There have been lots of new topics started this week.

In History, we compared then and now. We looked at different artefacts from the past and present and talked about how life has changed. The children were introduced to chronology and had lots of fun creating their own timelines.

In RE, we started to learn all about Judaism. We spent time looking at Jewish artefacts and thought about why these were special.

In Maths, we used our knowledge of numbers to 20 to partition teen numbers into tens and ones. The children used diennes for the first time and enjoyed thinking about how many tens and ones were in each number.

Despite the weather, we managed to have our first basketball lesson. The team were impressed with the children’s focus when attempting dribbling.

The children were also put to the test in our second health and fitness lesson. Here they have to work in teams to complete circuit based fitness activities.

In Music, the children continued to work on using pitch and rhythm. This weeks super hero was batman. Lots of laughter was had when we explored what the batman theme tune sounds like with different pitches used.

This blog is a special one dedicated to the children’s Christmas performance. The year one team are so proud of all of the children. They sang, danced and acted beautifully. A special thank you to all the children who stood in at the last moment to cover parts. A continued thank you to all of the adults at home for helping us to support the children in school. We hope you all enjoyed their performances!

This week we started learning about an important person in History- Guy Fawkes. The children asked lots of questions and used images and artefacts to work out facts about him. They also learnt about why the Gunpowder Plot happened and who the key people were who were involved. As part of this they acted out the events of the Gunpowder Plot and thought about what each person might have felt.

In Science, the children learnt the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees. We spotted different trees in the school grounds and identified different leaves.

In English, we have been writing our own versions of the story Stuck, following a text map. It has been lovely to see the children writing their first piece of independent writing.

Maths has been challenging this week as we have been learning all about subtraction. We have been working on fact families and fact houses.

We have also enjoyed celebrating anti-bullying week. The children wore odd socks on Monday and we have been on the look out for kind children all week. The good news is there were lots to be found!

Tomorrow is Children in Need day and we are looking forward to celebrating this.

The year 1 team

A great start to the new half term with all of the children settling back into their learning.

It has been a week of new starts with brand new topics being introduced.

In English, we started work on “Stuck” by Oliver Jeffers. We enjoyed learning the text map and talking about the surprises and hilarities within the book.

In Maths, we have been busy building our adding skills. We have solved word problems with lots of different representations. We have also been continuing with our mental Maths fluency in the afternoons.

We started our new Science topic- trees. The children enjoyed completing an investigation around the properties of leaves. They were able to use their touch, sight and smell senses to think about the differences between leaves. They also enjoyed using leaf spotters to identify leaves. They were able to spot ivy, holly, fir, oak and beech.

This week we started teaching History. The children learnt that History is all about events that have happened in the past. They created their own timelines for their lives so far. They also created timelines for significant events that have taken place all over the world in the years they have been alive. Did you know that when the children were born, there was the fist ever pizza party held in space?

Thank you to the parents of children who are receiving extra phonics support from Miss Bradbury. She has been impressed with the attitude of the children and the commitment to their learning.

Next Monday is Odd socks day to support anti-bulllying week.

This week’s blog is all about our trip to Killerton.

For most of the children it was their first ever school trip and they were so excited. The coach picked us up at 9:30 and off we went for a day of learning and adventure.

Once we arrived 1SP and 1JM set off on different routes around Killerton completing lots of activities along the way. Both classes completed an Autumn scavenger hunt- finding acorns, fir cones, leaves, feathers and twigs and collecting these. We will we using all of the items for art this Friday so watch out for some Autumn inspired art!

In the chapel, the children put their RE knowledge to the test by spotting Christian Symbols. We saw a font, stained glass windows, crosses and candles.

As we were walking we stopped to spot different types of leaves and trees. We were surprised to see palm trees in England…

The children also enjoyed spotting the signs of Harvest around the Killerton trails.

The children worked in groups to navigate, using a map. They managed to find the bear hut, ice house and monument.

For most of the children the outside picnic was a highlight of the day. Sitting all together in the fresh air and sunshine was lovely.

Thank you to all of the amazing parent volunteers who supported our first trip. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Another big thank you to all of the year 1 children. You made all of your adults proud with your behavior, knowledge and politeness. Well done year 1!

