Spring 1, Week 2

Maths

We are doing really well with our whole class maths.

This week, we’ve started working on subtraction stories.

Here is an example – can you talk it through together?

English – Instructions

We read the book ‘The Giant Jam Sandwich’ and have based our writing on it this week. We decided to write instructions for making a disgusting sandwich, instead of a nice jam one.

After reading our letters Mr Gunn agreed we could do some cooking this week. Children have been icing biscuits and practising their capital letter formation in the shared classroom. Thank you to Miss Kupe (student teacher) for helping us do this.

We are practising:

• Using Fred talk to help with our spellings
• Remembering to start a sentence with a capital letter
• Finish a sentence with a full stop or question mark

PE – Tennis coaching

We worked in small groups to practice tennis skills. Everyone had a turn with the racket and all the classes had a lot of fun.

  

DT

We are learning about freestanding structures and have been learning some different ways to join paper. Later in the half term, we’ll be designing and building our own freestanding card bridges.

  

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember

• Can your child tell you a subtraction story within 10 using ‘first, then, now’? For example:

“First, I have 3 cupcakes. Then, I eat 1 cake. Now, I have 2 cupcakes.”

If they find it tricky, start by telling one of your own then try one together.

If they find it easy, try missing the ‘then’ step (using the same structure), for example…

“First I have 4 cupcakes. Then some get eaten. Now I have 1 cupcake. How many were eaten?”

• PE tennis skills - practice skills at home by asking the children to catch a ball with their hand underneath, try their roll and bounce and pancake splat with a bat or racket to stop the ball.

• Remember to write in your child’s reading record every time you hear them read. If your child has 4 comments in their reading record in a week, they’ll receive a raffle ticket to win a prize!

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Spring 2 week 1

Whole class teaching sessions

This half term, we will be learning together at tables for short maths sessions four mornings a week before explore and learn time. We now have some extra tables and chairs in our classes to make this possible.

This week, we learned our new routine and practiced learning at tables by trying some short games together in our new groups. One challenge was to create the tallest tower we could from marshmallows and spaghetti.

We also learned what to do if we are stuck. Ask us about Brain, Board, Buddy, Boss!

English – Instructions

We have started learning about instructions.

We played lots of games involving instructions this week, including one where we had to give instructions to our friends to draw a simple outline. It was harder than we thought!

Some children wanted to do more cooking in year 1, so they wrote to Mr Gunn to ask if he would let the teachers buy some ingredients.

We are practising:

• Using Fred talk to help with our spellings
• Remembering to start a sentence with a capital letter
• Finish a sentence with a full stop or question mark

Science

We are learning about the human body this half term. We rehearsed the names of important body parts together.

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember

• Can you find out the names of more unusual body parts together? Some of the children were unsure of the names of the various joints. Can you name them together?
• Can your child tell you an addition story using ‘first, then, now’? For example:

“First, I have 4 socks. Then, I find another 1 sock in the drawer. Now, I have 5 socks.”

• Remember to write in your child’s reading record every time you hear them read. If your child has 4 comments in their reading record in a week, they’ll receive a raffle ticket to win a prize!

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Spring 1, Week 5

English – Lions research

We have moved on to learn about lions for lion fact posters we will be creating next week. Ask us all about lion facts.

In our phonics and spelling lessons, we are practising:

· Saying a sentence out loud before writing it down.

· Forming all letters correctly.

· Using Fred talk to help with our spellings

· Writing sequences of sentences.

Maths

We have been finishing off exploring the properties of numbers from 6 to 10. We looked at odd and even numbers and continued to rehearse finding all the ways to make 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 in different ways.

Science

We have been learning about birds and their features. In our Explore and Learn time, we’ve been identifying birds out of the window. In nature school, some children have made bird feeders and some have mixed paint to paint clay to look like robin eggs.

Geography

This week, all classes went on a geography field trip around Fiveways. We walked all around Fiveways. We went into Blakers Park to learn about its history and do some sketching. We even counted the steps down to school from Osbourne Road.

   

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember

· In Week 6 we will be finishing our lion fact files. Can you talk with the children about what they are learning about lions? For example, they could tell you about lion families, food and where they live.

