Autumn 1 2022

Hello and welcome back! I hope that you have all had a fantastic summer holidays and are raring to go as we enter Year 1!

This half term the children have chosen “Oh I do like to be beside the seaside” as their topic. Take a look at our class newsletter for more information on the exciting half term that we have planned!

Week 1

This week we have been blown away by the children as they have started their journey in Year 1. The children have all adapted incredibly well to the new routines and timetable, taking each change in their stride and with a smile on their faces. We couldn’t be prouder, a huge well done Year 1!

Here we are exploring our new classroom and learning beautifully with our friends!

Our First School Trip: Ledston Countryside Classroom.

We had a fabulous day at Ledston Countryside Classroom. The trip complemented our learning in Science about materials. Linking to our prior learning about natural materials in FS2, we learned about what objects are made of and why we use different materials for different purposes. We learned another way that we can live simply, making a plant pot out of newspaper. We planted an acorn in our pot! We enjoyed lunch together and then went on a scavenger hunt through the fields and woods. We were looking for natural materials that matched certain criteria on our sheet; soft, hard, brown, spiky. We then took part in different activities in the woods including working in teams to make a den for a pebble person and working as a whole class to make a human tree!

Collective Worship

This week our statement of the week has been: We are all special. In Collective Worship we have focused on what makes us each unique and special and how we can use these charactersistics to follow Jesus’s teaching.

In Collective Worship we have been focusing on the Parable of the Talents (Mathew 25, 14-30). The children have been reflecting on their talents and how we can use them to help others and make God’s world a kinder place.

Our virtue for the last few weeks has been Citizenship. The children have learnt what this means and the important role they play as a citizen within their school, family and church communities. The children have all worked hard to show good citizenship, caring for members of their community and reflecting on how we can care for those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

Harvest Liturgy

Year 1 enjoyed taking part in the Harvest Liturgy where the whole school community came together in prayer, song and worship. The Mini Vinnies have been working hard for their Harvest Appeal and we are extremely grateful to all our families and members of our school community for supporting this appeal. We have been overwhelmed with the number of donations, both foods and other items which we have now donated to Wetherby Food Bank and monetary donations which we will be donating to CAFOD, in support of their work to support those in need around the world.

One Million children Pray the Rosary – Tuesday 18^th October.

We have joined with children around the world to Pray the Rosary. Mrs Armitage taught us what all the beads represent and how to Pray the Rosary. We said the Our Father and three Hail Marys. We learned how to treat the beads with respect and why we Pray the Rosary in October, thinking about how Mary wants us to keep Jesus close to our hearts.

RE

Our topic this half term is God’s Great Plan.

We had a wonderful visit from Brother Jonathan, Father Franpisek, Sister John-Paul, Sister Emmanuel and Sister Ciara from The Franciscan Sisters of Renewal. First, we had an assembly with them in which we learned a little bit about them and what they do. Then, we had a fabulous active session in the classroom and we thought about the ways that we can pray and speak to God. We practised making the sign of the cross, listening for God’s voice in our hearts and also learned about when we can pray. Finally, we thought about how it is important to pray for others too, not just ourselves. We enjoyed learning some new songs, singing along with Sister Ciara’s guitar.

Over the last few weeks we have been focusing on the wonderful world that God has made for us. To start our learning we recapped what the children already new about God. The children remembered key people such as Mary, Jesus and Joseph and their important roles as told in the Bible.

We then thought about all the beauty in the world and the children imagined the the most beautiful place they had ever been, before using their art skills to paint it.

This week we have learnt about the creation story and how God made the world in 7 days. The children watched the video, adding actions to each day to help them remember it. The children then sequenced the 7 days in their books and wrote simple sentences to explain what happened.

Following on from our learning on God’s creation of the world we have considered our role in it. We learnt more about Adam and Eve and their significance as the first people on Earth. The children recognised that we are all God’s children and this is why we call him the Father. We then went on to think about our role in looking after the beautiful world that God has made for us.The children talked about looking after God’s creatures, recycling and walking rather than driving where we can. The children also learnt about the significance of turning the tap off when brushing their teeth to save water.

Today we learnt a new Bible story, the story of Noah. The children learnt about the flood that God sent to rid the world of evil and Noah who God trusted to save the animals and his family. The children then acted out the story before answering some questions in their RE books.

English

BEEZone

The children been practising their BEEZone. We have looked at our BEEZone working wall, talked about how a sentence needs finger spaces, a capital letter and a full stop. We have been practising writing silly sentences on our whiteboards, making sure we remember finger spaces! The children have enjoyed sharing their favourite parts of the summer holidays. The children have each expressed their thoughts through drawing before writing simple sentences about them.

