Year 1 Class News

We are geographers

Year 1 have been learning about the countries that make up the United Kingdom and their capital cities.

Help at home

Quiz your child on their knowledge of capital cities. Can they tell you the four capital cities of the countries in the United Kingdom?

Today, the children have been locating and naming the seas that surround the United Kingdom.

Help at home 

Using the images below, ask your child to match the body of water to the correct location. The children have really enjoyed using Google Earth to explore scale and size of different locations. Why not go on an exploration at home? By zooming in on planet Earth slowly, the class were amazed by the amount of water there is on our planet.

Finally, we spent some time looking at an atlas. Some of the children were able to locate the UK and the surrounding seas.

How can we look after our world?

This half term, we are thinking all about The Creation Story. We have been learning what happened on each of the seven days that the world was created by God.

This week, we thought about how it feels when people do not respect things we have made. This led us to consider how people do not always look after the world God created. We looked at pictures of pollution and thought about rules God might have for his world.

We then made some fabulous posters about how we should look after the world.

Reading with prosody

Each week, the children are learning a poem. With daily practise, along with added prosody, the class can recall the poem off by heart by the end of the week.

Here is the poem for you to enjoy with your child.

Read by Mrs Freeman

Living and Learning: I know that rights come with responsibilities.

Every Monday afternoon, the children have a Living and Learning lesson with Mrs Bald.

What is Living and Learning and why is it important?

Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) is a vital part of school life and ultimately our children’s future health and wellbeing. Our Living and Learning provision helps pupils to develop the knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes they need to live confident, healthy, independent lives now and in the future.  It is embedded within wider learning we offer to ensure that pupils experience positive relationships with adults and with each other, and that those who are most vulnerable are identified and supported. Pupils are encouraged to take part in a wide range of activities and experiences across and beyond the curriculum, contributing fully to the life of our school and community.

Our statement this week: I know that rights come with responsibilities.

As a group, the children discussed that alongside every right comes responsibility. At school for example, children have the right to play and relax, and the responsibility to play alongside others safely and respectfully.

Next, as individuals, the class thought about what they have responsibility for in and out of school.

I have a responsibility to ……

pick up litter – Olly/Woody

look after my friends – Poppy/Esme

look after my dog – Athena

look after my dad – Kupa

look after my sister – Daisy

put rubbish in the bin – Alexa

to look after our family – Arthur

to look after animals – Oscar

to walk the dog – Harry/Freddy

help our friends when they fall over – Alfie

to listen – Vincent

Help at home

Discuss the meaning of responsibility.

Ask your child to name five things they are responsible for. They could draw a picture and bring it into school to go on our Living and Learning display.

Here are some examples.

Forest Friday

Year 1 thoroughly enjoyed their first session in our forest school. This takes place in the woodland area towards the back of the school and it gives the children a chance to learn in an outside, natural environment.

Here are a few snaps from Friday afternoon.

Within these weekly sessions, children will be supported to take risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves.

It was lovely to see all of the children exploring different areas within the woodland. The activities included:

• litter picking
• mud kitchen
• art
• exploring the foliage
• hammocks
• swings
• balancing

Please remember to send your child with wellies and long trousers each Friday or waterproofs if you have them.

Geography – Where in the world am I?

We are geographers.

Over the coming weeks, the children will develop their knowledge of location when locating and identifying the four countries that make up the UK and their capital cities. They also learn which seas surround the UK.
The class will be exploring both human and physical features in their own locality using maps, photographs and fieldwork.

To begin with, we used Google Earth to explore our continent, country, city and town. The children were amazed as we zoomed into planet Earth gradually and finally arrived at our school gates.

Help at home by discussing these images with your child. Can they recall which country, city and town they live in?

Next, the children thought about the size of each locality.

The continent is very big!   – Woody

Wetherby looks a lot smaller than Europe!  –  Daisy

Using concentric circles the class were able to compare the sizes of each location giving them a sense of scale.

