Summer 2 Week 7

What a wonderful way to finish our year! The children have produced the most amazing outcomes this week including their hand joined puppets inspired by Gnomeo and Juliet! They have had a ‘Kai’ morning experience where we celebrated and did all things Kai. From eating crisps in the morning (a sensory experience) to a proprioceptive session with our friends to a POV rollercoaster ride on YouTube. In Maths the children have been learning to tell the time to o’clock and half past which they have been great at, they may be ready for watches soon! In History James’ Grandma came in to share her experience of childhood toys and games and we even experienced a brick laying session with James. We made little brick walls using cement and real mini bricks. We spoke about how games have evolved since the 1960’s and noted how games from the past took a lot more resilience. We published our letters in English ready to hand over to Mrs Harrison our new Year Two teacher who we all can’t wait to see again in September! Goodbye and good luck to Kai and James you will be missed by everyone. Have the most wonderful Summer break making memories which last a lifetime and always remember you are unstoppable! Keep shining Year One. ✨

^{Summer 2 Week 6}

How has another week flown by? I cannot believe we are almost at the end of the year. Year One, you couldn’t make me more proud. This week you sung your hearts out and put on the best performance for your families. I can’t wait for us to enjoy the Zoo-lab visit together next week and fund the wet play bank of board games. 

In English, the children have been planning and gathering content for their letters to Mrs Harrison, who can’t wait to read them! In Maths, we have finished learning all about money the the children have shown super resilience during end of term Maths assessments. In our more creative subjects such as DT and Computing the children have demonstrated such teamwork and attention to detail when practising the skills for their end of unit outcomes. In DT the children have practised joining materials with a stapler and thankfully we have had no stapled fingers! In Computing the children have been learning to code to animate their own short clips linked to our songs from our sing a long. We have some future software engineers! 

In RE the children learnt about the Hindu story of creation with Mrs Sullivan and practised some origami to create lotus flowers. 

As always, the children never fail to impress me with their resilience and super attitude towards their learning. Let’s make next week one to remember and enjoy our final week together.

See you on Monday! 

Summer 2 Week 5

The children have enjoyed the week transitioning to their new classroom and new teacher; Mrs Harrison. Mrs Harrison noted how well they were all settled. She also mentioned how they blew her socks off with their hard work! Well done Year 1!

The children received a letter from Mrs Harrison in English. They enjoyed reading and analysing this and have begun to plan their responses. Next week in English we will be writing our responses to Mrs Harrison. In Maths, we began our unit on Money. Year One have surprised me with their secure place value of pennies. We will continue with this learning next week. 

History saw us take our learning back into a 1960's classroom. I asked the children which classroom they would choose, they definitely liked being in the modern times! Ask your child what they thought about the 1960's classroom! In Music we have continued to prepare for our sing-a-long showcase and even performed some of our songs to Reception in a rehearsal. 

PSHE saw us think about how we change and how we grow and develop, particularly in the things we can do. 

We have already grown and flourished so much this year! We can't wait to share our singing and poetry with you in a final showcase next week! Have a lovely weekend!

Summer 2 Week 4

How fast are the weeks flying by? This week we have been super busy with lots of drama in our classroom! The children have loved re enacting the story of Gnomeo and Juliet. In History things got exciting where we played with old toys and asked a big question; Did Granny play with a Playstation? We were Historians and discovered that electronic toys came later in the 80's with the invention of games consoles. We also noted how toys were made from wood or moved manualy. We made some fabulous comparisons between old and new toys. In Guided Reading we have been immersed in our text about sunflowers. We can all retreive information about them from the book and tell you what sunflowers and other plants need to grow. Computing has been a firm favourite amongst the majority of the class as we have been using Scratch Junior to learn how to animate. We have been better at it than Mrs Valimulla!

Please don't forget to check your child's book bag for your letter about our sing-a-long show. We look forward to performing in front of you all!

Have a lovely weekend. 

Summer 2 Week 3

I cannot express how much the children have amazed me this week. Their resilience, determination and ambitious attitudes towards their learning has helped them excel in all subjects across the curriculum this week. This is the time of year I love, when we see the children really flourishing and doing what they do best- LEARNING! 

The week began with some dull and gloomy weather which sparked some interesting conversation around wet play times. The children asked me if I could buy them some board games! We spoke about how we could perhaps raise money for these and use the money towards a fun day in our last week. The children enthusiastically wrote some independent, persuasive letters to Mr Dugdale to which he replied prompty. I'll attach the letter below for you to read. With this in mind, we will be putting on a "Sing-a-long show" for you all in July (date to be released soon). 

In English this week, the children have enjoyed taking Shakespeare's stage at our very own Hoddlesden Theatre. They have loved performing in the role of Gnomeo and Juliet and other characters from the film. In Maths, the children have continued to consolidate their number knowledge of place value within one hundred, working on ten more and ten less. 

In Science, the children produced beautiful artistic outcomes when they demonstrated their knowledge of the parts of a plant. They drew with particular attention to detail making sure they included the: roots, stem, leaves, petals and flower. We have displayed their art work in class and hope to transfer this to our corridor showcase soon for you to see. 

History saw us have another interesting visitor (Q's Gran) who spoke fondly about her childhood in the 1960 and 70's. The children learned a great deal about how toys, life and school have all evolved. Magic Grandad delivered some interesting artefacts to our classroom too! A typewriter, a telephone, a candlestick phone and a record player (gramophone). The children have loved exploring these objects and learning about how they were used in the past. Thank you for all your contributions!

All in all, another successful week in Year One. Thank you for your continued support. See you next week. 

Summer 2 Week 2

WOW! What another fabulous week of learning we have had. The sun has kept on shining and I think this has lifted our spirits. We have had a spring in our step in every subject and have approached every challenge head on. Mrs Valimulla is so proud of us for this. Our English short writing outcomes such as diary entries and character descriptions have been phenomenal. Whilst our work on place value to 100 in Maths has been exceptional. We have not failed to impress our teachers. 

In Science we have enjoyed observing and comparing seeds. We all had the opportunity to plant a sunflower seed and cannot wait to see these germinate. In our outdoor adventure we made our very own teraniums for Father's day. We layered jars with moss, soil, compost and stones to create a special teranium. We hope you like these. In addition to these wonderful creations we have loved being rivals as the 'Capulets' and 'Montagues' in the woods. We had a good game of tug of war and a race to find the team jackets where we navigated ourselves using directions. The winners were the Montagues! 