· We’d like to encourage everyone to try and read with their child this week. They are doing brilliantly and would love to show off to you! Every little bit of practice helps.

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Spring 1, Week 4

English – Percy the Park Keeper by Nick Butterworth: Author focus

We have read more Percy the Park Keeper books, including ‘After the Storm’. We talked about our favourite Percy books and wrote sentences explaining our ideas. Some of us liked Percy books and some of us weren’t so keen!

We are practising:

· Saying a sentence out loud before writing it down.

· Forming all letters correctly.

· Using Fred talk to help with our spellings

· Writing sequences of sentences.

 

 

Maths:

We have been exploring the properties of numbers from 6 to 10. We have been looking at odd and even numbers and finding all the ways to make 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

 

Science:

We have learned about amphibians and reptiles and how they are categorised. During Explore and Learn time, lots of us made homes for them, or sorted animals into the right group.

 

Computing:

We are practising using the cameras on the iPads to make short films. This week and next, we are trying out the cameras and seeing the different effects we can achieve using focus.

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember:

· In Week 5 we will be visiting Fiveways for our geography field trip. We’ll be looking at human and physical features of the landscape as we walk around the area

Wednesday: Anteaters

Thursday: Aardvarks

Friday: Armadillos

· Remember to write in your child’s reading record every time you hear them read. If your child has 4 comments in their reading record in a week, they’ll receive a raffle ticket to win a prize!

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Spring 1, Week 3

English – Percy’s Bumpy Ride by Nick Butterworth

We have been reading Percy’s Bumpy Ride. We designed and made our own flying lawnmowers. We wrote sequences of sentences about how the animals were feeling as they fell through the air. We included a question in our writing.

 

We are practising:

· Saying a sentence out loud before writing it down.

· Forming all letters correctly.

· Using Fred talk to help with our spellings

· Using ? and !

Maths: We have been representing the numbers 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 as ‘5 and a bit’.

E.g. 6 can be split into 5 and 1.

7 can be split into 5 and 2.

8 can be split into 5 and 3.

We used part whole models to represent our thinking.

                          

Art: We have been exploring animal prints and using pencils to make animal prints and patterns. We then went on a texture hunt; we took rubbings of different objects and discussed the different textures we could see.

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember

· Practise splitting the numbers 6-10 into 5 and a bit. How quickly can you work them out?

· Choose a different Percy story that you know and rewrite the beginning, middle and end.

· Remember to write in your child’s reading record every time you hear them read. If your child has 4 comments in their reading record in a week, they’ll receive a raffle ticket to win a prize!

 

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Spring 1, Week 2

English – Percy the Park Keeper One Snowy Night by Nick Butterworth

We have continued reading One Snowy Night by Nick Butterworth. We have rewritten the beginning, middle and end of the story.

We are practising:

· Saying a sentence out loud before writing it down.

· Forming all letters correctly.

· Using Fred talk to help with our spellings

· Writing sequences of sentences.

Maths

We have been exploring 2D shapes. We sorted shapes into circles and not circles; rectangles and not rectangles; triangles and not triangles.

      

Science

We have continued to sort animals. We discussed what ‘mammals’ are and sorted animals into who eats meat and who eats plants.

 

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember

· Explore what makes a mammal a mammal. How many can you name?

· What 2D shapes can you find at home?

· Remember to write in your child’s reading record every time you hear them read. If your child has 4 comments in their reading record in a week, they’ll receive a raffle ticket to win a prize!

 

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Spring 1, Week 1

English – Percy the Park Keeper One Snowy Night by Nick Butterworth

 

We have started reading One Snowy Night by Nick Butterworth. We recreated Percy’s hut in our class role play area and labelled the animals.

 

We are practising:

· Using Fred talk to help with our spellings

Maths

We have been exploring 2D and 3D shapes. We identified 2D shapes in 3D shapes and then sorted 3D shapes by the shape of their faces. E.g. cubes and cuboids both have square faces but a cuboid has rectangular faces too.

 

Science

We are learning about animals this half term. We have named different animals and sorted them into different groups.

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember

· Read some Percy the Park Keeper stories – you may be able to find some in a local library or online.

· What 3D shapes can you find at home?

