Spring 2 - Treasured Tales

Spring 2 Week 6 
 

What an amazing week in Year 1! The children have been busy exploring weight and mass in Maths, learning to describe objects as heavier or lighter, and using cubes on counterbalance scales to measure mass. In English, we received an exciting letter from the Three Little Pigs! Inspired by their message, the children wrote brilliant instructions on how to build a secure house, including high fences, security cameras, and traps to keep the Big Bad Wolf at bay. They showcased all the key features of instructional writing.

On Monday, we were treated to a fantastic performance at the Rock Steady Concert, which the children thoroughly enjoyed. In Geography, we took a trip to Australia and Antarctica, writing postcards home to share all the exciting things we learned about these faraway places. In Design & Technology, the children completed their moving storybooks, incorporating their own mechanisms. To cap off the week, we celebrated our behaviour treat with a fun-filled bouncy castle race on Friday!

Wishing you all a wonderful Easter break!

Spring 2 Week 5

We’ve had a fantastic week in Year 1! In Maths, we’ve been working hard on understanding length and height. The children have been using words like “longer,” “shorter,” “taller,” and “shortest” to compare objects. We’ve also explored non-standard units, such as cubes, to measure different items. To develop their measuring skills further, the children have been learning how to use a ruler, measuring in centimetres and comparing lengths. They’ve been brilliant brave bananas, challenging themselves and tackling new concepts with enthusiasm! In English, we’ve been learning all about instructions. First, we practiced following instructions, then looked at what makes instructions clear and effective. We also explored how instructions need to be precise and sequenced correctly. Using the story Jack and the Baked Beanstalk as inspiration, we began writing our own set of instructions, focusing on key features like bossy verbs and time connectives.

In Geography, we studied the continent of South America, learning about its countries, cultures, and animals. We sorted images to distinguish between what belongs to South America and what does not. In R.E., we have been discussing the significance of Easter, exploring its meaning and how it makes us feel. We linked our discussions to Christian beliefs and traditions associated with Easter. In French, we took a virtual trip to Paris and discovered some of its most famous landmarks, as well as how people travel around the city using the metro. Finally, we’ve been giving our all in Gymnastics, practicing hard for an upcoming performance that we’re very excited to share with our grown-ups soon!

Spring 2 Week 4

We've had a lovely week in Year 1! The children have been writing spring time poetry using rhyming words in English. They have enjoyed matching rhyming words, finding rhyming words and adding rhyming words into sentences. The children have worked hard to write rhyming couplets to produce a spring time poem. In Maths, we have been partitioning number to 50 into tens and ones using Base 10 and part-whole models. We have also been looking at numbers 1 more and 1 less within 50. 

We had Outdoor Adventurous Learning this week. We went on a springtime walk in our local area, finding spring objects and crossing them off our lists. We also created observational spring drawings on our walk. 

Spring 2 Week 3

We’ve had a wonderful week in Year 1! The children have produced some fantastic descriptions of their friends in English before using their knowledge to describe their innovated characters from their Jack and the Baked Beanstalk story. The children have blown us away with their fantastic application of their grammar skills including -s and -es for plurals and capital letter for I, names of people and names of days of the week. In Maths, we have been learning about place value within 50. We have even counting forwards and backwards within 50 and partitioning numbers to 50 into tens and ones. 
 

It was Science Week this week and, linked to our Materials topic, we have been learning about recycling! We read the story Someone Swallowed Stanley, a book about a plastic bag that ends up in the ocean. We discussed the importance of recycling because we don’t want our rubbish to end up in the sea, the sea creatures can sometimes think they are food. The children created awareness posters about recycling and created their own recycled fish! In RE, we learnt the story of Easter Sunday and sequenced the events of Holy Week. In Geography, we learnt about what life is like on the continent of Asia. We compared Tokyo to London and discovered some landmarks in Asia, including the Great Wall of China and Shanghai Port. In French, we learnt all about the countryside, la compange, and what we might see in the countryside. 

Spring 1 Week 2

We’ve had a fabulous week in Year 1 this week. We enjoyed celebrating World Book Day on Friday and dressing up as our favourite characters. We also had a visit from a local author called Janek Puzon who did a book reading and signing for us. We enjoyed an amazing visit to The Hive at Moss Bank Park this week. They began with flower and tree identification, followed by a visit to the sensory garden to smell different herbs and plants. We remembered the rules about outdoor safety before labelling the parts of a flower and creating their own using natural materials. They then searched the Hive for different tree types. After lunch, the children explored the four seasons, identified water sources and built shelters for woodland animals to survive in through summer and autumn. They later prepared the shelters for winter by adding food and warmth. Finally, they created baby animals from clay and natural materials for spring.