The children have performed brilliantly during their phonics screening checks and their results will be with you with their final reports. 

Have a lovely weekend, enjoy Father's day whatever your plans are and enjoy the sun. 

Summer 2 Week 1

How have we reached the final half term this year? I honestly can’t believe how quickly the school year has slipped away. This week we’ve had a shortened week due to our teacher training days but this hasn’t stopped us from being busy little learners! 
 

We’ve had some new class pupils this week! They visited our classroom and told us they had snuck out from J's back garden! We enjoyed watching “Gnomeo and Juliet”. We were story detectives and had to find out the names of the main characters, the settings and the plot. What an introduction to Shakespeare! 
 

In Maths we have begun our new unit on place value. This half term we will be securing our place value to 100. We began by recapping and consolidating our times tables this week, we practised counting in groups for a quicker, more efficient process. 
 

In RE we have begun our unit on creation by thinking about how we can CREATE! Look at our wonderful creations. 
 

We have been fabulous phonics learners too as we have been practising reading our alien words when playing lots of phonics games. 
 

In French we began our unit on Salle des classe as we begin to think about the furniture in our classroom. We enjoyed going on a furniture hunt to identify the names of the items. So much fun!

Please continue to practise your phonics home learning and read as much as you can. I’d love to hear what you have enjoyed reading lately. We have had lots of enthusiasm around Shakespeares tales and children have loved sharing some of the stories they know. ✨ 📖 

Summer 1 Week 6 
 

We have had such a wonderful week in year 1. The children have really impressed us in English this week with their independent write, where they wrote recounts of our school trip. The children loved looking back and remembering all the fun we had. In Maths we have continued our work on fractions and begun to look at at position and direction. We have enjoyed lots of practical maths lessons, out in the sunshine! In our RE lesson with Miss Sulivan, year 1 were really lucky to have Reverend Ben visit and role play a class baptism with them.

This week the children have been working really hard to prepare for our Transport Museum. In DT they finished their moving vehicles, complete with working wheels and axles and in Music we have been busy learning our song 'Car Car Truck Jeep' with musical instruments. We loved seeing all of the grown ups today and showing off the children's amazing work. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

We are so proud of all of the children and everything that they have achieved. Have a lovely break and we will see you all after half term. 

OAL Summer 1- Transportation

The children have had a wonderful time on their outdoor adventure. 🌳 The theme this time was "transportation." We began by taking the Hoddlesden express train into the woods 🚂, we then warmed our bodies up with an assault course. Next, we raced our cars down the dirt tracks 🚗 and made paper aeroplanes ✈️ . We measured the distance to see whose car/aeroplane travelled the furthest. It was now time to venture into the stream. 💦 We made little twig boats with leafy, green sails 🛶 and looked at floating them in the stream. We were also tasked to transport leaves and twigs down the guttering and collecting the most water in the bucket. 🍃 We then headed back to the woods to do our assault course with jugs of water! The winning team was the team who collected the most water in their bucket whilst completing the assault course. Team air won with a staggering 900ml collected 🌟! To end our busy morning, we had juice and biscuits to cool off! 🍪 🧃 

What a fabulous morning of teamwork, cooperation, kindness, and friendship! Such wonderful memories made. ✨ 

Summer 1 Summer 2

I think this has been our most magical week in Year 1! We’ve had sports day, mental health week but most importantly our summer trip!
 

We have had a wonderful time on our class trip to Ribble Steam Railway & Museum. Our day began with a History lesson about the first steam trains invented by Robert and George Stephenson and their famous rocket. We asked lots of questions about how steam trains were powered and how they worked. Next it was time to explore the museum and we completed a train hunt. We enjoyed reading the names of the many trains, comparing them and exploring the Royal Mail train which was used for transporting letters. The afternoon consisted of an exciting show from the diesel train pulling along another train. We listened to the noises the trains made. Now it was time to explore the repair shed in small groups. We explored batteries, radiators, the old CNC programming machine and much more! The team put together a thoughtful train construction activity where we made a 2D train using shapes and numbers. Then it was time to enjoy the adventure playground, the weather was beautiful and we loved letting off some steam! We ended with a obligatory class photo and performed our transport poem/song to the volunteers to thank them for creating such an unforgettable experience. They have kindly donated each of us a child ticket to return with our families to enjoy a ride on one of their famous steam trains!  

Thank you @Ribble Steam Railway & Museum. We look forward to visiting you again! 🚂 ✨ 

In English we finished writing our stories about How to train a train as well as an introduction to our new unit on recounts. It has been super fun recalling all the key events in our class trip! In Maths we have had an introduction to fractions through quantity and shape. Design and Technology has been exciting with planning and making our very own moving vehicles for our transport museum. We can’t wait to welcome you next Friday at 2:30pm. 😊

Summer 1 Week 4

We have had lots of deep learning take place this week. From plenty of problem solving opportunities in Maths using multiplication and division to lots of children achieving their 10 times tables badges! In English, we have showed off our fabulous writing when writing our innovations of “How to catch a train!” We can’t wait to share these with you! In Computing we are becoming more and more keyboard component when word processing. In PE we have been preparing for sports day next week, we look forward to you joining us for the afternoon. In History, we have continued to be Historians. This week we studied the locomotive steam engine and specifically looked into the Rainhill Trials. We will be learning more about this next week and we can’t wait to learn more on our trip! We are all so excited! 

The children are really growing and maturing so quickly! The Year One team are so proud of all their efforts. Please continue with home learning and phonics practise. I have put some links on Seesaw for games to play too!

Have a lovely weekend. See you on Monday for another fun filled week of learning! ✨ 

WOW! We’ve had such a busy and exciting week celebrating all thing coronation! So many of us thought that meant coronation chicken! So we explored further to find the true meaning of King Charles’ Coronation this Saturday. This week involved lots of learning about Mauritius (one of the commonwealth countries), we wrote picnic invitations for our parents, created portraits of our beloved King in the style of Leonardo Da Vinci and learnt all about the King’s achievements. We were so good at sequencing these events on our class timeline. 

In Maths we continued with our unit on Multiplication. The children’s counting in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s has significantly improved so thank you for all your hard work and support.

