Year One begins w/b 6.09.22
Date: 9th Sep 2022 @ 4:52pm
And Year 1 begins……
Well what a lovely start we have had to Year 1. We have seen a lot of enthusiasm, joy and an eagerness to learn and play and talk with friends. We have given the children some free choice time this week so we can observe how they play, listen and interact with each other. On top of this they have all completed some focused learning.
The children have written about their holidays giving us an insight into some of the lovely things they have been doing over the summer and we have had our hook lesson for our class text ‘Major Glad, Major Dizzy’ looking at a range of objects including an old bear, a darning needle, old coins, toy soldiers, a wooden ark, a torn piece of paper and marbles. We thought they belonged to someone a long time ago or perhaps they came from a museum. We agreed we must look after them and treat them all very carefully until we find out more.
We have also completed baseline reading assessments for each child and in light of these children ‘s book colour may be slightly altered as we revise and refresh children’s understanding and recall of set 2 phonics in particular. Reading diaries and new books will be sent home on Monday.
This week we introduced our new and exciting platform for maths learning at home: Numbots. Numbots is all about every child achieving the “triple win” of understanding, recall and fluency in mental addition and subtraction, so that they move from counting to calculating. Each child in our class has been given a username and password to access Numbots from home. You can find these in the back of their reading diaries. They have also selected their robot characters and chosen names for them. From this starting point they will be able to access the games and activities to support their learning. When accessing Numbots from home (play.numbots.com) they can select either to launch into ‘Story’ and ‘Challenge’ modes. For most effective practice we suggest playing for at least 3 minutes a day, 4 or 5 times a week at home. As they progress, they can collect achievement badges and unlock hundreds of new levels and challenges. In the Story Mode they will also discover parts, helping RustyBot upgrade from Rust to Diamond - so he can shine inside and out. Everyone was very excited to go home and have a go. We can’t wait to see how they get on. We have also completed some baseline number assessments to assess children’s number formation and recall of reading and writing number up to 20, especially focusing on teen numbers, as well as up to 100 where appropriate.
This half term we are working with MultiFlex to support our PE lessons. Our focus for the half term in on Dance where we will be focussing on the following:
- To listen to the music and begin to move in time to it
- To perform basic dance movements
- To perform dance movements showing some levels
- To perform basic dance travelling movements e.g. stepping, skipping, jumping
- To perform simple dance moves with some control
This week we looked at the importance of warming up and enjoyed completing our warm up to music. We then looked at the count of 8, clapping, nodding and bouncing to the beat of the music (to the count of 8). When dancing we looked at how confidence is very important so worked on moving in time with the music then striking confident, groovy poses. Finally, we introduced two dance moves the ‘step, slide, bounce’ and the ‘slide behind’ moves. We can’t wait to use these moves and our new dance confidence next week in PE.
In our first forest school session of the new year we reminded ourselves of the forest school rules and expectations before exploring the outdoor area. Mr Simmons explained that a large branch had been taken down from one of the oak trees during the summer holidays. We looked closely at the branch, the leaves and the acorns around it. We also noticed the animals that were living in and around the old branch. Mr Simmons then showed us how to whittle acorns to make faces. It was great to be back in our forest school area.
This week we have introduced the story of the Colour Monster. It is a fantastic sorry that unpicks and identifies common emotions that we all feel. One day, Colour Monster wakes up feeling very confused. His emotions are all over the place; he feels angry, happy, calm, sad, and scared all at once! We looked at each emotion and the times we have felt those feelings before drawing and writing about our own emotions. This starting point has introduced our Colour Monster display where, each morning, we can add our named pegs to share how we are feeling: angry, happy, calm, sad, scared, loved or perhaps a confused mix of many emotions just like the Colour Monster. We have also used resources from the British Red Cross to learn about risks, hazards and dangers. It has been fantastic to see the children so engaged with both areas of our PSHE learning this week.
Finally, we have come together as a school today to reflect on the life of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth 11. Her Christian faith was reflected throughout her reign, serving her country and God as Monarch for over 70 years. We explored how she demonstrated the values we hold dear at Brereton and how we can follow her example of compassion, respect and service. Back in the classroom we made dream catchers with red, white and blue wool on wooden crosses and wrote short messages about what the Queen meant to us.
We hope you will all now enjoy a lovely weekend and the photos are but a snapshot of our first 4 days together in Year One
Mrs Pulle and Mrs Lindersen
