St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Thame

Inspired to be our best.....

Year 1

September 2022

Stuck for books to read - here are some suggestions

Phonic Sounds Set 1, 2 and 3

Complex Speed Sounds Chart

Useful phonics links:     

http://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/

https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/literacy.html

BBC Super Movers - Help to learn your times tables through singing and dance    

Topic Webs

Autumn 2 2022 Topic Web

Friday 25th November 2022

This week we have started learning the songs and practising in the hall for our Nativity. The children have made a great start! Please practise their lines at home with them and encourage them to use loud, clear, well-paced voices. Costumes are due to be brought in on Monday 5th December, please chat to us if you need help/want to see if we have something you could borrow.

In Maths we have been recapping key skills from the Autumn term with a focus on addition, subtraction and ordering/recognising numbers to 10.   In English this week our focus was descriptive writing, we looked at using adjectives and the word ‘and’ within our sentences.

In RE this week we looked at the story of Jesus being found in the Temple at Jerusalem. We had an interesting discussion about the fear and worry that Mary and Joseph might have felt when they realised Jesus was lost. We also thought about how they must have felt when they found him. Then the children wrote speech bubbles to show this.

In RSHE this week the children had to think about what makes them special and unique. We then went on to create a special box where children wrote and drew things that make them special and unique. We also enjoyed learning a special song about this which the children had fun putting actions to.


The children really enjoyed sharing their work with their parents and teachers at our Open Event on Wednesday. We hope you enjoyed it too! It was so lovely to see the children beaming and showing their family around the classroom with excitement and pride.

Friday 18th November 2022

This week in Maths we have been finding a part to help with subtraction. We then moved on to finding fact families, like the one below:

 1+4=5      5=1+4

4+1=5       5=4+1

5-1=4        4=5-1

5-4=1        1=5-4

We also looked at how to subtract numbers, within 10 by crossing out.

 

In English we have enjoyed the story of Dilwyn the Welsh Dragon and the children have been writing about who they think used to own the Castle Dilwyn wants to buy, before moving on to describing the castle both inside and out. The children did well trying to add in adjectives and pushing themselves to add conjunctions such as and/because and time words such as then/next to further improve their work. We have also been working on editing our own work using our purple pen.

We have learnt about the festival of Diwali this week and the children have enjoyed creating Mendhi designs, painting Rangoli patterns and making dough Divas.

In Geography we learnt about the 7 continents and 5 oceans. If you would like a catchy song to help the children remember them you can check out the following videos on YouTube:

 Seven Continents Geography Song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIt5HHjCglg

Five Oceans Song – YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6BE4VcYngQ

In RE we thought about the Church’s celebration of Sunday as a special day, where God’s Family gathers to meets at Sunday Mass and that Mass is a very important celebration that takes place in church. Some of the children were very keen to share their own experiences of attending Mass. We looked at the four main parts of Mass and used role-play to act this out.

We have been working on our gymnastic skills in PE this week. The children have enjoyed using the mats to create and work on sequences which involve balances and ways of travelling on different levels.

Friday 11th November 2022

It's been another fun week here in Year One! The first group of children got to experience Forest School down at Cuttlebrook and came back beaming; they can't wait for next week. The other children are looking forward to when it will be their turn too!

We observed a two- minute silence to pay our respects on Friday and have been learning about Remembrance Day in class. Some of the children created poppy paintings and loose part poppy pictures too. We also designed our own medals and thought carefully about which pictures and words we could put on it. 

The children enjoyed a visit to the church and chose their favourite artefact to draw. Father David was very impressed with our efforts!

In Maths we have been working on finding a part and using our knowledge of number bonds and part whole models to help. As ever the children enjoyed using the practical equipment to help with this. 

In Geography we have been learning about the countries of the UK. We also had a focus in English on a book set in Ireland; Fiona's Luck. The children wrote a letter to the Leprechaun King and also thought about what their wish would have been if they were in the story

Friday 4th November 2022

Welcome back! We hope you had a fun yet relaxing break and are raring to tackle the term ahead!

 This week the children have been thinking about Bonfire Night. We learnt the history behind it and created some firework chalk art, thinking about smudging and blending techniques to make the fireworks look like they were reflecting in water. We also added some biodegradable glitter for some added sparkle!