In English we continued to gather content for our soon to be innovation of How to train a train. We are counting down to our trip to Ribble Steam Railway and Museum. If you have not returned the permission slip, please do so ASAP so we can get organised.

To finish our exciting week we ended with a indoor street party picnic, celebration! Thank you to you all for attending. It was lovely to see the smiles on the children's faces.

Have a wonderful bank holiday weekend and I’ll see you on Tuesday! 👑 

Summer 2 Week 2

Wow! What a busy and enriching week we have had. We kicked off our week with an amazing opportunity to commemorate King Charles through creating the key landmarks of London using Lego. We all displayed fabulous team spirit as we buddied up with our younger year groups to build. On Tuesday we enjoyed another visit from Tri Kidz! We demonstrated super resilience even when our little legs got tired of cycling and running! In English we have continued to enjoy reading our class text; "How to train a train by Jason Eaton Carter." We have loved reading the text independently and shown off our super fluency and intonation when reading. Listen to the sound byte below. In Maths we have dived deeper to understand multiplication. We have continued to learn about "groups of, lots of" and begun to learn how to count in fives! We are doing so well and so many of us have been brave bananas! In Science we are thinking about animals. We were challenged to sort and classify them according to their animal type. RE was exciting where we got to share photos from our Baptisms and Christenings. We spoke about all the special objects used in these ceremonies and why we use them. History was another interesting lesson, it has sparked so much curiosity about the Wright brothers and their first flight. We continued to be Historians and studied artefacts to compare the old flyer to a modern aircraft. In PSHE we learnt about a balanced diet and how it is important to eat everything in moderation, we then made some delicious fruit kebabs. What a week! We hope you have enjoyed looking at our photos. Please don't forget to check back next week as we will celebrating and learning about all things King Charles! We look forward to seeing you at our royal garden party! See you next week. 

Summer 1 Week 1

What a wonderful first week back we have had in year 1! The children have come back fully immersed in their new learning, we are so proud of them. 
On Monday morning the children were surprised to find an usual visitor had been in our classroom over the Easter holidays- a runaway train! In English we have begun our new unit where we are focusing on the key text ‘How to Train a Train’ and the children have had some wonderfully creative ideas about how they would catch a train. They will showcase their ideas when they write a set of instructions next week. 🚂  In Maths we have been using arrays to build on our multiplication skills. The children have loved being historians this week when learning all about the Wright brothers, who invented the first aeroplane! Miss Kearney has challenged the children this week to complete 🦸‍♀️ superhero reading challenges 🦸‍♂️ in the reading area, during Guided Reading which has further developed our fluency and inference skills and our love of reading. In PSHE the children had a lesson on First Aid where they learned about the contents of a First Aid box and even treated Paddington for various injuries. In Computing the children were thrilled to be able to access the computer suite this week to do some word processing and used their prior learning of turning on and logging onto the computers. 👏 We have started Gymnastics sessions again in PE and the children have really impressed us with their retention of skills from Autumn term. We have some real gymnasts in the making! 🤸‍♀️ Of course, we ended our week by Hopping, Skipping, and Jumping for East Lancashire Hospice, well done to all of the children for their enthusiasm and determination. 🌟 

Thank you year 1 for being amazing, as always! 
 

Spring 2 Week 6

We have had a spring in our step this week whilst enjoying all things Easter and Spring! The children have loved writing their Spring poems to surprise you in their Easter Cards! We have continued to develop a LOVE of reading whilst exploring "I am the seed that grew the tree" poems from the National Trust poetry collection. In Maths the children have continued looking at capacity and volume and been learning to solve problems. In Geography the children wowed us with their recall of the seven continents and five oceans. They enjoyed grouping and classifying data in Computing which they have all got super good at. We have also loved showcasing our moving picture books in DT and writing on the corridor displays. In PE we showcased our outcome of a story through dance to Reception. They loved our innovated dances of Jack and the beanstalk! We also loved watching our “Seven rocking bananas” perform their rock song at the Rock Steady concert on Monday. The children were fab! The children have continued to blossom this Spring term and I cannot wait to see them flourish even more!

Thank you Year One for being so wonderful!

See you after the holidays! 

Mrs Valimulla

Spring 2 Week 5

Year One, you have had a busy and challenging week in many aspects. I have been astounded at your resilience to learn your ten times tables! Some of you were such superstars and earned your badges for correctly getting them all right. We have also been working very hard on our number formation to ensure that all of our numbers are formed correctly and the right way around. Well done to those who earned their badges! We are so proud of you. If you didn't earn yours this week, you will still have chance to next week so keep practising. In Maths you have worked hard to understand capacity and volume. 

In PE you have demonstrated fabulous storytelling through dance and Reception cannot wait to see your story performance on Monday. You have also developed such coordination and control in PE when learning how to use a bat and ball. In RE with Mrs Sulivan, you thought carefully about Jesus' feelings on Good Friday. There were so many links to your vocabulary. Leon said; "Jesus had a heavy heart". In PSHE you have been thinking about where money comes from. No! It doesn't grow on trees! We shared how we earn money and why we need money. We also compared how we need money at different stages of life for different things. 

In English we began our new poetry unit on spring poems. You all loved hearing the Spring Song and I can't wait to hear your innovations! For British Science Week you thought about how to create a suitable habitat for a hedgehog using materials.

To end the week you experienced a 'JET TAG' session which was great fun, this involved learning how to play tag rugby. In DT we received an exciting Zoom call from the one and only; Colin Stimpson! We can't believe that one of the art directors of Disney spoke to us. We asked him questions about being an author and illustrator. He has inspired many of us to become authors too!

Spring 2 Week 4

Well, we have all sorts of weather this week haven't we? From snow to sleet and lots of rain! The children enjoyed their Science where they continued to see Science in action when they observed the rainfall on pre-school's teepee shelter. Alex mentioned; "That fabric is very waterproof, I think it is a strong fabric."

In Science the children wrote up their findings from their investigations. Miss Kearney introduced them to British Science week and explained that Miss Holt has tasked us design and making a habitat using suitable materials for a hedgehog. We began to think about the properties of materials which we have recently been exploring for this task. Next week we will need shoeboxes in school on Thursday please. Thank you.

Geography took us back to the Arctic and Antarctic. We spoke about how both places have very cold climates as they are furthest from the equator. We then explored a sensory tuff tray which inspired us to write about some famous landmarks there. We will now begin to learn about the five oceans and locate them on a world map. 

