Year 1: Blog items
Date: 10th Jan 2023 @ 6:28pm
This week we have begun our art journey 'Flora and Fauna.'
We have looked at artists who use drawing as a way to capture the way plants and insects look, and artists who use their imagination to create their own versions of flora and fauna.
We have spent time engaging in observational drawing to build our drawing skils, alongside experimenting with new materials. We have also practised our cutting and collage skills to explore shape and colour to build images.
Finally we used these skills to create our own individual mini beast collages.
Date: 10th Jan 2023 @ 6:01pm
This week we have begun to read 'The Girl With Two Dads' by Mel Elliott. After discussing the key features of the book we then read and discussed the story.
'The two friends get to know each other and learn about each others lives'
'Pearl is surprised to find out her new friend has two dads, she doesn't know anyone else with two dads'
'Both girls learn that all families are different'
We sequenced the key events from the story and worked on retelling the story with a partner.
Date: 9th Jan 2023 @ 7:22pm
This half term in Maths we have begun by exploring numbers within 20. We have been talking about what we already know about these numbers and learning how to represent these numbers with Base 10. We have then recapped on prior learning to find one more and one less, numbers that are greater then/less than a given number and whether numbers are odd or even.
'Fourteen is 1 ten and 4 ones'
'Twenty is two tens'
'I know 11 is odd because it ends in a number 1. 1 cannot be shared equally between 2'
'15 is less than 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20'
Date: 9th Jan 2023 @ 7:19pm
Today we began to learn about Hinduism by thinking about our roles and the roles of others. We talked about people in the community – nurses, doctors, teachers, police, fire service, care workers, rubbish collectors, postmen/women etc, discussing how they are special and what would happen if we did not have these people. We learnt these people make a difference! They each play an important roe and do extraordinary things for people around them. We then looked more in-depth at police officers, discussing why this role includes special clothing and visual ways of showing people what this person’s role is.
‘Police officers wear a uniform so that people respect them’
‘’Their uniform helps people to know who they are and that they can trust them’
‘’Police people wear a uniform so that people can recognise them in a busy place’
Date: 13th Dec 2022 @ 7:09pm
Year 1 have been enjoying all the Christmas activities around school over the past few weeks! We had lots of fun on Christmas jumper day where we also enjoyed a delicious Christmas lunch!
Date: 13th Dec 2022 @ 7:03pm
Today we took part in the Now Press Play Christmas story. We played lots of different central figures including: the Angel Gabriel, Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, the innkeepers, shepherds and wise men. The experience took us through the main events of the story and the main places to understand that Jesus’ birth was – and is – important to many people.
‘The Angel Gabriel delivered very important news to Mary’
‘The wise men brought presents to Jesus to show respect and love’
‘Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem. It was a very long journey and they were tired. The donkey was tired too!’
Date: 13th Dec 2022 @ 6:59pm
Today we completed some RE art to show an important event in the story – when the three wise men travelled to see baby Jesus. We created silhouettes of the three wise men on their journey and used collage to create a colourful design for the wise men’s clothing. We ripped, scrunched, cut and twisted crepe paper to create our design. Some of us also created and used patterns within our design.
Date: 8th Dec 2022 @ 7:13pm
This week Year 1 have been very interested in the seasonal changes taking place. As the weather has got much colder we have enjoyed spending some time outside observing what is happening to the trees, making patterns in the frost and exploring ice!
Date: 8th Dec 2022 @ 6:34pm
Today we worked collaboratively to build and assemble a range of 3D shapes. We firstly looked for examples of 3D shapes within the classroom and identified the number of faces, edges and vertices of each shape. We then used this knowledge to create a range of 3D shapes out of different materials.
‘A cube has 6 faces’ ‘It has 12 edges and 8 vertices’
‘A cuboid has 6 faces – four rectangles and 2 squares’ ‘It has 8 vertices and 12 edges’
‘A pyramid has 5 faces – 4 triangles and 1 square’ ‘It has 5 vertices and 8 edges’
Reading into Writing so far this half-term...
Date: 8th Dec 2022 @ 12:14pm
Date: 5th Dec 2022 @ 7:04pm
This week we were lucky enough to visit St Mark’s Church. We met Reverend Matthew and told him everything that we have leant about Christianity so far. Reverend Matthew then read the nativity story to us and we all joined in with different parts. He taught us about the key messages in the story and the roles of different characters. We then learnt about the advent wreath and the symbolism of the different candles. Finally we looked around the church and asked and answered lots of questions about features of the church.
‘The pink candle on the wreath is for Mary’
‘The white candle is for Jesus and it is lit on Christmas Day’
‘The font is where Christians baptise a baby to welcome them into the Church family’
‘Matthew, Mark, Luke and Josh are the four gospels’
‘Christmas is about Jesus being born, not just presents!’
Year 1 Musical Listening and Composing
Date: 30th Nov 2022 @ 4:06pm
In Year 1 we have been doing lots of listening to different types of music. We used our new Musical Listening Mats to think about the tempo, pitch and how the music made us feel. We also started composing using Chrome Music Lab and understood that different patterns and marks represent different notes and sounds. We made our own ostinato patterns which repeat. We have been playing percussion instruments in time to the music and learning the names of other common instruments.
Year 1 Waterproof or Absorbent
Date: 25th Nov 2022 @ 7:27pm
Today we helped Ted solve an emergency! Firstly, we learnt two new key words, waterproof and absorbent.
‘Waterproof means it keeps out water’
‘Absorbent means it can soak up liquid’
We also discussed and found out about Charles Macintosh, who was best known for his invention of a method for making waterproof clothing.
