The farm trip on Tuesday

We are off to the farm on Tuesday. Just a reminder that the children should wear school tops and can wear home trousers and wellingtons either in a bag on their peg or on our wellington rack outside our classroom. They will need a second pair of shoes or trainers as their wellingtons will get muddy. We are not 100% sure what the weather will be like yet so waterproof coats just in case please. We will take labelled snacks and drinks with us and will be back by lunchtime.

 

If you are available to help then please let us know.

 

We are all looking forward to visiting Maiden Castle Farm.

Counting in 2s and 5s

In maths this week we are counting in 2s and 5s using number lines, hundred squares and numicon. We are using the language of 'lots of'. For example 2 lots of 2 is 4. We have listened to a catchy number song that helps the children learn their times tables.

The children are working hard to form their numbers correctly making sure that the numbers are facing the right way. The trickiest numbers at the moment are 2,3,4,5 and 8. If you have a chance at home to practice these numbers then this would be fantastic to praise and put on display. You can practice in many ways, not just with a pencil and paper. Children love to write in different pens (we especially like glittery ones!), or on to coloured paper or sticky notes. How about practising the formation using sand, shaving foam or even mud?

Literacy and Maths learning wb 28.9.15

Last week the children all made their own Stickmen and thought about a name for them. This week we are going to take it a little further and think about where their stickmen could live. Maybe a tree house or a shed or even an old boot!

 

In maths this week we will be carrying on with our number work using number lines and numicon. The children have worked really hard this week to use the resources in the room to help them with their learning. If you were looking to do any maths learning at home pupils links on the school website has current links in the year 1 maths section and also purplemash. Your child's purplemash log in will be in the front of their home learning diaries.

Praise assembly and filling up Mr Potato head!

 

A massive well done to Alyssa, Sunny, William, Sophie, Freddie and Matilda that were praised in assembly on Friday. This week the children were praised for their reading, use of a number line in maths, cursive writing and being positive conscientious learners so WELL DONE!

 

As well as praising these individual children on Friday the whole of Year 1 were praised for filling up our class reward of Mr Potato head. The children were treated to ginger bread man and an extra 15 minutes of Let's Explore on Friday afternoon!

 

Home Learning for the whole school!

Home Learning  - Harvest celebration

(week commencing Monday 5^th October)

During the week of Monday 5^th October as usual we have planned opportunities throughout the week where the children learn about: food and where it comes from, visits to Maiden Castle farm, creating art pieces, cooking, thinking about seasonal food, creating goodies for the Harvest café using our orchard goodies, looking at India farming and of course the reason behind Harvest itself!

 

We thought this year we would have a ‘Bake off’ format to the week as the ‘Great British Bake off’ has been inspiring staff as well as the nation!

 

So, if your child wishes to, the Home Learning for the children is to…

 

Create their own bread and bring into school through the week leading up to our Harvest celebration! The class will taste it and talk about how it was made.   Everyone will need to share the ingredients and how they made their bread (write down or be able to talk about).   ‘Bread’ products are wide and varied across the world, so experiment, create!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Through the week each class has also been set the challenge of creating a ‘master piece!’

 

These will be displayed outside of the hall for our Harvest celebration.

 

We will have our very own ‘Mary and Paul’ to taste each class’s efforts and decide upon a winner! Be ready to ask your child all about it!

 

Your help needed please...

Next week we will be starting our houses and homes topic. We will be talking about the type of home we all live in. We are asking for the children to bring in a picture of their house so that we can use it in our literacy lesson.

You can send this in a number of ways
-Send a picture in
-Send me an email of your house
-Put a picture of your house on a USB and I can print it out

If you have any questions please do ask us in the morning and thank you all in advance!

It would be great to get your photos by Wednesday next week (30th).

Stick man!

Last week the children were out in the garden area and found an interesting shaped stick. We added eyes and arms and made it in to a stick man!

 

This week we have been reading the story 'Stick man' by Julia Donaldson.

The children have made their our own stick men that they will write about. 

 

Thank you all for the recycling we have plenty of boxes and containers to build a range of structures.