 In English we have been focusing on plurals- turning a singular word like cat into a plural (a word that indicates there is 'more than one of' something). We talked about needing to add an 's' onto the end of a word to make it plural, but if the word ends in s, ss, zz, sh, ch or x, we add an 'es'. This is because the word already ends in a sound the same or similar to 's'. We can also hear which ending we should use if we say the words and listen to the end carefully. For example, dog would become dogs, but fox would become foxes.  We then looked at how to add the suffix 'ing' to verbs, for example running and zooming.

 During RE we have been learning about 'Families and Celebrations' with a focus this week on Baptism. We looked at the different symbols that represent Baptism and talked about what experiences we had of Baptism - the children did really well sharing their ideas about this.

 Within Maths we have been finding number bonds within and up to 10. We have thought about systematic ways of doing this, beginning with the number itself or zero and working along in order. The children have used cubes, tens frames, butterflies and counters to help them. An example of a list of systematic number bonds for the number 5 would be:

 5+0=5

4+1=5

3+2=5

2+3=5

1+4=5

0+5=5

 We always know there will be one more bond than the number to find. So, in the case above, 6 bonds. We can also write them beginning with zero and even with the whole first, like below. We are teaching the children that the = sign is not always, necessarily, the last sign in a number sentence:

 5= 0+5

5=1+4

5=2+3

5=3+2

5=4+1

5=5+0

 We also started to look at how to add two numbers together - we used tens frames, cubes and a variety of equipment to help us to find the correct answer.

 In Geography we had fun looking at compasses and talking about the directions of North, South, East and West. We worked together as a class to give directions from one location on a map to another. The children then worked in pairs to write their own directions for a different map. 

Have a great week,

The Year 1 Team

Autumn Term 1 2022

Wow, what a great first term! We are so proud of each and every one of the children for settling in so well and becoming fabulous, hard-working members of Year One. This term in English we have been working on structuring our sentences correctly using capital letters, full stops, finger spaces and neat writing. We have practised rereading to make sure our writing makes sense. We have linked our writing to traditional and Fairy Tales, keeping in line with our overall topic. The children have done a diary entry as a Pig, made a wanted poster for the wolf and rewritten the story of The Three Little Pigs. They have also designed and described a Gingerbread Man and their own cocktail for success for the year ahead.

 

In Maths we have been focusing on gaining a secure knowledge of place value within 10, counting, finding one more and one less, comparing using the correct signs and ordering numbers too. We have also started to work on addition using the correct symbol and the part whole model. The children have enjoyed using practical equipment to support them with their maths, including Numicon, cubes, compare bears and counters.

 

In RE we have focused on the topic of Creation. We have learnt about what God did on each of the 7 days and how he rested on the 7th day. We have Learnt about Harvest Festivals and made our own Harvest Prayer tree, thanking God for all of the yummy food he provides and noting how fortunate we are. We have also learnt about St Francis of Assisi and how he loved God's creation. He particularly loved birds and was able to communicate with the animals. We heard about and re-enacted a story where St Francis spoke to a wolf who was terrorising a town and he was able to help the wolf and townsfolk come to an arrangement where everyone was happy. 

 

Our Topic is currently 'Happily Ever After'. The children have looked at the story of The Ugly Duckling and used this as a basis for some PSHE work on bullying and some work on life cycles, birds, and living/non-living things in Science. We have been designers for a detective fairy and made her a bag that would help her do her job. We thought about the brief, designed it and made a prototype, we then thought about what went well and what we could do to improve our designs. We have a fantastic term and are already looking forward to the first week back. Enjoy a fun and restful half term everybody!

Thursday 21st July 2022

We can't believe that this is our last update of the year!
The children had a fantastic trip to Hill End on Wednesday. They thoroughly enjoyed it and represented our school well with fantastic behaviour and great manners.
We had great fun using sweep nets in the meadow and the children were able to identify lots of different creatures.  We found a variety of spiders, bugs, flies and beetles. Thomas even found one with a love heart on its back!
We also did some pond dipping. The children were very sensible near the water and managed to find lots of things including water boatmen, dragon fly larvae and rams-horn snails.
Finally the children had an amazing time making their own cocktail concoctions in the woods.  They had some free time to build dens, make their own rope swings, climb trees and generally explore. They were able to search for more bugs and collect 'caterpillar bites' from nature on sticky paper.
We have really enjoyed teaching your wonderful children this year and we will certainly miss them. 
Thank you for all of your support throughout the year.
Thank you SO much for all of the thoughtful and very generous cards/ gifts. We hope that you all have a very relaxing summer break!
 