‘He put the rubber and chemicals on fabric to make it waterproof’
We then used what we know about materials, their properties and our new vocabulary to solve Ted’s emergency. We discussed how we were going to make it a fair test, by using the same amount of water and the same amount of time. We then worked in small groups to complete our experiment. In these groups we made our predictions, before following our method.
Year 1 The Jolly Christmas Postman!
Date: 25th Nov 2022 @ 7:18pm
After reading our new text we received a letter from ‘The Jolly Postman!’
We used our phonics knowledge to decode the letter and to find out what he had to say! We also identified the address, the date, who the letter is to and who the letter is from. Over the next few days we will be reading a range of different letters, highlighting the key features and further developing our understanding of the purpose of letters.
Date: 20th Nov 2022 @ 6:52pm
During Anti-Bullying week, Year 1 explored different types of bullying. We read the story 'Carrot Club,' which reminded us not to judge others by their appearance and to think positively about healthy eating! We discussed what we thought bullying is and learnt the thorough definition. We then learnt about different types of bullying, including physical, verbal, cyber and indirect.
'Indirect bullying could be leaving people out of games'
'Cyber bullying is when people use messages to upset someone'
We discussed lots of examples together and then moved on to talking about what we could do in certain situations.
'You can tell your trusted adult'
'You can be kind to the person being bullied and help them not to feel alone'
Date: 16th Nov 2022 @ 7:40pm
Today we began to read, discuss and understand the Christmas story and the message behind the story. We read the story together, identifying the characters and key events witihin the story. We then independently ordered the story, using pictures/captions to support our learning.
Date: 16th Nov 2022 @ 7:10pm
We began our history topic with reading the story ‘Too Many Toys.’ We read and discussed the story, talking about other children’s favourite toys, before moving onto identifying our own favourite toys. We found out what Miss Kay’s and Mrs Websters favourite toy were and listened to the reasons why, before contributing our own thoughts and ideas. We became confident using the phrase ‘My favourite toy is ___ because ___’
'My favourite toy is Lightning McQueen because it has flames and can go fast'
'My favourite toy is a ukalele because it can make music'
'My favourite toy is Elsa because she has long blonde hair and ice powers'
Date: 3rd Nov 2022 @ 7:36pm
This week we began to explore the term part and whole. We worked practically to investigate how to identify a whole number and split it into different parts. We realised that we could split the whole number into two (or more) different parts and that these can be shown either way around, e.g. 3 and 4 make the same whole as 4 and 3. We have also continued to complete place value and number activities in our provision to support our knowledge of numbers!
Date: 3rd Nov 2022 @ 6:44pm
Today we enjoyed our first forest school session in Year 1! This week our learning was based around birds. We made birds nests, pretended to be birds to play a game collecting seeds and looked at pictures of birds eggs. Throughout the session, we also made two different types of bird feaders, created mud masterpieces in the mud kitchen and enjoyed having some time outdoors in the sunshine!
Date: 31st Oct 2022 @ 6:22pm
Today, we began the start of our new half term by enjoying a DT day!
Firstly, we looked at existing products to explore the different mechanisms and moving parts in a range of picture books. We talked about how the moving part moves, how it works and what effect it has.
We then began to make two prototypes, a lever and a slider. We linked each mechanism to a story to create a moving picture for each. We all talked through the safety points and watched our teachers make an example, reading through the instructions together and spotting where they went wrong! We then each had a turn to follow the instructions, read them carefully and make our two prototypes.
We verbally evaluated our desgins, talking about what had gone well and what we could improve next time.
Date: 19th Oct 2022 @ 8:25pm
This week in PSHE we have focused on understanding different ways to keep our body healthy, including hygiene. We discussed basic hygiene and why it is important. We then took part in the soap experiment. We orally followed instructions to complete the experiment to find out why soap works and why it is better than using just water to wash your hands!
Date: 18th Oct 2022 @ 7:34pm
This week Year 1 have been reading the story 'Funnybones.' We have focused on sentence structure by reading and ordering mixed up sentences. We re-read each sentence to ensure it made sense and had capital letters and full stops in the correct places. We have also been writing our own sentences about characters in the story. In our provision we have also completed lots of independent writing and reading tasks relating to the story.
Date: 15th Oct 2022 @ 6:58pm
This half term Year 1 have been learning all about our local area. As part of this learning we went on a local area walk around Grange Park. Prior to leaving school, we explored photos of past and present Grange Park and discussed what we thought we might see. Whilst on our walk, we observed different types of houses, spotted physical and human features and talked about the current changes taking place. We we're also lucky enough to visit @thegrange, where we we're shown around the gardens, read a book in the library and told all about what @thegrange has to offer.
Date: 10th Oct 2022 @ 7:23pm
This week we have enjoyed learning how to use Beebots! We began the day by learning some important new key words and their meaning. We then learnt about codes and instructions. We found out the importance of following instructions carefully and giving instructions in the correct order. Then it was our turn to create a code for our friends by ordering a set of instruction cards. We tried very hard to be robots and only follow the given instructions! In the afternoon, we we're then ready to put this learning into place to complete a number of Beebot activities. We explored the Beebot app, gave Beebots instructions to follow a maze and worked pracitcally to debug instructions.
Date: 10th Oct 2022 @ 7:11pm
In PE this half term we have explored jumping in a variety of different ways. We have learnt to work safelty within a defined space, bend out legs when landing and to drive our arms upwards. We have practised running skillfully to negotiate space within our warm ups and how to work effectively within a team. We have enjoyed learning these skills with Mr Williams and our class teachers.
