Year 1 - Christmas Costumes

Hello everyone,

We are busy rehearsing and practicing our Christmas play in school this week and making sure everything is ready to go for you next week! We apologise if there has been any song singing going on at home, I know I am humming them all the time! 

With this in mind we are hoping you can help us with an element of the costumes! We are looking for any silver tinsel that we could use to help us make some angel costumes. We would just require the tinsel - any size. If you have any spare, this would be greatly appreciated. Please bring it in to the year 1 classroom. Thank you!

Year 1 team

Year 1 - Spellings

Hi all,

As last week was a bit of a special week at the Prince of Wales school the year 1 spelling test did not take place as usually planned on the Friday.

We will be carrying out the spelling test for the current set of spellings tomorrow and then hand out the next set ready to go home tomorrow evening ready for a test on the following Monday (16th) - as we have Christmas Craft day this Friday! We will then hand out a further set that will be tested when we return after the Christmas break! 

Year 1 team

Year 1 - Christmas Picnic Lunch

Hello everyone,

For the last day of term this year (20th December) we will be having our traditional picnic lunch with the children. For this, we ask the community to donate something towards this. There is a list up outside the year 1 classroom door for you to sign up to. Anything given will be shared amongst the class during the picnic lunch. All hot dinners will be cancelled on this day. 

Any questions, please come and ask us! 

Year 1 team

Year 1 - iPad Workshop

Hello everyone,

Today the year 1 class had the marvellous opportunity to work with renowned artist Jason Wilsher-Mills. We were using iPads as our medium for some impressive art.

The children were inducted into the app they were using before being let loose to explore, create and express! 

The work that Jason has collected from our school will join hundreds of other children from across Dorchester and culminate in a collective piece of art, all based around emojis and expressions. Watch this space for further news or developments! 

Year 1 team

Tea-Time-Talk-Topic

Tea-Time-Talk-Topic

Hello everyone,

Coming home tonight is the first of our new Tea-time-talk-topics - Alliteration was clearly on my mind when I came came up with that name! 

Articulate speaking is cited repeatedly as being one of the most powerful life skills and this is something we are looking to heighten in school as well as at home.

This is a new weekly initiative to provide a structured opportunity for discussion and talk at home which can then be shared and further developed at school. Each week the topic will change and children will come home with a new conversation starter. 

If anyone has any questions please come and let us know.

Also, coming home tomorrow evening will be the first set of spellings for your child. You will have a week to practice before the spelling test the following Friday! 

Year 1 team

Year 1 - New Half Term, New Routines!

Hello everyone,

I hope that you have all had a lovely, restful half term holiday and are ready and raring to come back to school for the second half of the Autumn term! Loads of things coming up this half term that will be shared with you as we go through the half term.

To begin with though there will be a new structure to the mornings starting when we come back to school on Tuesday... 

On the tables there will be a 'Power Up' that forms part of our Power Maths lesson that will be covering that day. You are very welcome to stay with your child to help during this time if you are able to do so. Some of the Power-ups require a discussion, others require written answers, this will depend on the topic we re covering on the day! We will continue to come to the carpet at the same time. 

The second new routine that will start over half term is that our weekly spellings will be introduced! On Friday we will be sending children home with a copy of these for you to practise at home. The following Friday will be the spelling test for that set and the next set will be sent home! This will continue for the rest of the year. Any questions please come and speak to us. 

Year 1 team

Year 1 - Tomorrow Morning...

Hello everyone,

Tomorrow morning we will be having a Maths focus when you come into school! This week we have been learning how to use a part-part-whole model and tomorrow there will be the opportunity for your children to show you how well they have been doing! We always encourage the use of objects and tools to help us so these will be on tables for you to use too. 

Please feel free to stay with your children for a bit longer tomorrow if you are able to do so as we will be coming to the carpet at a slightly later time to allow for more maths!

See you all tomorrow! 

Year 1 team

Year 1 - Big Write!

Hello everyone,

As we approach the final few days of this half term the year 1 class will this week be showcasing their fantastic writing abilities in our Big Write! A Big Write is a half termly piece of writing that the children aim to complete with as much independence as possible. This half term our Big Write will be centered around our trip to Marwell Zoo last week! We will be asking the children to write a recount of the trip!

Before the independent stage however, there is lots of discussion and planning that goes on! In school we will be planning together and having a go at drafting. 

Coming home on Monday will be a further planning sheet to share with your child. These are not compulsory but having a discussion and writing a few notes together can help to prepare children for the Big Write on Wednesday! There are a few questions and pictures contained to give a rough direction.

