Summer
Week Beginning 8th July 2024
English
In English, we've been exploring acrostic poems. We learned that these poems do not need to rhyme, but each line must start with a different letter of the main word. Additionally, we've been looking the use of exclamation marks. We spoke about their placement within sentences and the reasons for using them. We practiced creating sentences that function as commands or express surprise. We also practiced spelling words that end in the suffixes -ed, -ing, and -er.
Maths
In Maths, we've been learning about time. We explored different measurements of time, such as seconds, minutes, and hours, and discussed when it would be appropriate to use each one. We practiced telling time to the hour using clocks. To understand seconds and minutes better, we engaged in practical activities where we estimated how long certain tasks would take or how many times we could complete a task within a minute.
Science
For our Science Week project, we learned about bug hotels and why they are important for nature. We took a walk around the school to find a suitable location for our bug hotel, using our knowledge of what insects like. This week, we built our bug hotel. We placed dried leaves between the pallets and added bamboo sticks for the bugs to walk on. Finally, we placed soil on top so plants can grow.
Both classes would like to say a massive thank you to Mr. Larkin for taking the time to help us build the bug hotels.
We couldn't have done it without you!
Thank you to all Parents/Guardians that have read with your child/ren at home this week.
Class teachers will be checking diaries on Monday.
Week Beginning 24th June 2024
English
This week in English we have been recapping our comprehension and spellings. We thought carefully about using our phonic sounds to help us spell unfamiliar words. We also started looking at the 'un' prefix and put it in front of the root word to change its meaning e.g. kind ---> unkind helpful ----> unhelpful
Maths
In Maths this week we have recapping both our arithmetic and reasoning skills. We worked on subtracting numbers
and thought about different ways we could solve the calculations e.g. using a number line, using concrete objects,
mental maths and lots of other suggestions.
History
In History this week we carried on our topic of toys and thought about the different toys from our Grandparents generation,
our Parents generation and our own generation. We sorted the images of different toys and discussed how some of the toys
fell into more than one category e.g. teddys and dolls.
Thank you to all Parents/Guardians that have read with your child/ren at home this week.
Class teachers will be checking diaries on Monday.
Week Beginning 17th June 2024
English
This week in English we have been working on spelling our tricky words correctly. We had a go on Monday at
spelling the first 49 tricky words then put the ones we got wrong into sentences on Tuesday, remebering to be
extra careful to spell them correctly this time. At the end of the week we planned and wrote a letter
asking for permission from our site managers to build a bug hotel.
Maths
In Maths this week we have been looking at money. We have looked at both coins and notes and have
worked on adding the amounts together and ordering them correctly from smallest to largest amount.
Science
This week was Science Week! We walked around the outdoor area of our school and looked really carefully at
the natural and non natural areas. We spoke about the importance of looking after the natural environments and
how much we want to ensure we look after the wildlife on our school site.
Well done to Sycamore Class who completed their 100 books reading challenge this week!
They enjoyed a craft afternoon using Hama beads.
Thank you to all Parents/Guardians that have read with your child/ren at home this week.
Class teachers will be checking diaries on Monday.
Week Beginning 10th June 2024
English
This week in English, we continued exploring the story "Room on the Broom." We began by answering comprehension questions to test our understanding of the story. Our next focus was on the suffixes -ing, -ed, and -er. We looked for examples of these suffixes in the book and observed how they changed the meaning of the root words. After that, we practised adding these suffixes to root words and used the newly formed words in sentences. We wrapped up the week by writing a book review of "Room on the Broom," sharing our thoughts on the story.
Maths
In Maths, we focused on comparing numbers with the same number of tens and then moved on to comparing any two numbers. We used the greater than, less than, and equal to symbols to compare these numbers. Next, we delved into the concept of unitising, understanding that an item may not always have the value of one. This foundation will be very helpful as we transition to our next topic: understanding money.
Both Mrs Sweeting and I are proud of how well the children learned the alien words during their reading.
The children really put in a lot of effort!
Thank you to all Parents/Guardians that have read with your child/ren at home this week.
Class teachers will be checking diaries on Monday.
Week Beginning 3rd June 2024
English
In English this week we have been looking at the 'Room on the Broom' story by Julia Donaldson. We started the week
by sequencing the story and recording sentences next to each image. Our challenge was to include the conjunction 'and' in
our sentences e.g. The witch was flying on her broom and the ginger cat was sitting on the back.
Towards the end of the week we started to look at both rhyming words and using adjectives to describe the different
settings in the story.
Maths
In Maths this week we have been partitioning numbers into 10s and 1s. We looked at a mixture of 2-digit
numbers and then worked together to find out how many tens there were and how many ones there were
e.g. 54 = 5 tens and 4 ones.
Science
This week in Science we learnt about the famous scientist/engineer Caroline Haslett. Caroline worked
with the Government many year ago to encourage young girls to learn more about engineering and electricity.
We wrote sentences about Caroline and drew a picture too.
PHONICS
Thank you to all Parents/Guardians that attended the Phonic Check meeting before half-term.
All Year 1 children have had a phonics pack sent home that contains pages of both real and alien words for the children
to read at home to help support their decoding skills.
Please do not worry about this being brought back into school, the sheets are for the children to keep at home to
read as part of their 4-times weekly reading.
Thank you to all Parents/Guardians that have read with your child/ren at home this week.
