Good luck!

GOOD LUCK IN YOUR PERFORMANCE, FROM YEAR 4!!!!!!

A Busy Week!

We are all enjoying the singing and acting in our Christmas performance this year and would encourage the children to keep practising at home!.  A very big thank you to all of you  that have already organised your costumes and please can you keep them coming in this week.

We will continue to practise the performance throughout the week, so we are going to be very busy!!

In maths we have been making shape snowmen and Christmas trees.  We have also been working on some great ICT maths programmes.

In Literacy we have been reading The Jolly Christmas Postman, and we have been writing our own letters to the different characters in the story.

In DT we have also been making our very own mincemeat to get ready for making those mince pies for Santa!!  The children have been very excited especially as the magic ingredient was to make a wish whilst stirring the mixture!

Many thanks to all who came to the Christmas Fair, we hope you enjoyed it!

The Year 1 Team

Year 1 Wildlife Club

The children in Wildlife Club were fascinated by our activity this week. We looked at some barn owl pellets and they split them apart to find the bones of the mice, voles and shrews eaten by the owls. We found some complete skulls! Don't worry, we washed our hands carefully afterwards.
In the last few weeks we have been feeding the birds in our garden. If you have any spare bird food, we would be grateful for any donations!

ICT sessions with Mrs Mewett

The children have been doing really well this term learning lots of skills and accessing a variety of programs.
Firstly, they are getting soooooo much better at finding letters on the keyboard, they love the games on Purple Mash Two Type, if you have internet connection then let them show you these!
We have been using a lot of programs on Purple Mash to draw and write about houses and our homes, creating our poppies, writing poems, even to decorate a 3D printable house! Again, all can be accessed from home too! If your child logs on using their password you can also look at their saved work.
 The children have also been working on becoming familiar with Blu Camera software which is a storyboard scenario which they can drag different shapes, moving items, sounds onto, then clip all slides together to make a rolling program. They work in pairs on this with Mrs Dukes.
Lastly, we have been navigating around some simulation websites such as Poisson Rouge. This is a lovely site and has so much to explore and find. I have placed this onto the Year 1 links under ICT if again they wish to access this at home?
If your child does anything fab using ICT outside of school then please let me/us know as this  information is really useful in ensuring all children are being met with their ICT needs. Thursday morning is a good time to catch me in the ICT suite!

Thank you

Mrs Mewett

 

Assembly Time!

As you will be aware it is our class assembly this Friday 22nd November. We will be sending words home this week for the children to practise.  We look forward to seeing you all on Friday morning at 9.20am.

The Year 1 Team

This Week In Class...

Letters and Sounds - This week are sounds are:  oo (as in food) ar (as in barn) ss (as in fuss)  ea (as in bead)  and ue (as in glue.  In literacy we are developing our use of phonics by making up names for a mixed up creature we have created.  Today we have been thinking about where our creatures may live?? A cave, a barn, on an island or even the North Pole!  There have been some fantastic ideas.

In maths we are concentrating and understanding patterns in number, odds and evens and we are experimenting and balancing various objects of varying weights.  We are also looking at halves and quarters of different shapes.

Children In Need Friday 15 November 2013

The time of year has come again to see spots in front of our eyes and raise money for Children In Need.....

This year the school council have decided that we will stay in our Pyjamas and wear them to school!!  

A small contribution for this will be gratefully received.    We will also be having a cake sale on Friday during the day, so please send your child to school with 20p so they can buy a little cake.
We look forward to having a snuggly day!
The Year 1 Team.

Drop In Week

Many thanks to all the parents who have dropped into the class this week.  We hope you have enjoyed seeing your children at work!  For parents who haven't joined us yet, please feel free to drop by whenever is convenient and enjoy observing the lessons and your child!

POWSA AGM

POWSA will be holding their AGM on Thursday 7th November at 19.45 in the school staff room.
Anyone is more than welcome to attend.

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to school! 

We hope you all had a fantastic half term holiday.

Year 1 are looking forward to writing some fantastic firework poems this week in literacy and we will be seeing how many describing words we can use.

We listened to different poems this morning which were written by different authors and will start writing our own tomorrow.  Keeping on the Bonfire Night theme, today we had a health and safety talk given to us by Dorset Fire and Rescue Service Fire Officer John Sweet.  We learnt all about fire safety in the home and outside.  We enjoyed the talk and even got to dress up into a firemans outfit although it was quite hard as we had to try and do it in 1 minute!!  A lot harder than we thought it would be! We also learnt the stop drop and roll method in the classroom.

This week in maths we are going to be using numicon to develop our understanding of double numbers. 
We are also programming BeeBots to develop our direction and movement skills.

