Newsletters will be sent out each half term. This information will be about the learning for the half term with important key diary dates and links to enhance our learning.

• Autumn 1 Newsletter
• Autumn 2 Newsletter
• Spring 1 Newsletter
• Spring 2 Newsletter
• Summer 1 Newsletter

These are the words the children will need to be able to read and write by the end of Year 1.

• T-L-5268-Year-1-Common-Exception-Words-Powerpoint.pptx

We learnt about Palm Sunday and made our own palm leaves.

Learning about fire safety, using flint, lighting a fire, toasting marshmallows, eating S'mores and playing hide and seek. A great session.

We have been looking at different shells and naming common shells found around the British coast.

We carried out lots of different experiments and witness owe and wonder. We were lucky to have two visitors come into class to show us some experiments, carry out an investigation and have the opportunity to handle scientific equipment.

We have been busy measuring this week. We started with non standard measures and then learnt about rulers and centimetres.

This week we went on a bear hunt. We got incredibly muddy, had lots of fun and made dens for our bears.

We have been looking at different materials. We have carried out 2 different investigations. One to find the right material to make sunglasses, we needed to find something transparent or translucent. We also had to investigate which material would keep a cold bottle of water cool at the beach on a hot day. Lots of talking, questions and thinking went into these two different investigations.

We had lots of fun dressing up and reading books today.

We had lots of fun at our Forest School session. We played hide and seek, heard the story of the Gruffalo and then used a map to find clues from the story. We had a drink and a biscuit. We played on the swings, made playdough animals and had a throwing competition.

Our first lesson in coding. We worked together building a route and then gave each other directions. We pretended to be robots and could only follow the exact directions. We used the language forward, backwards, left and right. We worked really well as a team, taking turns and supporting each other. We used the time connective terms, first, next, then, after and finally to help us order the directions correctly.

We visited 4 different classrooms during the afternoon. We participated in 4 different activities. We did some mindful drawing, music making, what it feels like to be cross or sad and what to do when we have these big feelings, we made fidgets and learnt some breathing exercises.

We designed a route for the Beebots to follow. We put in the commands and talked using directional language. We then drew a map of the route that was taken.

We researched different Polar animals. We also investigated how animals are camouflaged and why.

This week we thought about the food we would take if we were going to the South Pole. We looked at different fresh vegetables naming them, looking at the roots, flowers, stem, leaves and seeds and identifying the different parts. We thought these foods would get frozen and not be very good to eat. We looked at tin food too and although the tin vegetables would last longer they were very heavy to carry. We then investigated dried soup and looked at the vegetables. We thought this would be the best food to carry on an exhibition as it was light and easy to carry. We of course tried the soup, most of us thought it was yummy.

We have been learning all about geography this week.
We played the dice game and found facts about the United Kingdom around the room.
We searched the school grounds for human and physical features.
We placed a teddy in different areas using our positional and directional language to help with our map skills.
We then came back into class and made our own buildings with the construction to show human and physical features.

We had an amazing afternoon handling some unusual pets.

We made sliding pictures. First we looked at books and toys that had moving parts. Then we designed our picture, we were inspired by the polar regions which we are learning about in science. We then made our sliding picture. We evaluated our design and then the Nursery children came to be entered by our work. We were very proud of the work we produced.

We conducted a science experiment. We tested lots of different gloves to find which glove would be the best to keep our hands warm and dry if we went to the Polar Regions. First we tried to write with the gloves on to see which was the most flexible. We then held some ice to see which glove would keep our hands warm. Finally we put our gloved hands into a bowl of water to see which material would keep our hands dry. We had lots of fun and great discussions about the materials. We talked about warmth, flexible and waterproof.

We went to visit St Mary's Church as part of out RE learning this half term. We have been thinking about 'belonging' and what happens in a church and what would we find in a church. We had a wonderful time listening to the Vicars, learning about the alter, pulpit, lectern, what happens during a christening and communion. We also had a chance to wander around and explore.

We have been reading the story Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. We acted out the story and did some hot seating. We have thought about feelings and why the boy and penguin felt this way.

This half term we will be learning all about the Polar regions. We investigated lots of different clothes and decided what would be best to wear in a cold or hot place. We learnt the new word flexible. We looked at the different materials, naming them and talked about if they were opaque, transparent or translucent. We had lots of fund dressing up!

We used the resources to make the number 10 in different ways. We then recorded our number sentences.

Our Buddies who are now in Year 6 came to visit us. They had written us our own personalised story. Our Buddies read us our stories and we were able to take them home. We loved spending time with our older friends.

We have learnt about 3D shapes. We investigated which shapes we could stack, which shapes rolled. We talked about how many sides the shapes had and learnt that these were called faces. We have fun building models and naming the shapes. The shapes we learnt about were, cube, cuboid, sphere, pyramid, cone and a triangle prism.

We went on a December seasonal walk. We noticed the trees had lost many of their leaves, the fruit had fallen off the trees and had been eaten by the animals and the ground was wet and muddy. We also noticed that the trees were different sizes and shapes depending on what kind of trees they were. Some plants still had lots of green leaves and we learnt that these were evergreen plants.
The weather was cold, damp and cloudy.
We went to our Year 1 garden and saw that the flowers had died and there were a lot of weeds. We had fun clearing out the flower beds, putting the weeds in the compost bin, finding worms and noticing the new bulbs starting to peep through!

Ready for our Nativity Prickly Hay!

For our last science lesson on Celebrations we made some reindeer Christmas cookies. We talked about how we taste and what sense we used. We looked at our tongues and saw our taste buds. We talked about how foods can be sweet, sour, bitter or salty and that foods can be chewy, crunchy or soft. We loved making these cookies and especially enjoyed eating them and talking about all the things we had learnt.

