20.12.14- Merry Christmas and the date for Parent info session...

Well the end of the Autumn term is here! Congratulations and a huge well done to all of the children, they were all fantastic in our Christmas performance. We were very proud of all of Year 1.

 

We hope you have an enjoyable break. Thank you all so much for your kind gifts.

 

See you all on Monday 5th January. Year 1's parents information session will be on Tuesday January 13th at 9am in the hall. 

 

Merry Christmas!

 

From Mrs Thorpe and Mrs Hall

17.12.14- Last week of term, Year 1 party and carols....

We just want to say a massive well done to all of Year 1, this week they have shown how brilliant they are and have been fantastic actors! I hope that you have all enjoyed watching 'Whoops-a-daisy Angel'. Last performance is tomorrow at 10am.

 

Today we have enjoyed our Christmas dinner at lunch time. Tomorrow we will be having our Christmas party in the afternoon. There will  be lots of dancing, games and prizes to be won! The children will be bringing home their tree decorations and cards tomorrow so please can we have book bags.

 

Friday is our last day before the holidays and we want to have lots of fun. We are saying that the children can bring a game in to school if they wish. All games need to be labelled please and not too precious. We are encouraging appropriate age related games that the children can play together and enjoy. Book bags are not needed on Friday.

 

On Friday afternoon we invite all parents in from 3pm for our Christmas carols in the hall. This is always a fantastic  sing a long and promises to make everyone feel festive! 

11.12.14- Wow look how creative Year 1 are!

Well done to all of the children that entered the DT competition this year. There were some fantastic creations that were all made out of recycled materials. The winners from Year 1 were: Oona, Lewis and Rohana. Congratulations!! Below are the winning three decorations

 

The winners each got a certificate and a book as a prize. We were so impressed with all of the decorations. Well done to all the children that entered. Below are all of the other fantastic decorations.

 

 

Apologies if I have missed any of the decorations, I will check over the pictures tomorrow. Tomorrow is our non school uniform day and POWSA have asked for something to be donated for the raffle. At 3pm you can collect your child to take them to the school fair. We will be situated in Year 2 as our room will be used for the fair.

 

Mrs Thorpe & Mrs Hall



8.12.14- Our brilliant musicians and Christmas Technology Day...

 

A massive well done to all of the Year 1 recorder players today. Oona, Megan, Rohana, Poppy, Noah, Emily, Charlotte, Scarlett, Odette, Amalia, Erica, Rosa and Megan. A well done to Edward as well for playing his recorder with his group. We were all very proud of you.

 

Friday is Christmas Technology day. It is also a non school uniform day. In the afternoon from 3pm you will be able to collect your child. Year 1 will be based in the Year 2 classroom for the afternoon.

 

Year 1 Team

7.12.14- Handmade decorations, Kandinsky and much much more!

This week Year 1 will start to make their own Christmas decorations that will go on to our school tree. This can then hang on your Christmas tree at the end of term! The closing date for this years DT competition is nearly here (Thursday). If your child hasn't already bought in a decoration please do as it is great to see all the different ideas everyone has on how to make a decoration out of recycled material.

 

Also on the agenda this week will be some art work focussing again on Kandinsky, play performance and group reading. If your child has got any group reading or school books at home that they haven't had in school for a while please can they come back in. We do try and get every group to change their books every week but you are more than welcome to do this with them before or after school.

 

Many thanks

 

Year 1 team

7.12.14- Music assembly on Monday

On Monday we will be having a music assembly so that all the children that have been learning a musical instrument this term can show us their talent! Everyone that is performing will have already received a letter. Just a reminder that they will need to bring their instruments and music with them on Monday!

04.12.14- Fantastic singing and a good bye.....

We have some super singers in Year 1! We have been practicing lots of songs ready for our performance.

We have now have a more festive room and we having been looking at the first Christmas.

 

In Jigsaw this week we have been discussing what makes a good friend.

 

Well done everyone who has bought in home learning this week. I am so impressed with how much we have had in!

 

Tomorrow is Miss Richard's last day at The Prince of Wales School. Year 1 have had some great times with her and wish her good luck with her teacher career in the future.

 

30.11.14- The week ahead in Year 1- Writing poems about winter, addition, subtraction and the rocket wall!

In Literacy this week Year 1 will be using their imaginations and putting themselves in to a picture! We will be getting the children to think about what they see, hear and feel. Our inspiration will come from hands on experiences in our school grounds where we will crunch through the Autumn leaves and looking at Winter scenes.

