Year 1 - Summer term spellings

Hello everyone,

In today's blog I'm simply listing the spelling tests I would have been doing with year 1 this term.

If getting your child to learn spellings feels like a stretch too far please don't worry - there are no expectations for you to do these at home. I'm just wanting to give you the option should you wish to.


Week 1:
now, how, brown, down, town, out, about, mouth, sound, you.

Week 2:
very, happy, funny, party, family, dizzy, smelly, silly, jolly, sunny.

Week 3:
for, short, born, horse, morning, more, score, before, wore, shore.

Week 4:
saw, draw, yawn, crawl, claw, author, August, dinosaur, astronaut, your.

Week 5:
air, fair, pair, hair, chair, bare, dare, care, share, scared.

Week 6:
dear, hear, beard, near, year, clear, fear, bear, wear, pear.


The year 1 team. xx

Year 1 - Literacy focus

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all doing well and enjoyed the first week back of the summer term at virtual school. Whenever I can, I watch Today at POW and I'm always very excited seeing the learning and creations your children have shared with Mr Spracklen. It is also lovely to hear directly from you. I am always more than happy to reply to your emails so pleased don't be afraid to contact me if you have any questions or comments or concerns. c.browne@princeofwales.dorset.sch.uk

From the emails I have received recently I get the impression that many of you have some concerns about  literacy and writing specifically.   
Firstly, please let me reassure you that when we return to school we will fully support your child to get back on track with their learning. However, when it comes to literacy there is so much that you can do to support your child's development that doesn't involve them picking up a pencil.

Read to them. Listening to your child read as often as you can is important but it is still very beneficial to your child to listen to you read books that they are unable to read themselves.

Talk. Please try not to worry if your child is feeling reluctant to do any 'formal' writing at home. Instead take the opportunity to talk to them. This could be about the day's literacy task (discussing ideas rather than writing them down) or it could be about a topic that interests you or your child. Last week's 'Would you rather' activity is an example of a simple game that you could play but any topic that gets your child talking and developing their ideas would be great.   

Other methods of recording ideas. Fostering your child's creativity and helping them develop their thoughts and vocabulary is probably the most valuable opportunity you can give your child at this time. Therefore if your child wants to record or express their ideas in an alternative way then please embrace this. They may like to create a role play or dress up area, perhaps they could draw pictures or write a comic book. Some of them may like to record their voice or perhaps they may like to be filmed sharing or performing their ideas.


How to engage with the Literacy challenges.

In this week's Prezi presentation, in addition to the whole school literacy challenges, I will begin to introduce some Year 1 specific Literacy activities that link to this term's Pirates topic. I will also share with the children how to develop their ideas using a Think, Talk, Practice and Record approach which I use in school.
 

Think: Children are given some time to think about their ideas.
Talk: In school we call this Turn to you partner. Children are encouraged to talk to each other (or an adult) about their ideas and opinions. This helps them to further develop their thoughts, and to gain ideas and perspectives from their partner. As an adult in this scenario you might like to help them develop their vocabulary by using new or alternative words and by encouraging them to use descriptive language. Once your child has spoken to you it would also be helpful to them for you to share your ideas also. 
Practice: Before the children record their ideas I encourage them to develop and say each sentence out loud. This gives them the chance to hear whether it makes sense and whether they can improve it.
Record: Finally the children record their sentences. Often at school, this is by writing it down but recording their voice or filming them is just as worthwhile so please explore this if your child is reluctant to physically write. You may find that your child will experiment more with language if they know that they don't have to write their ideas down.

Please remember that your child is not falling behind. Every child in the country is in the same position and when we return to school we will nurture your child and help them to reach their full potential.

Lots of love,
Ms Browne, Mrs Cura, Mrs Rogers & Mrs Barrow. xx

 

Year 1 - Back to virtual school and inspired to learn Earth Day challenge

Hello everyone,

Welcome back to the Summer term of virtual school. I hope you had a lovely Easter.

This week we will return to the full virtual school program of learning which can be fully accessed through the school website or via face book.
Year 1 are the youngest learners following the maths and literacy slides so to support them I will continue to provide a Prezi presentation which aims to guide them through the activities and provide additional videos to support their learning. If you have any suggestions as to how I can improve these for your child please let me know.   

On Wednesday it is Earth day and Mrs Thorpe would love you to take part in our Inspired to learn Earth day challenge which is detailed below.

I hope you have a good week. Please get in touch with any questions, comments or suggestions.

Lots of virtual hugs,
Ms Browne

   

   

To celebrate Earth Day on Wednesday 22nd April 2020 we would like you to share a picture of either...