With very best wishes from
The Year One Team.

Friday 15th July 2022

We can’t quite believe we are nearly at the end of term after being with all of your lovely children since September. Time really does fly when you are having fun! 

This week in English we wrote our own picture books for Reception to look at, we did this in the style of the story ‘The Selfish Crocodile’.  We were very impressed with how the children listened so carefully to their instructions and then created some very impressive picture books! We also enjoyed a really fun quiz all about wildlife ahead of our trip to ‘Hill End’ next week – the children worked really well in their teams and showed great teamwork during this activity. The scores were very close with only a couple of points between each team, but the winning team were ‘The Super Team’, followed closely in joint second place by ‘The Best Team’ and ‘The Clever Clogs’!!! 

In Maths this week we have been looking at money and recognising and counting different notes and coins. We also looked at calendars and dates and how to use a calendar correctly. We then started to look at time, thinking about half past, quarter past and quarter to the hour. 

In PE we had fun learning some hockey skills and the children were very grown up about using the hockey sticks carefully and responsibly. 

During RE this week we took some time to reflect on our time in Year 1 and wrote prayers to God, thanking him for what we have enjoyed and achieved this year. The children wrote some very mature and thought-provoking prayers which included being thankful for our improvements in certain areas such as phonics, reading, writing, maths, science and art. The children also shared their thanks for all the staff who have helped them in school and for the lovely classroom and the outside area. 

Friday 8th July 2022

This week the children enjoyed taking part in Sports Day. If you were able to come, we are sure you were as impressed and as proud of the children as we were. They did amazingly! Well done everyone for trying your best and showing great sportsmanship! 

In English this week, the children have been building up to writing and delivering their very own speeches on how to care for the planet. They worked with their learning partner to do some research on the iPads and take notes. After this they were able to verbally plan out their speech before writing it down and performing it to the rest of the class. We were so proud of how the children spoke clearly and passionately in front of their classmates. 

In Maths the children were amazing when ordering numbers to 100 and finding one more and one less than a number up to 100. They are really beginning to understand place value and are using it to help them to work out number problems. Excellent work, maths whizzes! We also started to look at position and whether an object was turned a quarter turn, a half turn, a three-quarter turn or a full turn. 

In Art we began talking about shading and how the pressure we use can change the tone and shade of the marks that we make. The children enjoyed using a variety of mediums including pens, pencils, felt tips, charcoal and chalks/pastels to investigate this idea. 

In RE this week we looked at the story of ‘The Wedding in Cana’, we were amazed at how Jesus was able to perform the miracle of turning water into wine.  The children were able to retell the story carefully which showed they had listened well. 

Just a small notice that next week we will not be changing reading books as we will be collecting them all in next Friday to make sure that we have them all for the end of term. If you could please make sure that any reading books that belong to school are in book bags for Friday then that would be really helpful.  

Have a lovely sunny weekend, 

The Year 1 Team. 

Friday 1st July 2022

Year 1 have enjoyed our ‘Sports Week’. We had great fun doing skipping, box fit, athletics and also dancing. The children really enjoyed learning a dance routine from ‘Grease’ the musical. We also have been practising very hard for Sports Day! 

In English we have continued our sports theme and we have been learning about the Commonwealth Games. We then went on to research our own favourite sports using the IPADS.  The children then produced an informative poster about their chosen sport. 

This week in Maths we have been partitioning numbers and comparing numbers using words and symbols. 

In RE we thought about what we might be like if we were a disciple and what qualities we would need to make a good disciple. We were really proud of the children for their work and the great ideas they had during our discussions. 

In Forest School this week the children had a great time at Cuttlebrook where they got VERY muddy but luckily avoided the rain!!! The children had fun climbing trees, making dens and making bridges out of sticks!!

Finally, in Art we looked at how we could use different textures with sponges to create a repeated pattern.  We hope these made their way home to you and we are sure you will agree they look very effective! 

Just a little reminder that on Monday for Sports Day, the children should wear a T –Shirt in their correct house colour along with the rest of their normal PE kit. This will be followed by a family picnic at school. We look forward to seeing you on Monday, have a lovely weekend! 

