Year 1 - Hawthorn & Willow

We are very happy to welcome you all to Y1 and we are very excited for all the fun and learning we're going to do this year!

Teachers

1 Willow - Mr Marquez-Vega

1 Hawthorn - Mr Hunter

PPA will be on Wednesday mornings and will be covered by:

Mrs Knights

Mrs Stacey

Play dates: If your child is going to someone elses house after school, the parent or guardian needs to call the school office to inform them that someone else is picking up their child.

Reading: Please try and make sure your child reads with an adult/older sibling at least 3 times a week.

Book change: Books will be changed on Fridays. If your child does not have their book with them on Friday then it won't be changed until the following Friday. Please keep an eye out for any unreturned books.

Coats: Children need to bring their coats in with them every day.

PE will be on Monday (outdoor)

Children will need to come into school wearing their PE kit. This includes:

• Plain white t-shirt
• Black shorts or joggers
• Plain black trainers or daps
• School jumper if needed

We have officially moved into our new classrooms! The past 2 weeks have been busy as we've had our road saftey morning, clay day, book at bedtime, and world book day. We've become experts in Vinent Van Gough as we've created actions to go along with text that we are writing from memory. We've finished our maths unit on addition and subtraction to 20 and are moving on to counting to 50 next week.

We've been learning about the Jewish festival Sukkot and built our own Sukkahs (huts). This involved collecting organic material from ourside to cover the roof. Last week we had our road saftey mornng. We walked around a planned route and practiced using zebra crossings, padestrian crossings, and looking for sneaky driveways. We also made pinch pots out of clay that we are going to paint next week for a school exhibition.

World book day was great fun as we though about all of the times we read in a day and made a reading river, created stick pupperts of our favourite characters, and acted out scenes from the books we've read this year. We finished world book day off with book and bedtime as the children came back into school in their pajamas and were read to (we also wrote our own story).

We've enjoyed investigating a mystery in English this week. The time traveling Dentist (video above) dropped off a mystery package from the Arnolfini art gallery. It was a painting that they asked us to research. At the end of the week, we found out that the painting was by Vincent Van Gough (our new topic for this term) and discovered facts about him. We looked at how we can use our knowledge of number bonds to 10 to help us subtract numbers up to 20 in Maths. 

We started gymnastics in indoor P.E and throwing at a target in outdoor P.E. We learned about the Jewish princible of Tzedekah in R.E and began learning about plants in science.

We've been just as busy this week as we've thought back to history day last week to write, edit and publish our victorian diaries in English.  We've used our knowledge of number bonds to 10 to work out number bonds to 20 in Maths. 

It was a week of wrapping topics ups as we had a fun R.E lesson remembering and making all the special jewish objects we've learned about this year, we finished our Victorian school paintings, and finished our dance and our door P.E topics.

It's been a fun week full of dress up and activities! Our English focussed on our Victorian topic as we investigated facts that we're going to use to write a Victorian diary. We pretended to be Victorians in an english lesson on Thursday as we wrote dictated sentences on chalk boards while sat in rows. We've started our new unit on addition and subtraction within 20 in Maths and had a fun number day thinking about 2-D shapes. We went outside for a 2-D shape scavenger hunt and have challenged ourselves with doubling and halving numbers.

We started a 2 week project in Art where we are drawing and painting a Victorian school, we invented a game called smelly socks in P.E to practice clearing areas in sports, and we looked at some Victorian artifacts in Topic. We also enjoyed the history parade where each year group got to show off our costumes.

This week in English we've focused on our writing skills. We've learned about using "and" to join clauses, using capitals for proper nouns, and adding "ed" to verbs to make them past tense. In Maths we've been focussing on using number lines to 20. We also learned about estimating and comparing numbers.

We continued dancing and focussed on throwing and catching in P.E. We focussed on colours in art as we learned how to mix watercolours and complete a colour wheel, we acted out the story of Hanukkah in R.E, and we made silly inventions that wouldn't work in science (like a metal t-shirt, or cardboard classes). In topic we made magnifying glasses and explored our school for aspects of it's Victorian history. 

We've made use of our senses in English as we've used them to plan and write a setting description of a scene from our book. We also had a visit from a time traveling dentist (video above) who introduced our next writing topic: The Victorians. We became historians and visited different research stations in the classroom to learn about different aspects of Victorian life. We've been focusing on numbers to 20 in Maths and have been learning how many tens and how many ones the teen numbers have.

The children have continued to dance and roll their way through indoor and ourdoor P.E, have learned about Shabbat in R.E, and thought about materials in Science. Our focus on the Victorians has spilled out into topic and art where we praticed drawing/painting victorian toys. We've alos added some photos from rockstar day last friday.

