Class Blog

We had a fantastic time at Norton Priory. We learnt all about old toys and staff at the priory and school staff were impressed with how much we had remembered from when we had learnt about them in December.  We made our own wooden dolly peg doll. After lunch we also learnt all about bees and their roles, before making a bees wax candle. 

In R.E we have been thinking about how different life would have been for Jesus when he was growing up. We have thought about clothes, homes, toys, transport and this week it was food. We thought about some of the foods he may have eaten and then tried some flat bread and lentil soup. 

We have been learning how to skip. 

Today we have been trying out fixing wheels and axles to a chassis in preparation for making our cars. 

We worked cooperatively with the parachute today, enjoying a variety of games. 

This week we have been learning about neuro diversity and that some people may need more help with things than others. We wore our own bright colours to reflect our colourful personalities. We wrote our super powers on umbrellas. 

We celebrated the Queen’s platinum jubilee with lots of special activities including a crown parade, a picnic lunch and a disco. We were delighted that Y1 won the Cronton Queen’s quiz too. 

Fractions of numbers

Today we have been learning how to find fractions of numbers or amounts.  We found half of an amount by splitting it into 2 equal groups.  Then we practised finding a quarter of a number by sharing it into 4 equal groups.

Fractions

This week we have been talking about fractions. We started by finding fractions of shapes.  We folded a rectangle in half and found that there were 2 equal parts.  We folded it again to make 4 equal parts or quarters.

Maths

To help us understand multiplication, this half term we have been making equal groups.  We started off by making equal groups of 2, followed by 3 and then 4.  We used the cubes and paper plates to help us.

Well done to the Red Team who all looked fabulous in their red outfits to celebrate St. George's Day.

We have really enjoyed looking at the changes the Spring weather has brought to school. Our beautiful tree is now covered in blossom, and we looked closely at the different shapes and colours of the Spring flowers.

We looked even closer at the parts of some common plants, including weeds, with a magnifying glass. We labelled them and compared the shape of their leaves, stems, petals and roots. 

In our final P.E. lesson this half term we played Bench Ball.  First, we warmed up with a game of Foxes and Rabbits.  Then,  we split up into our colour teams to play the game.  

In Maths, we have been looking at equal and unequal groups.  We practised making equal groups with equipment we could find in the classroom.

At the beginning of the term we planted some beans to explore what plants need to grow. We left one in the cupboard, one wrapped up in a bag, and some with no water.   We all planted a bean, watered them and left them on the windowsill in plenty of light.  Over the next few weeks we watched our plants grow.

These were our plants at the end of the term.  

The bean in the bag and those left without water didn't grow at all.  However, we were surprised that the bean we left in the dark cupboard had grown, but it was very yellow and had hardly any leaves.

We decided that to grow well a plant needs water, light, and air.  We also need to give them plenty of space as they have now outgrown the cups we planted them in!

This week we have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather.  We have been learning about deciduous and evergreen trees.  We found out that deciduous trees lose their leaves in the Autumn, and evergreen trees keep their leaves all year round.  We found an example of each tree by the school entrance.

Well done Year 1, you have made such an effort and all look fabulous in your red outfits!

Capacity

As part of our maths topic, Weights and Measures, this week we have been thinking about capacity and volume.  We measured and compared the amount of water that different containers hold, using non-standard measures like cups and spoons.

St. Patrick's Day

Well done to the children in the Green Team, who marked the day by wearing their green outfits.  You all looked fabulous!

This week we have been reading another book written by Eileen Browne called Handa's Hen.  Handa loses her grandmother's hen and finds lots of other animals during her search to find it.  We have been practising the use of adjectives to describe the animals.

This week we are reading a story that is set in Africa, called Handa's Surprise, written by the author Eileen Browne.

The story is about a little girl  called Handa who takes fruit to her friend for a surprise.  What she didn't realise was that the animals were stealing fruit from her basket on the way.  When she arrives there, it is Handa who gets a surprise!  

We had great fun acting out the story.

Today we measured the mass of different objects using cubes.  We had to keep adding cubes until the scales balanced.