Maths saw us continue to learn about measures. We rounded up our learning around length and begun to look at mass. We started using scales to compare the weights of different objects by describing them using 'heavier and lighter'. 

In English we had our special BIG WRITING week where we wrote our innovated stories of Jack and the baked beanstalk. We amazed Mrs Valimulla with our super recall of wonderful vocabulary! We can't wait to share our moving books with Reception. 

In Computing, we continued with our handling data unit. We started to group things into categories. We went on a hunt around school to find items of a certain colour. 

Our week ended wonderfully with a St Paul's has got talent, talent show for comic relief! We loved watching Harlow on her harmonica! Well done Harlow! You demonstrated such courage when performing in front of the whole school. 

Spring 2 Week 3

We have had a muddy, adventurous week in Year 1. Our week began with some outdoor learning.

We started our adventure with a walk to Millennium Green. Whilst we were there, we splashed in lots of muddy puddles as we pretended to be the giant chanting “Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum”. When we arrived at our destination, Miss Kearney read the story to us. We enjoyed this traditional tale. Mrs Valimulla told us that she’d discovered a giant letter from the giant. He was asking us to do some measuring, we were challenged to find sticks that were longer, shorter or the same length as his footprint. We then used our phonics to write Jack and giant in the mud. Once we arrived back at school we explored the paddock. We had fun making Goldilocks some muddy porridge! And we built houses for the three little pigs! To end our muddy adventure, many of us enjoyed a special moment down the mud slides! We didn’t let the rain dampen our spirits today! Well done Year One! 🌧 🥣 🏡 👣 🐷 🍃

On Tuesday we took part in a whole school Spirituality day. This was well received by all pupils. In fact Charlie said: “This was the best day ever!” And James added, “I made so many new friends from the older classes!” The children learnt about the Easter Story and engaged in exciting activities from a Palm Sunday parade to playing Easter bingo! Ask your child what they can remember. Can they remember the different colours that represented Easter and Lent?

In RE the children continued to deepen their understanding by thinking about Palm Sunday and how Jesus was received so well by his disciples. 

In Maths this week the children have loved measuring using standard units and they learnt how to use a ruler to measure the length of different items. We spoke about our “Steps to success!” 🌟

1. Start at 0cm.

2. Make sure you like up the end of the object with your ruler.

3. Run your finger until the end of the object and see which number you get to on your ruler.

4. Read the total measurement and record this in CM. 📏 

Science got interesting where the children enjoyed building houses for the Three Little Pigs. They were surprised to see the Big Bad Wolf make an appearance with his huff and puff (hairdryer). They enjoyed testing their houses for strength and to see how waterproof they were. 🐷 🐷 🐷 🐺 🏠 

In Geography this week, we visited the continent Asia. The children enjoyed sharing their experiences of travelling to certain places in Asia. James  shared that he has been to Dubai and to the famous landmark; The Burj Khalifa whilst Bodhi shared that he would love to visit the Hajia Sophia Museum in Turkey. 🕌

To end our week we had a snow day! So many of you have sent in your fantastic home learning- thank you. Take a look at some of our super home learning outcomes. ⛄️ 

I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday! 

Spring 2 Week 2

We have had another fantastic week in school. It has been packed with such fun and excitement. In English we have continued with our unit about Jack and the baked beanstalk. The children have been developing their inference skills and have demonstrated that they can give reasons confidently. In Maths we have been learning about length and height. We have discussed how this vocabulary differs and it means two different things. The children have enjoyed the practical element of comparing and measuring as well as showing lots of resilience when they have completed problem solving challenges. In Science, the children were tasked to plan and design a house for the three little pigs. The house needed to be waterproof as well as strong. Next week the children will be building and constructing their houses before we test them for their properties. In RE the children have enjoyed using their new life spotters to identify signs of new life. In PE the children demonstrated their narrative dance skills when they danced to a whole school story; The day the crayons quit. We have also composed a video of a poem which we have created. In DT the children have started to plan their moving story books which they can't wait to share with Reception class. We ended the week with a very exciting World Book Day. The children created book marks, they completed a fantastic piece of independent writing about the day the crayons quit and illustrated themselves as their book character- all of this super learning will be up in our classroom on display. To end our eventful day, Mr Richards came into class and treated us to some wonderful music with the harp! He told us that he'd climbed up Jack's beanstalk into the clouds and found the harp in the giants castle! We thanked him so much for going there for us and bringing us this magical experience. 

Spring 2 Week 1

Wow! What an exciting first week back we have all had. It started with an introduction to our new connector; treasured tales. We began by exploring lots of characters from a variety of traditional tales. The children loved sharing their prior learning with each other and identifying which characters belonged to which traditional tale. In English, Mrs Valimulla shared our new class text with us; Jack and the baked beanstalk by Colin Stimpson. We were all fascinated by the dreamy illustrations and wonderful twist to this old tale! The next morning, a beanstalk appeared in the middle of the classroom. We were shocked to find the magic can of baked beans with long, green tendrils twisting to create the tallest beanstalk ever!

In Maths, we have continued with our place value to 50 this week. We have all began to show a deeper understanding of the numbers on a number line, in part-whole models and have been working hard to identify one more and one less than a two digit number. In Science we continued with our topic on materials. We are beginning to investigate a lot more and conduct experiments. We made some predictions about which materials and objects would float or sink and why. There was lots of deep, scientific thinking happening. In PSHE we learnt about a sensitive topic- bereavement as well as how to look after ourselves when we are unwell. We discussed how it makes us feel when we loose something, we shared that it is okay to feel blue (sad). We then thought about the people in our lives who are there for us and who we can talk to. In Geography we continued to work on our mapping. We can now all identify the seven continents and five oceans! We flew to Europe this week. I wonder where we will fly next. 

The children have settled back wonderfully and have shown such a great deal of resilience and a mature attitude towards their learning. I treated them to a playtime filled with bubbles which they loved!

As always, please keep sending us your home learning activities. You can find the overview on our class page. I look forward to a catch up with you in the next couple of weeks during parents evening. 

Spring 1 Week 6

WOW! What a way to finish for half term! Year One, you have grown and matured so beautifully over the last few weeks. You should be so proud of your mature and resilient attitude towards your learning. You ALL deserve a brave banana!