We've had an exciting start to term 3 as we've transitioned into having Maths and English daily. We found that items were mysteriously vanishing from the classrooms and discovered that it could have been the character from our new English book: The Grotlyn. We've also been using our senses to write exciting setting descriptions (making sure to use creative adverbs). We also started our new Place value to 20 unit in Maths and have been making use of our number bonds. We've brought phonics into maths and used our skills to recognise and write number words to 20.

We've started our dance unit in indoor P.E and have thought about making use of space to roll balls to our partners in outdoor P.E. We jumped into the Victorian era in our topic this week and learned about Queen Victoria, we practiced different mark styles in art, and wrote possitive affirmations scrolls (that we took home) in R.E as we thought about the Mezuza and why it's special to Jewish people in R.E. 

We've had a festive last week of term this week! We've had our Christmas dinner, made decorations for our classroom, visited the SMR Church as a School for the Christmas service, saw a pantomime, and had our year 1 Christmas party! It was lovely seeing so many parents at the church.

We've finished writing our instructions in English and have used subtraction to find the missing parts in a part-whole model in Maths. In phonics we've learned 3 new digraphs: oy, ir, and ou (which makes two sounds).  We've rounded off our science topic on materials and our R.E topic by thinking about who we're thankful for this year. We finished off our D.T topic by building a house using all of the things we've learned. We then tested if our designs could hold up against an earthquake or a wolf blowing it over.

The year 1 team would like to say a big thank you for your gifts and all of your support over the last term. We've had lots of fun and are looking forward to term 3!

More breaking news in year 1 this week as we learned that the Big Bad Wolf has been arrested by the police thanks to the wanted posters we made in English! We also watched an 'intresting' excercise video where Joe Wicks struggled to give effective instructions (You can watch the video below). Y1 decided to help Joe Wicks and have started learning about how to write instructions and we were introduced to verbs. We've moved further into the world of subtraction in Maths. The children have been using counters to help them and have focussed on reading number sentences correctly as we teachers have tried to trick them by mixing up addition and subraction symbols.

We've learned about absorbant and waterproof materials in science and tested which materals would protect our dinosaurs from the rain. The children have done so well with their nativity this week. They've performed for the school and parents over three days and we are very proud of them!

We've been writers in English this week as we've been writing character descriptions for our wanted posters. Police have thanked year 1 for their creative descriptions and are hoping to catch the Big Bad Wolf soon. We've made use of our reading skills in Maths as we've read number problems and written number sentences to solve them.

We've thought more about why Christians celebrate Christmas and why a baby is so special in R.E, we've combined our English and Science as we have been using adjectives to describe materials that we could feel (but not see). We made use of the skills we learned from Synagise last week and practiced joining materials with string and a cross slot. Children have now been sorted into their groups for the nativity and costume letters have been sent home.

We've jumped into the world of subtraction this week in Maths and have had fun with number problem stories. We've become published authors in English this week as we independently wrote, edited, and published a character description of one of the three little pigs which has been made into a physical book for the class to look at and read.

In science, we've been classifying materials by their properties and making use of our adjectives to help us differentiate materials. We've thought about whether only Christians can celebrate Christmas in R.E and we've brought our knowledge of joining materials and the features of a house together in D.T to design the houses that we will build and evaluate in our next D.T afternoon. This Friday was the school Advent day where we made our own Christmas wreaths and thought about what world peace might look like.

Our Nativity rehearsals have gone well this week. Our first dress rehearsal will be on Monday so please make sure your child has their costume with them.

We've had an english focussed week this week as we've learned about adjectives and how we can use them to describe nouns. We also received the breaking news (watch the video above) that the big bad wolf has escaped prison and that we need to help by making a wanted poster. We've been planning how we can use adjectives to describe the wolf for our posters. We've continued in the world of addition in Maths and learned about using our number bonds and counting on to help us write a number sentence.

We had a special visit from Synagise for DT this week. They took us through what's important when you build a house and gave us a chance to build our own structures. We thought about why Christmas is special to Christians in R.E, started learning about materials in science, and have started adding dances to our nativity songs.

This Week

We’ve had a Maths centered week as we've focused further on number sentences, fact families, and number bonds within 10. We got to practice composing and asking questions in English as the wolf from the Three Little Pigs visited us. We asked him questions about his actions in the tale.

Our year 5 reading buddies come and read with us on Thursday. We learned more about how to strengthen structures in DT and had a go at joining materials using an L-brace. We looked at an illustration of the nativity and how strange parts of it are and then read the account of Jesus' birth from the Bible to understand why the nativity is desplayed that way. We've now learned all of our Nativity songs and are looking forward to learning the dances to them. We began learning about the seasons in science and have pracitced our under-arm and over-arm throwing in P.E.

