Week Beginning 22nd April

This week we have continued to learn our Lost and Found story in English. We have completed 3 short burst writing activities focusing on similes, weather and times of day and the power of three. Next week we will begin editing the text by changing the character. 

In Maths this week we carried on counting in 2 5 and 10 and also started to look at equal groups. we will carry on with this next week and look at sharing. 

This week in Science we went on a nature walk around the field looking for different types of trees, we took a leaf identification sheet and spotted lots of types of trees, then we used natural materials collected form the field to build and label our own trees. 

Week Beginning 16th April

Welcome back to what is an exciting term. Warmer weather, swimming and educational visits all await us in the summer term.

In English this week, we have started a new unit. We discovered a large block of ice in the classroom with a sad, lonely penguin sitting on top. We thought about it and realised it must be the penguin from Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers.  

We have created poems about penguins with a focus on using excellent adjectives and verbs.

We have also created a story plan with actions to help us learn the text. Next week we will be learning some skills to help us improve our writing.

In Maths, we are learning about multiplication. We have been counting in twos, fives and tens. We think counting backwards is more tricky so would like to practice that at home too. We learnt that equal groups always have the same amount. 

Next week we will continue to learn about multiplication, including arrays.

In science, we worked scientifically to dissect different flowering plants and sorted their parts. We then discussed how plants have roots, stems, leaves and flowers, but they do not look the same.

Week Beginning 25th March

This week we have finished our Supertato stories. Everyone did so well creating their own villain and were very creative with their ideas. After Easter we will be looking at a new story - Lost and Found. 

In Maths this week we have finished Capacity and Volume. We measured the capacity of different contains and ordered them from greatest to least. We will be moving on to multiplication after the holidays. 

In DT this week we made bridges using spaghetti and marshmallows, we thought about our designs and carefully made our own free standing structures.

We were so proud of the children's dances this week, a great end to our dance sessions with Mr Rae.

Next half term we will be starting our Earth Art unit - please could everyone bring in a pebble, the size of your hand for us to decorate in the first week. 

Have a lovely break!

Week Beginning 18th March

We had a great time parading with our Easter bonnets this morning. What an amazing display it made!

In English this week, we have been innovating our text of Supertato and together, created a new villain who gets up to some mischief in the supermarket. Next week we will decide on our own villain and write a complete story independently.

In maths, we have been learning about mass. We compared the mass of different objects and used non-standard units to weigh them. We had lots of practical use of balance scales to develop our skills.

Next week we will be learning about capacity and volume.

In Design and Technology, we had to make a free standing bridge with a piece of A4 paper and building blocks. There was a design criteria which included, the bridge had to support eight cubes at its centre. There were lots of different designs.

We are looking forward to our dance performance next week and hope you can come and watch.

Mrs Ball and Miss Charlton want to gently remind you that our Little Wandle reading books need to be back on Mondays as other children will need to read them.

Many thanks and we hope you enjoy the Easter egg hunt on Sunday

Week Beginning 11th March

This week we continued to learn our Supertato text, we have revised verbs and adverbs and looked for them in the text. We also looked at the power of 3 and identified sentences that used the power of 3. Next week we will be innovating the text with our own character for Supertato to defeat. 

We have finished measuring this week, we used our ruler to measure objects in the classroom and talked about how to use the ruler to measure accurately. We also used our estimating skills to 'guess' the measurements of different objects before we measured. Next week we will be moving on to capacity. 

We really enjoyed going on a Spring walk round the school grounds for Science yesterday. Everyone was very good at spotting the signs of Spring and wrote down how things change during the season. Next week we will be looking at our plants. 

Thank you for the photos that have been sent in so far for Geography, there is still time to send in a picture of your home for our lesson on Wednesday.

Have a great weekend!

Week Beginning 4th March

This week we started learning our new text for English Supertato! Everyone was very excited to find vegetables stranded in the classroom and have been creative with their ideas. Next week we will be focusing on our writing skills and reinventing the text. 

In Maths this week we have been looking at measuring. We used the words longer, shorter and taller to compare objects and found out who was the tallest and shortest in the class. Next week we will be measuring using the ruler. 