This week in maths, we have started to think about weight.  We explored the balance scales, finding things that are lighter and heavier than each other, and things that weigh the same.

We found out that sometimes bigger objects can be lighter than smaller ones.

Maths

This half term we are learning about weights and measures.  First, we had to find someone who was taller, shorter and the same height as us.  We found that it was better to stand back to back or mark our height on the door.

Then, we had to find things that were longer or shorter than the ruler.   

The next day we measured the length and height of objects using cubes (a non-standard measure).

We discovered that it wasn't very sensible to use the cubes to measure long things like the table or ourselves, as we kept running out of cubes and losing count!

We tried using handspans to measure with, but all our hands are different sizes, so we decided to use the rulers and measure things in centimetres (a standard measure).

This week we have been thinking about stories from other cultures.  We read a story called The Tiger Child, which takes place in India.  

In our groups, we retold small sections of the story and tried to add some actions.

We hope you enjoyed our story, as much as we enjoyed telling it.

We watched other children celebrating World Book Day on the live BBC broadcast, and we learnt about things that make a good story.  

We had a story called The Tooth Fairy and El Ratoncito Pérez.

We read about the little mouse that leaves money for Spanish children when they loose a tooth.

Children's Mental Health Week

To begin with, the children discussed their ideas about what mental health is, and came up with the ideas above.  This year the week has been based on the theme of growing together.  We compared ourselves to plants as we are always growing and used the tree trunk as  a symbol of our growth.  We tried to count the rings on the tree to find out how old it is!

Next, we thought about things that we have got better at as we have grown older.

After that, we thought about things we find challenging.

Finally, we talked about things we can do to help us to keep calm and stop worrying.  We watched a clip about a girl called Jessi who was worried about going to secondary school. 

Jessi discovered that drawing keeps her calm and relaxed and explained how doing a hobby can help if you're feeling anxious.  She also told us about the importance of talking to people about how we're feeling.

We took Jessi's advice and did some colouring to relax and discussed how colouring is not just for children, as it can be calming for people of any age.

                             Emma Reynolds

As part of the Liverpool Children's Festival of Reading, yesterday we listened to the author Emma Reynolds reading her book Amara and the Bats.  Emma has always been fascinated by bats and taught us lots of interesting facts about them. 

She also illustrates books for other people, so is great at drawing.  After the story she showed us all how to draw a simple bat of our own.

We had great fun trying ourselves.

It was inspiring to listen to Emma as she explained why she has become an author, and some of the children decided that they would like to write books too!  

Internet Safety Day

Today we learnt about how to stay safe when using the internet. We talked about passwords, why they are important and how we must keep them safe.  We also discussed why we mustn't give private information or details about ourselves to others when playing games.  The children have learnt that they must check with an an adult that the game they are playing is appropriate for their age.

We listened to a story about Digiduck who did not follow the rules as he was so eager to get to the next level of the game.

P.E.

Last week in P.E. we explored supporting our body in different ways on the apparatus.

This week we worked on balances with a partner.  We realised that you have to really trust your partner.

       We tried a balance with 3 people!  

Goodbye Mr. Critchley

Sadly, today is Mr. Critchley's last day with Year 1 as he returns to university to complete his course.  Both the staff and  children have enjoyed working with him so much over the last few months, and we will all really miss him.  We wish him lots of luck for the future and every success in his teaching career.  To celebrate, we played some party games!

Musical statues

           Pass the parcel and Simon Says

 We danced

Finally, we had some chocolate cake!

Mr. Critchley opened his presents

Congratulations to our final Star Badge winner who wasn't able to collect her award last Friday.

Here we are keeping the pulse in our music lesson, listening to our new song this term In The Groove. 

Christian Value 
 

As part of our learning about this term’s Christian value creativity, we read the book Ten Black Dots and then used our creativity to see what we could use black dots for.  Here are some of our pictures. 

28.1.22

Congratulations to our star badge and ninja belt winners this week.  We are so proud of you all.

Today in maths we started a new topic about the place value of numbers within 50.  We practised making different numbers up to 50 using tens and ones with the base ten equipment.

Today in PSHE we have been thinking about the best ways to work with a partner.   We had to design a welly with a partner and discovered that it's important to listen to each other, share ideas and take turns.