The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch

We have started our focus topic book for the half term “The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch”. As we read the book we came across a lot of new vocabulary! We added it to our English working wall and used the Word Aware approach to remember it. We whispered, shouted and sang each word before adding an action to it to help us remember its meaning – we really enjoyed this! We then went outside on the hunt for sentences that contained some of the new words and had to decide if the word made sense in the sentence. It was tricky challenged us to build our resilience and enabled us to use the new words and further our understanding of them.

We’ve been exploring the story further and getting to know the main characters. Dressing up as Mr and Mrs Grindling and pretending to be seagulls! Year 1 have impressed us with their enthusiasm to learn and take part actively.

We received a very exciting surprise! Mrs Grinling sent us a letter asking for our help in stopped the scavenging seagulls from eating Mr Grinling’s lunch. The children were very happy to help so we began gathering all our ideas together. We contributed to writing super sentences together!

From this exciting news the children have been practicing writing simple sentences, in preperation for replying to Mr Grindling. Each day we have focused on writing simple sentences where we are focusing on starting with a capital letter, putting a finger space between each word and finishing each sentence with a full stop. We are also having a big focus on handwriting, starting all letters on the line.

The children have shown show much resilience in working on their targets for writing. They are improving every day and we are very proud of them. We had some more exciting news, a seagull dropped of a picnic basket with a letter from Mr Grindling in our classroom whilst we were having playtime! Mr Grindling was writing to tell us he was bored and was asking us if we had any ways that he could keep busy! We wrote back to him, using all of our independent writing skills that we have learned. We then had to work out how to fold our letters and put them in envelopes!

Reading around the subject

We had a visit to the school library to find and then read books about Materials. We also used topic books from our class book area. The aim of this session was to help us think about how we can be active in our learning and use non-fiction books to find out information. We found out lots information about objects and materials!

Maths

In Maths, we have been recapping FS2 teaching in order to inform us as teachers of the children’s areas of strength and those area that we need to continue to embed. We have done this through number songs, Burn 2 Learn and practical activities.

We have had lots of fun and active maths sessions, inside and outside and we have been working on representing numbers in lots of different ways, using lots of different resources.

We have been doing our maths work in the woods! We have been identifying number patterns and filling in missing numbers. We had to work as teams to find the lollipop sticks with number sequences on them, then we worked together to find the missing numbers! It was lots of fun and we practising thinking mathematically. We then practising identifying missing numbers and writing number patterns, in the outdoor classroom.

Back in the classroom, to build on our number pattern work, we have been ordering different representations of numerals as well as working with numbers up to 100 and ordering in 2s!

This week we have started exploring place value! We have been focusing on recognising how many tens and ones there are in two digit numbers through lots of practical activities and Burn2Learn games.

Science

Materials

This half term our big concept in Science is Materials.

We have had a fun and active Science lesson and we have been on a materials hunt around school! Linking to our prior learning in FS2, we went to the woods and discussed the natural materials in the world around us. We identified the object and then worked hard to identify the material that it was made from. We worked scientifically to sort materials into groups, based on the material that they are made from. We named lots of materials including; wood, plastic, glass, metal, water, rock, brick, paper, fabric, elastic, foil, card/cardboard, rubber, wool and clay. Linking to maths, we counted the number of objects in each group, identified the correct number card, practised writing the number and then ordered our objects based from the most to least.

We have been active in our learning, exploring the properties of materials. We felt and explored a few common objects. We used our prior learning to say what they were and what they were made of. We extended our learning by discussing the words to describe materials; rough, hard, smooth and transparent.

We have been working scientifically to carry out a science experiment. After predicting whether the objects would float or sink, we were active in our learning, in testing each object and we recorded the results too. We discussed with a partner, making sure we spoke in full sentences, to conclude what happened in our experiment. Our scientific thinking was fantastic. We understood that heavy objects sank and lighter objects floated. We all found this science experiment very exciting!

Topic

Design and Technology

This half term we are experiencing DT for the first time! To start our learning we explored what DT is, learning that it where we explore real life products before creating our own, developing our skills and understanding of different concepts.

This half term we are focusing on food! Today we explored the many delicious foods that Mrs Grinling makes for Mr Grinlings lunch in our story of “The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch”. We then had a try of some of the different ingredients using all our senses and decided which ingredients we would like to include in our own picnic.

This week the children have designed their own sandwiches to make in a couple of weeks time. The children decided the type of bread they would like and based on last weeks taste testing which ingredients they would like in their sandwich.

Before the children make their sandwich they are going to learn and then practice their cutting and grating skills in order to be able to prepare food safely. The children did a fantastic job developing these skills!

Today we brought all our learning on food together and made the sandwich that we designed earlier this half term. The children safely applied their cutting and grating skills in order to create their sanwich and enjoyed eating it on the playground with a drink.

Computing

We have recapped our Stop, Block, Tell message to ensure that we know how to keep safe online. We helped Smartie the Penguin make decisions when he was faced with challenges whilst playing games online. We were active in remembering the message, using actions to help us.