This week we ended our unit of English beautifully where we shared our information books with Louise. She was so pleased to see the information which we presented in the most exemplary way! In Maths we represented different numbers to 50 using mathematical equipment and continued to build on our solid number knowledge. In Science we worked on our seasonal changes and began to talk about the changes from winter to spring. We can’t wait for these to arrive! In PSHE we looked at mental health week and spoke about how we are all connected, we noticed that we have so many common core values. In Geography we ended our Amazing Asia unit by comparing the UK to China. We were astonished to learn that China is the largest country in the world! We ended our week with a behaviour treat watching the whole of Mulan (cartoon), this was thoroughly enjoyed by us all!

Spring 1 Week 5

What a week we have had in Year One! We have been Scientists, Geographers, Mathematicians and Musicians! We've done it all! The children have particularly impressed me with their STEM skills this week. In Science they sorted and classified different materials and used scientific vocabulary to describe them. In Maths, the children have continued to work hard on their place value to 50! They have used number lines to help them, have practised counting forwards and back and ended the week with a fabulous number day! You all looked amazing and raised money for the NSPCC so well! In Geography, the children hopped aboard onto Mrs Valimulla's megabus where we toured the country. The children enjoyed directing Mrs Valimulla to each capital city! In Music, the children have enjoyed playing the glockenspiels and learning a rhythm. PSHE saw us discuss a sensitive and private topic about our private parts. I will link the resources we used so you can continue this conversation at home. PANTS rule NSPCC

Reading in Year One has gone strength to strength. The children demonstrate a clear love for reading as they talk about books they read in their free reading time and the books they choose and cherish from our school library. It is evident that you as parents and carers do so much to support the children with their reading at home. A huge thank you to you all for your continued support! I will be sending home phoneme gaps for the half term so stay tuned!

Spring 1 Week 4

What a magical week we have had in Year One!  ✨ 

In Maths we have been working on our place value using a number line. We have loved writing our final outcomes in English- a diary entry in the style of Mulan. Then we began our new unit of English all about rabbits. We had a visit from Louise who told us she needed our help. She brought her pet rabbits in and asked us to do some rabbit research. We spent time reading some information books about rabbits and watched videos about them. Then read and analysed the texts to learn facts about rabbit. In Geography we continued to explore the United Kingdom and took a trip to London to explore the famous landmarks. Science saw us enjoy a poem in the style of Frere Jacque about materials. In RE we continued to learn about how Jesus is special. We blocked our Art lessons this week to continue with our progression of skills then wowed all our adults (teachers and families) with our Chinese landscapes. We ended our week with an exciting Chinese New Year showcase and party. We loved sharing all our fabulous learning with our grown ups. Here is what they had to say about it:

Spring 1 Week 3

Well, we can tell that the children have truly enjoyed exploring our whole school text: Mulan! The enthusiasm and excitement around our latest theme (Amazing Asia) is electric! The children have really loved being creative in Art, English and most of all…forest school. I think their highlight was definitely watching me (Mrs Valimulla) complete the assault course in the snow. The children all demonstrated lots of resilience, perseverance and great endurance during the task of training for camp to be warriors. In Computing the children were programmers whilst learning to programme our school robots (bee-bots). In PSHE we discussed how a good bedtime routine helps contributes to a healthy life. We thought about how calming ourselves before bed promoted better sleep and how better sleep improves how we feel the next day. In RE the children enjoyed a feast whilst exploring how ‘Jesus was special’. English saw the children practise their writing skills with some exciting opportunities including saying affirmations to the “magic mirror.” Last of all the children enjoyed their extra gymnastic session with Mrs Winward. They refined their forwards and backwards rolls from last half term and did a great job remembering the steps. 

Just a reminder that it is our Chinese New Year Party and stay and play next Friday at 2pm. We look forward to welcoming you to our class to showcase all our learning so far. Please remember to RSVP to the invitation on SeeSaw by Monday so I can accommodate for numbers. 

Many thanks for your continued support as always. I look forward to seeing you all on Friday! ✨ 

Spring 1 Week 2

Well what a fantastic week we have had! In Maths we have continued to delve into the place value of our teen numbers. We have worked with Base 10 to practise representing tens and ones of different teen numbers. We rounded off our Maths learning with a game of teen number bingo! We had to identify our teen numbers by answering ‘one more, one less, one ten and three ones etc.” In English we received a very special visit from Mulan who looked strangely familiar! We asked her questions about her experiences. Science saw us enjoy a material hunt around school. We identified materials and their properties as we used our senses to find them around school. In RE we continued to think about Jesus and what made him special. In PE we stared our new unit of dance and celebrations! Mrs Valimulla introduced us to dragon dancing. We can’t wait to share our dances with you at our Chinese New Year Party! In Art we practised our collage skills ready for our big Asian landscapes in a couple of weeks time. Have a look at us engrossed in our Guided Reading lessons. We have really loved using our exciting reading resources to motivate us to read. What do you think of our ‘super hero reading glasses?” We LOVE them!

Spring 1 Week 1

Welcome back! It has been lovely to see how much the children have grown over the past couple of weeks.The children have enjoyed being introduced to our new connector: Amazing Asia 🇨🇳. In English we have been exploring the text Mulan and started to read and analyse this. The children received a letter from the Emperor of China declaring that they must fight for their country in a war. They thought about how they felt being asked to do something so dangerous. In Maths the children have been learning about the place value of ‘teen numbers’. They played a game called ‘exchange up’ where they had to exchange ten ones for one ten. In Science we explored materials and their properties. Thank you for your generous donations of your recycling. 😂 In all honesty, it brought our learning to life and the children enjoyed sorting and comparing the materials. Lastly, we can’t wait to share our creative Music and Art outcomes with you at our Chinese New Year party! Please note the date- Friday 27th January at 2:00pm.  We look forward to welcoming you back into our classroom. ✨ 

Autumn 2 Week 7 🎄 

We have had another festive week in Year One! In Maths we had some exciting lessons around 2D and 3D shape where we learnt lots of new vocabulary around this. In English we enjoyed a great poem called; Father Christmas needs a wee! By Nicholas Allan. We also enjoyed using our digital art skills to create some work for our Ernest Shackleton display (see photo for display). In RE we thought about how Jesus was a special gift from God. We also enjoyed a special behaviour treat which was a football tournament based on the World Cup! We had our own mini World Cup and Brazil won! We ended the week with a visit from someone important all the way from the North Pole. 