Science was all about recycling yesterday and caring for our planet. We thought about how we can look after our world and made posters for the classroom. 

Well done to everyone for their amazing outfits for World Book Day yesterday, it was so lovely to share our favourite books and get excited about reading. 

Next week dance will be on Friday.

Have a lovely weekend!

Week Beginning 26th February

Another amazingly busy week in Year 1.

In English, we have innovated and written fact files about our chosen giant. We have managed to use punctuation conjunctions and description to help inform our reader. Next week we start a new fiction unit featuring a hero and a baddie.

In Maths we continued learning and applying our knowledge of number and place value to 50.

We used this knowledge to order and place numbers on a number line and to estimate numbers. We also counted by grouping into tens and ones and found 1 more/1 less than a given amount. Practising the recognition of numbers between 20 and 50 is always helpful at this stage of the year. Maybe identify house numbers as you walk home. Next week we start a unit on measures (length and height)

In music, we use tuned and untuned instruments to create a piece of music that portrayed a character. We had to make sure that we were able to repeat the piece again.

In Geography, we went outside to locate places near our school gate. We had to find and label them on a map of the local area.

Our initial meetings for young leaders are beginning and the children are talking about their ideas. Don't forget World Book Day on Thursday. Information can be found in the weekly newsletters. We wish you a great weekend.

Week Beginning 19th February

Welcome back! We really enjoyed hearing about everyone's exciting half term. This week we continued with our Tree Giant text in English. We have started innovating the text and changed it to a Pincher Giant. Everyone had very creative ideas. Next week we will be doing our 'hot' write based around a choice of 3 different giants.

In Maths this week we were looking at numbers to 50 and representing them using tens and ones. We also looked at partitioning numbers. You may want to revisit these skills at home through this game - https://ictgames.com/sharkNumbers/mobile/index.html

Next week we will be looking at number lines and estimating.

This week in Science we learnt about reptiles and classified animals, we will be looking at what animals eat next week and finding out which are herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. 

We were very excited to welcome back Mr Rae on Tuesday! Everyone enjoyed learning the dance moves for our final Olympics themed dance performance.

This weeks Music lesson was all about characters and listening to how music changes to make us think about the character. We really enjoyed modelling the playdough along to the different pieces. 

Week Beginning 5th February

We have enjoyed many activities this week that help us to focus on wellbeing.  On Tuesday, Miss Charlton took an assembly which helped us think about how to stay safe when using the internet. On Wednesday, we wore our slippers and spent the day with our cuddly toys. We all agreed that it was a joyful experience. On Thursday, we focused on being proud of ourselves and our achievements. On Friday we enjoyed expressing ourselves by wearing our own clothes.

In History, we concluded our unit about the Victorians with a whole day of Victorian school. First of all we had a visit from Mrs. Bernado. She told us about children at that time and how they were treated. She also talked about how Mr Bernado helped to start Ragged Schools for children, so they could have an education. We made physical pictures, attended a workhouse and even tried mudlarking in the Thames. Later in the day, we did some sewing and woodwork.

In English, we continued our learning about The Tree Giant. We completed some writing to introduce a topic to inform our reader and wrote sentences with generalisers such as some, many, nearly all etc. We also used conjunctions to give greater detail in a sentence.

In Maths, we learnt more about addition and subtraction, including finding missing numbers and subtracting using a number line.

It has been an amazing half term and we cannot believe that we have been in Year 1 for half a school year!

Have a brilliant half term.

Week Beginning 29th January

This week we received a letter from the Rangers on Ashtead Common saying there had been a sighting of a rare species of giant, the Tree Giants! We were all very excited and started learning our new text all about The Tree Giants. Next week we will continue writing around this subject and complete short burst writing tasks to strengthen our skills. 

In Maths this week we have been looking at subtraction to 20 and other related facts for our number representations. You might want to challenge yourselves at home to write related facts and number sentences. 

In Art this week we designed our own surrealist clay sculptures, we will be making these next week. 

Our Science this week was all about fish, we found out about the features of fish and catergorised animals into mammals, fish or birds. Next week we will be finding our more about Reptiles!

Well done to both Owls and Rabbits for 2 fantastic assemblies this week, we are really proud of all of you! 