Signs of Autumn are out all over school and the children have been busy learning about autumnal changes and changes in the weather. Every day, they have been completing a weather diary. Both 1SP and 1Jm have also set up rain gauges to see how much rainfall falls in a week.

In Maths, we have been busy using part part whole models to work out addition facts to ten. We also started a brand new scheme for mastery of Maths in the afternoons. These are interactive mental Maths sessions. So far the children have enjoyed using different types of manipulatives to represent numbers.

In English, the children have been continuing with “Mixed up fairytales”. They have been selecting parts of stories and sequencing them to put them back together again. They have then been busy practicing writing these in their English books.

This week we learnt about Northern Ireland in Geography. The children made shamrock collages and landmarks. They also learnt some Irish dancing moves and lots of laughter happened as we tried out the moves to traditional Irish music. Both classes set up a travel agents for the children to use. They have been busy answering the question- Which UK country would you like to live in and why? This will continue into next week. So far Wales seems to be the popular choice with it’s many castles, landscape and Welsh rarebit!

In Music, the children used drumsticks to practice keeping a steady pulse and rhythm. This was then combined with singing to create songs “You’ve got a friend in me” and “I’ll be there for you”. I’m sure some parents have heard the children singing these at home!

Thank you to all of the parents that volunteered to help on next weeks school trip. The children are getting very excited. Information has been sent out in letters and you can pay for the trip and order a lunch via email on the app.

Next weeks blog will be a special Killerton one.

In Maths, this week we have been busy learning about greater than, less than and equal to. The children have worked hard to write the symbols and compare two numbers.

We started our first book in English- Mixed up fairytales. The children thought mixing up all of the traditional tales was hilarious and are looking forward to making up their own mixed up stories. Alongside this we have been reading lots of fairytales to the children. Some of the stories they knew already but our new favourites are “The Ugly Duckling” and “The princess and the pea”.

In Science, we learnt all about different types of weather. We thought about the clothing we might need to wear for each weather and also looked at the different weather symbols.

In Geography, we learnt about Scotland. The children found out about Ben Nevis, Loch Ness and Edinburgh Castle. They had a go at making their own tartan designs as well as creating artwork around the Loch Ness Monster.

In art, we used mixed media (crayons, felt tips, chalks and pencil crayons) to create a 2D shape line drawing.

In RE, we compared Christian and Islamic symbols. We learnt why Islamic symbols are important and discussed some of the routines of a Muslim. We also learnt about mosques and compared them to Christian churches.

Thank you for all of the wonderful home learning that has been sent in. The children enjoy looking at their friends work.

Another busy week in year one as the children have been learning all about Autumn. They have been using their senses to think about the foods, clothing, trees, animals and weather associated with Autumn.

In English, the children have been having a go at writing sentences in their new English books. This has been challenging as the children have had to remember to add punctuation as well as sit their letters neatly on the lines. They wrote about the who, where, when and what happened in a series of pictures. Some of them even made up a “what happens next?” to make their writing exciting.

This week in Geography, we have learnt all about Wales. Did you know that there are more sheep in Wales than people? or Can you name three famous Welsh landmarks? During our EXPLORE time the children had great fun making daffodils and leeks, creating Welsh dragons and building Welsh landmarks like Cardiff castle.

PE and music have let us see another side to the children. Here lots of laughter has been heard as the children created their own rhythms to share a friends name. We were particularly impressed with the children’s rolling skills both with balls and on gymnastics mats!

Year 1 have had a great week this week!

It was our first homework week and thank you for sending in your books today! There were some really interesting pieces of work that were shared with the classes.

Maths this week was looking at counting on, up to 10, and numbers in words (also up to 10). Some words were tricking us, like writing eight but we will keep practising.

We learnt about English landmarks this week in Humanities. We had great fun building different ones. Tell your grown up what you remember.

We were lucky to have our first visitor today. They came and talked to us about what it means to belong to a community and shared artifacts from the Christian community. The children were very interested.

Art was great fun. This half term we are looking at using different lines to make pictures. Today we used string to make horizontal/vertical/diagonal/wavy/crosshatch lines then copied our ideas onto a sheet. Then we were able to choose our favourite and use chalk to copy it. Great fun!

Have a great weekend and remember to keep reading.