Autumn 1 - Native Narratives

Autumn 1 Week 6

We've had a fantastic week in Year 1!

This week, we began our new Writing topic all about our local area. Our main focus has been writing in full sentences using capital letters, full stops, and finger spaces. Some of us have even been practising our lead-ins in handwriting and starting to use them in our writing. We’ve also started using the word ‘and’ to join our ideas together. We are very proud of how hard everyone is trying with their writing! In Maths, we’ve started our topic on addition and subtraction within 10. We have been learning about partitioning numbers and have been introduced to part-whole models. The children have shown fantastic perseverance and resilience as they’ve explored this new way of thinking about numbers. 

In Geography, we’ve been learning to use directional and positional language, including North, East, South, and West. We found out what a compass is and how to use one. The children loved going outside to follow the compass and discover which animals were hiding in each direction. We continued our sculpture work in Art this week using paper as our material. The children applied their learning to create buildings and objects they might see in school. We have some very creative designers in Year 1! In Science, we explored mirrors and used them to help us draw self-portraits. We talked about the features that make each of us unique and took care to notice all the little details in our faces.

We joined Year 3 for a special RE OAL this week. We have been learning about the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot in RE. We discussed that Sukkot is a Harvest Festival celebrated by people who belong to the Jewish faith. We talked about how Jewish people sometimes use a language called Hebrew and sukkah is a Hebrew word for a type of tent. Sukkot is celebrated during the autumn and it lasts for seven days. We spoke about the preparations for Sukkot and how people build a sukkah. The children learnt that a sukkah must have at least three walls and the roof must be something found from the ground, such as plants. We also learnt that Jewish people spend as much time as possible in their sukkah for the whole week of Sukkot. They eat all their meals in the sukkah and say a prayer to thank God for Sukkot. The children built their own sukkahs in groups in the woods using sheets, string and natural objects. We ate biscuits in our sukkah’s too! 

Our theme in Worship has been ‘Caring for Creation’, linking beautifully with our new RE topic on Creation. The children have created wonderful drawings representing the seven days of creation and have been learning the Bible story with actions to help them remember it. In Music, we’ve continued learning how to play the ukulele, and in French, we’ve been practising our colours through the story of Le Roi Vert. Très bien, Year 1!

We’ve also been very busy practising for our upcoming Harvest worship. We’re so excited to welcome our families to St Paul’s Church on Sunday, and again at school on Monday, to share our learning and say thank you for the wonderful world we live in.

Autumn 1 Week 5

What a busy and exciting week we've had in Year 1!

As part of Black History Month, we have started learning about Rev. Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the first Black female bishop in the Church of England. In English, we read about her amazing life and all the barriers she faced to become a vicar and then a bishop. We thought about the word "proud", and wrote about things we are proud of and what Rev. Rose might be proud of too. We also thought of some brilliant questions we would ask her if we met her.

In Maths, we’ve been learning to order numbers on number lines, even when the numbers go backwards or when the number line doesn’t start at 0 or 1! We’ve worked hard on solving number problems and are now ready to begin learning about addition and subtraction. In Art, we’ve been creating animal sculptures using strips of paper. The children have been folding, bending, and twisting the paper in different ways to make fantastic creatures like snails, monkeys, giraffes, and snakes. Our classroom is full of creativity!

In RE, we’ve been thinking deeply about the big question: "What can we do to help those who don’t have a good harvest?"
The children have shown wonderful reflection and kindness in their answers. During Worship, we’ve continued to explore Black History Month, and for Spirituality Day, we had a special worship with Rev. Ben. We spent time learning about our school vision:
✨ "As God's family, together we achieve." ✨
We learned about St Paul and his letters, especially Romans 12:4–8, which tells us that everyone has special gifts. The children thought about their own gifts and talents, drew pictures of them, and we made a lovely video to celebrate!

In Computing, we’ve been learning how to edit text using iPads, and in French, we’ve continued learning our colours through stories and games.

Autumn 1 Week 4

We've had such a fantastic time in class this week, with so much exciting learning happening across all subjects!

In Maths, we've been exploring the language of more, fewer, and the same, using the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears to decide whether Mummy, Daddy, or Baby Bear had more or fewer cubes. We also learned about the symbols for greater than (>), less than (<), and equal to (=), and met Blockzilla from Numberblocks! We even made our own Blockzillas using straws and cubes to compare numbers. The children have done an amazing job and are already using this knowledge in other areas of their learning.

In English, we’ve started a new poetry unit. We learnt the poem Where Zebras Go by Sue Hardy-Dawson and explored some of its exciting vocabulary, including sirocco, shallow, and wallow. We were especially interested in the rhyming patterns! The children also learnt and performed the poem Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain, showing great enthusiasm and expression.

In Science, we’ve been thinking about what makes us unique. We talked about the differences in our own features and how we are both the same and different from others. Our RE learning focused on the Jewish festival of Sukkot. We explored the rules for building a Sukkah, including the need for three walls and a natural roof. We also learnt about the Star of David and discussed how it connects to Judaism, just like the Christian cross links to Christianity. In Worship, we’ve been focusing on the values of tolerance and generosity. The children created thoughtful five-finger prayers to pray for their friends, families, and others in the world.