In English this week, we have began to write an innovated retelling of Jack and the Baked Beanstalk using a new villain in our story. The children have been applying their learning from grammar into their writing, using -s and -es for plurals. In Maths, we have finished our learning about addition and subtraction with 20 with missing number problems. The children have persevered when finding maths difficult and we are so proud of them. In PSHE, we learnt about the word behaviour and made promises to some grown ups in our lives about what we're going to try and do better. In Music, we learnt the word dynamics and studied Dame Evelyn Glennie.

Spring 2 Week 1

We've had a fantastic first week back after half term! We began our new English learning by reading Jack and the Beanstalk with a twist, Jack and the Baked Beanstalk. The children have been writing character and setting descriptions based on the story in preparation for their innovated retellings next week. In Maths, we have continued with our addition and subtraction within 20 learning. We have linked subtraction and addition together, exploring how they are connected and writing the eight facts linked a representations. 

In our Geography learning, we learnt the names and location of the seven continents through song. The children practised locating the seven continents on a globe and a world map. In PSHE, we read the Adventures of Smartie the Penguin and practised what to do if we feel worried when online; stop, close, tell. The children explored different scenarios and what they would do if it happened to them. On Thursday, we had a visit from Ian Bland, a performance poet. The children worked in groups to create their own poems using alliteration, rhythm and rhyme. In RE, we began looking at the Easter story, starting with Palm Sunday. 

Spring 1 - Amazing Asia

Spring 1 Week 6

We've had a lovely week in Year 1! The children have completed their incredible diary entries in English. The children have blown us away with their fantastic effort and progress with the writing, grammar and handwriting. We finished writing our scaffolded diary entries and innovated our own for our independent write. In Maths, we have been learning how to use doubles to help us with addition. We have been completing 'near doubles', such as 3 + 2, with ten frames, base 10 and written representations. 

We created our own Chinese inspired artwork using our new knowledge about colour mixing. We applied our learning from Art this half term to create different hues of the colours we wanted. In French, we continued our learning about travel and transport, learning the French words for car, train, boat and motorbike. In Geography, we compared Hoddlesden to Chembakolli, a village in India. The children looked at the similarities and differences between work, school, homes, games and animals. In RE, we retold the story of the Wedding in Cana and discussed Jesus's miracle of turning water into wine. In Science, we described the properties of materials in the classroom using words such as shiny, rough, soft, stretchy, smooth, hard and bumpy.

We also had our Nerf Wars Behaviour Treat! 

Spring 1 Week 5 

We’ve had a great week in Year 1! We’ve been focusing on alternative graphemes for the ‘ai’ sound in Phonics this week. The children have blown us away with their fantastic writing. In our Maths learning, the children have started addition and subtraction with 20. We have been learning to add by counting on, drawing on our knowledge of partitioning into tens and ones. In English, we finished our newspaper articles about Mulan and applied our learning to an article about the Great Race! We have also began to look at diary entries in preparation for our fiction outcome.

In French this week, we have learnt about modes of transport. In Art, we have used our colour mixing knowledge to mix different hues of green using yellow and blue. In Geography, we have learnt the four countries of the UK and their capital cities. The children worked hard to locate these places of a map. In Tennis, we practised balancing and striking using a tennis racket. In RE, we learnt the story of the Feeding of the 5000. We rewrote the story from either the perspective of Jesus, the boy or one of the disciples. 
 

it was Wear Your Scarf Day for Children’s Mental Health Week. Our learning in PSHE was all about children’s mental health. 

Spring 1 Week 4

We’ve had another lovely week in Year 1! We have continued to learn about place value with 20 in our Maths learning. The children have been working particularly hard whilst estimating on a number line and completing missing numbers from a number line. We are super proud of our Brave Bananas! In our English learning, we have used our learning about newspaper articles to write an article about the events in the story of Mulan. The children have worked hard to include all the features they have learnt as well as the grammar aspects we have been focusing on, including exclamation marks and capital letters for names of people, places and days of the week.

