Caterpillars munching!
Our ‘very hungry’ caterpillars arrived this morning and we are looking forward to observing them grow and change over the next few weeks.
We read and retold the story, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and have been making caterpillar and butterfly art.
Maths
We are learning all about numbers from 11-20 and using a variety of resources to represent them.
We are also learning the days of the week and thinking about what happens on each day.
Phonics
This week’s phonemes are ur, oi and ear and the ‘tricky’ words are they and are.
Please can you make sure your child’s reading book is in their bag everyday as we will be changing and sending books on different days and more frequently this term.
We are encouraging the children to write independently using their phonic knowledge. Remember, it doesn’t matter about spelling every word correctly at this stage. It’s more important for children to ‘have a go’ and use their phonic knowledge.
Thank you for sending photos of the sunflowers-I’m so glad some survived!
www.moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
Basketball!
In P.E. this half term, Y3 have bounced their way into some new learning: Basketball.
We had glorious weather last week when practising our dribbling skills!
We practised bouncing whilst standing on the spot. Then, we started walking around whilst bouncing the basketball. After that, we practised using our body to shield the ball while bouncing. Finally, with a partner, we tried to keep possession of the basketball while our partners tried to tackle us!
Here are some pics of us in action!
PE in our new playground
Today, Year 1 had their first PE lesson in the new area at the back of the school. It was great to have so much space!
The children worked hard to develop their throwing and catching skills. To finish the session, the class worked with a partner to see if they could aim their throw and get the ball through a hoop.
Welcome back!
We hope you’ve all had a great break and enjoyed the sunshine!
The children have returned to school happy and ready to learn!
They enjoyed playing in our new playground, especially when the diggers arrived!
This half term we will continue with our ‘Growing’ topic and will have some caterpillars and chicks to observe in the classroom.
Phonics
We are continuing to recap the Phase 3 phonemes; ar, or, ow, ur, oi, ear, air, ure and er.
The tricky words for this phase are; he, she, we, me, be, was, are, they, you, all, her and my.
Maths
We will be learning about numbers to 20 and beyond. The children will know that teen numbers are made up of one ten and some more. They will practise counting on and back from different numbers and represent numbers using a variety of materials.
You can help your child at home to say, read, write and order teen numbers.
PE
Our PE days are Wednesday and Friday. Please can you label all items of clothing.
Writing
The children are really enjoying writing at the moment and it is nice to see so many choose to write independently. We are encouraging them to hold their pencil with the correct tripod grip. This will help them write more efficiently and comfortably.
Please refer to the school’s handwriting style which you can find on the website or ask us for a copy. It is far easier for children to adopt this handwriting style now as they begin to write than try to change it later. Encourage your child to write at home. They could write a shopping list, letters to friends and grandparents or write about what they have seen and done.
If you need advice or information on this please ask.
Please continue to let us know about those ‘wow’ moments.
moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
Welcome to the summer term.
Welcome back!
This term is set to be a very busy one indeed. Here is a quick overview of what will be going on in school.
Writing 
The children will continue with handwriting, grammar and sentence structure learning. Below are some of the age related expectations for the end of Year One.
- To start and end sentences using capital letters to start, use a full stop to end, or question mark /exclamation mark.
- To use a capital letter for ‘I’ and for everyday proper nouns.
- To separate words using (finger) spaces.
- To combine words to make a sentence.
- To write sentences with one ‘chunk’ of meaning.
- To say what I’m going to write and then compose a sentence orally before writing it.
Maths 
The class will continue with place value and counting work.
- Count within 100, forwards and backwards, starting from any number.
- Reason about the location of numbers to 20 and compare numbers.
- Develop fluency in addition and subtraction facts within 10.
- Count forwards and backwards in multiples of 2, 5 and 10.
Science 
The children will be investigating, observing and describing how seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants. They will find out and describe how plants need water, light and suitable temperature to grow and be healthy. Below is the specific vocabulary that will be used in our science lessons. Talk about these words at home. Does your child know any of them? Can you child tell you the definitions?
- seeds
- bulbs
- temperature
- growth
- survival
- healthy
- mature
- plants
Computing Topic 
The children will be learning about computer programming. They are going to discover what an algorithm is and what it needs to work effectively. We will be creating and debugging simple programs and will use logical reasoning to predict what will happen when an algorithm is executed.