Next week we have a building company visiting us to talk to us about wha5t it's really like to build houses. This is on Thursday afternoon. 

This Week

We’ve kicked off this term with an exciting week of performances, practicing, and partying! We were introduced to our new book for English (The Three Little Pigs: an Archetects Tale) by the Year 1 teachers and LSA's acting out the story of the Three Little Pigs to the children in the hall. The children then reviewed the play and had a chance to act it out themselves. We've continued thinking about part-whole models and number bonds to 10 in Maths. Number bonds to 10 (number that always add up to 10) are always a great thing to practice at home.

We began our new DT topic and looked at different types of houses and what they all have in common, we started learning about why Christians celebrate Christmas in R.E, and the children enjoyed their KS1 Disco on Wednesday. We have been preparing for Christmas this week and have started practicing for the Nativity. The children have also drawn their Christmas card designs that can be printed. The school administrators will be in contact about how to order these cards closer to Christmas. We had our life skills day on Friday and focused on using a knife and fork. We scooped raisins and chopped bananas.

Parents evening

Next week we will have 10 minutes to talk about how your children have settled in Year 1. We usually start of by talking about how they're doing generally, then talk about the areas of writing, maths, and reading. 10 minutes can go by rather quickly, so if you have anything you particulalrly want to talk about, please let us know towards the start of the meeting so we can give the subject the proper time. Other wise we can always arrange a seperate meeting.

This Week

We’ve had an exciting week to close out our first term in year 1. In Maths, we’ve began thinking about number sentences and addition. We’ve been looking at the different tools and resources we’ve been using in Maths (like part-whole models and number lines) and how we can use a number sentence to show what we’ve been doing. We’ve been learning about the important features of an invitation in English while planning and writing invitations to the characters from our book.

We had an exciting Computing day on Monday as the children created algorithms for their digital beebots to follow. They practised the cycle of inputting a series of instructions and then debugging to guide their beebot to where it needed to be. This is the link to the website they children used if they wanted to explore more: https://beebot.terrapinlogo.com
We’ve continued learning about adjacent consonants in Phonics and are becoming experts at spotting them. We finished our subject on senses in Science, created our bubble writing labels for our art folders in Art, and practiced landing jumps with two feet in P.E. 
Finally, we wrapped up the week by having a party for Pebble in R.E as we thought about how different people celebrate different events.

It’s been a great first term and we’re excited to jump into term 2 after the children have a well needed break!

Thanks,

Year 1 team.

This Week

This week has been busy in Year 1 as we've started learning about representing numbers on a numberline and part-whole models in Maths. We've been thinking about refugees in English and how hard it must be to be forced to leave your home becuase of war. We though of what we would miss and what we could bring with is if we had to leave home. We also wrote messages to Lubna and Amir (the refugees from our book) on our message line. We're becoming experts at writing sentences with capital letters, full stops, and finger spaces.

We will aim to change reading books on Fridays. Please ensure your child brings in their book bag every day.

We contunued thinking about places of worship in R.E, practised our balancing in P.E with some (very) creative poses. The children had a blind touch challenge (where they had to put their hand into a box without knowing what's in there) as we learned about our sence of touch in Science. We learned about Roy Hackett and his influence in the Bristol Bus Boycott and practised bubble writing in art.

Lost property & Water bottles:

Please ensure clothing items have names in them. Children regularly misplace their jumpers and cardigans which end up in the year 1 lost property box. If they have names then they can be easily returned. The sink is broken in Hawthorn so please make sure your children are bringing in water bottles.

Thanks,

Year 1 team.

This Week

Things are moving on as we've entered October. We've dived deeper into using "less than" and "greater than" when comparing numbers and have began ordering numbers from smallest to greatest and vice versa. We've began a new book in English this week: Lubna and the Pebble. A book about a young refugee called Lubna who finds a needed friend in a pebble that she draws a face on while living in a refugee camp. Each class has its own pebble that they are looking after. We have also started looking at questions and question marks.

We will aim to change reading books on Monday the 9th. Please ensure your child brings in their book bag every day.

This week in P.E, we continued to work on our balance and coordination by combining balance beams and the different types of jumping we've practiced. We've also began learning our left and right hand sides. We painted self portraits in art and tested our sense of smell by sniffing covered cups and guessing what is in them in sceince.We thought more about discrimination in topic and built our own Synagogues in R.E. We finished the week with thinking about what we can be proud of in PSHE. Each child got awarded an "I'm proud of you ticket" with a reason we're proud of them.

Lost property:

Please ensure clothing items have names in them. Children regularly misplace their jumpers and cardigans which end up in the year 1 lost property box. If they have names then they can be easily returned.

Thanks,

Year 1 team.

