Living and Learning: Mental health
Our recent Living and Learning focus has been all about mental health.
In Year 1, our learning has included:
- exploring and understanding different emotions
- identifying good and not so good feelings
- learning about ‘big’ feelings
This video introduced a variety of emotions. Emotions are feelings. They can change all the time. We all experience a whole range of emotions, from anger to happiness to fear.
We used clues to help us be emotion detectives. Looking at the character’s face as well as their body language helped us to decide which emotion the characters were showing.
We used these sentence starters to share when we might feel certain feelings to help us understand the reason for these emotions. As well as sharing this orally, we wrote some sentences too.
I feel excited when it is my birthday.
I feel happy when I go to the park.
I feel angry when someone doesn’t share with me.
We recognised that sometimes we might have a not so good feeling or a big feeling and we might need to talk about these emotions with someone we can trust – a friend or an adult at home or at school.
Self care techniques can also help us to look after our own mental health.
We were very proud of the children’s self care/wellbeing bingo homework and we hope they continue to make use of these techniques.
Staying hydrated…
Reading a good book…
Finally, further information about mental health can be found on the Public Health England (PHE) ‘Every Mind Matters’ website providing NHS-endorsed tips and advice to help children and young people’s mental wellbeing and equip parents and carers with knowledge to support them.
Year 1’s first half term
All the Year 1 staff are very proud of the all children in their first half term. They have adapted well to the new procedures and they have amazed us with how well they are taking responsibility with their learning and routines.
Also, it was great to catch up with so many parents at the online parent-teacher consultations last week.
From these conversations, here are a few reminders to share.
- If the children have read their reading book, they can change it by putting it in the book return box, at the cloakroom door, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
- Library is on Mondays and the children can take out a new book if they have returned their current book. It is helpful to keep their library book in their named folder if possible.
- It is great to see how well the children are engaging with Lexia at home. Some of the children are already reaching the end of the Year 1 learning (Level 5) and we would like these children not to progress any further at home as this will move onto Year 2 learning.
For next half term, here’s some information about the children’s learning.
- PE will continue to be on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We will aim to be outside where possible so please ensure your child wears their outdoor kit.
- As you will have seen, we’re excited to start our history topic all about the Great Fire of London.
- We have enjoyed our science learning about habitats and the environment and animals including humans is our next area of learning. There are some very knowledgeable scientists in the class! The BBC website is a great source of information that you could look at home.
- Our Living and Learning focus will continue to be on the theme of relationships. The children have made some great contributions in this learning.
- In maths, our focus will be on addition and subtraction. We’ve also been enjoying the BBC Super Movers videos in class as brain breaks.
- In phonics, we will soon have completed our revision of the Phase 3 sounds. Here are some phonics games you could try at home.
- Spellings will continue to be checked on a Friday and the children do see their spelling results after they have been marked. As this remains at school, please ask your child how they have got on.
- In writing, we continue to focus on what is a sentence. The four reminders we use in class are:
- Capital letter at the start
- Full stop at the end
- Finger spaces
- Does it make sense? Reread your sentence.
- We will continue to read a variety of fiction including poetry and non-fiction texts in class including our weekly fluency text. We read this daily to develop the children’s reading skills including using their phonics knowledge to help them read new words, understanding different vocabulary, taking account of punctuation and even starting to use some expression.
Thank you for all your support over this first half term and please do get in touch if you need any support with your child’s learning.
Own it – helping your child stay safe
Has your child got a mobile phone? There are lots of benefits to having a phone, but drawbacks, too. We strongly encourage you to make sure your child has the BBC Own It app installed. It can help to guide your child if they’re exposed to things that upset them, and it can even question the user if it seems like they’re about to send unkind or hurtful messages.
We have had a few issues in the past, and recently, around the use of WhatsApp and other social media platforms. As well as installing the Own It app, we also recommend that you are regularly checking your child’s phone.
If you have any concerns, please ask for support.
Book Wars Round Two
This week’s book club saw the highly anticipated return of Book Wars.
Daisy suggested a fantastic idea for our second battle: if you were suddenly sucked into your book, how badly or how well would your life now be going?
See if you can guess the book that the Y6 is speaking about!
“I’d be a criminal who’s dug their way into trouble. I’d have probably been stealing sweets!” – Leo
“I would be either a dog, wizard or item like a bone, scroll or camera. You’d probably never find me.” – Ethan
“I’d have a daemon and probably get taken by the Gobblers!” – Jemima
“I’d now be killing people but you’ve got to pay me the price!” – Hifza
“I’d be the heir to the throne of a kingdom but kidnapped twice! I’d be secretly looked after by witches and wizards.” – Emma
“Mine would be good and bad at the same time. I’m robbing a bank so I’m getting some good cash but I also might get arrested!” – Albie
“I was a normal schoolboy but now I’m a secret agent who faces many deadly organisations.” – Moh
Who do you think has got it best or worst in their new world?
History: London’s Burning
In Year One, we have started our history based learning all about The Great Fire of London – a significant event from the 17th century. 
Throughout this exciting topic, the children will discover how people lived in the past and the changes and consequences brought about following this catastrophic event. They will also continue to build on learning from the Foundation Stage, exploring changes in their own lives and the way of life of their family or others around them.
We began our lesson with two questions.
What is history?
What is the past?
Cavemen are history.
Dinosaurs lived a long time ago.
I think it is something old.
My dad was born in the past.
Next, we had great fun looking at (and trying on) some different costumes. The children were asked whether they thought the outfits were from the past or not. Also, we discussed whether they had ever seen each costume.
Below, we have a fashion show – new and old- presented by Year One!
We had some fantastic responses.
Reading Treasure Hunt
If you came down to the portacabin today, you’d be in for a big surprise…
See if you can spot anything unusual in the pictures below!
That’s right – we were doing a QR treasure hunt!
Our reading lesson today was all about our science learning: micro-organisms.
But you had to find the questions first!
Ask your child to explain how they were using retrieval reading skills today!
Science – classification systems
Y6 had to take on the role of scientist as they were given free reign on a classification key!
Take a look at some of these fab examples…
Challenge your child! Ask them why we use classification systems!
Living and learning – self care techniques
Today, we had a great class discussion about how to look after and be kind to yourself. Take a look…
Marvellous Music
Check out our interactive celebration of our music lessons!
Jess said, “We’re learning about how to play different chords and we’re starting to write our own songs!”
Rayn smiled, “I like how we’ve already learnt a few songs. I’ve been really enjoying music and it’s been a real challenge.”
“We’ve been learning about majors and minors. Majors are happy notes and minors are sort of sad notes,” explained Musa.
“We’ve also learnt about sharps and flats. Sharps are black keys and flats are white keys,” stated Priya.
Emma said, “The notes on a treble clef are A to G.”
Habitats
During this week’s science, we were learnt what a habitat is and named a variety of animals in their habitat.