Something you have done in isolation that you think is saving the world e.g. planting seeds, recycling, reusing some recycling in craft activities.

OR

Make, paint or draw a picture of something you love about the world. It could be your favourite place you would like to visit when we can, your favourite animal, something you have seen in your garden or your daily exercise walk if you are able to do them.

If you would like to share a picture that we can use in a collage to celebrate Earth Day please send these to b.thorpe@princeofwales.dorset.sch.uk


 

Year 1 - Unit 9 Maths resources

Hello everyone,

I hope you are doing well. This blog gives you an outline of some of the resources that you might like to make to support your child once they start working through unit 9 next week.

Unit 9 will extend children's understanding of numbers to 50. It will allow them to apply their knowledge of addition and subtraction to larger numbers.

There are a few resources that would be helpful in strengthening your child's understanding of this unit if possible. You may be able to find some of these resources online and print them, although I'm showing you how to make them at home if that isn't possible.  I used a ruler, pencil, card, scissors and a black pen. 

Number tracks

Number tracks are useful for ordering and comparing numbers, allowing children to relate the larger numbers to the smaller ones they are familiar with.

This is an example of some number tracks. Ideally you will want up to 50.

If you have access to a printer you should be able to print out a hundred square which you could use to make number tracks and / or use in place of number tracks.

Base 10 resources 

Base 10 resources help children to develop their understanding between tens and ones. 
This picture shows you what the actual equipment looks like and how you might want to make a 2D version for children to use.

For this unit we will only be using the ones (individual blocks/ squares) and the rods (connected columns / rectangles made up of 10 ones). 

The rods have lines to show ten connected ones, unfortunately not visible in the picture. 

Ten frames

Some more ten frames may be useful to help give children a sense of 10 and cross tens more easily when adding and subtracting. It may also be helpful to have more counters. 

Part whole model

The part whole models that some of you may have made previously will again be useful for this topic. It may be helpful to allow your child to write numbers of scrap pieces of paper to place into the model rather than write directly on it.

As ever please don't feel that you must do any of the above. I'm just giving you information to support you and your child's home learning experience.

I will continue to provide a prezi presentation of next week's virtual school with additional material for year 1.  

I hope you are having a lovely week.

Kind regards,

Ms Browne

 

Year 1 - Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

Myself, Mrs Cura, Mrs Rogers and Mrs Barrow hope you are having a lovely Easter and have the opportunity to enjoy this beautiful weather.

We hope that you are well and know that we all miss you and your children very much. I spoke to Mrs Cura last week and she told me how much she enjoys the opportunity to talk to you all. Please also remember to get in touch if you have any questions or if we can support you in any way.

My family and I are entering our 5th week of being at home and it is interesting to notice the differences in how we are coping. My husband and daughter seem happy to take a very flexible approach to the situation whereas my son has recently requested a timetable. His timetable isn't academic based (although it does have a time for reading) but knowing what is coming up next is making him much happier -  I also found that I enjoy the structure that it gives our day.

How we cope with this situation will be different for each of us and there is no approach that will suit everyone. It has been lovely to see the learning that your children have been doing in virtual school but it is equally lovely to see the mud pie or lego construction they may have made.

Next week I will blog about the additional power maths resources that would be helpful for your child for the next power maths topic. Two A4 sized pieces of card would be useful for these (cereal box card for example).


Lots of love,
Ms Browne, Mrs Cura, Mrs Rogers and Mrs Barrow. xx
         

Year 1 - Friday 3rd April

Well done everyone!

Congratulations for getting through the past fortnight. It has been a big adjustment for all of us   

Spellings

If you are wanting to continue testing your child on their spellings last week's spellings were:
five, ride, like, tide, side, home, those, woke, hope, hole

The next set of spellings to learn are:
June, rule, rude, flute, use, tube, tune, huge, cute, cube 

Have a lovely Easter break

There won't be any maths or literacy activities set on our virtual school over the next fortnight as it is the Easter holidays. There will continue to be daily challenges set - although please don't feel any pressure to do them, they are simply ideas for holiday activities if you want to do them.

Even though it is the holidays school staff will still be working and checking emails. Please get in touch with us if you need any help or support - we are always here for you.
c.browne@princeofwales.dorset.sch.uk       

We hope you manage to have a lovely break over Easter. Hopefully we will have some beautiful spring weather and you and your families will be able to spend some time outside.

All our love,
Ms Browne, Mrs Cura, Mrs Rogers & Mrs Barrow