten the lives of others or the bigger questions of how we can help those in real need, we know that a kinder world is a better world. Each class was given a Jar of kindness to be filled when kindness is shown to us and a Kindness post-box will be outside the hall so you can send messages of kindness to someone in school. Finally, we filled red hearts with the people in our lives that have shown us kindness.
Our science learning on Materials focused on naming different materials and describing their properties. The children were encouraged to sort the materials into different groups depending on these properties, for example, metal and not metal, soft or hard, flexible or rigid. The children chose different ways to record their results from tables to Venn diagrams.
Have a lovely weekend everyone and we look forward to seeing everyone on Monday.
The Year One team
Mrs Pulle, Mrs Lindersen, Mrs Millington, Mrs Oldham and Mrs Taylor