Week Beginning 22nd January

This week we finished our Enormous Turnip stories. We planned out the stories and thought about adjectives for our new characters. We are really proud of our stories and enjoyed sharing them with our Learning Partners. Next week we will be starting a 2 week non fiction piece.

In Maths this week we have been using our number bond facts to help us with addition to 20. We also revised our doubling skills and looked at how we could use doubling to help us with addition. 

In Science this week we learnt about birds and sketched our own scientific drawings of birds. Everyone worked so hard on these and drew careful detailed birds. Next week we will be sorting animals.

In Art this week we designed our own monster using printing techniques, we listened to the Jabberwock poem and thought about what our creatures might look like. We really enjoyed experimenting with the different techniques. 

We are looking forward to performing our class assemblies next week. Rabbit's is Tuesday 30th and Owls is Thursday 1st. We look forward to seeing you there. 

Week Beginning 15th January

This has been an amazing week!

We have continued learning about numbers to 20. Focusing on place value, we looked at the teens numbers as being ten-and-a-bit. We also estimated the position of numbers on an empty number line. In our Mastering Number sessions we have found addition bonds to six and eight.

In English, we are innovating characters for 'The Enormous Turnip' story and have thought about adjectives to describe them.  Next week we are writing the story independently with the addition of our new characters.

In music, we thought about the different ways that instruments are played and even made some of our own. 

We wish you a happy weekend and look forward to seeing you on Monday.

Week Beginning 8th January

When we arrived in the classroom on Monday we found an enormous turnip! We acted out the story and talked about the characters. This week we have been looking at short burst writing task, focusing on alliteration, adjectives and similes. We found out what these meant and wrote our own sentences using these techniques. Next week we will be editing the story and adding our own new characters. 

This week in Maths we have continued looking at numbers to 20. We have completed a number track, ordered numbers, found 1 more and 1 less and looked at different representations of numbers. Next week we will be learning how to estimate. 

This week in Science we planted seeds, we talked about the different parts of a plant and drew a labelled diagram. we are excited to watch our seeds grow! Next week we will start our Animals unit. 

Week Beginning 3rd January

First of all we would like to wish you all a... 

We have enjoyed being back at school and have started some exciting new topics.

In English, we have been exploring exciting adjectives and writing poems about our class animals.

Here is one written about this snowy owl.

Yellow eyes looking in the dark

Black beak screeching loudly

Spotty head turning to see

White wings gliding

In maths, we are learning about number and place value to twenty. We are recognising and sorting representations of amounts to twenty, including number words. We looked at how the the amounts between ten and twenty can be seen as ten-and-a-bit. We will continue with this next week.

In science, we revisited the four seasons and compared signs of winter with what we know about autumn. We have kept a weather chart and thought about the clothes we should wear at this time of year. Raincoats and wellies come to mind.

Next week we will start our art block about Joan Miro. 

Have a great weekend.

Week Beginning 11th December

What a busy final week of term we've had! In English this week we finished our instruction writing - How to catch a glimpse of Father Christmas. The children were very creative with their ideas and remembered the features of instruction writing. Next half term we will have a new fiction model text.

In Maths this week we have revisited some of our learning from this half term with a Christmas twist! In the New Year we will be starting Number and Place Value to 20. 

This week we also carried out an exciting Science experiment learning all about which materials absorb water. We made sure it was a fair test and were very interested by our findings!

We have really enjoyed all the Christmas celebrations this week, especially Party Day yesterday, everyone looked amazing in their party clothes! We were all so proud of our Angels and Shepherds at the Christmas Performance on Wednesday, everyone sang so beautifully and looked the part in their costumes.

A big THANK YOU for our lovely Christmas gifts, we really appreciate your generosity and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, see you all in 2024!

Week beginning 4th December 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Year 1. 

This week we were lucky enough to have a visit from Jayne who brought her nativity scene from St Georges and told us all about the special characters. We then made one of the characters with all the fabulous craft resources.

In English, we have been learning about writing instructions. Having learned how we might trap a wolf, we are now beginning to think about how we might catch a glimpse of Santa. Next week we will be writing instructions for this.