Balances

This week in PE we have been working on balances.  First of all we played bean bag buckaroo with a partner.  We had to balance 4 bean bags on our body, whilst holding a balance.

Then we had to make a balance on the apparatus and hold it for 5 seconds.

What a term we have had. Despite all the difficulties we have managed lots of learning, lots of fun and made lots of memories. Happy Christmas everyone. We will see you all in the New Year. 

We ended our first term in Year 1 with a talent show. There were some great talents on show including magic acts, gymnastics, reading, tap dancing , hip hop and contemporary dance with music choices ranging from Men In Black to  Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It was lovely to see every child have the confidence to perform in front of the class knowing they had the support  a great audience, their class mates. Well done everyone. 

For our last maths lesson this year we have been practising all the skills we have been learning about this term. We worked around a carousel of activities, including weighing, counting in 2s, ordering numbers, reciting days and months, using money and making numbers with tens and ones. One of the favourite activities was using our new rekenreks. 

Here is our winner for the poster competition that Mrs Whitehouse set in worship.  

We used our knife skills to cut up our fruit to make our fruit salads. Delicious! 

We went exploring today. We looked at the large timeline, finding Rosa Parks and the Gunpowder Plot before going to the library. Then we went down to see the outdoor classroom and had our a little outdoor picnic  snack.  

Here is one of our songs. The others can be found on seesaw. 

We looked at lots of different toys as part of our History topic and compared old toys and new toys. We had lots of fun trying out some of the older toys. 

Blue team celebrated St Andrews day by wearing blue. 

We have been watching the trees outside change since we have been in y1. Today in science we talked about how  animals adapt to winter. 

We have been planning our fruit salads in DT and today we practiced our knife skills ready for next week when we make our own. 

We have been learning about odd and even numbers and some  children made this fantastic visual demonstration. 

Check out story telling on our reading blog. 

We have been learning how to use the iPads to film events. We acted out the right thing and the wrong thing in different scenarios and filmed them. 

This week we have been thinking  about  being different and being kind to everyone. Our crazy ties and hair and our odd socks have helped us discuss this. Don’t forget to say   one kind word to someone today. 

We painted our self portraits.  

Today we learnt what an anatomist is. We worked in groups to see how many body parts we could name. 

As part of our PHSE topic on Being  me , we talked about things we have done that have made us feel proud. The children recalled many things including getting trophies, certificates, lesrn8ng to swim, ride bikes and score goals. I gave them a note to tell them how proud I was of them all for making such a great start to Y1 and working so hard this half term. Well done all of you, enjoy your half term. 

We have been looking at different parts of our school as part of our Geography topic. We have also been finding out about maps. We combined the two today by making our own map of our school using the blocks. We all helped and even wrote labels for it. Can you work out where the hall is? Year 1 ? The Nursery and it’s  playground? The offices? 

It was raining and we were unable to get in the hall for our P.E lesson so we learnt  a new game , Kurling  instead. It was great fun.  We had a mini competition,  that involved all the tables playing against each other, with Sycamore being the unbeaten winners. Well done Sycamore table. 

We had lots of certificates awarded this week , star badges, brilliant handwriting, white belt Ninja reading, as well as for displaying our  Christian value,  Hope. 

We had our first go at composing music today. We made a lovely tune using several different notes, which we all agreed sounded great. However we soon realised when it was our turn to play it , that it was quite tricky to play when there were so many notes to find on the glockenspiel and so  we simplified it.  We hope it still sounded good! 

We had to stay on the lines and avoid being caught by  ‘PacMan’. 

As part of world mental health day we took part in a thrive and flourish day where we wore something green and planted bulbs to look after at home. We read ‘The Huge Bag of Worries’ and talked about what things we could do if we felt worried or sad. We came up with many things including walking the dog, watching TV, cuddling teddies, going swimming and playing with friends. 

We have been drawing maps of our playground as part of our Geography topic about our school. 

We have been enjoying our music topic learning about rap and singing Hey You! We found out what a pulse is and had trying to find the pulse., copying the animal actions.  The best part was trying to play along with it on the glockenspiel. 

