Sunday 5th February 2017

Hooray - nearly all back this week!!And it was also Whole School Art Week!!

On Monday we all mixed up with Nursery and Reception and took turns in each classroom, helping to produce 3 big pieces of art work!
In Nursery, we made a deep sea frieze, full of fish. In Reception, we used fingerprints in paint to fill in the London skyline. And in Y1 we used tissue paper collage in the style of Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) to make 3 giant snowmen (photos later!).

Then, we set sail across the ocean on the White Shark Pirate ship.

We found ourselves blown south (using our compasses!!) and landed in a very hot strange land full of very strange animals...

The pirates noticed kangaroos, koalas, echidnas, emus and even duck-billed platypus - we were in Australia!!!
We found out about the first people who lived in Australia - the Aborigines and listened to a traditional story about the Rainbow Serpent. We listened to people playing the Didgeridoo (and had a go ourselves using a big tube....

And as it was Art Week, we found out about Aboriginal Dot Painting. We looked at lots of pictures and then had a try ourselves....

It takes a lot of patience - but we made some fantastic pictures...

We also managed to fit in some maths. We are learning to use a number line to help us calculate answers to addition and subtraction number sentences.

We know to put our finger on the number to start, then count how many jumps and look at which number we finish at - but we also know that Miss Karen might try to trick us - so we have to look carefully to see if it is an add, or a minus sign, then think about which way to jump!!

Homework this week is reading (Please remember to make sure an adult signs to say you have read your books!  And spelling words;  so,  go,  no,  we,  me  (remember to think about the sizes of the letters!)

Saturday 28th January 2017

Hi!! Sorry about the gap!!
Christmas is just so busy!!

Happy New Year (better late than never!!)

Literacy (and Topic)

Our first three weeks back in the New Year have been rather odd as we haven't had more than 6 or 8 children in and often different children each day or week - so we have done some little short projects!!

We began by finding a note from Pirate Captain Killer Karen, who needed some new sailors (Deck-hands) to join her pirate ship - the White Shark.

One child said they were scared and didn't want to go, so another suggested we should just send all the Dads instead!!!!

Our new pirates made their pirate outfits and wrote a letter to their parents to say where they had gone - off on a new world adventure!! And we all now have a Pirate name!

We have read books and stories about pirates and learnt about a compass and the directions - North, South, East and West. We even made our own compass by magnetising a needle and floating it on water so it turned to point North.

This also led to a lot of play and investigation of magnets and which materials are attracted to magnets and which not!

We haven't managed to set sail for the new world yet as we are waiting for a few more of our Deck-hands to come back!!

But we have made pirate hats, eye patches and cutlasses!

We are now very good at knowing the days of the week and putting them in the right order, so we are now concentrating on the months of the year (very important as it means we can all talk alot!! about our birthdays!!!).

This week we have done a mini project after reading an excellent book by Julia Donaldson, called Stick Man.
We have written a letter, pretending to be Stick Man, telling his children he is trying to get home, and have all made our own Stick Man (or Lady), as well as a few extra stick people to put on our display!!
We have also watched the BBC animation of the Stick Man (which is very well done and definitely worth watching if you can watch BBC iplayer!!).


Maths

We have looked at and practised counting in 5s and noticed that all the numbers we say when we do this end in a 5 or 0!

We have learnt lots of new names for 3D shapes and can tell the difference between a 2D and 3D shape. We have counted faces, edges and vertices.
We had a go at making our own 3D shapes from the magnetic construction set and made labels for them on our display shelves.

This also prompted lots of building projects, where they were telling us what shapes they had used....

We have also started to learn about number sentences with missing numbers. First we looked at how the equals sign acts as a balance scale and we have to try to make it balance by making the numbers on each side have the same value.
This also prompted lots of exploration using the balance scales!!

We have also looked at how we can use a number line to help us add and subtract - but you have to be careful...... or Miss Karen might trick you and make you go the wrong way!!

Homework

Homework has changed a little bit - please check your child's folder for the letter!!

But it must still be returned on Thursday! This is the day when I have time to mark homework and check returned books.

Reading - Please note that we will only change/give new reading books if an adult has signed the form (in the back of the file) to say that the books have been read!!

Writing - we are now trying to help the children to remember how to write some of the tricky words, so the emphasis is more on remembering the correct spelling - but they do still need to think about their handwriting and the sizes of the letters.

Monday 14th November

Whoosh!  Kerpow!

We have continued our Super Heroes topic this week. We talked about super powers and chose which super powers we would like to have - ranging from throwing balls of lava, changing into different animals and invisibility to a good memory and to finish all their homework which we have written across the front of super underpants!!

We have each created our own Super Hero, drawing them and writing all about their costumes and super powers - Dragonfly Girl, Invisible Girl, Leopard Boy, Icey Girl, Kind Girl and Hockey Jeff!!

In maths we have continued learning to tell the time - we are learning   o'clock.

Our handwriting focus this week was  u    y    and e.

In phonics we are continuing to look at tricky words but have also looked at    ow    and   ou both making the sound as in cow.

We are now starting to rehearse properly for the Christmas play. Please make sure that your child is learning their words and practising reading them aloud slowly in a clear voice!!!

We are also learning the songs and all the words. The words to the first 6 songs are here on the Blog (or will be when I find out how to do it!!) - please help them to learn them!!

Look out for information about costumes!!

We are currently offering Parents Meetings where you can come and talk with me about how your child is settling into Y1 and ask any questions you have. Please sign up for a meeting if you haven't already (most days between 15.00 and 17.00)!!

Monday 7th November

Our new topic this week has been Super Heroes!!

We have read SuperTato by Sue Hendra, who saved the vegetables from the evil Pea!! And also The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man by Michael Chabon (try to guess his real identity!) and we have listened to Charlie's Super Hero Underpants.

Click on the links on the top right to listen to the stories (SuperTato is a different adventure to the one I have in school!).

We have identified everything you need to be a Super Hero (including wearing your under-pants on the outside!!) and made our own 'Splat words' - Pow! Crash! as well as Masks and Super Cuffs!!

We are working hard on our handwriting and have practised 'r' and 's' this week.

In maths we have looked a names and properties of 2D shapes and found lots of them in our classroom!! We have also started to look at how to tell the time using an analogue clock.

2d shapes - square, rectangle, triangle, circle, pentagon, hexagon and octagon
 - how many sides and how many corners

We have also just started to get our Christmas Production going - we all know who we are in the play and we all know our starting position on the stage!!

HOMEWORK - this week Y1 have their reading books and Tricky Words as usual, but they also have their lines for the play - please help them to learn their lines. They need to know who speaks before them too! Please encourage them to read slowly and loudly - but not shouting!

They need to bring their words with them every day!!

And to finish, our Halloween biscuits!!