In maths, we have been revising and consolidating the learning from this half term. We have found missing parts in part whole models and adding or subtracting one or two from one-digit numbers.

Next week we will continue with consolidating our knowledge, but in a festive way.

In science, we found objects made of different materials and after prediting if the would float or sink, we had fun testing them.

We are busy practising our songs for the Christmas performance at St Georges and very much look forward to seeing you there on Wednesday.

Have a great weekend and hopefully see you all at the Christmas fair on Sunday.

Week Beginning 27th Nov

This week we started a new writing focus 'How to trap the BIg Bad Wolf!' We had a wanted poster in the classroom and have begun acting out the instructions. We also looked at our own instructions for making toast and sandwiches. Next week we will be looking at instruction writing in more detail.

In Maths this week we finished our Shape unit by looking at patterns and reviewed some of our reasoning and arithmetic. Next week we will be focusing on addition and subtraction.

We had an exciting Science session this week - we looked at ice in our learning partners and talked about how to melt the ice, everyone had lots of interesting ideas! We then put our water back in the freezer to see what would happen! 

Thank you to all our amazing helpers for our Art and DT Morning, we really enjoyed making all the crafts and our classrooms look very Christmassy! Have a lovely weekend 

Costumes for Christmas Performance at St George's 13th Dec

Rabbits - Angels

Dear Parents,

Your child is going to be an angel in this year’s performance.

Please provide the following costume, in a labelled bag, on Friday 8^th December: a white t-shirt and white tights or leggings and 2 metres of gold tinsel. No wings.

Thank you.

Owls - Shepherds and Innkeepers

Dear Parents,

Your child is going to be a shepherd/innkeeper in the Christmas Performance.

Please supply their costume in a labelled carrier bag on Friday 8^th

December: a long t shirt with tights or trousers, a check headdress (tea towel). The band securing the headdress needs to be easy to put on and keep it in place. A tea towel and some platted tights should do the job.

Thank you

Week Beginning 20th November

First of all, a big thank you to those who have offered to come in and help on Christmas DT morning. Also, please look in your child's bookbag for a tick list of items they need for making their angels. If you can find any of the resources at home that would be brilliant. There is a letter attached to your child's list that explains further.

In English this week, we have been writing our character descriptions. We have tried to include interesting adjectives, alliteration and sentences with the power of three. Stamina for writing and punctuation have really improved this half term.

Next week, we start a block of writing instructions. This will also be tied into the story of Red Riding Hood.

In maths, we have been learning about 2-D and 3-D shapes. We have been on shape hunts around school and named, sorted and learnt about some of their properties.

Next week, we look at patterns using shapes.

In Science, we went on a materials hunt and found objects that were made with the same material. We were learning the difference between objects, and the materials they are made from. We then recorded this in our books.

In Design and Technology, we made the fruit salad we designed last week. We all had a delicious, healthy snack. 

Week Beginning 13th November

This week we have been innovating our Little Red Riding Hood stories, we changed the villain and thought of adjectives to describe the characters in the story. Next week we will be writing a character profile for our new character. 

In Maths this week we have been focusing on subtraction. We looked at the crossing out to take away and how to count back on the number line. We will continue with this next week and start to look at 2D and 3D shapes.

This week in Music we were drumming to the beat, everyone enjoyed having a turn on the drums!

In Science this week we focused on rocks, we learnt about different types of rocks and sorted them into categories. Everyone really enjoyed looking at the different types of rocks.    

Week Beginning 6th November

In Maths this week, we have been continuing with addition and have started learning about subtraction. We used part-whole models to think about which part we could subtract and which part would be left. We then wrote number sentences using the correct symbols. Next week we continue learning about subtraction.

In English, we learned about the power of three. That is three describing parts of the same sentence. One of the children wrote:

The wolf is hungry, cheeky and has red eyes.

We focused on using a comma and the conjunction 'and' in the correct place.

They all did a great job of describing that naughty wolf.

In science, we started learning about materials and sorted different types for their properties.

In Geography, we looked at aerial photos and plans and drew an aerial plan of the classroom.We hope you have a great weekend.

