Author: Mrs Taylor

09 October 2020

This week, the spellings are based on phonemes we have been learning in our phonics lessons.

song

rain

tree

night

coat

tooth

The children will be tested on these words next Friday 16 October. When checking the spellings with your child, it is useful to put the word in a sentence so they understand its meaning. Look at the spelling activities guide on the website and in your child’s homework books for some ideas to practise these words. Making up silly sentences, using the words, would be a great way to practise spellings, handwriting and writing sentences!

02 October 2020

This week, the homework is Talk Time and should be completed by Thursday 08 October.

Are animals happy in zoos?

This is a moral question, based around our science learning about living things. which we’d like you to discuss at home with your child. During the discussion with your child, it’s important to appreciate that there may be two opposing views and that although it’s okay to disagree we should respect the opposing view.

Top Tips:

  • Turn the telly off!
  • Sit around the dining table!
  • Have a chat and share opinions and ideas!
  • Children should talk with family, friends and each other –maybe even using FaceTime or Skype.

There is no need to record anything in your child’s homework book from your discussions at home. The children will be able to share their views when we review the homework at the end of the week.

02 October 2020

This week, the spellings are based on some of the tricky words from our phonics revision.

I

no

the

to

go

into

The children will be tested on these words next Friday 09 October.

When checking the spellings with your child, it is useful to put the word in a sentence so they understand its meaning.

Look at the spelling activities guide (also in your child’s homework books) for some ideas to practise these words. Making up silly sentences, using the spelling words, would be a great way to practise spellings, handwriting (look out for the ascenders like in the letter h and the descenders like in the letter g) and writing sentences!

Year 1 learning

We have been very impressed with how Year 1 have started the school year even with all the new routines and procedures in place. Thank you for supporting your child at home especially with the fantastic homework we have received.

Here’s a summary of our learning so far.

In maths, we have been learning about numbers to 10 including counting, ordering, counting forwards/backwards and one more/less. Topmarks has some good maths based games to try at home.

We have also had a big emphasis on supporting the children with their number formation and presentation in their new maths books. We start our numbers at the top.

To help at home, count forwards and backwards with your child. Give your child a number (initially up to 20) and see if they can tell you the number one more/one less.

In reading, we have a weekly fluency text. Here is this week’s text.

In class, we read the text every day to develop the children’s fluency. This involves lots of teacher modelling of reading taking account of the  punctuation and using expression. On Friday, we answer questions about the text.

Remember, reading books can be changed on a Tuesday and Thursday. Thank you for your patience as the children learn this new routine. We visit the library on Mondays. The children have all had the chance to use Lexia at school. They are becoming quicker at logging on so any practice they can get at home will help with this.

To help at home, read with your child everyday. This can be their book from school or any other book or text you have at home. Asking questions about the text will help with their understanding.

In writing, our learning has been based around what makes a sentence.

  • Capital letter at the start
  • Full stop (or other punctuation) at the end
  • Finger spaces between words
  • Does it make sense?

Capital letters have been our initial focus – how we form them and when do we use them. See if your child can remember when we need to use a capital letter. These alphabet videos are a good reminder too.

Another aspect of english we are developing is the children’s oracy. A particular focus we are working on is answering in full sentences.

After carrying out some egg related experiments, we are now learning about living things in science.

Topic learning began with lots of learning about the text After the Fall and for the next three weeks, this will be based on Here we are by Oliver Jeffers.

Well done to all of Year 1 who are working so hard! Keep it up!

Living and Learning: 8Rs for learning

For the last two weeks, in our Living and Learning lessons, Year 1 have been getting to know the 8Rs for learning (responsible, risk taking, resilience, resourceful, ready, responsive, remember and reflect). These are eight characteristics to promote good learning behaviour and of course, these are referred to throughout the year across all subjects. The parent’s guide to the 8Rs can help to reinforce this at home.

The children were given different scenarios and they had to match them up to the correct 8R or complete the missing R in a sentence. Ask your child if they can remember the answers.

Saavi has her white board and pen on her table for phonics.

Evie changes her number 2 after Mrs Taylor asks her to check her numbers.

Nate puts his hand up to answer a question even though he is not sure if it is right.

Talha uses the hundred square to check his number formation.

Grace _______________ her spellings because she had been practising them at home.

Austen took __________________ for his belongings because he put them all back in his pencil case.

Erica was _______________ as she kept trying until she could write the letter y in handwriting.

Rico ________________ on his maths learning and tries to put one number in one box in his book.

Resilience has been one of the themes of the After the Fall book we have been learning about in our topic lessons. We thought about what messages we might send to Humpty Dumpty as he tried to climb back up the wall again.

Don’t look down.

Keep going up.

Always keep going.

You can do it.

Don’t give up.

We’ve got you.

Take a risk.

Be resilient.