We have been learning about different types of computers. We took a little walk to the computer suite and explored the computers. We learned the words; mouse, monitor, screen, keyboard – some of us have never seen a desktop computer! We then explore ipads and laptops and compared the differences. We labelled the parts of a computer and discussed what each part is used for.

History

Before we begin our History learning of 1920s Seasides, we linked back to our prior learning in FS2 and FS1 and discussed events that had happened in the past, or before the children were born. We found it a little tricky at first, but soon started using the language of “long ago” and “in the past” in our sentences.

We had a fun and active lesson trying to understand what life was like 100 years ago in the 1920s. We started by discussing and wearing the clothes people wore. We found out they were very different to the clothes we wear today and that rich and poor people wore different types of clothes!

The facts that we learned were;

• The 1920s was 100 years ago
• Queen Elizabeth II’s Grandad King George V was on the throne
• Life was very different to now

We have continued our History and Geography learning by beginning with our own first hand prior experiences. The children brought photographs in from home, showing a time when they had visited a Yorkshire seaside. We looked at a UK map and discussed where we live and compared this to where the Yorkshire coast is. We then were all very active in our learning, looking at our photographs and discussing them with others. We dipped into many aspects of Geography including features that we could see at the seaside, where the seasides of Yorkshire are and what some of them are called. We will keep on practising remembering these facts, including that we live in Wetherby, West Yorkshire. We practised reading the questions, linking to using our phonics in reading.

Building on our prior knowledge, we have then been comparing seaside holidays now and in the 1920s. We have been surprised to find that some things were the same such as children building sandcastles and eating ice cream, swimming costumes were very different and we have been fascinated by bathing machines! We have also been using the words similarities and differences to explain our historical knowledge. We have shown a lot of resilience in ensuring we remember our key vocabulary and

including now, long ago, past and present. We worked together in teams to read our questions, draw and label pictures of what people wear/wore, ate/eat, did/do at the beach and how people got/go into the sea! We then extended our vocabulary and identified similarities and differences between seasides now and seasides long ago, running to the posters which showed similarities and differences!

MFL

Today we introduced French as a language. We explored where France is in Europe and different ways that we can travel there. We learnt that Paris is the capital city and learnt about some French food that we also eat in England. We introduced basic introductions of “Bonjour” and “Salut”.

To start our French lesson today, the children shared what they already know about France, such as the capital city being Paris and that it has the Eiffel Tower and Mont Blanc. We had a look through a powerpoint about some of the other landmarks and also discussed French food. The children then pracitised some French words and phrases such as ‘Bonjour’ for hello, ‘Ca va?’ for how are you? The children loved singing in French together, using actions throughout the song.

The children have worked hard this half term to learn basic greetings, including introducing themselves. Once the children had learnt the song we have been developing using these conversations in phrases with each other.

Music

In Music, we have been enjoying playing games that warm up our voices. We played the shopping trolley warm up game and found it very funny! Linking to our topic of ‘Oh I do like to be beside the seaside’, we have been listening to and enjoying the song of the same name. We have started learning the words and of course have been active in our learning, thinking of actions and having a little dance to the song!

We have continued our learning journey by listening to sounds of the sea. We have been clapping a steady beat, pretending to be waves rising and crashing as well as using our mouths and bodies to make sea sounds. We practised listening to the sea and making quieter and loud sounds.

The children learned the song quickly, singing as part of an ensemble. As always, the children are active in their learning and are learning to sing in tune, in time and enthusiastically! We are exploring ways of singing at different pitches.

PE

PSHE

We have been recapping our TRUST rules this week and the children have showed many examples of putting these into practise. We have also recapped our school statement of “We are all the same, but all different” and we have taken part in an “All about me” circle time, sharing something that we are good at. It sounds like Year 1 are a very active class, lots of us shared that we were good at sports like swimming, rugby and football!

Pants are Private

We have recapped the NSPCC’s message of Pants are Private. To begin, we were able to recall this learning from FS2 and then we enjoyed singing along to the Pantasaurus song! We made posters to demonstrate our understanding and also discussed the five pants rules in small groups with an adult. The children showed great understanding!

Pants are private

Always remember that your body belongs to you

No means no

Talk about secrets that upset you

Speak up, someone can help

British Values – Democracy.

We have been exploring the British Value of Democracy and putting it into practise! We have role-played different ways of being fair and democratic, on the playground, whilst playing and deciding which games to play. We have also voted on our class representatives for whole school responsibilities such as School Council, Mini RDT and Planet Protectors. We also have new roles and responsibilities in class and have decided who are our monitors for various jobs around the classroom, such as library monitors, cloakroom monitors, chair monitors, light monitors. We are taking our new roles very seriously!