If anyone has any questions please let us know. 

Year 1 team

Year 1 - Marwell Zoo

Hi everyone,

We've had a great day at Marwell Zoo today with the year 1 class! The children were superb on the journey and during our entire visit to the zoo! We saw SO many animals so please make sure you ask your children about what they saw and anything that they might have learnt throughout the day. 

Tomorrow morning there will be a little booklet out for children to come in to school and have a little look at about our day yesterday. 

I'll pop more photos up of the day in the classroom tomorrow morning! 

Thank you to everyone for ensuring children were at school earlier this morning and for picking up at the slightly later time! 

Year 1 team

Year 1 - Marwell Tomorrow!

Hello everyone,

With the weather looking pretty good for tomorrow we are going ahead with our rearranged Marwell trip tomorrow! 

As per the trip letter stated, could we ask for all children to be at school tomorrow morning by 8.15am in school uniform. We would also ask that you please bring a coat and jumper to keep warm through the day. 

If your child does not have a hot school dinner please could you send them in with a packed lunch for the day.

Whilst we aim to be back between 16.00-16.30pm we will keep you updated on our return time through Marvellous Me so please be sure to check.

Thank you for your support with this trip... WE ARE NEARLY THERE! 

Year 1 team

Year 1 - This Week!

Hello everyone, 

We have had an amazing Farming Fortnight that culminated in a wonderful Harvest Celebration assembly on Friday! I'm sure you will all agree that the children's singing was a joy! I set them a challenge to find / eat a turnip so I apologise if one slips into the shopping trolley over the coming weeks!?

This Wednesday is the rearranged Marwell Zoo trip! We are desperately hoping for some good weather for the day but we will keep you updated as it draws nearer. The plan is still to leave school at 8.30am so we are asking for children to be at school ready for 8.15am to get seated and comfortable. 

Hopefully you all received your Mathletics logins and are up and running with that. If you have any questions about this please don't hesitate to come and speak with us. 

In our Power Maths this week we will be moving on to the addition and subtraction unit that covers number bonds to 10, part-part-whole model and using tools to help add/subtract.

As we now only have 2 weeks left of this half term that means you only have 2 weeks left to hand in the home learning project for this half term! This is contained within your Knowledge Organisers that were sent home at the beginning of the term... it asks you to make a short film talking about an animal of your choice! This can be your pet, model, picture, ANYTHING! Thank you to those already handed in, they are amazing and the children are like young David Attenboroughs! 

Year 1 team

Year 1 - Mathletics!

Hello all,

Tomorrow morning we will be starting our morning off with a Mathletics session! There will be Chromebooks out on the tables tomorrow morning for you and your child to log on to with their log in cards! We will also be there to answer any questions anyone might have.

We will then be sending home your child's Mathletics log in cards for you to use at home! 

We recommend using Mathletics for 15 minutes a day to support Mathematical fluency. 

Year 1 team

Year 1 - Fun At Maiden Castle Farm!

Hello everyone,

We enjoyed a lovely afternoon of weather for our farm trip today! We got to see lots of different animals and learn the names of males, females and babies! As well as walking through some pretty impressive puddles! 

Massive thank you to Hazel and Maiden Castle Farm! 

In regards to our trip to Marwell, we now have 2 additional spaces that have opened up for adult volunteers for the trip so if you are free on the 16th October and would like to help please come and speak to us! 

Year 1 team

Year 1 - Maiden Castle Farm Visit

Hello everyone! 

Tomorrow sees the beginning of our Food and Farming Fortnight! We will still be having a focus on our Zoo topic alongside this opportunity to gain a broader understanding of how farms might work and where our food truly comes from. 

Part of this will be our annual trip to Maiden Castle Farm to find out more about Harvest Time! The year 1 trip is Wednesday 2nd October in the afternoon! If anyone would like to come along and help out on this trip, please come and let us know! We will be back in school by 3.30pm

I also hope that you all received the updated Marwell Zoo trip letter on Friday! We will be venturing out on Wednesday 16th October. We are still asking for children to be in school at 8.15am on this day! Here's to hoping that the weather is a little better! I will continue to remind everyone as we get closer to the date.

A busy few weeks indeed! 

Year 1 - Welly Walk!

Hello everyone,

Even though our trip to Marwell Zoo was cancelled on Tuesday we still managed to get out and about, using the school grounds, to have some fun! Our welly walk took us around the school, picking up interesting things, harvesting apples and pears and of course, jumping into puddles... LOTS OF THEM!