 

The Week Ahead

We are looking forward to a very busy week this week beginning with our letters and sounds.....
Our sounds this week are .... oi, oy, igh, and u.  We are also looking at revisiting ai, ee, oa, and oo.
In literacy we are looking at a street frieze and developing our understanding of sentences.  We have been working with children from different groups and have been having a question and answer session.

In maths we have been creating bar charts following on from making tally charts last week.  We have been trying to challenge ourselves to bigger numbers when using bead strings and we have been making beds for toys making sure they are the right size.

We are having a fun week in DT this week, two groups have already been considering the changes which take place when different materials are heated and melt.  We have been making cheese scones and Rice Krispie cakes! Yummy!

We are also writing correct season words by writing on a fun farm worksheet.

In PE we will still be practising the skill of rolling and controlling a ball using different methods, which the children are finding a lot easier said than done!! 

Huish Farm!

The beautiful Huish Farm!  What a fantastic time we had..... We travelled through the countryside on Farmer John's tractor and trailer, what a beautiful view on such a beautiful day!

We learnt about the wildlife surrounding the fields and Farmer John told us all the different things he grew in the fields to help some of these animals.

Mrs Hall found this furry chap having a sunbath in the long grass!!



Wild Life Club Apple collecting

On .Wednesday the Year 1 Wildlife Club helped me to pick apples from the orchard. The apples will be used this Saturday at Cranborne Ancient Technology Centre Autumn Apple Day to make apple juice using an old-fashioned apple press.

Families are welcome at this open event which runs from 10.00 until 4.00 at The Ancient Technology Centre next to Cranborne Middle School

We also found lots of interesting wildlife living amongst the apples: butterflies, earwigs, harvest men and crane flies. Thankfully, all the wasps have disappeared!!!

Bling a bike day!

“Bling a Bike Day”

Yes that is “Bling”, although we would like you to “Bring” your bikes too!

On Tuesday 15^th October we will be holding an event to promote “Being Safe by Being Seen” when out on your bikes and scooters. We will have a competition to see who can make their bike or scooter extra colourful and bright,- so that it really stands out!

The children may score extra marks for having bright, colourful clothing that they can put on when parading their “blinged”-bike.

Children who would like to take part in the competition should bring their bikes or scooters to school on the morning of Tuesday 15^th October. We will be asking Jonathon Dixon, our local Sustrans Bike Officer, to judge the competition. Winners will be decided during our school assembly at 10.10 am.

It is important that any materials added to your bike or scooter should not be in the way of moving parts, and that your bike or scooter can still be wheeled along in the parade without any difficulty.

Duncan MacBean Prince of Wales Bike Champion

Huish Farm Time!

It is time for the wellies to come out tomorrow as once again we will be having a day at the farm!  This time we are going to Huish Farm Near Sydling.  We will have a fun packed day roaming the countryside and enjoying the fantastic tractor and trailer ride! Please ensure your child has their wellies and a waterproof coat and lets hope the rain stays away for the day! 

Please can you also make sure your child has a packed lunch and a drink in a backpack they can carry.



Our Harvest celebration

Thank you for all the harvest produce brought in, also the wonderful cakes and breads which were for sale in the Harvest café during the afternoon. The children created some wonderful food in class too! We hope some of you got to savour their delights? If not, ask your child what they cooked and what they enjoyed trying?

The School council decided that they would like all proceeds to be sent to help children in other countries whose parents cannot afford to send them to school. We will endeavour to find the right avenue to send this money and will keep you posted.

A Very Busy Week!

This week in maths we have been looking at number bonds to 10.
We have also been learning about subtraction and how we take numbers away.
Next week we will be carrying on with the subtraction theme and also start looking at measurement.

In literacy we have been writing about our Vardo experience and writing sentences about our favourite things we did and what we enjoyed most.  We made sure we used our capital letters and full stops!

It has been fantastic to see lots of home learning so keep it up Year 1!!  We are going to be baking and making bread for Harvest next week so maybe you can practise your cookery skills this weekend!!  We hope you all have a lovely weekend and look forward to another busy fun packed week next weeek.
From the Year 1 Team 

Autumn Fest......"Read all about it!!!!!"

Come and spend quality family time, wrapped up warm and cosy, enjoying wonderful stories, warming yourselves by a bonfire, listening to music, eating scrumptious jacket potatoes........if you want to bob for apples, enter a carved pumpkin into a competition or take part in some Autumn art then why not have a go too!!!!!!! There's lots of family fun to be had at POWSA's Brand New Autumn Fundraising event - "AUTUMN FEST"...........Look out for posters around the school, letters will follow with options to buy tickets and food attached! We would love to see you all there......... "Celebrating Autumn, celebrating Families and Supporting the School."

Exciting Vardo Day!!

The children have had a very full and fun packed day!....  Building a bender tent, exploring the Vardo, dancing Romany style and decorating plates and milk churns.