In some of our lessons, we have regular ongoing online safety messages. These are usually prompts and reminders about the important of staying safe on and offline. Asking for a person’s consent is very important and this is something we regularly rehearse.
May I take your photo?
Yes, of course you can.
Would you mind if we show your learning to the whole class?
No, I really don’t want to share it.
As well as programming, the children will be having specific lessons about the following;
Age Restrictions
• I know that some online activities have age restrictions because they have content which is not appropriate.
Digital Content
• I am beginning to understand what a digital footprint is.
Misinformation, disinformation and hoaxes
• I know that I shouldn’t believe everything I see or read online.
Fake websites and scam emails
• I know that some websites have secure markings (eg padlock symbol next to URL) that makes them more trustworthy.
Password safety
• I know that passwords are important and that I should not share them. Personal data
• I know that I’m too young to share personal information (eg full name, address, school, age) online.
Persuasion
• I know that there are adverts online which, if clicked on, may take me away from the page I’m looking at.
Online vs. offline behaviours
• I know that people should treat others respectfully when they are online.
• I know what to do if someone is mean to me or someone else online.
Impact on quality of life
• I know that being online offers lots of positives but that
there needs to be a balance between time being spent on
and offline.
Below is the vocabulary that links to the computing topic.
| algorithm | program | debug |
| computer | password | personal information |
| appropriate |
As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or queries.
jackiefreeman@spherefederation.org
carolinetaylor@spherefederation.org
Tennis opportunities
Year 1 heroes
What a busy final day of the spring term.
For our ‘Not all heroes wear capes‘ day, we welcomed lots of NHS heroes, firefighters, police men, Leonora Cohen, Greta Thunberg, an astronaut, a footballer, Indira Gandhi (the first female prime minister of India) and Dr Andrew Pollard (the scientist who invented the AstraZeneca vaccine).
The children enjoyed sharing who they had dressed as and why they were a hero. If they gave their consent, a partner also took a photo of them.
This marked the end of our Heroes history topic. The children have shown a great understanding of what makes a hero, different heroes from the past (and present) and how they’ve made a difference to life today.
All the Year 1 staff would like to wish you a happy and healthy Easter break.
Science: plants
We’ve come to the end of the first of our plants topic and all the children planted seeds from the Innocent Big Grow project to grow at home. Keep us posted on how they grow.
We’ve had some vocabulary, and their definitions, to learn for this topic so we had a matching pairs quiz to check our final understanding.
Investigative science is also part of our learning in the shared area. Here the children can observe and sort a range of seeds. How are they different? How are they the same?
Our potato plants are starting to break through the soil. We observed them carefully.
They are growing.
They are starting to sprout.
The stems are getting taller.
Some leaves are starting to grow.
They are breaking through!
Living and Learning: making a democratic decision
It was a busy last day of the spring term. As well as our heroes day, another important event happened too – the Junior Leadership Team elections. This is the new name for our school council.
A huge well done to all the nineteen candidates from Year 1 who took a safe risk and spoke confidently in front of the class to say why they would make a good junior leader. Any one of the children would have done a great job.
Once the speeches were complete, we learnt about the voting process. All the children cast their vote and posted this in our ballot box.
Our current school councillors had an important job of taking our ballot box over to Mrs Weekes for counting. They have represented the class very well over the last year.
Once the votes had been counted, we heard it was very close and it was very tense as we waited to find out.
Finally, we heard that our new JLT members were Sophie and Charlie – well done to you both. We are confident they will represent the class well.
We want all our children to use their pupil voice to make suggestions for items to be discussed at JLT meetings so they are encouraged to use our Living and Learning box to let our new junior leaders know their views and ideas!
Happy Easter!
We have reached the end of this very strange term! The class have been amazing and we’ve been really impressed with how they have all returned to school.
This week we have been learning to skip and observing our sunflowers and beans grow. The sunshine has definitely helped.
The children will be taking their sunflower home. It would be great if you could send us photos of them as they grow. Ask your child to keep measuring them.
moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
Junior Leadership Elections
We were really impressed with all the children who prepared and presented their speech.
Well done to Aaniyah and Ralph who were elected to represent their class-I know they will do a good job.
Have a fantastic Easter break -hopefully the sun will come back!