Home learning

This week I have set a home learning task. At home I would like your child to draw, take pictures or write about their favourite toys that they like to play with. We look forward to hearing about what your child likes to play with at home.

 

Thank you to everyone that has bought in their recycling. Please keep it coming as more is needed for Tuesday!

 

We hope you have a fantastic weekend

 

See you all on Monday

 

Mrs Thorpe and the Year 1 team.

Autumn poems

Well done to Alfie, Leo, Flynn, Harry G, Clark, Harry N and Eva who were praised in our assembly today. This week we have been writing poems using our senses all about autumn. These have been fantastic and I thought I would share Sophie and Flynn's.

 

Autumn smells of manure from the farm

Autumn feels like crunchy leaves

Autumn sounds like snapping twigs

Autumn looks like the yellow leaves.

Growing vegetables!

In Year 1 this week we have been gardening! We have weeded our raised bed and sowed our winter spring onions.

We have also started to use the polytunnel. We have planted our potatoes into three tyres which we will water and stack to make tyre towers of delicious potatoes! A big thank you to Poundbury Garden Centre for donating the 9 bags of compost for us to make these. The children have really enjoyed getting involved with preparing the soil and land for planting and being in the garden area.

Your help needed please...

In D&T we have started to look at freestanding structures. We walked around school and discussed how the structures are made and what material they are made out of. We are hoping to make some free standing structures of our own and need your help! We would like some recycled materials such as cereal boxes, kitchen roll tubes, punnets etc. Anything that goes in to your green recycling bin and is clean would be great!

 

 

In Science we have been finding out where milk comes from and how cheese is made. We have used our senses to look at, smell and taste a range of cheese and yoghurt.

A beautiful rainbow...

 

I thought I would share this glorious photo of this rainbow over the school this afternoon. Spring and Summer group had a brilliant first forest schools where they were making potions and exploring the roundhouse area.

 

Year 1 learnt what an algorithm is and how to make one! We worked in pairs to make a set of algorithms.

 

In maths this week we are looking at teens numbers and counting on in 1 and 10 from any number.

Parent information session reminder and the end to a busy week!

Wow what a busy week we have had this week!

 

I just wanted to say how impressed we all are with the Year 1 children in regards to how well they have settled in and adapted to the change in the curriculum and their school day. The children are working very hard to show us the qualities of our DASP caterpillars.

 

Well done to Jack, Alyssa, Sophie, George, Nell, Reece, Isabelle and Jamie who received a praise certificate today for doing fantastic writing about your owls.  

 

Next week we have another busy week. Just a quick reminder about the parent information session on Tuesday morning. This will be held in the classroom. If you cannot make it then the newsletter will have all of the information you will need.

 

We hope you have a restful weekend. If you were looking for home learning ideas then here are a few:

- Go on a number hunt and photograph as many different types of numbers as you can find (doors, money, signs etc)

- Find some pictures of different structures (maybe from the internet or in a magazine?). Are all structures the same shape?

-Practise your cursive writing by telling us about something you do at the weekend.

- Find something interesting in your garden or on a walk and bring it in!

 

See you all on Monday!

 

The Year 1 team

Forest Schools starts on Monday!

Just a reminder that Forest Schools starts on Monday afternoon for Spring and Summer group. Please send the children in with named spare clothes so that they can get changed after lunch. Wellingtons, trousers, top, jumper and a coat will be fantastic. We can get a bit muddy so please only send in clothes that you don't mind getting mucky.

Reading books in Year 1

 

Every week in Year 1 the children will have a selection of books in their reading bags. They will have two fiction books from the 'tree' book box and one non-fiction book which are the coloured stickered information books that are on the shelves around the outside of the library. Every week we will change these books during our group reading sessions. If your child finishes their books and wants to change them then please feel free to change them in the library. The children will show you how to scan the books back in. They then need to scan their names which are in the folder by the computer and the barcode on the inside cover.

 

As well as these three books your child will have a levelled guided reading book. Every week your child will read with an adult. We will write in their home learning diaries notes about how they have read and contributed to discussions about the books they have been reading.

 

If anyone has any questions or can even spare any time to come in and listen to readers please do come and talk with us in the morning.

 

The Year 1 team

 

A story about 3 owlets....