The Year 1 Team 

Friday 24th June 2022

This week the children watched a short clip called 'Bubbles'. We then wrote a character/setting description, a story map to plan out the story and we 'stepped out' the story with our learning partners. Finally the children retold the story in their own words. They did absolutely AMAZINGLY and we were so very proud of them! The lovely Mrs Lloyd who will be teaching the children next year, popped in to see us and she was also very impressed by the stories that the children had written!
In Maths we have been thinking about how to count to 100 and counting forwards and backwards within 100. The children enjoyed looking at a funny song to help them with this!
In RE we have been looking at the story of 'The call of the fishermen'. We thought about why Jesus chose
some of the fishermen to be his disciples. We then thought about how the four men would have felt before and after they had met Jesus - we drew some lovely pictures and created some captions to go with these pictures.
The children are really enjoying Forest School and have been making some wonderful creations as you will see in some of the pictures below! This week the children created an 'Outdoor Mobile' to hang outside in their gardens.  Whilst making these, the children also learnt the important skill of how to tie a simple knot - well done everyone!
Have a lovely weekend!

Friday 17th June 2022

This week we have been reflecting on our wonderful Jubilee celebrations last week. It was lovely to welcome families back into school and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! We were so proud of the children for their fantastic dance performance to ‘Spice your life’.  It has been wonderful to hear that some of the children have been showing their families the routine at home too! 

In English we identified features of newspaper reports with our learning partners. We then planned and wrote newspaper reports about our celebrations, these had to include a newspaper name, a headline, a picture and a caption and then a report (written in columns) explaining what happened in school on Friday. We even interviewed each other to get some quotes for our reports.  The final newspaper reports were very impressive – well done Year 1! 

In Maths we have continued to look at fractions where we have become experts when finding a half and a quarter of different quantities. 

Our new Dimensions topic has a conservation theme and is called ‘Light Up The World’. This week the children discussed what they already knew about the sun. We also talked about darkness and sources of light.  Many of the children were surprised to learn that the Moon is not actually a source of light. 

On Thursday the current Reception class came into Year 1 to become familiar with their new classroom. We were so proud of all of Year 1 for being respectful and responsible and showing Reception class around Year 1 and playing with the children so nicely. 

Just a reminder that if your child has learnt their spellings they should hand them in at the beginning of the week into our spellings tray, as this is when we check them with the children.  We will then give new ones to the children on a Tuesday which is when we set aside time for this.  If your child wants to keep their spellings for longer than a week then that is fine, they can hand them in on the following Monday. 

Have a lovely weekend!

Friday 10th June 2022

Year 1 have had a great first week back. We have been very busy preparing for our special Jubilee Celebrations on Friday.  We have written invitations to our celebration as well as letters to the Queen, thanking her for all she has done for us.  We planned our letters carefully, using the correct format for writing a letter before writing them out neatly all ready for the Queen to read!  

Year 1 REALLY enjoyed making shortbread biscuits, in the shape of a crown. The children all worked sensibly and listened carefully to the instructions they were given , well done Year 1! 

In addition to this we made some glorious crowns which were fit for a King (or Queen) and we decorated our own bunting ready for Friday. 

The children also did some careful portraits of the Queen, we thought carefully about the proportions of her face, shoulders and neck.  We then talked about using light pencil to begin with before building up our pictures with darker pencil.  We were very proud of the children for trying their best with this as it is a tricky thing to do. 

During our Maths this week we have been looking at how to find a half and a quarter of different shapes and quantities.  We enjoyed thinking about different foods that we could share between two or four people. 

We look forward to showing you all of these things during our celebration on Friday and also performing something that we have been working very hard on! 

Have a lovely (and hopefully sunny) weekend and we hope that you have a great day on Friday – we are all very excited to see you! 

Friday 27th May 2022

We had a special visitor in school this week, Father David, he came in to school to join us in our Mary Garden.  Father talked to us about how special Mary is and we all said a Hail Mary together.  Mary was crowned with some flowers that the Year 6 children had made.  In RE this week we thought about the different gifts that the Holy Spirit has given us and we wrote a class prayer thanking the Holy Spirit for these gifts. 