In our Science learning, we have learnt to distinguish between an object and its material. We categorised pictures of objects and materials. In RE, we learnt the story of the Stilling of the Storm. We focused on empathising with Jesus’s disciples feelings throughout the Bible story and how these changed. During Tennis, we practised using a racket to balance a beanbag. In Geography, we became settlement detectives! We received a pack with information about a settlement including pictures, photographs and writing. We had to use the information to decide if we had a city, town or village and explain why. The children worked together to decide that Manchester is a city, Darwen is a town and Hoddlesden is a village. 

Spring 1 Week 3

We’ve had a fab week this week in Year 1! We began looking at the features of a newspaper article in preparation for writing an article about the events of Mulan in English. The children have planned their article and the information they will put into it. In Maths, we have been continuing our place value learning, looking at one more and one less than numbers to 20. We have also started learning about the number line. 
 

In Science, we started our learning about Materials. The children used objects around the room to identify different materials we know such as glass, metal, wood, plastic and water. In RE, we learnt the Bible story ‘The Calling of the Disciples’. The children created their own story maps to tell the story and label these. We had our Outdoor Adventurous Learning where we explored the features of our local area and we even created a mud slide! 

In French, we practiced saying the names of places in France including Paris, Bordeaux, Nice and Calais. We shared photographs of the children’s experiences on France too! In our Music learning, we learnt the song Hi-low Chicka-low to learn about pitch. 

Spring 1 Week 2

We have had a fantastic week in Year 1! In English, we started our learning about Mulan, a brave warrior who made a plan to help her dad by going into the army. We have enjoyed reading the start of the story, focussing on the main character. We have written character descriptions of Mulan using capital letters, full stops, word spaces and our new phonics learning. We have also been looking at new vocabulary in the story including brave, soldier and honour. In Maths, we have started our new learning about numbers to 20. We have been using Base 10 to learn the place value of numbers from 11-20 and petitioning these numbers into tens and ones. We have also been practicing counting forwards and backwards within 20. 
 

In Art, we began by researching the work of Clarice Cliff and her use of colour on ceramics. We created pieces inspired by her art before learning about colour mixing. In Geography, we recapped the human and physical features of Hoddlesden and the surrounding area. In French, Madame Wardle introduced us to our new topic Bon Voyage! 
 

in our Science learning, we have been focusing on the season of winter. The children have created posters with the signs of winter and have been on winter walks to look for the signs. Simon the Season Snail will be going home with all the children for winter to observe changes to day length. In RE, we began our new learning about Jesus. We started by learning about Jesus’s twelve disciples and why it’s important to have really good friends. 

Spring 1 Week 1

Well that was not the first week back we were expecting! Due to snow and extremely dangerous conditions on and around the school grounds we have been unable to attend school for most of the week! I am glad we all got to see each other, albeit briefly on Tuesday. But…that hasn’t stopped us doing some amazing learning! 
 

Tasks have been uploaded to Seesaw and completed with great enthusiasm, well done Year 1. We have set up a shop with price tags for our families to buy things from and have had to make sure they have given us the right amount or give them some change. We have found instructions around the house and followed some to make a Chinese lantern. We have researched the animals in ‘The Great Race’ and looked at what our zodiac animals are. Then we have written our own versions of the story and used different animals. We have looked at the human and physical features of our local area and created a map of our journey to home and school.
 

Thank you to everyone who has uploaded their superb learning ⭐️

Autumn 2 - Factual Footprints

Autumn 1 Week 7

We have had a lovely week in Year 1 this week! In Maths, we have started our learning all about 2-D and 3-D shapes. The children have learnt the names of cubes, cuboids, pyramids, spheres, cones and cylinders and have been practising sorting them based on their properties. In English, we continued writing our Wanted posters for the Highway Rat. The children have blown s away with their use of conjunctions 'and' and 'but' in their writing. 

In our French learning, we recapped our learning from this half term, using our speaking skills to talk about the colours of our clothing. In History, we have been focussing on chronology and using the words 'before' and 'after' to describe the explorers we have learnt about. In RE, we learnt about Epiphany and the Spanish festival of the three kings. 

Our Nativity performances were this week and the children have blown us away with their confidence singing the songs! Well done everyone!

Autumn 1 Week 6 

We have had a great week this week! It was Elf Enterprise week this week and we have been making spinning Christmas decorations. The children have loved designing, making and evaluating their product and selling it at the Christmas Fair on Sunday. We had a cutting team, sails design team, gluing team and construction team throughout the week. 

We also visited Blackburn Empire Theatre to watch Jack and the Beanstalk this week!