Class teachers will be checking diaries on Monday.
Week Beginning 20th May 2024
English
We continued our learning journey with the book The Tiger Who Came to Tea. In our first English lesson, which also incorporated art, we designed new front covers featuring a different animal coming to tea. Next, we planned our own stories about a different animal coming to tea, describing the animal's appearance using adjectives. The following day, we retold the story using our chosen animal. We also answered comprehension questions about The Tiger Who Came to Tea.
Maths
We began the week by concluding our topic on direction with a lesson about "above" and "below." Following that, we learned about ordinal numbers and their practical uses. Oak Class had races to determine who would come in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place. Now, we have progressed to learning numbers 50-100. We had a lesson on counting from 50 to 100 and also practised counting by tens to 100.
Thank you to all Parents/Guardians that have read with your child/ren at home this week.
Class teachers will be checking diaries on Monday.
Week Beginning 13th May 2024
English
This week we started our learning on The Tiger Who Came to Tea and it has been fantastic! We started by sequencing
the events from the story and recorded sentences to accompany each one. We then thought about what the characters might
say during the story and used our imagination to create speech for them
e.g. "What a lovely day we've had" said Sophie happily. We tried hard to remember to use speech marks but the main
thing we needed to do was say what we wanted to write out loud before recording it. We will continue with this story
next week and will even be creating a character of our own to replace the tiger!
Maths
In Maths this week we started our work on position and direction. We learnt about forwards/backwards, left/right,
up/down and we spoke about turns too. Some of the questions we looked at were quite a challenge but we made sure
to look carefully at the direction the person or animal were travelling and there were arrow clues to help us.
Religious Education
In R.E. this week we continued with our learning about 'Our Wonderful World' and learnt about the Creation Story
from the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths. We drew our own pictures showing that people believe the sun, moon and stars
were created on the fourth day and that land animals and humans were created on the sixth day.
We produced some lovely work and our teachers were very impressed.
Phonic Check Meeting
The Phonic Check meeting has been rearranged for Wednesday 22nd May. We hope you can still make it.
Thank you to all Parents/Guardians that have read with your child/ren at home this week.
Class teachers will be checking diaries on Monday.
Week Beginning 29th April 2024
English
In English class, we've been diving into the book "Alan's Big, Scary Teeth." First, we made predictions about the story's potential twists and turns. Next, we got creative and made "wanted" posters for Alan, the alligator, and posted them all around the school—keep your eyes peeled! Finally, we worked on enhancing our writing by using the conjunction "and" in our sentences.
Maths
In math class, we've been focusing on halving. We started by understanding that halving means dividing something into two equal parts. To grasp this concept, we each split a Jaffa Cake with a partner, making sure neither of us ended up with the bigger piece—it was all about fairness! After that, we practised halving different quantities. We divided our cubes into two groups, ensuring each group was exactly equal. This hands-on approach helped us see how halving works in real-life scenarios.
Thank you to all Parents/Guardians that have read with your child/ren at home this week.
Class teachers will be checking diaries on Monday.
Week Beginning 22nd April 2024
English
In English this week, we have been continuing our learning about the story 'What the Ladybird Heard'.
At the start of the week we thought about what the characters in the story might say
e.g. Hefty Hugh could say "Oh no! The police have arrived!"
Later in the week we started to write our own retell of the story but we did this in 2 parts.
We thought very carefully about using capital letters, full stops, finger spaces, neat handwriting and speech marks
correctly in our story writing and self-assessed all of these things on Friday.
Maths
In Maths this week, we have been looking at equal groups, arrays and sharing. We started the week by adding equal
groups together e.g. 5 + 5 + 5 = 15 instead of 5 + 5 + 4 as these groups are not equal.
By the end of the week we were making equal groups which some of us did practically and others did on whiteboards.
PSHE
In PSHE this week we were thinking about friendships and came up with a variety of ideas about
how we can make a new friend. We thought about how to behave e.g. being kind, being friendly but also about
what to say - "Hello, my name is ....., what's your name?" or "Welcome to our school, would you like to play with me?"
We acted out using these ideas and some of us pretended to be a new child starting at the school.
Well done to both classes for completing their 100 books Reading Challenge this week!
Both Oak and Sycamore will now start back at 0 books and will work towards their next 100 reads.
Phonic Check Meeting
Thank you to all Parents/Carers who have returned the green slip re: the Phonic Check meeting on
Wednesday 8th May. If you have not yet returned your slip please do so before Wednesday 1st May.
Many thanks.
Thank you to all Parents/Guardians that have read with your child/ren at home this week.
Class teachers will be checking diaries on Monday.
Week Beginning 15th April 2024
It was wonderful to welcome everyone back for the summer term!
English
This week in English, we've delved into the story "What the Ladybird Heard." We've been sharpening our prediction skills, brainstorming adjectives for the characters, and coming up with simple noun phrases using those adjectives.
Maths
In Maths, our focus has been on counting in 2s, 5s, and 10s. We've enjoyed singing songs and identifying patterns in numbers that help with counting—like spotting that numbers ending in 0 or 5 always belong to the 5s sequence.
Science
Our Science lessons have kicked off with an exciting introduction to plants. We learned about the different parts of a plant and even planted our sunflowers in pairs, which we're eager to see grow!
Thank you to all Parents/Guardians that have read with your child/ren at home this week.
Class teachers will be checking diaries on Monday.