Look at our self portraits!
We took our time and drew our features step by step making sure our eyes, nose and ears were in the right place. We then looked in the mirror to add any features and use the right colours.
We evaluated our work and looked at each others.
We also made portraits out of the construction materials.

Continuing on with our celebrations in science, this week was all about musical instruments. The children got very busy using the junk modelling and made drums, trumpets, clackers, scrappers etc. Their imagination was amazing. They came up with different ways to attached the junk. We talked about the materials that they used and identified paper, cardboard, metal, plastic and wood and discussed which was the best material to use and why. A messy, fun productive afternoon was had by all.

Look at our portraits! We tried really hard and found this activity very tricky to only draw only half of our faces. We are super proud of our work.

This week we have been learning all about shadows. We made shadow puppets and also tried making hand shadows. We learnt about opaque. transparent and translucent materials. We explored around the classroom investigating with torches to see what objects the light could and could not pass through.

Art is our driver this half term. We started off using different types of pencils and learnt about 2B, 2H, 4H and 6B pencils, H means hard and B means black. We learnt that we can hold the pencil in different ways and use our wrists, elbows and shoulders to make movements. We made different lines and marks as we experimented in our sketch books.

We took part in a skipping workshop. We learnt to listen, take turns and run through the rope as it was turning. It was a bit scary for some of us but we all had a go and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

We are learning all about the UK. We enjoyed looking through the atlas books for the first time. Finding the UK, locating England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Map work is always so much fun.

We started our new topic in science this week called 'celebration'. We looked at a burning candle and observed the flame. We were very interested to feel the candle, learn new words such as wax, wick, and flame. It was fascinating to see the flame flickering and see the different colours in the flame.

This week we have been learning about the plus sign and making our own number sentences. We have looked at making different number bonds to certain numbers, e.g. 1+6=7, 2+5=7, 3+4=7 etc. We used lots of different practical ways to show our learning.

We went on an autumn walk to see what was happening in the school grounds during the month of October. Since the last time we went out the weather is colder and we were wearing our coats. The weather was damp and sunny with fog in the mornings. We also noticed that the days were getting shorter and it is getting darker in the evenings. We looked at the trees, some of the trees had lost most of their leaves and other trees still had their leaves. The leaves were changing colour. We learnt about evergreen and deciduous trees. We saw that the apples had fallen off the trees and that all the blackberries had been eaten. We also learnt about what was alive, dead and never been alive.

This week has been all about number lines. We drew big number lines on the playground using chalk, then smaller number lines on the tables in class. We learnt about the order of the numbers, which number comes next, before. We use the words greater than and less than. We found numbers on the number line from given questions and of course had fun.

We had a fantastic morning with Holly from Alfresco Learning. We spent our time outdoors learning about what houses were made out of in 1666 and why these houses burnt so quickly in the fire. We learnt about and made a wattle and daub wall using sticks, soil, straw but no pooh! This was great fun and very muddy. We worked great as a team, talking and helping each other.
We then made a different bakery for Thomas Farriner who had the fateful bakery on Pudding Lane. We used different materials to make a more stable building.
We had a great experience and history came alive.

This week we have been learning about fewer and more within 10 and then moved onto less than, greater than and equal to. We learnt about the inequality signs < > and =.

In our music lesson this week we had a go on the glockenspiels. We improvised and played along to a tune. We then followed the music notation and played the notes D and C in time to the beat.

Continuing on our printing journey. This week we made an impression of a leaf or shell using plasticine. We then put the impression on to an ink pad. Using a roller we placed the plasticine ink side down in our sketch books. It was fun printing this way using a different method and tools.

Continuing with our science lessons all about our senses, this week was all about taste. We also used our sense of touch and smell to help us describe the tastes. We ate a variety of different foods that were soft, crunchy, hard, salty, sweet, juicy, yummy and yukky. I was very proud of all the children especially those children who are very unsure of different foods. Everyone held and smelt the foods even if they didn't want to eat them. We also did an experiment with our eyes closed and holding our noses we ate some raw potato and apple, they both tasted the same!

We went on the laptops. With help we were able to logon and access the Purple Mash website. We explored how to change our own avatars. We learnt to be patient, take turns and only press the keys once!

We joined Bethan Woollvin who is an author and illustrator on her online zoom workshop. She read her new book Luna and the Sky Dragon. She then showed us how to draw Luna and the sky dragon. I was so impressed with the children's concentration and art work produced.

We acted out the events of the Great Fire of London

We are learning all about printing. We had a go at printing using different materials.

We also looked at pictures of the City of London from 1666 when the Great Fire of London started. We used our art sketch books for the first time and our artist pencils. We carefully copied a lined drawing of the buildings into our books. We took our time and looked for details to enhance of pictures,

We went on a technology hunt. We found out that there are many things in school that need technology for them to work.

We have been learning all about timelines. Looking at events within living memory and beyond living memory. We plotted when we were born, key events and when the great fire of London started.

A big part of our science learning this year is all about the seasons and the changes we see around us. Each month we will visit the school grounds and look for these changes.

This week we learnt all about September and that it is the first month of Autumn. Although the weather has been very hot we still managed to find some typical autumnal changes!!

We have been enjoying reading books for pleasure first thing in the mornings. A great way to start the day.

Our first maths lessons have been all about sorting. Building on our knowledge from last year and trying to be more creative on how the objects have been sorted.

We read these stories to help use settle into the New Year 1 class.

A 'Bag Full of Worries' helped us understand that all our feelings and worries can be real and we talked about how we could help ourselves if we had these worries. We now have a feeling box in class so that the children can write a note if they have a big feeling and we can deal with it.

We read the story 'Our Class is a Family' and we coloured in hand prints to show that we are one family in Year 1 and we will look after each other.