Autumn 1 Week 5 

We've had a lovely week in Year 1! The Highway Rat had put wanted posters of all our faces in the classroom this week in English! We learnt about the features of a wanted poster and a story map to help us remember the features. We ordered the pieces of the story map and retold the story to our friends. In Maths, we finished our learning about addition and subtraction within 10 by subtracting on a number line. The children have been doing lots of problem solving, working out if a question is addition or subtraction. 

In History, we learnt about the explorer Sunita Williams, a US astronaut who ran a marathon on the International Space Station. The children created fact files of their favourite facts about her. In DT, we practised using a split pin as an axel for a spinning windmill. Our learning in Science was about categorising animals based on their features. The children did a fantastic job cutting and sticking a variety of animals and placing them in the correct groups. We learnt a dance to go along with the song 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Ever Day' in Dance. The children did an amazing job performing in groups and evaluating each others dancing. In RE, we discussed what gift we would give to a very special baby. The children came up with some fantastic ideas about important items we would need for a baby. 

Autumn 2 Week 4

We've had a lovely week in Year 1! We began our learning about the Highway Rat in English. The police sent us a letter to tell us about complaints they have received from animals in the woods near school. We have been writing descriptive sentences to help the police catch the Highway Rat. We have also been reading the story, sequencing the events and thinking about the thoughts and feelings of the characters. We began subtraction in Maths and are working hard to subtract using a number line. 

In our Science learning, following our visit to A&S Nightingale's Farm, we learnt about the different ways we can categorise animals based on their features. We compared the animals and wrote about what makes them different to each other. In RE, we used props to retell the Christmas story. We created a map for our characters, starting in Nazareth and ending in Bethlehem, and retold the story to our friends. In Dance, we created bonfire shapes using ribbons. We enjoyed learning about the Race to the South Pole in History and investigating why Roald Amundsen reached the pole before Captain Scott. 

Autumn 2 Week 3

It's been a great week in Year 1! The children have been working hard on their addition within 10 in Maths lessons. We have been solving real world problems using a variety of resources. In English, we created a fact file for Ibn Battuta, an explorer from the 14th century who we have been learning about in History. In our Science learning, we learnt about categorising animals by what they eat. We learnt the vocabulary of carnivore, herbivore and omnivore and used our knowledge to create freeze frames of the animals. We also learnt a song to help us remember these words.

In RE, Rev. Ben visited us to talk about the gifts the Magi brought for the baby Jesus. We watched the Christmas story and discussed if we would take gold, frankincense and myrrh for a baby. We decided that gifts such as blankets, dummies and toys would be better for a baby. Rev. Ben taught us that Jesus was a king so he deserved these gifts and he explained their meaning. In History, we learnt about the voyages of Captain Cook and how he was a British hero that mapped Australia and New Zealand. In Dance, we practised making egg shapes with our bodies.

We have also celebrated Interfaith Week, Remembrance Day, Odd Socks Day for Anti-bullying week and Children in Need this week!

Autumn 2 Week 2

We've had another lovely week in Year 1! In Maths, the children have been using practical equipment to reason and problem solve addition questions. We have also learnt how to systematically find number bonds within and to ten. The children have been working hard to record their number sentences. In English, we learnt the features of a fact file and used this to write a fact file about Ernest Shackleton over the week. We have been writing some super sentences, with capital letters, full stops and word spaces in preparation to write an independent fact file about an explorer we have discovered in History. 

In RE, we learnt the Islamic creation story and compared all three stories we have learnt so far. The children thought about similarities and differences between Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. We visited Nightingale's Farm for our Science learning this week. The children got to hold and observe ducks, pigs, goats, sheep and chickens. We drew observational drawings of the animals and thought abut which animal category they would fit into based on our criteria. In History, we learnt about the life and expeditions of Ibn Battuta, creating a passport to show his journeys. 

We have been learning about the importance of Remembrance Day and have created a class poppy and a class prayer for those who serve. 

Autumn 2 Week 1

We've had a great first week back after half term. We started our new learning in English all about the explorer Ernest Shackleton. A box arrived in the classroom and we had to use the clues to figure out who the box might belong to. We found out the box was Ernest Shackleton's and began to learn about his early life and expeditions in preparation to write fact files. In Maths, we continued to learn about addition and subtraction within 10, focusing on fact families and addition methods.

In RE, we learnt the Hindu creation story and compared this to the Christian creation story. Our Science learning was all about the season of autumn. We learnt the signs of autumn, how day length changes in the autumn, what we might wear in autumn and festivals that are celebrated in autumn. The children created drawings with labels to describe what an autumn day would look like.