Week Beginning 30th October

Welcome back! We had a busy first week. We started the week writing about our favourite characters using adjectives. On Thursday we had a basket and red cloak in the classroom! This half term we are learning the story of Little Red Riding Hood. We have drawn our story maps and will be writing parts of the story next week. 

In Maths this week we have been focusing on number bonds to 10. We have made them in different ways using 10s frames, bead strings and cubes. We wrote down as many number sentences to 10 as we could. Next week we will continue with addition and start subtraction. 

This half term we will be learning Geography and DT - We started by writing the school address and looking at our local area. This week in Science we have been looking at the seasons and keeping a weather chart. We also kept a rain gauge, can you remember how much rain we had this week? 

Today we will be sending home the Christmas card art work. Please return this to school by 7th November to receive your order. 

Week Beginning 16th October

This week we have been revisiting our new digraphs and tricky words in Phonics, next half term we will continue to learn alternative digraphs. In English this week we finished and edited our Paddington stories. Well done everyone, fantastic story writing! Next half term we will be looking at the story of Little Red Riding Hood. 

In Maths this week we started addition and fact families. We looked at the part whole model and 10s frames to make number sentences to 10. We will continue with this learning after half term. 

We have finished our Art and History units for this half term next we will be looking at DT and Geography.

Well done everyone for completing your first Half Term in Year 1! You have all worked so hard and we are really proud of you all!
Enjoy your break 

Week beginning 9th October

What a busy week!

In English, we have been writing our own version Paddington stories, where he visits different famous buildings in London. We have added detail by using adjectives and a range of prepositions to his travels. We will continue this next week.

In Maths, we have been counting forwards and backward within twenty and writing our own number lines. We also started our Mastering Number sessions this week. These are daily sessions, in addition to maths lessons, where we develop a deep understanding of numbers. It supports our fluency in calculating, and confidence and flexibility with numbers. We even get to use a Rekenrek. 

We have been busy learning our songs for Harvest and can't wait to perform on Thursday 19th at St Georges Church.

We hope you have a good weekend and don't forget to read your Little Wandle Book three times.

Week Beginning 2nd October

This week we have written our Paddington story together as a class. We thought of adjectives to make our writing more exciting. Next week we will be writing our own versions. 

In Maths this week we have been comparing and ordering numbers. We looked at the symbols for greater than, less than and equal to. Here is a fun song to help you remember the symbols https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6Efzu2slaI

In Science this week we looked at our sense of taste. we ate different food from each of the 5 tastes, sweet, salty, umami, sour and bitter. Next week we will be looking at our sense of touch. 

Week Beginning 25th September

In maths this week, we have continued our learning of number and place value. We focused on finding one less and comparing numbers using the vocabulary of fewer, less, more and the same.

In English, we have been writing sentences with prepositions and thinking about adding interesting vocabulary to sentences.

In music, we learned how to follow picture notation in order to perform our own pieces using body percussion. We enjoyed conducting our groups and checking we were keeping a steady pulse.

Week Beginning 18th September

This week we have been writing part of the Paddington story using time words and adjectives. We edited the original story and added in our own London landmarks. Today we drew pictures to match the story. Next week we will be writing the story as a class.

In Maths this week we have been looking at 1 more and 1 less. We also practised counting back and made our own rockets. Next week we will be looking at greater than and less than.

In Science this week we started learning about our senses. We tried to complete different activities wearing blindfolds to see how important our eyes are. Next week we will be looking at hearing. 

Please remember to bring back your group reading book every Monday, after reading 3 times over the weekend. 

Have a lovely weekend!

Week Beginning 11th September

We have had a lovely week. We enjoyed our last swim in the pool and surprised our adults by getting changed independently.

In English, we have learned how to write similes and how to use great adjectives. We were surprised to see footprints in our classroom on Wednesday and had to find out what had happened. We found out it was Paddington. We will be learning more about Paddington's visit to London in the coming weeks.

In Maths, we continue to learn about numbers up to ten. We have been counting on from any number, counting an amount from a larger number and representing numbers in different ways.

In science, we needed to answer the question: Does the oldest child in the class have the longest feet? We found out that this isn't always the case.

Week Beginning 5th September

We have had a great first week back!

Thank you for your support in getting the children to school on time and ready to learn. 

Have a wonderful weekend.