As part of our Geography topic about our school we went off exploring some new parts of school we hadn’t seen before. We found the library, Mrs Felton’s office and even the music cupboard! 

As part  of our science topic with have been finding out about how paper is made. Today we sorted out lots of different objects into 3 groups, wood, paper and not wood or paper.  Can you find anything made of wood or paper at home?

We had a lovely day learning all about Italy. We found out that Italy looked like a boot on a map and that the capital city is Rome. We found out about some famous landmarks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, The Coliseum as well as finding out about Venice and Pompeii. We tried some Italian food, the pizza was very popular, the olives less so! 

24.9.21

This week we have been looking at maps and finding out about Keys and symbols . Next week we will be trying to draw our own maps. Maybe you could have a practice at this at home by perhaps drawing a map of your garden , route to the  park, a room in the house or anywhere else. 
 

We have continued learning  about how paper is made and learnt the word pulp. Maybe you could ask the children if they can remember what this is or anything about how paper is made. How. Any different things can you find made out of paper can you find around the house? 
 

We have been learning about how we can help others if their Harvest fails. We have also started learning a. We song to Thank you to God. 
 

We learnt how to use the IPad to take and delete photos, as welI taking selfies. I hope you enjoy looking at the photos the children took. 
 

17.9.21

Thank you for listening to  the Year 1 meet the teacher meeting on Tuesday. If you could not make it then all the information should be in the booklet given out. If  have are any questions please let me know. This week we have started to think about Harvest. We talked about what Harvest and Harvest festival mean.  We went to see if we could find some fruit and  vegetables growing in school and the children were excited to go back and visit the Foundation playground for this. We found blackcurrants, apples, strawberries, carrots, pumpkins and beans. Maybe you have grown something at home and would like to share a photo with us of your Harvest.  

We had our first spelling test and the children did really well. Thank you for your support in helping them learn these. 

We have been drawing self portraits in art. I hope you enjoy looking at them,   I think they have done a really good job. You could see who you recognise from the pictures!

In science we have started our recycling topic by thinking about wood. We will be moving onto learning how wood is made into paper. You could see what wooden things you can find around the house.   

As part of our Harvest topic we went to see if any of the seeds we planted last year had grown over the summer. We were excited to find beans, pumpkins, blackcurrants, apples and carrots. We were even more excited when Mrs Simm said we could have a play in the Foundation playground! 

Welcome to Year 1. It is great seeing some familiar faces and seeing how they have grown and I am looking forward to getting to know the children I didn’t have in Nursery more. This week has been our first full week in Year 1 and what a busy one it has been. As well as joining in with whole school worship now and continuing with daily maths and phonics, we have also started learning several different subjects.  We have started our Geography topic about Our School.  We have learnt the name of our school and talked about what an address is.   Maybe you could see if the children remember the name of our school. I set the children a challenge to find out their own address. If they haven’t already asked you about this maybe you could help them learn where they live. 

We have started an ongoing Science topic about Seasons, building on what the children already know. We went outside and saw that although many tress have green leaves some have started changing colour. We decided that it the end of Summer and the beginning of Autumn. We learnt about thermometers and took the temperature. It was nearly 30 degrees, it certainly was a very hot day!

We have also started listening to a song in our music topic called Hey You which we will be working on and appraising. The children seemed to really enjoy this song and you may hear the odd line or two from it added their singing repertoire in coming weeks. 

Our Christian Value for this half term is hope. We talked about our hopes for the year in terms of our class. Maybe you could discuss the children’s individual hopes for home and life with them.     

The children have got used to all the routines and are already becoming much more independent. All the children have been allocated classroom jobs. You could check they know what theirs is!

There will be a meet the teacher meeting next week on Tuesday at 4 pm. This will be via Zoom and I will put the link on Seesaw. I will be going over the curriculum and expectations for the Year as well as providing information on class routines and the Statutory Phonics Screening Check that children will take part in at the end of Year 1.  If you are unable to make the meeting I will send all relevant information and documents after the meeting.  If anyone needs a reminder of their Seesaw login please let me know as we will also be using Seesaw for Homework and notices this year.