Autumn Term 2019
Autumn 2
Can you believe it, we’re a third of the way through Year One! What a term it has been with settling into life in KS1 and meeting some huge expectations. We’re all working hard, trying our best and becoming more independent and mature all the time.
In our English lessons we have made huge progress, our stamina has increased so we can read and write for longer periods which means the quality of work produced has sky-rocketed. All of the grown-ups in Year One are so impressed that we are using our ‘Fred Fingers’ to spell and are holding our sentences carefully, remembering capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. We’ve written about Bonfire Night and the Gunpowder Plot this half term as well as the Great Fire of London and the emergency services. We’ve had the police and the fire service come to visit us, both of which gave us a wonderful learning experience and the opportunity to ask lots (and lots!) of questions. We learned about Armistice Day and remembrance, talking about the people and animals that made huge sacrifices during war time. We’ve also managed to squeeze in another fairy story, this time ‘Rapunzel’ which has provided lots of chances to hone our acting skills using drama to act the traditional tale out as well as using adjectives to describe Rapunzel’s tower. After Christmas our first topic to cover is a History focus about life in the past.
In Maths we’ve been learning about addition and subtraction, using concrete objects to support our fluency but often accessing work in our books. We are trying hard with our number formation and our counting and are making wonderful progress. We’ve used tens frames, part whole models, bar models and bead strings to support our learning, and some of us are even moving on to fluency and problem solving activities on a supported basis. After Christmas we will continue to work on subtraction and then move on to geometry then place value using numbers up to 20 soon after.
We’ve done lots of lovely topic learning this half term with a huge history focus. We’ve learnt about the creation of the fire service since the Great Fire of London, about the events of the Gunpowder Plot and why we celebrate Bonfire Night every year. We’ve also done lots of art work surrounding remembrance and fireworks, painting by blowing through straws and creating beautiful poppies by collaging different materials. In Science we’ve sorted living and non-living things and had a wonderful adventure in the outdoor learning area looking for invertebrates and learning about different mini-beasts.
Time for a very well-deserved rest I think! Have a magical Christmas with your loved ones and we’ll see you back here in January 2020.
Miss Cragg, Mrs Harris and Mrs Mawson.
W.C: 23.09.19 – week 4
We’ve been looking at a new topic this week, learning about autumn and Harvest. In our English and Science lessons we have been exploring the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees by going on an autumn walk around the school grounds. We gathered leaves of different colours and textures, talking about where we saw them (on the trees or on the ground), noticing the difference between the leaves of deciduous and evergreen trees and looking for clues that autumn is on the way. We did some lovely writing about what we saw on our walk, working hard on including finger spaces and forming our lower case letters correctly.
We’ve also learned about Harvest, looking at different vegetables and fruits as well as talking about where food comes from and its journey from the farm to our plates. In Science we’ve been learning about the seasons, identifying the different clothing we might wear, the weather, as well as some of the changes that occur in nature. We’ve had the opportunity to do some great art work this week too, investigating the colour changes on trees as they shed their leaves.
In Maths we’ve continued our work with numbers, this time looking at one to one correspondence and moving on to comparing groups of objects using the language of greater than, less than and equal to. An episode of ‘Numberblocks’ has extended our learning by introducing the inequality symbols which we will explore in more depth in the coming weeks. Roald Dahl Day was a huge success, thank you for supporting our school by dressing up and for bringing in some lovely books to share.
Next week we will begin our learning about ‘Little Red Riding Hood’.
Dates for your diary:
Wednesday 9th October – Parents Evening – please see Miss Cragg or return your slip to book an appointment.
W.C: 16.09.19 – week 3
This week we have continued to learn about the ‘Three Little Pigs’. We have sequenced pictures from the story, discussed adjectives to describe the Big Bad Wolf for a Wanted poster and we have also written a letter from the Wolf to apologise to the pigs for destroying their houses. We have been focusing on capital letters to start our sentences, forming letters correctly, sitting each letter on the line, using finger spaces between each word and a full stop at the end of each sentence, this will continue throughout the first term. We are working hard on being more independent in Year One and holding our own sentences, using the knowledge from our Phonics lessons to break down and sound out trickier words.
In Maths we’ve been matching and writing number words to ten then focusing on careful counting. We have been counting forwards and backwards to ten and then began to look at finding one more and one less. To do this we need a concrete understanding of number so we have spent more time looking at each number in turn so it is quicker to identify one more or one less than a given number. We’ve used visual representations, making a number line together as well as using pictures, number words, concrete resources and digits. Next week we will continue to look at numbers as well as comparing groups of objects. We will do this with more practical activities.
In Science we looked at making a prediction – or a sensible guess. We thought about a selection of objects and the materials they were made from, then made a prediction about how far we could blow them, just like the Big Bad Wolf. We concluded that the bottle of water could not be moved but the Duplo block and the tissue could, with the tissue travelling the furthest. We discussed why this might be and what the differences between the materials were. In our singing assembly this week we learnt about Beebop Scat with Mrs Egan-Shaw and had the chance to learn about Ella Fitzgerald and American Jazz music.
W.C: 09.09.19 – week 2
We’ve started learning about our first fairy story this week, ‘The Three Little Pigs’. This week is all about getting to know the story, so we’ve been acting it out with sounds and actions as well as story mapping using pictures and key words in our English lessons, whilst also doing some fine motor work and practicing our letter formation in handwriting lessons. Our Science and Design & Technology lessons have also been cross-curricular by linking to our fairy-tale, we have designed a house of our own for the Three Little Pigs, looking at using different materials and labelling our plans carefully. We then used some different materials to make these houses to be tested by the huff and puff of the Big Bad Wolf (a hairdryer…!) We could then verbally discuss the outcome of our buildings and draw conclusions about how they stood up to the Big Bad Wolf, considering what would be the best material to build with.
In Maths we’ve begun following the first small steps of the White Rose scheme of learning, looking at sorting objects, representing objects and careful counting using a ten frame. We use concrete resources to support our learning and the ten frame is just one of the many different ways we will be exploring mathematical concepts in Year One. We’ve also done some lovely art this week around ‘The Three Little Pigs’, practicing colour mixing and making different shades of pink by combining red and various amounts of white.
W.C: 04.09.18 – week 1
A huge welcome to Year One at Church Lane Primary School!
We are looking forward to getting to know you all over the coming school year. We are:
Miss Cragg – class teacher
Mrs Harris – teaching assistant (full time)
Mrs Mawson – teaching assistant (mornings only)
This week we will be focusing on the skills that we will need to be successful in Year One. We will be reminding ourselves of our class charter and the rules we agreed on during transition week, looking at how we move around school, how we sit on the carpet and at our tables, practicing counting, letter and number formation, cutting and sticking as well as recapping some basic Phonics sessions.
Reading books will be changed on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please remind your child to place their books and reading journals in the yellow box. Books will also be sent home after they have been read in Phonics sessions, once every three to five days depending on the book level. These will be a familiar read for the child. They will be accompanied by a ‘Book Bag’ book of the corresponding colour.
PE is on Mondays and Tuesdays with Mrs Smith.
Homework will be sent home on Thursdays to be returned by the following Tuesday and placed in the blue box.
Any queries please do not hesitate to contact one of the teaching team.