This week the children made us incredibly proud when writing their own stories, inspired by the book ‘A Right Royal Roach Trip’.  They had some brilliant and ingenious ideas, and really tried to add detail to their work. Well done everybody! The children also wrote a final version of their own ‘food’ poems, they then rehearsed and performed them in front of the rest of the class, concentrating on using loud, clear voices and expression to bring their performances alive 

In Maths the children continued working hard on making equal groups by grouping and sharing. They enjoyed sharing out different ‘muffins’ onto different numbers of plates to find out how many each person would have. 

The children had fun in PE playing human skittles and have continued to develop their target skills with our Ignite Sports coach. We have also been working hard on a special dance routine! 

Finally, we had lots of fun playing different games to help us prepare for the phonics screening after half term. We hope that you have found the pack we sent home fun and useful.  Some of the children have already told us how they have enjoyed feeding Fred and Froz the correct words. 

Have a fabulous half term break, we look forward to seeing you again after the holidays! 

Friday 20th May 2022

This week the children have enjoyed listening to our new story in English; 'A Right Royal Roach Trip'. We have been doing work on character and setting descriptions and have planned our own version of the story in pairs ready to write next week. The children were very excited and came up with some ingenious ways to stop the thief from taking the Crown Jewels!   The children have also been planning their own poems based on their favourite foods – we used our senses to think about how our chosen food tastes, smells and feels. We also tried to include some rhyming words! 

We have been practising reading lots of real and alien words in preparation for our Phonics Screening after half term. The children are trying their absolute best and have really enjoyed doing the ‘roll and read’ game as a class and in pairs. 

In Maths we have been making arrays, doubling and making equal groups by grouping and sharing. The children have done really well with this and have completed a variety of practical activities to embed and demonstrate their learning. 

As part of our Dimensions topic 'Royal Patrons' we have been finding out about Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth and did some writing on the differences between them. We also spoke about The Victoria Cross and nominated someone we knew who had been brave and courageous to receive one. We are also continued to learn the Ukrainian language and included below is a picture of our beautiful display of sunflower paintings! 

In PE we have enjoyed perfecting our aiming skills whilst scoring points (the points increased as our target moved further away). 

During RE we have been looking at the story of the 'Day of Pentecost'.  We explored the story through music and movement to capture the thoughts and feelings of the disciples.  The children sensibly used percussion instruments to represent the wind and fire.  

Hava fun and sunny weekend!

Friday 13th May 2022

This week we have been making and adding equal groups in Maths.  Once again the children enjoyed some practical activities and even created some of their own problems for others to solve.  We also looked at measuring capacity - we got a little bit wet when doing this but luckily we could dry off in the lovely sunshine!  We worked in groups to measure the capacity of different containers using smaller containers (cups). We used the language full, empty, half full, nearly full and nearly empty to describe and compare the capacity of different containers. 
In English we wrote a letter to our new arrival, telling them all about ourselves. We also worked on using question marks when writing down questions that we had about Ukraine.  We then researched, planned and wrote our own report about Ukraine, the children did a brilliant job. We painted some beautiful sunflowers as they are the national flower of Ukraine.  
This week we also enjoyed looking at the poem 'The Dinosaur's Dinner', we thought of lots of great questions we wanted to ask to find out more about poem. We then illustrated and performed different verses of the poem which was great fun.
In RE we looked at the story of when St Peter told the crowd about the resurrection of Jesus. We had to imagine that we were in the crowd on this day and explain how we felt about what St Peter was telling us. The children had some great ideas and we had a good debate about the reasons why we may or may not believe what St Peter was telling us about Jesus.
In PE the children enjoyed working on their aiming skills with our Ignite sports coach by playing a game based on 'boules' and trying to carefully hit a target.
Another fabulous week Year 1 - enjoy the beautiful sunshine this weekend!

Friday 6th May 2022

This week in Year 1 we have been learning to count in twos, fives and tens.  The children have enjoyed lots of practical activities to help them with this; building number towers in order, painting hands and counting in 5’s and making their own number strip jigsaws.  We have also been looking at capacity and volume and thinking about whether containers are full, nearly full, half full, nearly empty or empty. 

In English we have been adding the suffixes S and ES to root words in order to make them plural. The children linked this to our focus book and wrote about things they imagined they could see from the top of the London Eye.  We also worked on adding EST to words. The children enjoyed writing about what they would buy on a shopping trip in London - the longest scarf, the tallest teddy and the fastest car were some popular choices! We have also been looking at poetry and rehearsing/performing a variety of ‘funny food’ poems to the rest of the class. We have also been working hard on learning to spell the days of the week using a song and an online game to help us. 