In Maths we will be focussing on number. Recapping again on what resources we can use to add two numbers together and then also looking at what strategies to use to take away a number from another.

Spellings practice will still happen this week. Just a reminder that if your child brings in their practice sheet then they will get a rocket point.

Hearts and Stars spellings: are, my, her, play, spray, joy.

Moons: my, her, play, spray, joy.

Rainbows: do, water, what, snow, slow, chief, thief, you.

 

The rocket wall has such a positive effect on the children as they all really want to get to the moon and receive a certificate. We have changed this slightly now. At the end of the week we do not start every child on the earth again, instead the cycle carries on. This means that it isn't such a disappointment when they get so close to the moon but then are moved to the bottom again on a Monday. We have spoken to the children about this and they all seem to prefer the new way.

30.11.14- Whoops-a-Daisy Angel

This week in Year 1 we will start to practice our Christmas play. This Year we have chosen the play called 'Whoops-a-Daisy Angel'. We have already told the children what part they will play this year. Mrs Hall will be sorting out all of the costumes this week. We will send individual letters home letting you know any items of clothing that we will need your child to wear.

 

Year 1 have already learnt a number of the songs and are becoming very good at them!

 

Our Christmas performances will be in the last week of term from the Tuesday 16th December- Thursday 18th and will be from 10.10am.

2014 DT Christmas competition has begun!

Design Technology Christmas Competition! This year the DT competition is based around making a tree decoration and all classes are welcome to take part! ·       Your decoration must be able to hang from a tree
·       It must be made from as many recycled materials as possible
·       You must have your name and class on a label clearly displayed.
·       What type of decoration can you create which make it unique from other decorations before?!

The closing date for this competition is Thursday 11^th December. Please take the decorations to the hall; we will be hanging them ready for judges and assembly!  Good luck!  Finally, we do accept parent help will be needed for this but it should be clear that the child has been involved too!

Thank you all for your generosity!

Thank you so much to everyone that came to the Bring and Buy Sale on Wednesday. We were very grateful that so many of you donated some fantastic items that were no longer wanted.

 

Due to everyone's generosity on Wednesday and on the non school uniform day on the 14th of November we have raised over £340 for Children in Need!

 

I would like to say a big thank you to all of the staff and children that helped on the day. Well done!

 

Mrs Thorpe

27.11.14- Year 1's picture clue maps around castle park.

This afternoon Autumn and Winter group used the picture map that the Spring and Summer group made for them to find a house. The children had to work as part of a team to think about what picture clues they could take. We discussed whether or not taking a picture of a recycling bin was a good idea. The children have taken some very interesting picture clues that got them all looking carefully in their environment.

 

We have also been trying to locate all of the children's homes on a map of Dorchester. This, along with their picture maps will be added to our Geography display board in our classroom.

Wild Life Club...an exciting opportunity

Here's a lovely day out for all the family. Come along to RSPB Arne (go to Wareham, across the river to Stoborough and turn left into Nutcrack Lane and follow the road for 5 miles) on Saturday 6th December. It's "Pull a Pine Time". By helping to clear this wonderful heathland habitat of invasive pine trees you can also get the reward of taking home a beautiful, authentic Christmas tree, absolutely free! If you have tools such as a bow saw of loppers, bring them along. There will be Christmas crafts, barbecue and drinks and glorious views over the Purbeck Hills and Poole Harbour. Stay as long as you like and set off your Christmas to an outdoor start!

Wild Life Club...an exciting sighting!

I was very surprised today when one of the Year 1 Wild life Clubbers suddenly shouted, "Look Mr Farrington, a hedgehog!" We were busy putting the thrid storey on our "Bug Hotel" in the school pond area. Sure enough there was a hedgehog happily walking across the grass, over the path and through the fence! The children got a good long view of this lovely creature. I just hope it is now getting ready for its hibernation.

Bring and Buy Sale- Items needed please!

This Wednesday (26th) the Children's Voice have arranged a Bring and Buy Sale to help fundraise some more money for Children In Need.

 

We are hoping that you have been able to have a sort out of any unused, unwanted; toys, clothes, books etc ready for Wednesday.

 

Please bring any items for the Bring and Buy Sale to Mrs Thorpe in Year 1.

 

The hall will be open to parents from 3pm on Wednesday afternoon so that you can have a look around without your children! Then the sale will carry on until around 4.30pm (unless we have sold everything!)

 

Items will be reasonably priced from 20p- £2.

 

We hope to have lots to sell and raise as much as we possibly can for children who need our help.