A very big thank you to Mr Alan Duncalf, Chair of Governors, who again helped the Year 1's in their quest to build the perfect bender tent!  We think the above photograph shows their best efforts....

We learnt about the way of life of the Romany Gypsies and experienced the hard work by washing dishes by hand and washing clothes!  We also learnt that the boys of the family had to sleep outside either underneath the wagon or inside the bender tent....  The Year 1 boys were not impressed!!



Next Week is Vardo Week!

The Vardo has arrived! This old fashioned gypsy wagon would have been pulled by a horse but this one will be static at school, until the trailer returns to collect it. It is with us for the week at least and during this time the children will be finding out how the family would have lived.
On Tuesday we will be having a special day of activities including going inside the Vardo, learning some Romany words, making a bender tent, dancing, making paper flowers and decorating a paper plate. It should  be great fun.
We hope you all have a good weekend and the promised fine weather lasts until at least mid-week!



Yr 1 Recorders and ICT!

A quick message to state that Yr 1 recorder club is on a Monday lunchtime with either myself or Mrs Staddon. Please remind your child to bring in their recorder and book and meet me in the school hall after eating their lunch. We will finish early so your children can have a run around and break before lessons begin.



ICT lessons - Thursday morning. The children are becoming more familiar with typing their name and password to access our computer network. If you can follow up work we've been doing on recognising lower case letters to Capital letters on a keyboard then this would be brilliant! Don't forget also that they can access the School website from home and play on some of the fun learning materials hat are within the Year 1 folder in Pupil Links.

Please speak to either myself on members of the Yr 1 team if any questions about the above.

Thank you!

Mrs Mewett

Parent Information Session

Thank you for all of those parents who attended this mornings information session.  I do hope you found it useful.  If you didn't manage to make it and would like to know what was discussed, there is a parent information sheet available so please ask a member of the team or myself for a copy.

Mrs Moger

A trip to the farm!

We had a fantastic time at Maiden Castle Farm yesterday!

We learnt all about harvest and the crops that are grown on the farm......

Barley Wheat and Maize.

We learnt that every part of the wheat is used and it takes a whole year for this to grow!  We saw lots of machines and Hazel explained how they work!

This is a gigantic dryer that dries out the grain!  It was very noisy and very hot!

This is used when the wheat is harvested and is very wet. 

This is a picture of the grain going into the drying pit.  It was also very noisy and went on forever!!

We also looked at the different houses on the farm.  We saw the big farmhouse that was built in 1884. 
We also sat in the barn and thought about the animals that could live in there.  We looked at the cows and the sheep in the fields, and there were 2 VERY big bulls!!

 

A Great Week!

We have had a fantastic first full week in Year 1!  Everyone has settled in so well and we are all enjoying our new class.  We are at the farm on Monday which is always a fun and interesting visit.  We will keep you posted with the up and coming projects and topics happening in Year 1 via the blog.

On Monday we will be visiting Maiden Castle Farm.  Please can you make sure your child brings their wellies to wear and old trousers with school tops.  Can you also bring their school trousers/skirts to change into on our return to school.  We will be thinking and talking about this time of year on the farm and harvest time.

Your childs password for Purple Mash is now in their reading/home learning diary.  They are stuck on the back page so get logging on and enjoy the activities!

Please can you ensure your childs library book and group reading book comes to school everyday.  We will aim to change libarary books on a Thursday or Friday but if your child doesn't bring the library book back we can't issue a new one!  Thank you!

A date for the diary!

On Monday 16th September we shall be visiting Maiden Castle Farm.  Any parents who would like to come along and help on this day would be most welcome, please come in and see Mrs Moger.  More details will follow.

We have had another full day in Year 1 today.  After phonics this morning we had a session looking at and talking about photographs and books looking at different homes.

In Maths we are still looking at different shapes around the school, while others are learning to add together by counting on.

By tomorrow all children will have been given a new Home Learning Diary/reading record and we look forward to hearing about the childrens home learning including reading.

Welcome Back To Year 1!

Welcome back to Year 1. The children have settled in extremely well being very happy and enthusiastic. For our topic this half term we will be looking at houses and homes. We will study the size, shape and structure of the buildings, together with the materials, style and the different types of houses that are built. We will be sending home new Home Learning Record Books this week. Please write in these to tell us about the super home learning your child has been doing and feel free to bring anything in to show us! Each week your child will bring home a new group reading book together with a library book. These will be changed on a weekly basis. Please can you bring any recycling bits and bobs into the classroom for our lets explore art area job. This can be anything from plastic cartons to cardboard tubes, small cereal/cardboard boxes and yogurt pots. Anything that the children can be creative with will be much appreciated! At the end of this week we are sending home your childs Purple Mash login details. This means your child will now be able to access the Purple Mash Website to have lots of fun at home with the activities svailable.