In RE we have been learning about the Easter candle which we learnt is also known as the Paschal candle. We visited Church to look at the candle and to think about the way the candle is used in church during the Easter season. We were very proud of the children and how carefully they listened whilst we were in Church.  We then decorated our own Paschal candles, making sure we used the correct symbols on our candles. 

In PE we have worked hard whilst learning some hockey skills with our IGNITE sports coach. We learnt how to hold the hockey stick correctly and how to dribble and stop the ball carefully. 

What a busy week, all packed into four days - well done Year 1! 

Friday 29th April 2022

This week we have enjoyed reading 'The Royal Baby's Big Red Bus Tour of London', linking in with our new Dimensions topic, 'Royal Patrons'. It inspired us in English and the children had fun writing 'silly' sentences about what the babies saw on their journey, remembering to use exclamation marks.  

We thought about the time periods Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth lived in and compared how each would capture an image of themselves. We learnt that when cameras were first invented people had to sit still for 20 seconds in order to not come out blurred. This is why they always look so straight and serious! We tried to sit still for 20 seconds without moving, smiling, swaying or blinking; it was very hard!  We also thought about changes and growth in humans and how we change from being a baby to a fully grown adult. The children looked at photos of babies and tried to correctly match them to the correct adults. They found a baby Miss Oakley very funny for some reason! We then thought about what changes the children have been through and they made their own personal timeline. 

As part of our English work we have also been looking at poetry, we focused on a poem called ‘Spaghetti Spaghetti’ By Jack Prelutsky. We thought about how the vocabulary used in the poem really brought it to life for the audience and we had fun learning the poem in small groups and then performing this as a class (you can watch our amazing performance below!). 

In Maths we have worked really hard this week when comparing objects and numbers within 50 and ordering numbers to 50.   We also looked at how to compare the mass of different objects. 

Well done Year 1 for a great first week back!

Friday 8th April 2022

This week we have been thinking lots about Holy Week. The children enjoyed watching a clip about Palm Sunday. This inspired us to make our own palm leaves and to re-enact the exciting entrance Jesus made into Jerusalem. The children did a fabulous job of writing a diary entry as if they were a member of that excited crowd, exclaiming Hosanna! 
We also learnt about The Last Supper, again watching a clip before re-enacting. We shared bread and wine (blackcurrant juice) and found out which member of our class was Judas and about to betray Jesus! The children then wrote a thought bubble as one of the disciples.
Finally, we had an amazing time learning about the Stations of the Cross. We were lucky enough to visit church and look at the stations there. When we returned the children took a station each and drew a matching picture, before painting it with water colours. They looked fantastic and one of each station was added to our prayer focus.
For many of the children it was their first time visiting the church. We were so proud of them! They blessed themselves, genuflected beautifully and listened really carefully. They showed great respect, well done everyone!
We also had great fun making Easter nests and Easter cards. Watch out for one finding its way to you soon!
We hope you have a fantastic Easter break and enjoy your time together. We look forward to welcoming you back soon!

Friday 1st April 2022

This week we have been having lots of fun retelling the story of The Three Little Pigs. The children have created story maps and sequenced the story, using these sequences to tell the story out loud to others.  We have also described the wolf and the pigs, drawn and labelled inside the third little pig's house and written the story using our best writing and ideas!  The children enjoyed this so much that some chose to finish their story, or even write another version, during their choosing time!  Wow!  So many future authors.
We also wrote a letter in character as the wolf apologising to the three little pigs for his behaviour and asking for forgiveness - the children had some great ideas about why the wolf decided to be so mean to the pigs.
In Maths we have been representing numbers to 50 using tens frames, base 10, numerals and words. We are becoming more confident with this.  Some children also had fun using our outdoor cones to create their own number sentences.  We have also been looking at weight and mass and the children have enjoyed using the weighing scales to compare objects, using the language lightest, heaviest and equal to. Well done Year 1!
 
In PE we enjoyed thinking about how we can make wide and thin shapes with our bodies and we carefully sequenced a routine linking the different shapes.  Another super week Year 1!