I have sent a reading book and a library book along with phoneme gaps in your child’s book bag. Please practise and enjoy lots of reading over the holidays.

Lastly, I would like to say a heartfelt thank you for your kindness and generosity towards myself and the rest of the Year 1 team. We were overwhelmed with all your kind gifts and messages today. 

Merry Christmas and see you in 2023! ✨ 

Autumn 2 Week 6

What a festive week we have had. 🎄

We started our week with being introduced to our fabulous Elf Enterprise project. 🧝  Our class Elf told us that we would be designing our Christmas cards using a paint app on the computers. We were so excited to use our digital painting skills we had learnt over the past two weeks. On Tuesday we had our exciting trip to the Pantomime to watch Jack and the beanstalk. 🍃 This was a great trip out as we got to enjoy the experience as a whole school. We even got ice cream and juice too! 🍦 On Wednesday we had our dress rehearsal and we couldn’t wait to share our nativity with our families. 🌟 Thursday and Friday saw us performing our fantastic nativity; Lights, Camel…Action! And what a show it was! We were fabulous and we gave it our all! We had angel ballerinas, funky camels, sheep, disco stars and inn keepers! 

Please leave your thoughts on our nativity in the Padlet below. We’d love to hear them! 💭 

Lights, Camel…Action! ✨

To finish our festive week we ended with Christmas jumper day and a Christmas lunch! What a busy week Year One! Don’t forget to order your Elf Enterprise cards by heading over to the Elf Enterprise section on our class page. ⭐️ 

Autumn 2 Week 5

Another super busy week full of lots more learning, we kicked off the week with continuing to consolidate our learning around subtraction. We played lots of dice rolling games where we had to subtract given amounts. We have enjoyed our trimmed up school and classroom for Christmas! Just look at how amazed we were with the decorations! In RE we thought about how it feels to give and receive gifts. We then did some drama and acted out giving and receiving a gift on Christmas Day. Science took us through some more learning around our senses. We conducted some investigations to explore what is like without our senses. In computing we continued to develop our paint design skills and we look forward to planning, designing and creating our Axel Scheffler inspired Christmas cards to sell to you next week. In History we explored why Roald Amundsen won the race to the South Pole. Would you believe he took a lot less men and equipment than Scott and Shackleton and still won! This is probably the reason why Amundsen won. We continued to think about what makes an explorer ‘great’ and we can’t wait to learn about the final explorer next week. Phonics saw us learn our final split diagraphs whilst in English we continued gathering content for our WANTED posters about the Highway Rat. We can’t wait to create these next week. To finish, we have been practising our nativity performance and cannot wait to share this with you!

Next week we will be visiting King George’s Hall with our whole school trip to the Pantomime! This is going to be very exciting. As well as enjoying our Elf Enterprise connector through school. Watch out for your child’s digitally created Christmas Card which you will be able to purchase on the school website. 

Autumn 2 Week 4

We’ve had another fabulous week in Year One and have really got stuck into our new English text; The Highway Rat by Julia Donaldson. We are so excited to help PCOS Ryan by created our wanted posters for the village but first we’ve been researching about how rats behave and how the Highway Rat behaved too. We’ve had great fun in the woods on our outdoor adventure day despite the rain although it made from some super fun mud sledging down the muddy hills in the woods! See video above. 

In Maths we have continued to add and subtract one digit numbers and have begun to find all the fact families. In Computing our paint skills have really developed and we have practised a mock up of our Axel Scheffler inspired Christmas cards. In DT we continued to learn about food hygiene and developed our cookery skills. We peeled, grated and chopped lots of vegetables to make our very own class soup. We then tasted this and will be evaluating this next week.

In RE we began to think about the gift of giving and the difference of physical and charitable gifts. We also discussed our ‘needs’ and ‘wants’. We looked on the Christian Aid website to learn about charitable donations and gifts we could give to people who are less fortunate than us. We then said a class prayer to remind us how blessed we are for all we have. We all showed so much gratitude during this. 

In Science we explored our senses and Queenie’s Dad; Joshua came in to talk to us about his hearing impairment and how it can affect his daily life. We thought of scientific questions linked to hearing to ask him. It was great hearing it from someone who had a sensory loss first hand. 

Another successful week Year One! You are growing and blossoming so quickly, you should all be so proud of yourselves! Such stars! ✨ 

Autumn 2 Week 3

And what another busy and brilliant week we have had again in Year One! ✨ 
 

The children have not stopped! On Monday we composed our final writing outcome which were fact files about Earnest Shackleton and what a marvellous job you all did! We also wore odd socks to recognise and learn about “Anti-bullying”. We discussed what bullying means and who we can speak to if we are worried at all. On Tuesday we went on a special school trip to Pizza Express Preston where we learnt how to make pizzas, explored new foods using our senses and played a general knowledge food quiz. The best thing was we got to take the pizzas home for our tea! What a tasty treat! See padlet link to see what we learned and enjoyed from this super special visit. https://padlet.com/zaibvalimulla/js128nw79wgynqd2 

On Wednesday we were visited by our Community Police Support Officer Ryan who spoke about keeping safe in our local area. In fact, when he bumped into Mrs Valimulla he told her he needed Year One’s help! A rat also known as “The Highway Rat” is wanted. He was last seen with his trustee horse. He asked Mrs Valimulla if we would find out more about him to create WANTED posters to put around the village. We said we’d love to help!
 

In Computing we continued to develop our paint skills to practise creating pictures using and carefully choosing the appropriate tool. In RE we continued to think about how Jesus’ life was different to ours. Whilst in Science we worked scientifically using our senses to describe what we could see, taste, smell and touch at Pizza Express. 
 

After being so inspired by our Pizza Express visit, many of us were adventurous and confidently sampled some soups in our DT lesson. In a few weeks we will be making our own bread and soup to eat. 
 

In Phonics Mrs Valimulla taught us the following sounds: wh, ph and ew. I’ll attach the phonics homework below. 

We ended the week with a super Pusey day in aid of Children in Need! We all dressed up spotty and came in some fabulous clothes! See photo above!
 