In Outdoor Adventurous Learning (OAL), we had a wonderful session with Wild One Adventures! We took part in a Maasai jumping competition, crowned a King of the Tribe, and trained to be warriors. We also learnt about North, East, South, and West through fun games, searched for the biggest and smallest conkers we could find, played musical instruments, swung in hammocks, and enjoyed warm juice to finish off a fun-filled day!

In Music, we’ve been continuing our ukulele lessons, growing more confident with each session. In PSHE, we’ve been exploring different emotions and how to recognise and manage them. Finally, in French, we’ve loved learning the song Arc en Ciel (I Can Sing a Rainbow) to help us practise all the colours in French and we’re getting really good at them!

Autumn 1 Week 3

What a busy and exciting week we've had in Year 1!

We’ve been working hard to finish our retellings of Little Red Riding Hood and The Maasai Warriors in English. We made sure to use capital letters, full stops, and finger spaces in all our writing. Now, we are getting ready to innovate the story by creating our own versions. To help us, we’ve been researching African animals like giraffes, elephants, monkeys, and zebras. We’ve now planned our own innovated stories, and we can’t wait to start writing them independently next week!

In Maths, we’ve been learning all about 1 more. We used resources, number lines, and number tracks to help us understand. We’ve also been counting backwards, blasting off rockets with a big "Blast off!" as we reach zero. This has helped us start thinking about 1 less too.

This week in Science, we explored the parts of the body and our five senses: sight, touch, smell, hearing, and taste. We had fun matching each sense to the correct body part. In Geography, we’ve been learning about human and physical features in our local area. After going on a local walk, we sorted the things we found into the correct category. We continued our musical journey by learning more about the ukulele. We're beginning to understand how to hold it and strum along with the rhythm.

This week in Worship, we've been thinking about giving sacrificially. We created a beautiful Generosity Tree in our classroom. Each leaf shows something we’ve given up for others. In RE, we’ve been learning about the story of Exodus and the life of Moses. Next, we’ll begin learning about the Jewish festival of Sukkot as part of our World Faith learning. In French, we read the story Petit-Bleu et Petit-Jaune and practiced saying our colours. Très bien, Year 1!

What a fantastic week of learning, we are so proud of everything you’ve achieved.

Autumn 1 Week 2

Year 1 have had a busy and exciting week, diving into our learning across all subjects. In English, we have been exploring the characters in our text Little Red Riding Hood and the Maasai Warriors. The children have loved getting to know the story and have already learnt our class story map, which helps us remember the sequence and language of the story. This has been shared with parents on Seesaw, please take some time to practice retelling it together at home! We've also started writing our own retellings, working hard to use capital letters and full stops correctly. 

In Maths, we’ve been learning how to count on from different numbers. We’ve used practical resources to show numbers in different ways and have also been practicing writing numbers as words. In RE, we read a passage from the Bible and spoke about Jesus’s commandments. We discussed how these relate to the importance of Harvest and talked about the difference between good and bad harvests. The children had some thoughtful ideas about how we can help those who don’t receive a good harvest. During Worship, we continued exploring our school value of Generosity through the story of Johnny Appleseed. The children enjoyed hearing about his life and how he shared what he had with others.

In Art, we became sculptors! Using only paper, glue, and a big dose of creativity, we designed and built our own paper sculptures by rolling, twisting and folding. Some children were so inspired they went home and had another go. Music has been lively as always! We continued learning about the ukulele and how to play it. The children are beginning to understand rhythm and how to hold and strum the instrument correctly. Finally, in Geography, we went on a local area walk around Hoddlesden to spot both human and physical features. We found hills, buildings, the war memorial and lots of houses. The children were brilliant explorers and had lots of observations to share back in class.

Autumn 1 Week 1

We've had a brilliant start to the term with lots of exciting learning across all our subjects!

This week in English, we started reading Little Red and the Maasai Warriors. We explored the Maasai tribe and compared their way of life to our own. It was fascinating to learn how different cultures live! We also spent time discussing the character of Little Red Riding Hood, thinking about her appearance and personality. Along the way, we learned some new vocabulary, including tribe, Maasai, fear, and cloak. In Maths, we have been busy sorting and counting. We've been learning and using our special Year 1 counting rules to help us count accurately. We also discovered new ways to share our total number with each other. We've had lots of fun counting different objects to help deepen our understanding.

We began thinking about Harvest this week in RE and how it is a special time to thank God for the food we have. We talked about Harvest being God’s gift to us and thought about our favourite foods. We enjoyed drawing lovely pictures of the foods we’re most thankful for! In Worship, we have been focusing on generosity—how we can be generous to others at school and at home. We also discussed the British Value of tolerance and what it means to respect and accept others, even if they are different from us.

Our Science learning this week has been about  Autumn. We looked at the signs of autumn all around us and created colourful posters to help us remember what to look out for—falling leaves, conkers, shorter days, and more! In PE, we have started practicing our throwing and catching skills. We learned how to do both overarm and underarm throws and aimed to land them in hoops. In Art, we explored the amazing paper work of artist Samantha Stephenson. We had a go at recreating her style using paper, and we loved experimenting with shapes, colours, and textures.