Below is the geographical vocabulary that the children will be learning throughout this topic.

   atlas: a collection of maps, usually in a book
• city: a large town
• capital city: a city where the government of a country is located
• compass: a tool for finding direction
• locality: an area or neighbourhood
• landmark: an object or feature of a locality that has importance and can be     used to help you find your way
• physical geography: physical geography looks at the natural things in our    environment
• human geography: human geography looks at changes in the       environment by humans
• fieldwork: observing and collecting data in a locality
• map: a drawing of a place, usually from above
• map key: a little box on a map which explains what the
different lines and symbols on a map mean

Important days and dates/ Help at home

Important days and dates

PE – Tuesday and Friday

Spelling test – Friday

Library – Friday (books returned each Thursday)

Water bottles

These should be brought to school daily and they will be brought home every day for refreshing and cleaning.

Homework/Spellings

Whole school homework is set every Friday (along with new spellings). Homework and spellings can also be accessed from the website.

Reading

In Year 1, we will continue using e-books for our reading practice. Your child will bring home a log-in for the e-book website. Please log out of last year’s account and log in with the new account. This will ensure any new books are in the account.

Numbots

We will begin to use  Numbots in Year 1. Your child has been sent home with all the necessary log in details.

What is Numbots?                       

NumBots is all about every child achieving the “triple win” of understanding, recall and fluency in mental addition and subtraction, so that they move from counting to calculating. NumBots  focuses on automatic recall of number facts as well as developing conceptual understanding.

Certificates will be awarded every Friday for children who complete the different stages.

Help at home

For spelling practice, reading and Numbots, little and often (10/15 minutes a day) is recommended.

Uniform

Please do check the uniform policy  https://www.stjameswetherby.leeds.sch.uk/find-out/policies/ to ensure your child is wearing the correct items including for PE days. Earrings must be removed on PE days.

Finally, please do ask if there are any queries and keep checking back on class news to find out more about your child’s learning!

The adults in Year 1 are:

Mrs Freeman – Class Teacher (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday)

Miss Gledhill – Class Teacher (Thursday)

Mrs Cairnes – Teaching Assistant

Miss Rigley – Teaching Assistant

The Human Body

This half term, we have started our science learning. We are going to be finding out more about these parts of the human body .

For our first lesson we made sure we were certain what a human is. We know that we are animals just like our pets. Unlike our pets, we are humans!

We played Simon Says to hep us find parts of our body and then looked closely at out feet. After comparing our feet to our partners, we thought about if the oldest children have the longest feet.

To hep us think about this, we took a drawing of our foot and put them in order of our ages.

What a great start we’ve had!

We have been really impressed with how the Year 1 children have settled into their new classroom. Changes can be tricky to manage and we are always here to help if your child struggles to cope with this. Reception Class to Year 1 is a big leap but we do find that the children adjust well to the new staff, routines and environments.

We have started to read our class novel ‘Flat Stanley‘ and this inspired us to create a flat version of ourselves. Check out some flat children below!

Help at home

Ask your child to retell the first part of the story and discuss the main character.

We are ready….

We hope you have all enjoyed the summer break and that the children are looking forward to returning to school.  The classroom has been refreshed and is ready for the children to begin their Year One learning.

Below is the timetable for the first half term (apologies for the blurriness). It may help to look at this with your child as it may help to ease any anxieties concerning the day to day routine.

Here are a few things to note:

• Mrs Freeman – class teacher – Mon, Tues, Wed and Fri
• Miss Gledhill – class teacher – Thursday
• Miss Cairnes and Miss Rigley – Teaching assistants
• PE – Tuesday and Friday mornings
• Library – Friday

Please ensure your child brings a water bottle to school every day and healthy snacks for playtime (if required).

During PE, the children are not permitted to wear earrings. Please can you ensure these have been removed prior to attending school on PE days.

The office will issue a milk list so that we are aware who can have it and also a medication update will be given to the Year 1 staff.

Homework and spellings will go home every Friday and the children will be tested on their spellings the following Friday.

The children will read daily in school and we encourage you to read with your child daily at home.

If you have any concerns or questions please either catch us at home time or make an appointment via the school office.

We look forward to welcoming you and your child into Year 1 on Tuesday 5th September at 8.45am.