Happy Holidays!
Everyone in Year One would like to wish all your families and children a very happy holiday! The children have worked really hard this term and have made some brilliant progress and produced some outstanding work! Well done Year 1!
In your children’s bag there is some sheets of paper to help with learning at home. There is their Numbots log in, in case you have misplaced it, so that the children practise their number facts. This really does help with their fluency in calculations.
There is also the tricky words we have been learning this term in phonics. Initially, the target is to read these fluently but if your child can do this the next target is to be able to spell them.
I have also included some of the new graphemes we have learnt this year with some example words. It is really important that children can read these automatically in order to become fluent readers. I have also encouraged the children to read their ebooks, their sharing books and any other books they can get their hands on over the holidays!
Finally, there is a table of all the number facts from 0+0 to 10+10. We learnt these in a specific order so that children build on their knowledge progressively and this order is shown at the side of the table.
Thank you for all your support and have a restful and relaxing break!
The Year 1 team.
Living and Learning: First Aid
This week in Living and Learning we learnt about first aid. First of all we thought of some of the illnesses or injuries that might need first aid. Then we discussed what first aid those injuries might need, from a cold compress to calling 999. Finally, we shared our ideas as to what you should say to comfort someone who is hurt or unwell. The children did a great job!
Computing – Beebots
During our Computing topic this half term we have been learning all about algorithms. These are sets of instructions and we can use them to program computers. We have practised writing our own algorithms as well as debugging (fixing) them.
So far, we have only written algorithms for games on pieces of paper so we can learn the process securely. This week we got out the Beebots and had a go at writing algorithms for it to follow. We tried to make the Beebot escape a maze, draw a square and move to our partner. We made sure to write down our algorithm first and then debug it if it went wrong. It was great fun!
Next week, we will create our own game and use the Beebot to play it! We can’t wait!
Science!
Over the last two weeks we have been learning all about microbes in our science lessons! We have learnt that there are three main types of microbe: virus, bacteria and fungi. Last week, we made our own microbe out of playdough and gave it a name. We had some wonderful models! Well done everyone!
This week, we conducted an experiment to show us how important it is to wash out hands with soap! We first dipped a cocktail stick in water and then in water with black pepper in it. The pepper stuck to the cocktail stick just like microbes stick to our skin. Finally we dipped the cocktail stick in the soapy water and all the pepper washed away! It was great fun.
NSPCC Speak out Stay safe
During our recent Staying Safe themed week, all pupils took part in the NSPCC Speak out Stay safe learning featuring Ant and Dec and Buddy.
We are proud to receive our certificate to recognise this.
Big Walk and Wheel
Get set… we’re taking part in Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel 2022 (the new name for Big Pedal), the UK’s largest inter-school cycling, walking, wheeling and scooting challenge. The challenge runs from 21 March to 1 April. It’s free and we would love everyone to be involved.
What do you need to do?
Encourage your child(ren) to walk, scoot or cycle to school on as many days as possible during the event. Park and stride (parking your car further away from school, for example, Marks and Spencer car park and walking, scooting or biking the final part of the journey) also counts.
Why we are taking part
As a happy and healthy school, Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel is a great way to build physical activity in children’s daily routine which is important for their physical health and mental wellbeing.
Active school runs also help to reduce congestion and air pollution outside the school gate. A 2021 YouGov study showed nearly half of UK children worry about air pollution near their school. Children thought active travel was the best away to bring down these pollution levels.
Plus there are some great prizes to be won every day if we get enough children taking part!
Useful resources
To help you prepare, Sustrans has developed a handy free guide packed with advice, games and challenges to help you have hassle-free cycle, walk or scoot to school.
Download your free family guide here.
World Book Day 2022
We had a fantastic day celebrating World Book Day by reading books, talking about our favourite authors and books and dressing up as characters from some of our favourite books.
After a morning of completing activities related to their favourite books, the children paired up across Year 1 and 2 to share their work. It was fantastic to see the collaboration, interaction and enthusiasm for books when the children worked together.
You can find more activities, videos, book recommendations and the brilliant World Book Day song on the World Book Day website.
Abbey House Museum
Year 1 had an incredible time at Abbey House Museum yesterday! The children behaved excellently and were very enthusiastic about all the artefacts they saw. We explored rooms of old toys and compared them to now. They were even some toys from when Mr McGriffiths was a child!
We also explored the Victorian street and went inside some of the shops. I wonder which shop was your favourite. We talked about how these shops were similar or different to shops today. We also had a workshop where we were able to handle and explore different objects from the past. It was so exciting but the soap smelt horrible!
Living and Learning – Staying safe week
We have had an amazing week learning all about staying safe. We had so many visitors teaching us to stay safe in lots of different situations! Thank you to Mrs Taylor for organising a brilliant week!
Monday
We learnt how to stay safe on the roads. Remember to ‘Think, Stop, Look, Listen.’
We also had a visitor from the dog’s trust who told us the 5 rules for staying safe around dogs. I wonder if your child can remember all 5.
Tuesday
Tuesday was Safer Internet Day and we learnt lots about how to stay safe on the internet. We watched a video called ‘Jessie and Friends’ who helped us to learn what we should do if we see something on the internet that upsets us or if someone tries to message us on the internet. You can see the videos here.
We also have a visitor from ‘Go Wise Online’ who also explained how to use the internet safely.
Wednesday
We were very excited to have a visit from both the Police and the Fire Service today! We really enjoyed asking them questions and finding out about how they keep us safe.
Friday
The final visit of the week was from the Canals and Rivers trust who explained how we should stay safe near water. Remember:
Stay Away From the Edge.
The children listened and engaged brilliantly all week! Well done everyone!
Drop down morning
This term we have introduced the idea of a drop down morning. This is a whole morning dedicated to looking back at our previous topic learning in order to cement this knowledge and commit it to the children’s long term memory.
Year 1 had a great time looking back over our Geography and Art topics from this year. We first took a big piece of paper and wrote down everything we could remember about the UK. After that, we revised the countries, capital cities and surrounding seas of the UK by sorting them into groups and then labelling a big map. I was very impressed at how much the children had remembered from the Autumn term!
Next, we looked back at physical and human geography and tried to find either a human or physical feature for every letter of the alphabet. We couldn’t think of any for k or x, so if you know of any let us know!
After break time, we looked again at the artists we had learnt about, Paul Klee and Leonardo da Vinci. We talked about how they were different, including their use of colour and shape. Then, we were given two new pictures and we had to decide whether it had been painted by Leonardo da Vinci or Paul Klee and how we knew. It was a brilliant morning!