Friday 25th March 2022

This week in Year One we have been enjoying the sunshine!  The children have created some fabulous role play scenarios outside, creating cafes and writing their own menus.  They have really stepped up this week and tried to think about how they can challenge themselves and use their choosing time wisely.  We've seen lots of independent maths and story writing, what super stars!
In Literacy we have used the structure of our Focus story, The Squirrels Who Squabbled, to create our own class story.  We had to think of a character, what lesson they would learn, what their dilemma would be and how they would resolve it.  The children came up with some great ideas and collectively we created 'Mean Dog'.  Can your child tell you the story?
We have been recapping all our previous learning in maths this week and learning to use a 100 square to help us answer questions that involve bigger numbers.  In PE the children have enjoyed working on their ball skills, throwing, catching and bouncing. With the weather as lovely as it is they may wish to show off their skills at the weekend. 
Well done Year 1, another great week!

Friday 11th March 2022

Year 1 have had a lovely week. We enjoyed having a very special visitor,  Father David who came in at the beginning of the week to talk to us about Lent. Following on from this, we wrote some reflective Lenten promises and did some role play around the story of Lent. 
 
In Maths we have been very carefully measuring different objects around school, to the nearest centimetre.  We have also been working on our addition and subtraction skills.
 
We have continued to enjoy looking at our class story 'The squirrels who squabbled' which included 'stepping out' the story , thinking about the feelings of the characters and planning and writing a diary entry as Cyril the squirrel! 
 
For PE this week the children worked on their ball skills and thought about tactics within games. We also thought about how to move in different ways across the playground using wide and thin shapes.
During our Dimensions work we have been thinking about why it is important to use the correct positional language when giving someone else instructions. 
We had to describe to a partner different locations around school ( without saying the name of the location). Then our partner had to  guess the location , the children had to think very carefully about their clues and their use of positional language to help their partner.
It has been lovely to take more of our learning outside this week due to the sunshine making an appearance!  Have a lovely weekend! 

Friday 4th March 2022

We have had a great first week back and the children have come back refreshed and ready to learn.
This week the children we introduced to our our new Dimensions topic - Thame as our local area.  In Maths we have been working hard using different methods when subtracting numbers (crossing 10).  During English we have started work based around the text 'The Squirrels who Squabbled'.   We thought carefully about why we shouldn't squabble and how to make good choices.  In groups we were given a variety of scenarios and had to think very carefully about how situations could be dealt with in a better way.
On Monday, we were fascinated to watch Father David burning the palms from last year to create the ash for the blessing we received on Ash Wednesday.  We also enjoyed some yummy pancakes when learning about Shrove Tuesday.
Finally we all had a wonderful time celebrating World Book Day, we thoroughly enjoyed completing a variety of activities based around different books throughout the day. It was lovely to see the excitement of the children from the moment they walked into school and their pride and enthusiasm when sharing a range of favourite bed time stories.    The hot chocolate/milk and cookies were also an amazing treat.  We hope that you have a wonderful weekend!

Friday 18th February 2022

It has been another lovely week yet again in Year 1.  In Maths we have been adding numbers together by using our number bonds to 10 and thinking about how to measure lengths in cm using a ruler. 
The story we have been looking at in English is 'Owl Babies' by Martin Waddell - we looked at the different sections of the story and created some great expanded noun phrases about the characters in the book.  We ended the week be re-telling the story in third person, using chronological order and expanded noun phrases.  The children have enjoyed learning a variety of skills in our PE lessons this week including skipping and balancing skills as well as our aiming skills with our Ignite sports coach.
During our RE lessons we have been thinking about forgiveness and times when we have had to forgive others and be forgiven for something.
We hope that you have a well-earned rest this half term as you all thoroughly deserve it!