 

Mrs Thorpe and The Children's Voice

23.11.14- Picture maps and some brilliant spelling practice!

This week we have been carrying on our work looking at maps. We split in to two teams and walked around the houses closest to the school to try and make a map using pictures. Year 1 had to think about which picture clues would be the best to use and why! Each half of the class took 10-15 pictures which we will assemble as a type of map for the other class to go and find. We will evaluate each others maps after and talk about 'What Worked Well' and 'Even Better If'.

 

We are always encouraging the children to sit correctly a the table and show their best handwriting. Every Friday we practice our handwriting, looking at the different letter families. During this time we also do our spelling practice. It is so fantastic to see how enthusiastic Year 1 are about their spellings. If you are curious about what mark your child gets in their spellings on a Friday please do come and see me. Also some children may come home with extra sheets on a Friday with some sounds on. These sheets are the sounds that your child might be struggling with still. If you have the time and want to work through the sheet with your child then that would be fantastic, it isn't however a set Home Learning.

 

 

18.11.14- Learning in Year 1 this week...

Monday was such an experience for us all. It was a honour to see Prince Charles at our school and get to perform our Prince of Wales School rap.

This week in Literacy we have been reading and writing about The Jolly Postman. This book is such a brilliant book for developing talking and questioning about characters. We will be writing letters to other characters in traditional tales and writing our own beginning of the story.

In maths we are still looking at measuring in centimetres and using the language of longer, shorter, taller. We have used the tally information that we collected last week to make pictograms.

We are trying to encourage super sitting on the carpet and at tables. This in turn makes the children's handwriting so much neater. We continually remind children about cursive writing where all letters are formed correctly. It can be quite tricky, but the children are getting much better! It's great to see some many children practising their spellings!

Year 1 team

CHILDREN IN NEED 2014

 

CHILDREN IN NEED 2014

 

It is Children in Need tomorrow. Just a reminder that children can come in their home clothes and give a small donation. Next week a letter will be coming home explaining about a Bring and Buy sale that we will be arranging in a few weeks so if you are having a sort out of old clothes (adults and children), books and toys please keep hold of them!

13.11.14- Making stone soup and helping the Jolly Postman

Stone Soup

 

We carried on looking at the story of stone soup. This is a Romani gypsy story where a traveller helps some hungry villagers. Mr Farrington took a group this morning to the roundhouse area and prepared and cooked this vegetable soup. After hours over the fire the children got to taste this. I must say it was delicious and had so many flavours.

 

In Geography this week we have been looking at maps and postcodes. We used Google maps to find all the children's homes. We have also been looking at the story of The Jolly Postman.

He wrote us a letter and asked if we could deliver a letter for us. All we had were some picture clues! Luckily we found the house and delivered the mystery letter.

I thought I would also share a recent picture of our grass free lawn that we are helping the Dorset Wildlife Trust to develop for the Borough Gardens.

11.11.14- Vardo Day!

 

Wow what a fantastic experience we have all had today! We all learnt about the Vardo and about the life of Romani Gypsy Travellers. The children had lots of activities that they all really enjoyed. We got to go in the Vardo and see how a family would sleep in there. The children washed up and even did some washing in the basins outside. Some children collected water in a large container, this was very heavy!

 

We learnt that if you were in a large family then the Mum, Dad and daughters would sleep in the Vardo but the sons had to sleep outside in a bender tent. Mr Duncalf was very kind to help us build our own bender tents using hazel chopped from our trees. This was such a fun activity.

 

Bender tents are surprisingly warm once you are inside and actually proved great shelter for us today from the rain!

 

Mrs Hall and Miss Richards worked with the children in the classroom making paper flowers and their very own Vardo models. These all looked brilliant and can be seen in Year 1.

 

This afternoon we carried on finding out about different traditions for the Romani Gypsy Travellers including dancing. Karen Hunt (who brought the Vardo) taught the children a very energetic dance! Miss Richard's groups decorated milk churns with beautiful patterns and flowers.

 

Mrs Hall explained about the Romani flag and the children made their own flags that symbolises them. Miss Munro taught the children lots of Romani words. I wonder if your child remembers the Romani word for: car, horse, teeth, man, rabbit?

 

I hope that your child has talked to you about all of the exciting activities we have been doing today. We will be carrying on with looking at Romani Gypsy Travellers by reading and acting out the story of 'Stone Soup', and hopefully (weather depending) will be cooking on an open fire in the roundhouse area on Thursday . If your child would like to do some writing or make some of the things we have been making today for home learning I would love to see it!