Topic
Our Topic this half term is History and we are learning about The Great Fire of London (GFoL). The children are enjoying learning some key facts about why the GFoL was so ‘great’.
We’ve been enjoying singing along to Londons Burning and reading the Poem The Great Fire of London by Paul Perro (This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip).
We’ve also read the book, Vlad and the Great Fire of London, (This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip) to stimulate our learning.
Help at home: Ask your child to tell you some of the facts they have learnt so far.
- When was the GFoL? (Sunday 02 September 1666)
- What was the cause of the fire? (A spark from an oven ignited the fire)
- Where did the fire start? (in a bakery on Pudding Lane)
- What did they use to try to put the fire out? (fire hooks, buckets of water and water squirters)
- Can they name the important historical figure who wrote a diary about the GFoL? (Samuel Pepys)
- Why did the fire spread so quickly? (because the houses were made from wood and they were built close together).
Castles and Cannonballs in PE!
This term in PE, Year 1 have been working hard on developing their construction, teamwork, and bowling skills! We’ve had so much fun building castles out of cones in teams. The children showed fantastic collaboration as they carefully planned and built their castles, making sure they were sturdy and creative.
Once the castles were complete, it was time for some excitement – knocking them down with “cannonballs”! Using dodgeballs, the children practiced their aiming and bowling skills, focusing on throwing with power and accuracy. They absolutely loved the challenge of taking down the castles and cheering on their teammates.
Through this activity, Year 1 have not only improved their physical skills, but also learned the importance of communication and teamwork. It’s been wonderful to see how well they’ve supported each other and celebrated each other’s successes!
KS1 Dictation for writing
All the children have made a great start to their writing journeys this year. We have been really pleased with their enthusiasm.
In Key Stage One, we use dictation as a tool to help children with their writing. During dictation, the teachers will either have sentences already in mind or they will discuss and decide on a sentence with the children. Dictation allows children to watch as an adult models using different writing skills effectively. Together we practise letter formation, spacing between words, spelling, where and when to use punctuation such as capital letters and full stops. Teachers also model how to listen to sounds in words and write the corresponding letters.
Here are some examples of our writing:
Help at home: You could think of some simple sentences to write with your child at home. These could be about anything at all from writing about what you did at the weekend or a sentence about a film or a program you have watched on the telly.
Ask them about the process and how they do it school. I’m sure they’d be happy to share with you how skilful they are at counting the words in the sentence and using their Phoneme Fingers to listen for sounds in words. You could also include some tricky words or some of your child’s spelling words.
KS1 Maths-Numbots time!
All children in Year 1 have been given an account and login for Numbots (on the back of their reading records). This is an interactive tool that school heavily invests in for your child. It is an engaging platform to help your child learn the foundations of maths.
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 Innovators.
We have seen the amazing impact that Numbots can have on a child’s knowledge and confidence in Maths. Numbots is part of the weekly homework for Year 1 children. Please can we ask that you make this tool a part of your weekly family routine. Once children have logged on a few times, they’re hooked and really enjoy ‘playing’!
We have class leader boards that tell us the amount of time, amount of correct answers etc for each child.
(For Your Information: Once children have completed the Numbots levels they can then move on to TTRockstars which is based on multiplication and division.)
If you are experiencing an difficulties with logging on, please chat to your child’s teacher.
Help at home: Help your child log on to their Numbots account. Guide them to navigate the devise being used and let them impress you!
Maths Fun with One More and One Less!
This week in Year 1, we’ve been busy learning about 1 more and 1 less. Using ten frames and colourful maths cubes, the children explored adding or taking away 1 from different numbers. They enjoyed using the cubes to build numbers and then adding or removing cubes to see how the number changes.
Well done, Year 1 – you’re becoming fantastic mathematicians! Keep practising your 1 more and 1 less at home!
Help at Home
To support our maths learning, challenge your children with 1 more and 1 less questions at home. Try asking:
- “What is one more than 5?”
- “What is one less than 10?”
These simple questions will help build their confidence and understanding. Keep it fun and encourage them to explain their thinking!
Reading
Thank you for coming along to our Phonics and Early Reading meeting this evening. We hope you found the session useful. We hope everyone has received their new username and login details and have been able to access the e-books online.
Here is the login page for the new e-book platform.
Please select ‘Login’, ‘I am a primary pupil’ and input your child’s username and password.
If you’re still having trouble accessing the e-books, please speak with us and we’ll be happy to assist.
Homework
Last week, your child will have come home with a purple homework book. This is for you to use at home to practise spellings or for any other homework. These do not need to come back to school.
Each week, we will add a reading and maths focus which is linked to the learning your child is doing in school that week. As well as this, there is a talk-time homework which is an opportunity to chat with your child about their learning.
Finally, we add some spellings to the homework sheet. The spellings stay the same for 2 weeks and at the end of the 2 weeks your child will have a spelling quiz.
If you have any other homework questions please send us an email or catch us on the door at drop off/pick up.
Reading and Writing: Little Red
In English, we have been having lots of fun exploring the story Little Red by Bethan Woollvin! The children have enjoyed comparing this modern version to the original Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. We’ve had lots of great discussions about the differences in characters and storylines.
We have also started learning about nouns. A noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing. For example, in Little Red, the girl is a person, the woods are a place, and the basket is a thing. The children have been looking at different pictures and practicing identifying nouns in them. They are really getting the hang of it!
Soon, we will be using these nouns to create sentences!
We Are Scientists!
Welcome back! We’ve had an exciting start to the school year in Science.
This week, the children were introduced to the topic of Science itself, discussing what it means to be a scientist and why understanding the world around us is important. We explored how science helps us ask questions, make observations, and carry out experiments to discover new things.
Our first unit of the term is all about the human body. The children began by identifying different parts of the body. To put their new knowledge into practice, we conducted a fun experiment where the children compared their height, foot size, and age. The goal was to see if there’s a relationship between these measurements.
The class had a great time measuring each other’s feet and heights and noting down their findings. It sparked interesting discussions about growth, and the children enjoyed thinking like scientists!
Living and Learning: rules
At the start of the new school year, in our Living and Learning lesson, the children have been reminded about rules and the importance of rules in our daily life. This also links to the British Value of rule of law.
Before focussing on our school rules, we started by thinking about…
Why do we have rules?
What rules can you think of?
What places have rules?
Who makes the rules?
Rules keep us safe.
Rules help us to be healthy and happy.
We have to cross the road with our grown ups.
Our teachers and our grown ups at home help us to follow the school rules.
In our school we have three school rules.
Three, two, one, stop is one of the most important instructions the children will hear at school.
Following our school rules will make our school a happy, healthy and SAFE place to learn.
This week, we’re thinking about our rules about online safety at school. Your child will bring home their Being online – acceptable use agreement for pupils and parents/carers which should be read through, signed and returned to class.