Friday 11th February 2022

It has been another busy week in Year 1.  We finished our Arctic Circle topic with a Music lesson where we learnt some breathing techniques and the correct posture to have when singing.  We also learnt some tongue twisters to help with our diction.  We then put together all we had learnt to perform the song 'I do like to be beside my igloo' - which you can see in the video below!
In English we have been looking at how to write a good description of Norman the shark from a short film which we have been studying, called 'The Ugly Sharkling'.   We then wrote postcards which included our amazing descriptive writing.
In Maths we have continued to compare length and height and we have been finding and making number bonds to 20 based on our knowledge of number bonds to 10.
During RE we have been looking at forgiveness and enjoyed using our drama skills to show the emotions of the characters in the parable of 'The Prodigal Son' (which you can see pictures of below).
In P.E we have continued to develop our ball skills by aiming for a targets whilst earning different points for each target.
What a great week Year 1, have a great weekend!
Converting media.
(Media will continue converting in the background)

Friday 4th February 2022

We have enjoyed another action-packed week in Year 1.
In Maths we have started looking at addition up to 20, using the counting on method. We have also been showing off our expertise at describing and spotting 2D and 3D shapes.  In English we have just finished our class book 'Dog's Don't do Ballet' - the children really enjoyed putting themselves into the shoes of the different characters in the story. The children 'hot seated' Miss Harvey as the Dad in the story and then they took it in turns to 'hot seat' each other as the girl from the story.
In our Dimensions topic we compared our diets to the Inuits and thought about what healthy eating means. Then the children got creative when designing plates of yummy, healthy food!  During PE this week we have been looking at how to use tactics to gain points whilst continuing to work as part of a team. The children's favourite warm up activity is called 'Granny's footsteps' (there is a photo of this in action below!).
In RE we looked at the miracle of when Jesus helped the blind man so he could see. The children had to put themselves in the position of the blind man (by closing their eyes) and then describe how they felt when the adults were moving around and making different sounds.  The children had to rely on their senses to help them understand what could have been making the different sounds.
What a great week Year 1! 

Friday 28th January 2022

This week we have enjoyed looking at our new class book 'Dogs don't do ballet'.  The children have produced some great English work based around this book including taking part in a debate, thinking of reasons for and against letting Biff the dog attend a trip to the theatre to watch the ballet!  As part of our Dimensions topic and Science work this week we learnt about the four seasons of the year 
and created some beautiful paintings of them, a selection of which are shown below.
In Maths the children have been working hard when comparing groups/numbers and ordering numbers. We have also been sorting 2D shapes and making repeated patterns with 2D and 3D shapes.  During RE we looked at the story of 'The Feeding of the 5000'.  We thought carefully about how the crowd would have felt when they realised there was enough food for everyone to eat and how it was a miracle. The children thought of some great adjectives to describe these feelings such as amazed, astounded, grateful, thankful, shocked and stunned.  During our session with Ignite Sports we took part in team games, thinking about how to take turns and about how to play fairly.  Another great week, well done Year 1!

Friday 21st January 2022

The children have really been enjoying our Dimensions topic of 'Come Fly With Me - The Arctic Circle'.  This week we learnt about Inuits and the children had a blast trying to build their own igloos from the construction materials given.  We also learnt about the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis and after learning about them, the children had fun creating their own pictures of them using chalks, pastels and black paper. 
We really enjoyed watching the Aladdin pantomime on Monday and the children have done some fantastic writing inspired by this, including writing their own three wishes for a genie - perhaps ask about these wishes at home tonight!!  In RE we looked at the parable of 'The Good Shepherd'.  The children thought very carefully about the feelings of the shepherd before and after he lost his sheep, which generated a great discussion.  In Maths the children have been sorting 2D shapes into different groups and also working on more than and less than a given number.
We enjoyed our second session with our Ignite Sports coach where we enjoyed some team building games.  What a fun, fabulous week Year 1!

Friday 14th January 2022

Year 1 have made a great start to the new term.  We enjoyed taking part in Parish Mass virtually to celebrate Epiphany.  After Mass the children thought carefully about what gifts we could bring to the baby Jesus. Our ideas included giving our love and our hearts, being helpful, friendly and ready for Jesus.  We created sketches to portray our gifts and put these around our Prayer Focus. 

In English we have enjoyed learning about farms, with a focus on the book ‘What the Ladybird Heard’.  Following on from this we have been collecting and writing information about farms and animals.  In RE this week we read the parable of The Good Samaritan.  We discussed what is a right or wrong action.  We thought about how we knew that what the Good Samaritan did was the right action.  After this we used drama to act out the parable, we worked in groups and carefully discussed how the people in the story would have felt at different points throughout the story.  During Maths the children have shown amazing knowledge when naming and sorting 2D and 3D shapes and when looking at place value within 20. We also thoroughly enjoyed learning some catching and throwing skills during our first session with our specialist PE teacher from Ignite Sports.

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