In Literacy this week we have read the story 'Owl babies' by Martin Waddell. This repetitive story tells the tale of 3 siblings that are waiting for their Mother to return. The children have made their own owl babies which we are going to write about and then hang them in the classroom. They look fantastic already and I know the children have been thinking of inventive names for their owls.

 

It is great to see so many pieces of writing on our WOW wall! We have had writing about owls, Cooper and retelling of activities that you have all been doing. Please keep them coming in!

Year 1 Class Charter

Over the last week we have been thinking about our Rights and Responsibilities. As a class we have discussed what should be on our class charter and have come up with the following Rights and Responsibilities:

1. We have the right to be listened to.

 

We will be super sitters!

 

2. We have the right to be treated nicely.

 

We will use kind words and caring hands.

 

3. We have the right to play.

 

We will look after the play equipment and only play nice games.

 

4. We have the right to learn.

 

We will concentrate hard and always try our best!

 

5. We have the right to be heard.

We will put up our hand and wait our turn.

WOW!

Tomorrow morning we will be putting out the blank WOW moments. We would love to hear what the children have been achieving at home and think it is extremely important to share this with everyone in the class.

 

Your child might have got themselves dressed for the first time by themselves? They may have read a sign or a food label? They may have added up how many peas they have left on their plate?!

 

Please share your child's accomplishments on the WOW moment sheets. We want to hear about them all!

 

As well as the WOW moments we like to have lots of home learning for our show and tell each day. It was brilliant listening to the children last week that bought in writing, special shells that they have found on a day out and objects that they have spent a long time making. We praise everything that comes in and the children will get a "hoot" for their home learning (their owls move up the tree). I will explain more about this at the Year 1 parent information session on Tuesday 15th September. Hope to see many of you there. We will be having this session in our classroom this year.

 

Our interesting visitor today and hunting for wildlife!

Today we have been painting our portraits and writing about our favourite things about the holidays. I was so impressed with the children's writing and how hard they worked to spell out the words using a phonics mat. We try and get the children to break down all of the words in to sounds eg. w-e-n-t went or p-ar-k park.

 

We have had Cooper the Tortoise in to visit us today. The children enjoyed seeing the tortoise and getting to feel his hard shell. Maybe your child would like to draw Cooper and write about him? Can they remember what he likes to eat?

 

The children have found traces of squirrels on the school grounds which they are very excited about! We hope to research a bit about what Squirrels like to eat and where they like to live next week and then set up a camera to try and take some pictures of them! We went on a hunt this afternoon and were lucky enough to see one (very quickly!).

 

 

We hope you have a restful weekend and recharge your batteries for next week!

 

The Year 1 team

 

Welcome to Year 1!

Welcome to Year 1!

It was fantastic to see all of the children come in to school with enthusiasm and excitement for the year ahead. We have shared our holiday news and started to think of our rights and responsibilities we have within the class and the school. All of the ideas will be our class charter which will be put up soon in our classroom! I hope the children have come home and told you all about our rewards chart, Albert the Owl, Jigsaw Jack and our WOW board? We are carrying on with the 'WOW moments' and will be displaying these on our board which will be changed on a weekly basis. The WOW moment sheets are kept next to the board. Please do share with us accomplishments the children have achieved at home. We encourage any home learning to be shared, from writing and pictures to things that the children have made or achieved.

As you have seen this morning the children will be in four morning groups which are called- Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. These will stay the same for the year and the children will be in these groups for a number of lessons including Forest Schools. We will be starting our Forest Schools on the week beginning the 14th September. This is a brilliant opportunity for the Year 1 children to learn many skills in outdoor learning. I will be sending out a letter explaining about this tomorrow. We are asking please that the children have a long sleeve top, long trousers, jumper, coat and waterproofs including wellingtons. As we use wellingtons a lot during school we have left a rack outside the classroom where your child's named boots can be stored.

The Year 1 parent information session will be held on Tuesday 15th September from 9am. This will be a good opportunity to discuss the year and term ahead and inform you on what your child will be learning and how to help them at home.

If you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to ask myself (Mrs Thorpe), Mrs Hall, Mrs Brooker or Mrs Hibberd.