We began our new History learning about explorers and answered our enquiry question - Who were the greatest explorers? 

During Spirituality Afternoon, the children learnt about the Incarnation section of God's Big Story. The children designed and began to create our panel for our school's big freeze. 

Autumn 1 - Native Narratives

Autumn 1 Week 5

We have had a great week in Year 1! In our English learning, our classroom had a visit from Mr Zebra. He left us a poem to learn and the children have been working hard on their spoken language skills to perform this poem in a group. We learnt new vocabulary whilst learning the poem, Where Zebras Go, including wallow, shallow and Sirocco. The children are now learning the poem Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain for their independent poetry outcome. In Maths, we have been using practical equipment to learn about the greater than, less than and equal to symbols. The children have been brave bananas this week and have shown amazing resilience through this tricky learning! 
 

In our Geography learning, we discussed a compass and how we can use a compass to locate a feature of our local area or school. We looked at a compass rose and learnt the directions North, East, South and West. In Art, we combined our learning on sculpture to create individual ‘trees of life’ based on the artwork of others. In RE, we had great fun with Year 3 building a sukkah to celebrate the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot. We have to make sure our sukkah had at least three walls and the roof was made from something found on the floor. In Science, we compared our features with others around us. 

Autumn 1 Week 4 

We've had an amazing week in Year 1! In English, the children have written their independent innovated retelling of Little Red Riding Hood and the Maasai Warriors. We started by gathering content on the animals from the story Handa’s Surprise before choosing our favourite to add to the story. The children have blown us away with their writing and we are so proud of them. In Maths, we have been continuing our learning about place value within 10 by comparing numbers. We have been using the words fewer, same and more to compare quantities. 
 

In Art, we have learnt how to create sculptures by changing the shapes of paper. We created curves, tables, stairs and loops to attach to our sculptures. In Geography, we thought about what is far away and close to where we live. The children also created maps of their journey to school. In our RE learning, we began to learn about Sukkot, the Jewish Harvest festival, and we were introduced to one of the symbols of Judaism, the Star of David. We retold the story of Exodus from the Jewish holy book, the Torah, and created freeze frames for this. We will continue our learning about Sukkot next week by building our own Sukkah. In Science, we discussed how humans are animals and created life size drawings of humans. 

Autumn 1 Week 3

We have had another busy and jam packed week in Year 1.

In French, we began to consolidate our learning around colours through a game called "Where's Kevin?". Can your child recall their French colours to you? In English, we finished our retellings of Little Red Riding Hood and the Maasai Warriors. The children have blown us away with their writing, using capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. In Maths, the children have been using and applying their place value skills to compare numbers and to findone more and one less. The children have been working hard during our Phonics sessions where they have had to use and apply all the phonemes they have learnt so far in Phase 4 words. In Geography, we learnt about human and physical features of our local area and used our knowledge from last week's local area walk to sort features into these categories. During RE we continue to explore all things Harvest, this week focussing on artwork depicting Harvest. We even created our own Harvest art. 

Autumn 1 Week 2 

We’ve had another jam packed week full of lots of exciting learning. In English, we have written character descriptions, we practiced the story Little Red Riding Hood and the Maasai Warriors and created actions to help us remember the story. The children then performed the story for their parents and carers to watch! We continued with place value within 10 in Maths. The children have created a number book with the representations of numbers they know.  In Geography we continued our topic on our local area. We talked about landmarks in Hoddlesden and went on a local area walk. In Science, we thought about what we already know about the four seasons. 
We had our first Art lesson and discussed the sculptures of Samantha Stephenson and used paper rolling to recreate her work. We are very impressed with the artists in our class. In French we practiced colours and discussed how we are feeling. We also had a visitor from Stephen from Life Education who taught us how we can keep our bodies healthy, Harold joined him too!

Autumn 1 Week 1

What a busy first week! The children have settled into school life wonderfully adapting to new rules and routines in Year 1. I am so proud of them. Thank you to all parents for your support too.

This week in English we watched a video about the Maasai tribe and compared their life to ours in Hoddlesden. We retold the story of Little Red Riding Hood ready to begin our new text next week. 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. In PSHE we discussed our class rules and how we stay safe when using iPads at home and at school. In Geography we were 'local area experts' and spoke about the features of our local area. 

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

Many thanks for all your support this week. 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.