We’ve been talking about the 8Rs across other lessons and here are some more examples of Year 1 using the 8Rs.

Being resourceful in maths

Being responsive by checking number formation

With such a great start to the year, we are sure Year 1 will continue to use the 8Rs across all areas of their learning.

 

 

 

 

25 September 2020

This week, the spellings are based on some of the sounds we have been recapping in phonics.

vet

chin

with

quick

Jack

wish

The children will be tested on these words next Friday 02 October.

When checking the spellings with your child, it is useful to put the word in a sentence so they understand its meaning.

Look at the spelling activities guide for some ideas to practise these words. The guide can also be found in your child’s homework book.

 

25 September 2020

The homework this week is Creative and is due on Thursday 01 October.

What is Autumn?

This week, our fluency text in class was the poem, Autumn is here. For homework, we would like the children to show what are the signs of Autumn.

Creative homework allows the children to choose how they want to present this. It could be:

  • Photos from a walk to show signs of autumn
  • A painting of an autumn scene
  • Artwork using a collection of autumnal natural objects
  • Counting using some leaves, conkers or acorns
  • Some sentences and pictures about an aspect of autumn (eg conkers, harvest, hedgehogs)
  • Cooking using some autumn ingredients (eg blackberries, apples)
  • Adding another verse to the poem, Autumn is here

Be as creative as you like!

As we are currently not returning homework to school, please send this to us by email (carolinetaylor@spherefederation.org and jackiefreeman@spherefederation.org).

Living and Learning: 8Rs for learning

For the start of this half-term, our Living and Learning focus is the ‘8 Rs for learning’. This is about promoting good learning behaviour for your child.

In class, the children will focus on different ‘Rs’. We use an animal to symbolise each ‘R’, which might help your child remember all eight – can your child remember which animal matches the correct ‘R’?

You can support your child at home – we’ve listed a few ideas to help you below. Ask us if you’ve any questions or comments.

Download top tips for promoting the 8Rs for good learning behaviour.

Risk taking

Talk about the difference between a safe and unsafe risk. At school, we want your child to take a safe risk by having a go at answering, even if unsure; trying something new and attempting harder learning.

Responsibility

Provide time and space at home so your child is able to organise themselves: their PE kit, reading book, homework, spellings and tables… Don’t organise everything for them!
Make a link between rights and responsibilities: your child has the right to a great education, but needs to be responsible for their own learning.

Responding

This could be responding to their teacher in class or responding to feedback in their learning.

Ready

Make sure your child is at school on time for a prompt start.
Make sure your child has had plenty of sleep so they are alert and ready to learn at all times.
Encourage your child to ask lots of questions – that shows they want to learn!

Resourceful

Encourage your child to be organised so they can play with a range of different toys.
Encourage your child to try new ways to solve a tricky problem.

Resilience

Encourage your child to keep going! Set a tricky challenge or puzzle for your child to do.
Encourage your child to think of different ways of doing things.
Don’t let your child win when they play a game – they need to experience losing, too!
Celebrate mistakes as opportunities to learn – be happy that your child found some learning hard and encourage them to ‘bounce back’ and learn from the experience.

Relate this ‘R’ to Humpty Dumpty and our current whole school topic, After the Fall.

Remember

Make sure they have time to learn spellings, number bonds and times tables – a little practice daily is best.
Play memory games:

Kim’s game: show them objects for 30 seconds… can they remember all the objects?
Can they build up the sequence, ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple’… ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple and a bike.’… ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple, a bike and a cucumber.’ etc … Take turns!

Reflect

Talk with your child about what they’ve learnt, asking questions about how they learnt, why they learnt it, when they’ll use their learning, how they would teach this to someone else, what learning might link with what they’ve learnt today…

This week, children will have the opportunity to not only reflect on their learning in general but also reflect on how the 8Rs supports their learning.

Of course, these characteristics are referred to throughout the year across all subjects to promote good learning behaviour.

18 September 2020

This week, we have been learning about capital letters – how to write them and when to use them. For this week’s spellings, we would like the children to practise writing the letters of the alphabet as capital letters. The children will be tested on a selection of the capital letters next Friday.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

To support your child with their letter formation, please refer to the letters below. We start these letters at the top.

18 September 2020

The homework this week is Practice Makes Perfect and due on Thursday 24 September.

I can write a sentence.

We’d like to know a little bit more about the children and what their interests are outside of school. If possible, it would be great if the children could tell us this in a sentence. They could also add other detail such as pictures or photos.

Don’t forget to check the following when writing a sentence.

  • Capital letter at the start
  • Full stop at the end
  • Finger spaces
  • Does it make sense?

Our handwriting guide shows the correct letter formation to support this writing. This can be found inside your child’s homework book.

As we are currently not returning homework to school, please send this to us by email (carolinetaylor@spherefederation.org and jackiefreeman@spherefederation.org).

Thank you for your support.