We are working with Marwell to come up with alternate arrangements for this half term and will keep you posted on any outcomes. 

 

As a side note - we have a number of jumpers/cardigans and school trousers that are unnamed. If you are missing any and think these may be yours come and let us know. Please could we ask that all school uniform is named, thank you!

Please come and ask us any questions if you have any. 

Year 1 team

Year 1 - Marwell Zoo Trip Postponed

Hello everyone,

We have left this decision to the morning in the hope of a change in conditions... However, due to the ongoing weather warning in place, we have made the difficult decision to postpone today's Year 1 trip.

We will write to Year 1 parents and carers later today with our revised plan going forward.

Year 1 children should report to school today at the usual time in school uniform.

Any questions, please feel free to email Mr. Spracklen at - headteacher@princeofwales.dorset.sch.uk.

Year 1 - Another Week!

Hello everyone,

Another week has passed and it already seems to be flying by! This week we have continued our exploration of zoos by looking at the Dear Zoo book by Rod Campbell. This book gives a simple and easy template for writing and we have written to the pet shop to ask for our favourite pets... Lots of examples are now up in the Writing Hall Of Fame in the main school corridor! So if you get the chance please go and take a look at some brilliant learning.

In other news, we have pressed on with Power Maths and been covering one more and one less this week. Also, in science we have begun looking at grouping animals; mammals, amphibians, lizards, reptiles, fish and insects - and the features of each group. Finally, in art we have been planning and creating animals with..... food! Some amazing examples throughout this post!

Hopefully all children have now come home with a home reading book from their Read, Write, Inc group. These should be in book bags and we would ask that book bags come in to school daily and are put in trays as they are regularly needed during the day. 5 minutes of reading at home daily is also encouraged.

A MASSIVE THANK YOU to everyone for bringing in their permission slips for the Marwell Zoo trip next week. A message came home this week asking for children to be in school by 8.15am on the day. This is different to what originally went out on the letter. We will then be returning by 16.30pm at the latest. Drop off and pick up will be at the front of the school. We are currently expecting rain on Tuesday so please can we ask that children come to school with a waterproof coat and wellies if proffered. 

As always, please come and see us if there is anything we can help with.

Year 1 team

Year 1 - Wet Gear

Hi everyone,

As we settle into the school year we will begin going on some 'Welly Walks' with the children to explore the school grounds as well as complete various bits of learning across the curriculum. 

It would be amazing if all children could have a few pieces of kit at school that you don't mind potentially getting a bit wet and muddy - especially as the weather becomes more inclement! A coat/overalls and/or trousers plus wellies would be very appreciated.

Please feel free to use the hooks and shelving outside the year 1 classroom to store these. Of course, if you need them for home use you are very welcome to take them back!?

If you have any questions about this please come and see us!

Year 1 team

Year 1 - This Week...

Hello everyone,

It has been lovely to work through our first full week together in year 1! The children are really beginning to settle in to the routine of the day. Although... there may be some very tired children. 

We have started learning about zoo animals in our literacy with 'adjectives' being introduced today! We have explained this as a word used to describe a thing - pretending to be an alien and not knowing anything about things!

In science this week we carried out the 'Elephant's Toothpaste' experiment! Because how else are elephants meant to brush their teeth?! We also began looking at MRS GREN and what it means for something to be alive... see if you can remember what the different letters stand for - some very complicated words! 

 

In Maths we will be looking at mastering numbers up to 10 for the next couple of weeks. In particular we are introducing how to write the words of numbers up to 10! I have popped some bits in the home learning wallets that everyone is very welcome to take.

Finally, I hope that the parents information session on Tuesday was useful as well as the termly newsletter. If there is anything you are unsure of still please come and find us. 

Year 1 team

Year 1 - Back to School!

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the year 1 class blog! We are already 2 school days down and what a 2 days it has been. The whole team have been super impressed with the children as they begin their new year! Some really positive attitudes being brought into school and this class is very much ready for the next step on their learning journey! Thank you to all of you also for being so supportive and lovely when coming into school in the mornings. If there are ever any questions, please come and find us!

We had a go at combining phonics and water balloons earlier on today!

We've explored some science experiments too with pepper, water and washing up liquid! What could possibly be happening here!?

I will be sharing further information next week during the parent information session next Tuesday 10th September at 9am in the staffroom so if you are able to pop along please do. 

Year 1 team