This Week

The fun has continued in year 1 this week. In Maths, we've been learning how to compare numbers by using "greater than", "less than", and "equal to". We've introduced < and > symbols by thinking of them as hungry crocodiles who face towards the greatest number. We're becoming sentence superheros in English as we're focusing on using a capital letters, full stops, and finger spaces consistently when writing sentences. Some of the children have loved writing scentences so much that they have been writing them in their free time!

Our reading book library and system has been updated and books have been sent home. We will change them on Monday the 9th.

This week in P.E, we've worked on our balance and coordination with different types of jumping, some more rolls, and parachute games (flinging a ball as high as we could into the air with the parachute was a favourite). We painted our records to look like sunflowers for our Art on the Hill project, we started learning about our senses in science and went on a senses search around the school, and have started learning about Rosa Parks in topic. We ended the week with out Child of Hope day where we learned about Ugandan children and what school is like for them. We had a technology free day with no teaching slides and hand drawn work sheets.

Coming up next week:

Next week, we have P.E on Monday (outdoor) and Tuesday (indoor). The children will be meeting a new friend in English (a pebble) as we begin a new book in English called Lubna and the Pebble.

Thanks,

Year 1 team.

This Week

We've had some fun, active, and exciting learning this week in year 1. In Maths, we've been thinking about one more, one less, and how we can represent numbers in different ways. In English, we've acted out and learned a section of our key text and know it so well that we've started innovating it. We have sent home reading books 

We kicked off our week with parachute games and gymnastics in P.E, we practiced painting sunflowers in art in preperation for our upcoming art project, and we looked into the past at a Victorian classroom and discussed the differences with the present (The children were very intrested in the dunce hat).

Coming up next week:

Next week, we have P.E on Monday (outdoor) and Tuesday (indoor). We continue thinking about places of worship in R.E, and starting to paint our sunflowers on records for our art on the hill project!

Thanks,

Year 1 team.

We've had great week of learning in year 1 as we've settled into our new space. We've started off strong with counting on and backwards within 10 in Maths. In English, we've been learning to build silly sentences and jumped into Stardust (the book we're looking at for the next few weeks) and have found fun and creative ways to retell parts of the story.

It's been an exciting week for art as year 1 have started a school wide project called "Art on the hill" where we are upcycling old records by painting them in the style of local artist Farrah Fortnam. We began by practicing painting in her style on black paper.

Coming up next week:

Next week, we are kicking off with P.E on Monday and Tuesday, we will be thinking about our special places in our R.E reflection day, and we will be sending reading books home soon so please ensure your child brings in their book bags. Their first reading book might be too easy/difficult for them. Please let us know by writing in their reading record.

As we move further into Autumn, please send your children in with coats every day.

We are very happy to welcome you all to Y1 and we are very excited for all the fun and learning we're going to do this year!

Teachers

1 Willow - Mr Marquez-Vega

1 Hawthorn - Mr Hunter

PPA will be on Wednesday mornings and will be covered by:

Mrs Knights

Mrs Stacey

Reading: Please try and make sure your child reads with an adult/older sibling at least 3 times a week.

Book change: Books will be changed on Fridays. If your child does not have their book with them on Friday then it won't be changed until the following Friday. Please keep an eye out for any unreturned books.

Coats: Children need to bring their coats in with them every day.

PE will be on Monday (outdoor)

Children will need to come into school wearing their PE kit. This includes:

• Plain white t-shirt
• Black shorts or joggers
• Plain black trainers or daps
• School jumper if needed

This Week

We’ve kicked off this term with an exciting week of performances, practicing, and partying! We were introduced to our new book for English (The Three Little Pigs: an Archetects Tale) by the Year 1 teachers and LSA's acting out the story of the Three Little Pigs to the children in the hall. The children then reviewed the play and had a chance to act it out themselves. We've continued thinking about part-whole models and number bonds to 10 in Maths. Number bonds to 10 (number that always add up to 10) are always a great thing to practice at home.

We began our new DT topic and looked at different types of houses and what they all have in common, we started learning about why Christians celebrate Christmas in R.E, and the children enjoyed their KS1 Disco on Wednesday. We have been preparing for Christmas this week and have started practicing for the Nativity. The children have also drawn their Christmas card designs that can be printed. The school administrators will be in contact about how to order these cards closer to Christmas. We had our life skills day on Friday and focused on using a knife and fork. We scooped raisins and chopped bananas.

Parents evening

Next week we will have 10 minutes to talk about how your children have settled in Year 1. We usually start of by talking about how they're doing generally, then talk about the areas of writing, maths, and reading. 10 minutes can go by rather quickly, so if you have anything you particulalrly want to talk about, please let us know towards the start of the meeting so we can give the subject the proper time. Other wise we can always arrange a seperate meeting.