ICT and Music in Year 1

I had a lovely day with Yr 1 on Thursday last week and am already excited to go back this week! I will be with Yr 1 every Thursday this school year to provide Mrs Moger with SEN time as the school SENCO.

In ICT we will be using the school ICT suite as a whole class. Your child has a password to enter our network of computers, they also have a password to access a fantastic package called 'Purple Mash', this can be done at home through our school website too!
So far we have been playing a game to develop our use of a keyboard. What seems to be tripping children up is their capital letter knowledge and relating this to lower case letters. Mrs Moger and I will be picking this up but any help in revising these at home would be much appreciated.
Last week we wrote about people in our homes (see class display board). This week the children will be using a Purple mash program to draw their favourite rooms in their home and to explain why.

In Music we sang some fun songs to warm up our voices and bodies, we then composed our own music just using hand sounds! The children worked well in small groups and some groups
performed these to their class mates. This week the children will be composing more music using a selection of percussion instrument and writing this onto a score! Clever stuff for Yr 1 already!!!

Please come and discuss with me any aspects above, likewise if you have skills to offer then again please see me.

Thank you!

Mrs Mewett

After school Club

Our new After School Club will be starting from Monday 9th September! 3.30 to 5.50 Monday to Thursday.
We shall be offering a range of activities including PE, games and physical fitness provided by Elliott Sawyer our new Sports Coach and Alex Godfrey. Plus indoor activities and a healthy snack organised by existing familiar members of our school staff!
Please support this new venture if you require childcare or indeed just want your child to enjoy additional opportunities for PE above and beyond our normal curriculum!
Details available from the school office.

Wildlife Club and Radipole

The children in the Year 1 Wildlife Club have been asking me for weeks when we are going to see their art work at Radipole nature reserve!
 I am pleased to tell you that our beautiful art is now on display in the shelter overlooking the lake at the far end of the reserve. It might make a wonderful day out in the summer to visit Radipole and admire the children's art work that they created with the help of  Year 4 children in the spring!
There are lots of fun activities for children and families down at Radipole!

Can Year 1 read this book?

How clever are Year 1 at reading in the Indian language of Kannada?

Sports day and COMPETITION TIME!!

Wow, what a brilliant, fun filled sports morning we had. Well done to everyone in year 1 that took part and tried your hardest. You definitely all showed off your sports skills!

As it is Healthy Living week POWSA have some prizes up for grabs. The children can enter this competition by designing a 'Sun Safe' poster. They have all been a part of activities this week and should all know how to stay safe in the sun. All posters need to be handed in by next Friday!
We can't wait to see some of your creations.

Writing in Kannada and sun safety!

Yesterday Mr Farrington came in to Year 1 and showed us some of his photos from India. The children looked at the languages that are spoken in India. We all had a go at writing in 'Kannada'.

We have also been cooking a number of yummy recipes which all of the children will have a chance to make at some point this week.

We are looking at a number of ways to stay healthy this week. Each child has a booklet that covers a number of issues such as: sun safety, road safety, safety in the home. We will look at these booklets for the rest of the week.

Mrs Johnson's assembly yesterday explained why it is so important to be sun safe, especially with the weather that we are having this week!

It is our sports morning today, please make sure that the children are properly protected with sun cream, sun hat and water. 

Let the activities begin!

Year 1 had a fun filled morning skipping with the rest of the school.

As well as skipping the children also showed off their dancing skills and made a whole school conga! 

After our energetic morning we went in to the hall to watch a theatre company. They portrayed the story of a child in India who made footballs. The children thoroughly enjoyed watching the performacne. The music was brilliant! 

At the end the children got involved in the drama and all marched for children's 'right to play'. 

Just a quick mention about the weather. Please make sure that your child has a sun hat

Also it is so important in this weather to drink lots of water. Please make sure that your child has a labelled bottle in school. We can fill it up throughout the day. 

Summer Reading Challenge

Librarians from Dorset County library have challenged all the children to join in the Creepy House Summer Reading journey. Check out Dorchester County library or www.creepy-house.org.uk  for more details.

It would be great if every single child at The Prince of Wales School spent some of their summer holidays enjoying some great books. i look forward to giving out lots of badges and certificates in September!

Healthy Living Week- Next week!

In ICT today the children all wrote an email to Sam who was our guide from the Dorset Wildlife Trust at Lorton Meadows. They are all getting very good at sending emails now.

We have been practising our sports skills in PE ready for next week. As it is Healthy Living Week next week there will be a range of activities happening each day. We will keep you updated on the blog!

We start off with skipping on Monday morning. 

Please remember to pack the children lots of drink as it is forecast to be very warm! They should all bring sun hats and have sun cream on before coming to school.