As another week closes, I just wanted to say has been lovely to see so many of you attend parents evening and we have enjoyed sharing all our fabulous learning with you! Thank you so much for all your wonderful support! 

Next Monday is our “Outdoor Adventure Day” so please remember to wrap up warm and make sure you have your waterproof clothing in school. Thank you.

Autumn 2 Week 2

Year One! We’ve had another super week haven’t we? From moments of reflection for Remembrance Day to being Historians and Scientists in our other subjects. It’s been great to see you all so engaged and actively involved in your learning. Such stars! 🌟 

In English we have continued learning about Sir Earnest Shackleton and have been practising our key skills for our end outcome: fact files. Meanwhile in Maths we have started solving addition word problems which has involved lots of reading and problem solving. Science has also been wonderful this week as we were scientists exploring different body parts. You even began some scientific enquiry- thinking about what you’d like to learn about the human eye. If you’d like to type your questions on the padlet above, I’d love to hear your thoughts. In our RE lesson we transformed our classroom to Jesus’ home and thought about how Jesus and his family would live. It was all very busy with people making bread, writing messages and prayers on scrolls and cooking around the fire! In DT you began to think about where food grows. Whether it grows above or below the ground in preparation for creating some bread and heart warming winter soup! Next week we will build on our DT learning when we visit Pizza Express to make our very own Margherita pizzas. We’ll also be able to link this to our science work around our senses. Once again we have been learning some new phonemes in Phonics. I’ll attach the home learning above. In PE some of us auditioned for our nativity parts as well be dancing on stage to showcase all our choreography! 
 

Autumn 2

It has been so lovely to have you all back in school. The classroom has been a hive of learning and curious minds. This week saw us welcome out trainee teacher Mrs Mason who will be with us for the next twelve weeks. 
 

The children have thoroughly enjoyed being introduced to our new connector “factual footprints” where in English we have been learning about Sir Ernest Shackleton. The children particularly enjoyed looking in the special suitcase we received and were great detectives when they had to decide where they thought Ernest and his team had travelled to. 
 

In Maths the children have continued with their learning around addition have been learning about number bonds. They have been using tens frames to support their learning. 
 

RE was exciting with lots of practical activity in the woods- please see our photos from this. 
 

In History we began to think about what it means to be an “explorer”. Many of the children 3D pressed that they wouldn’t mind being an explorer when they are older! 
 

Computing and Dance got us in the festive spirit with Mrs Valimulla sharing our end of unit outcomes, in computing we will be making our own digitally painted Christmas cards, we will be selling these too! Watch this space! In Dance Mrs Valimulla explained that there is going to be lots of dance practise in preparation for our nativity! There is going to be some stars, camels, angels and shepherds! 🌟 🐪 😇 🐑 

We can’t wait to share all our super learning with you in weeks to come. 

Year One's African Showcase Autumn 1

Autumn 1 Week 7
 

Wow Year One! You never fail to amaze me! 🌟 
 

I am so proud of you all! You have had a super week showcasing your Harvest worship. You have worked collaboratively as a team to create your art outcome, a paper sculpture inspired by Louise Bourgeois which you will be sharing with your families tomorrow in our African showcase! 
 

Last Friday in Music, the children enjoyed a composers day where they were given the opportunity to explore a composer and be composers. They created sound maps to orchestrate a short piece of music using instruments. 🎶 
 

The children have continued to work hard with their reading and have enjoyed reading words to make sentences which make sense by playing the sentence substitution game on  https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/sentence-substitution?phase=4 📖

As well as this, the children have been in for a treat with the blow up assault course and bouncy castle for their behaviour treat. They were all full of huge smiles! 😊
 

In English, the children have worked hard to create a final written outcome which is an information poster about Hoddlesden. These are going to be displayed outside Year 1 alongside our Geography outcomes around mapping. We can’t wait to share all our wonderful work with you! 
 

Autumn 1 Week 6

We've had another busy week in Year 1. The children have been fantastic!

In English we have been introduced to information texts. We began to identify how fiction and non-fiction differ. We've also been looking at the features of information texts and practising some of them. This will lead to a very important information book about Hoddlesden (our local area) for a display in school. We can't wait to share our fabulous writing with you! In Maths we have continued to build on our learning around addition and have particularly focussed on fact families. The children have shown super resilience in this as it has proved to be tricky for many of us. In PSHE we worked on expressing our feelings and talked about who we can talk to when we feel unsafe or negative. We explained how it is normal to feel many emotions from confused to just content or even angry. Mrs Valimulla also talked about our feeling's boxes at the back of the room where we can post our feelings if we are too shy to ask for help. In Guided Reading Mrs Valimulla has been particularly impressed with our work ethic. We have presented many independent skills during this time from, completing online phonic activities to reading activities in our phonics journals. She is so proud of us! Today we were given the fabulous task of being triathletes. We learnt that triathletes, swim, run and cycle! This was pretty exhausting, but we all had a great time cheering each other on and being such good sports. Mrs Harrison can't wait to share some photographs of our bird feeders we made in science and we can't wait to share our fabulous RE learning with you in our special Harvest Worship next week!

Autumn 1 Week 5
 

Wow! Another busy week flew by! 

Starting with our fabulous French last Friday! The children have been working really hard to consolidate their learning around French colours. They also enjoyed a quick colouring in activity where they got to colour in an “arc-en-ciel”. In music we have been busy rehearsing our songs for our african animal exhibition and have enjoyed learning to play with rhythm on the djembies. In maths we began our new unit on addition and subtraction where this week we have been learning out the part-whole model. The idea that a whole amount can be divided into groups (parts). The children have showed exceptional resilience in Maths where they have found certain elements (particularly problem solving) really tricky. Even a few brave bananas were awarded! In English, the children have loved engaging in our performance poetry week. They have worked particularly hard developing their public performance skills and changing the volume and tone of their voices to affect the audience. PSHE was a special one this week where children carefully thought about what it means to be a good listener and how listening can build stronger friendships. They all reflected super well on what a “good listener” means. We decided a good listener gives eye contact, listening carefully to what the other person is saying and replies back in conversation about the topic. In RE we explored how Harvest is celebrated around the world and learnt a song for our Harvest worship! We can’t wait to share this with you! Lastly in PE with Mrs Valimulla we worked on our throwing and catching skills, we have now learnt how to do a underarm throw and confidently pass a large ball to our peers. In gymnastics we have been using the skills we have learnt (over the last year) to combine them into a mini routine. Lastly, we have been diving into Black History Month. Mrs Valimulla shared a book about a lady called Rosa Parks and we are now learning about childrens activist Floella Benjamin. We have read some cracking books about these people (fiction and non-fiction) here are the titles: Rosa Parks (inspiring people- pre school version of the big book), Go Mo Go! Written by Mo Farah himself and coming to England by Floella Benjamin. 
 

