Merry Christmas
Year One would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. We recorded our singing and really hope you like it!
We are so proud of each and every child for the efforts they have put in to our nativity – Wriggly Nativity. It was a huge success!
Well done to all!
In the new year, Mrs Bye will be joining our team. She is currently doing her teacher training and is really looking forward to working in Year 1. Mrs Bye will be teaching some of the lessons on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. I (Mrs Freeman) will be in class supporting Mrs Bye.
It has been a super term and all of us have been amazed with how well the children settled into their new year group. There has been some fantastic learning, great progress and a little bit of fun along the way.
Thank you for our Christmas gifts.
Merry Christmas form the Year 1 staff team.
Living and Learning: To recognise different feelings in myself and others.
Recently, our Living and Learning sessions have focused on mental health and emotional wellbeing. The children have been recognising and naming some feelings that they might experience and the impact these can have on their body and mind.
Mental Wellbeing
The class have discussed that there is a normal range of emotions (e.g. happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, nervousness) and that all humans experience emotions in relation to different experiences and situations.
The benefits of physical exercise and time outdoors can impact positively on our mental wellbeing and happiness.
I love to get some fresh air.
Riding my bike is my favourite thing to do.
Sometimes big feelings can be defined as intense feelings which can often appear suddenly and in response to a situation. The children discussed whether these feelings are good/healthy or not so good. and they could talk about feelings that can intensify (get stronger).
Big feelings, like anger, make me feel cross for a long time!
Help at home
Getting young children to talk about their feelings can be difficult at times. Please reassure your child that they can share their feelings with a trusted adult or they can use the Living and Learning box in our classroom.
Share this story with your child.
It is a reassuring picture book encouraging children to open up about their fears and anxieties to help manage their feelings.
The perfect book to soothe worries during stressful times.
PE – using apparatus
This week, the children had so much fun using the large apparatus in PE. It was great to see all of the skills learnt in recent gymnastics sessions put into action. The children showcased their balancing, agility and coordination expertise.
The children modelled improved coordination and spatial awareness. It was great to see some of the pupils overcome fears when having time to explore apparatus and navigate across, on, over or under different equipment.
Listen to some reading with prosody.
Today, the children rehearsed the weekly poem. Here are a few examples of the children reading with prosody. (expression)
A HUGE well done to all of the children!
Spring Attendance Competition
St James’ CE Primary is a happy and healthy place to be – and maybe even a lucky one, too!
Look out for our attendance competition next half term. All pupils with attendance of 96% or higher will be entered into a prize draw to win a £50 Love to Shop vouchers!
So… for the full Spring 1 half-term, Monday 08 January to Friday 09 February (five weeks), if your child reaches a good level of attendance – that’s 96% – their name will be entered into a prize draw. We’ll select one lucky winner on the last day of the half-term (Friday 09 February).
Remember, arriving late for school counts as an unauthorised absence. This affects a child’s overall attendance figure, and that might mean they lose out.
So far this term, 40 pupils have 100% attendance and 80 pupils have over 96% attendance – well done to the children and their families!
We are chemists!
Our recent science lesson was all about melting and freezing water. The children held a piece of ice in their hands. They observed what happened to the solid over a short piece of time.
Our hands are warm but the ice is cold. Olly
It is starting to drip. Athena
Next, the class were shown some toys that had been frozen in ice.
How could the toys be released from the ice and what could we use?
– a hairdryer
– a blanket
– a pair of gloves
If we use a hairdryer, it might turn into a liquid. Athena
We need to warm them up to become a liquid. Kupa
The class concluded that adding some heat to the ice made it melt and become a liquid.
The vocabulary used in this lesson was;
- solid
- freeze
- melt
- liquid
- ice
Help at home
Make some ice cubes and then put them in different places to watch them melt. This is a great activity for learning about melting and freezing!
Discuss what makes ice melt and predict where the cubes would melt the fastest.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z9ck9qt
Reading with prosody
This week, the children will be using their knowledge of nouns and adjectives to create and write about a monster. To support this learning, we have chosen a monster themed poem to learn.
As well as developing fluency skills, we are teaching the children to add some prosody to their reading too. This simply means to read with expression. Prosody is taught through a variety of texts, not just stories.
On Friday, I (Mrs Freeman) read the text aloud and modelled using prosody and asked the children the following questions.
How have I changed my voice?
Why have I changed my voice and does it help us to understand the poem more?
Am I telling you about the character is an expressive/funny way?
Can you tell who is speaking? The monster or the reader?
Using prosody, gives early readers an insight into what reading for meaning should sound like. More importantly, it shows children how books can speak through readers, and how words on the page can come to life – which our monster poem certainly did!
By modelling this reading skill, children begin to learn how you can change the tone of a sentence simply by stressing different words and phrases.
After listening to me read, the class then echoed my prosody several times.
Help at home
Listen to this recording of the poem and discuss prosody with you child. Let me repeat back each line using expression.
Use prosody in your daily conversations. Emphasise certain words/phrases together.
Topic Review
Thank you to those families that were able to join us today for our topic review. We are continually recapping previous learning and today was a great opportunity for the children to showcase their knowledge. It was lovely to see the children discussing their work with families and friends.
If you weren’t able to attend, here is the quiz that the children did for their review. Topic Review quiz slides December 2023
Barbara Hepworth Art Gallery
Last Friday, we had an absolutely fantastic school trip to the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield .
The day included looking around the garden, the different galleries in the art museum and sketching some of the sculptures.
We also enjoyed a print-making workshop which included looking at some Barbara Hepworth sculptures and finding inspiration from their shapes. We learned that Barbara Hepworth was inspired by nature to produce her own art.
Using different materials, we created a tile with different textures, lines and shapes. Then, we rolled ink over our tiles and printed them onto paper.
Our finished masterpieces are on display in the classroom. Please pop in and check them out!
Artists at work
Our current topic is an art focused one. The children are studying the work of two featured artists: Paul Klee (modern artist) and Leonardo da Vinci (Renaissance artist).
Here is a list of our art related vocabulary and definitions.
- shape: a two-dimensional area which may be created using lines or colour
- tone: how light or dark a colour is
- primary colours: three colours (red, yellow, blue) that can’t be made by mixing other colours, but can make other colours
- secondary colours: three colours (orange, green, purple) that are made when two primary colours are mixed using paint
- pattern: arrangements of things such as colour, shapes and lines that repeat in a logical way
- texture: how something feels, like smooth or rough
Today, the children learnt about primary and secondary colours. We had fun mixing the primary colours to make the secondary ones.
Mixing colours
The primary colours are blue, yellow and red. When you mix these colours you can make new colours.
When you mix red and yellow together, you make orange.
When you mix red and blue together, you make purple.
And when you mix blue and yellow together, you make green.
