Year 1 Class News

Living and Learning: Me and My Money

We have had a very busy, money themed, week. The children have been learning the value of coins and notes, sorting coins into groups, discussing different charities, making money boxes, enjoying a song (with prosody) and laying a penny trail in the playground.

During our Living and Learning lesson, the class thought about the difference between a need (something we must have in order to stay alive) and a want (something we would like to have, but we don’t need it in order to stay alive).

Help at home

Watch the Money Matters video clip and have a discussion at home about how we get and use money, where money comes from, the difference between needs and wants, budgeting and saving. Take the quiz at the end to see how much you can remember about using money.

Mad About Materials!

RE: Who was Saint James?

Who was Saint James?

The children have had a wonderful start to the half term. It has been lovely to see so many smiling faces returning to school ready for more learning.

On Monday, the children enjoyed finding out about Saint James. We researched  his life and discovered that Jesus trusted James to become one of His disciples.

We explored our school logo and discussed what the shells could represent. 

Help at home

Ask your child to tell you what they have learnt about Saint James. Share the information below together and then ask your child the following questions.

• What do the scallop shells represent?
• Tell me about St James.
• Who was his father?
• What was his job? 

James grew up by the ‘seaside’. That sea was Lake Galilee. He had a brother called John. They were known for having rows with each other and Jesus had a nickname for them: ‘the Sons of Thunder’. James had a mother called Salome and a father called Zebedee. James was a fisherman with his brother. Jesus went to meet James and he became one of the three disciples who were very close to Jesus, along with Peter and John. Jesus was preparing James to become a leader in the early church.The scallop shell of Saint James is believed to promote courage, strength and hope.

The children really enjoyed painting their own shells and these will be on display in our classroom.

Help at home with phonics

Please support your child to practise and reinforce the phonemes and graphemes we have been learning in our phonic sessions. More information and support can be found on the Little Wandle website – https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

We have read and written these words. Add sound buttons.

We have read and written these sentences. Can you spot any tricky words? Can you read these sentences fluently?

The toads feel so cool.

The boot on my right foot is too hard.

I can see foxes in the car lights.

We can go down to the town on the bus.

We have practised tricky words. Can you spot the tricky part of the word?

• no
• go
• so
• my
• by
• to
• into
• out
• the

We have spelt words. Can you write these words? Can you use the correct phonemes?

• right
• hard
• took
• hear

Reading: Tom Palmer

This year, some children at school attended an online workshop with author Tom Palmer. Tom Palmer has been in touch to let us know about some local events he is attending in half term.

Message from Tom

For children and families – I am also coming to Leeds on Thursday 2 November 2023 :
*       Farsley Book Festival – 10am-11am more here
https://trumanbooks.co.uk/event/flf-kids-day
*       Chapel Allerton Library – 2pm
*       Pudsey Community Hub and Library – 4pm

Geography Fieldwork

For the next park of our Geography learning, we ventured out of school to carry out some fieldwork in our local area.

Before fieldwork, geographers start with a question they want to find an answer to. Our question was “ What is the local ‘green’ space (Sandringham Park) used for and how could it be improved?

Wetherby Town Council owns and maintains most of the parks and open, green space recreational facilities in Wetherby, including Sandringham Park. Sandringham Park is a ‘Field in Trust’ green space which means
that it is protected so that it will be available for the people of Wetherby forever. However, this park is looking very tired and the council are planning to update it.

A green space is open-area reserved for parks and other “green areas”, including plant life, woodlands, water features other kinds of natural environment.
“Our forest school is a green space,” commented Athena.

Together, we mapped the route from school to the park and then we discussed how we would stay safe whilst outside of school.

We will cross the road at the zebra crossing.  Daisy

We will stay with our partner.  Woody

Don’t walk too close to the road.  Ariella

Stay with your group and adult. Poppy

Concentrate and listen to instructions. – Alexa

The children spent some time looking around the green space. Then, in groups, the class asked and answered some questions.

1. Is there a playground? Yes, but it has been damaged. – Millie
2. Are there places to sit down? Yes, but I think there should be more picnic benches. – Oly
3. How many rubbish bins can you see? We counted 5 bins but there was lots of rubbish on the floor. – Ellis

4. Is there an area to walk dogs? Yes

5. Does the park have anything that keeps children and animals safe? Yes, there are railings around the playground and a gate. Dogs are not allowed into the paly area. – Harry

6. Why do you think the council want to change this green space? Because it is very unsafe and there is a lot of damage. People can’t enjoy it now!  Alfie

I think there should be swings for people who have to use wheelchairs. Everybody should be able to use the park. – Freddy

Maths: Less than, greater than, equal to

Today, the children have been introduced to the greater than (>) and less than (<) symbols when comparing numbers.

The class have moved on from describing whether there are “fewer”, “more” or the “same” number of objects to comparing numerical values using the vocabulary “less than”, “greater than” or “equal to” alongside the symbols <, > and =.

Top tip

The open end of the symbol always has the largest number next to it.

Using the images below, the class added the correct symbol accordingly.

Next, using conkers and lolly sticks, the class made up their own statements and recorded them in their books.

Help at home

Children may want to use the word “bigger” rather than “greater”. For consistency of language, encourage children to use the word “greater”. “Bigger” often refers to the size of an object rather than a number, for example a bigger teddy or a bigger slide.
Children may get the symbols mixed up. Using cubes and straws to physically make the symbols can help children to understand them.

Mindfulness Matters

Year 1 began their Friday morning with some mindfulness and yoga. 

Being mindful means having your mind on what you are doing. It’s the opposite of rushing or doing too many things at once. To be mindful, you slow down to take your time, which is hard to do in our busy lives.

The children learnt a breathing technique called ‘Balloon Belly Breathing and were able to demonstrate some basic yoga poses.

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.