We look forward to welcoming you into school for our class Harvest a worship on Wednesday 19th October 9am and for our African animal exhibition on Friday 21st October 2pm. 

Autumn 1 Week 4
 

Another amazing week in Year One! Last week we were visited by a hygiene specialist who taught us how to keep our hands clean. We used a UV light to look at all the germs on our hands. We needed to hand wash thoroughly especially after Shrek sneezed all over the classroom! In Maths we have been continuing with some super place value work, using greater than and less than symbols to create number statements. In English it has been our big write week where we have been writing out stories (Little Red Riding Hood and the Masai Warriors). We look forward to sharing these with you over the next week. Music was all fun and games where we got to use a djembi (African drum) to practise our special chant for our African showcase. We were also super lucky to take part in a African dance workshop on Monday. Geography has been great fun with creating a map of the classroom and adding to it. In Computing we have been developing our mouse control skills, Mrs Valimulla set us a emoji challenge to see if we could create a smiley face, this was interesting! Please support your child with using a mouse. In Science with Mrs Harrison we went on a leaf hunt, we collected and identified various leaves and trees and in RE we created prayers of thanks for harvest. To round off our fabulous week we ended with one of the best forest school adventures in the woods of all time. We had to collect ingredients which were hidden in the woods using our mapping skills to make pancakes for Grandma. The pancakes were a delicious and heart warming way to finish our busy adventure. See video from forest school. 🌳 

Autumn 1 Week 3

We have had another busy and jam packed week in Year 1. Starting with the excitement of our class reading basket being sent home last Friday, well done Oliver! The class reading basket will be awarded to children who present their best effort in phonics and reading through all areas of the curriculum.

In French last Friday, we began to consolidate our learning around colours through a game "Where's Kevin?". Can your child recall their French colours to you? Here is a game they could play. French colours game In English, the children have enjoyed another week of exploring our Native Narrative, "Little Red Riding Hood and the Massai Warriors." They were experts at sequencing and retelling the story and have all retained the higher level vocabulary which has been sent out on Seesaw (thank you for supporting your child to learn this). In Maths the children have been using and applying their place value skills to work out 1 less, they did this using natural resources outside. We also had a visitor explaining our "Healthy travel to school week". The children have worked particularly hard during our Phonic sessions where they have had to use and apply all the phonemes they have learnt so far in Phase 4 words. For example, the word "bring", should be read as b-r-i-ng. children often miss the second constanant, b-r-i-ng and say "bing". If you would like to practise reading phase 4 words head over to Phonics Play for some useful sounding and blending activities. In Geography the children created some wonderful maps whilst talking about the places which are nearest and furthest to where they live. During RE, they continue to explore all things Harvest related and in Science are exploring plants in the local area with Mrs Harrison. We had another fantastic Art lesson where the children developed their paper skills in preparation for our final art exhibition (more information to follow)- they created: zig-zag spirals, tables, arches and many curves with tribal designs in monochrome.

Lastly, I just want to say thank you for all your contributions towards home learning. It adds great value to your children's wider experiences and is a fantastic way of connecting home to school. Please continue to read as often as you can with your child. After all, reading is the key to unlocking the curriculum. Have a lovely weekend. 

Autumn 1 Week 2

We’ve had another jam packed week full of lots of exciting learning. Did you know we were visited by a black panther? He even let us ask him some questions about his recent antics with Little Red Riding Hood and the Masai Warriors! We practised using our question words to ask him questions. In Geography we went on our local area walk and directed Mrs Valimulla to Queen’s Square. We spoke about how the street names in Hoddlesden are very royal. Whilst we were there some children asked if they could pause and pray for the Queen and her family. We also looked at the features of our local area and shared the places we use transport to travel to, some places are near and some are further away. We will be looking at this in more detail next week. We started our Art topic and practised our paper rolling skills, we have an exciting art exhibition to share with parents soon, stay tuned! Mrs Valimulla was super impressed with the artists in our class. We also had a visitor from Stephen from LifeEducation who taught us how we can keep our bodies healthy, Harold joined him too! What a wonderful week Year 1! 

Autumn 1 Week 1

WOW! What a busy first week. The children have settled into school life wonderfully adapting to new rules and routines in Year One. I am so proud of them for taking the challenge and stepping up to my high expectations. Thank you to all parents for your support too.

This week in English we discovered some clues in the woods. We had to decide who these belonged to. Many of us made the connection between the red cloak and Little Red Riding Hood. In Maths we have been learning how to sort, count, group and represent objects and numbers. We have done this both practically and recorded this using counting equipment. We have also spoken about the 'cardinal principle' which is recognising that the last number we count is special because this tells us the how many objects are in the group. In Science we have been introduced to common wildlife and plants, we sorted these using different criteria. In PSHE we came up with a set of class rules and signed a class contract. In PE- we had our first gymnastics session and with myself (Mrs Valimulla) on Monday began to learn how to do an 'underarm throw'. In Guided Reading we adjusted to a new style of carousel. Each week one group will read, e books, explore the class reading area, complete a phonics activity and read with myself and Mrs Valenzuela. In Geography we were 'local area experts' and spoke about the features of our local area. In Computing, we had our very own first session in the suite and learnt how to turn on a computer. We also spoke about the vocabulary- keyboard, monitor, computer and mouse.

Please ensure you send your child's reading book with them everyday and try to read as often as possible (we say a minimum of three times a week). Reading is the key to unlocking the rest of the curriculum. Year 1 is a crucial year for reading so it is important that your child has much exposure to this as possible.

I will be uploading some key vocabulary onto Seesaw and on our class page so stay tuned for that. It would be useful if you used these words and pictures to pre-teach your child the vocab which we will be using this half term.

Again, many thanks for all your support this week. As always, should you have any concerns or queries please feel free to get in touch. I look forward to updating you on here each week and working closely with you to get the best outcomes for your children.