· Remember to write in your child’s reading record every time you hear them read. If your child has 4 comments in their reading record in a week, they’ll receive a raffle ticket to win a prize!

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Autumn 2, Week 7

English: Winter Poems

We have been learning about poetry, looking at imagery and using nouns and adjectives to create images in our minds of a wintery scene.

We drew a wintery landscape and then chose our words carefully to create our poem.

We are practising:

· Saying our sentence out loud before we write

· Using Fred talk to help with our spellings

· Remembering capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.

Maths: We have been looking at numbers that combine to make other numbers. We have been exploring shapes and ways of making shapes using multilink cubes.

DT: We finished decorating then evaluated our puppets which we have now taken home to enjoy – look out for the puppets in bags!

RE: We learned all about Hannukah from our special visitor who brought a menorah and driedel toys and told us all about them.

Explore and Learn: We have still been outside a lot despite the cold and wet weather. We thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas dinner as you can see!

Home Learning ideas for over the holidays

· Continue reading some poetry. Can you find other winter poems or poems that rhyme?

· Can you describe 2 D shapes? Can you make pictures using shapes?

A VERY HAPPY HOLIDAY TO ALL OF YOU AND SEE YOU IN THE NEW YEAR!

 

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Autumn 2, Week 6

English: Walk with a Wolf

We have been reading a non-fiction text about real life wolves and finding out more about them, things that traditional tales don’t mention much!

We have made a collage, labelled a wolf and written a super fact file all about them.

We are practising:

· Saying our sentence out loud before we write

· Using Fred talk to help with our spellings

· Remembering capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.

Maths: We have been looking at 2D shapes, repeating shapes, having fun exploring tangrams and making pictures with different shapes.

     

Science: We have been thinking about wind, making our very own windsocks and keeping a class chart of the wind each day.

Explore and Learn

We have still been outside a lot despite the cold and wet weather. Please make sure your child has a coat!

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember

· Continue reading some non-fiction together at home. Can you find other animals to read about?

· Can you describe 2 D shapes? Can you make pictures using shapes?     

 

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Autumn 2, Week 5

English: The Last Wolf 

We are continuing to read traditional tales. This week it's one with a twist! We’ve been reading the tale of The Last Wolf where Red Riding Hood goes green. And then asking questions about wolves.

We are practising:

• · Saying our sentence out loud before we write
• · Using Fred talk to help with our spellings
• · Remembering capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.

Maths:

We have continued to look at wholes and parts of whole and what amounts make numbers to 10. We have been practising our bonds to 10 using our money belts and practising subitising amounts on the ipads.

Science:

We have been thinking about shadows, how they are formed and what direction they are in in relation to the sun.

Explore and Learn:

We have still been outside a lot despite the cold weather. Please make sure your child has a coat!

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember:

• · Continue reading lots of traditional tales together at home. Can you find alternative tales based on traditional fairy tales or ones with a twist?
• · Can you recall what numbers make 5,6,7,8,9 and 10. Can you show it with cubes, fingers, other objects?
• · We hope you can come and enjoy the Winter Fair and all the class Nativities.       

 

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Autumn 2, Week 4

English:  The Three Billy Goats Gruff

We are continuing to read traditional tales. This week, we’ve been reading the tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. We have finished off our puppets and retold the story with them.

We are practising:

• · Saying our sentence out loud before we write
• · Using Fred talk to help with our spellings
• · Remembering capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.

Maths:

We have continued to look at wholes and parts of whole and what amounts make 5,6,7,8,9,10.

We have also been thinking about ordinal numbers. Which car comes 1st in a race? How do you know the car came 2nd?

Science:

We have been looking at the weather and recording the weather each day, including changing temperatures. We drew round our shadows to see how they changed over the course of the day (when the sun finally came out!)

Explore and Learn:

We have also been really enjoying using our new mud kitchen!

                    

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Autumn 2, Week 3

English:  The Three Billy Goats Gruff

We are continuing to read traditional tales. This week, we’ve been reading the tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. We’ve made puppets and retold the story with them. We built bridges for the troll to live under and made a river and hill from materials in the classroom. Later in the week, we wrote a description of either the troll or one of the billy goats.

We are practising:

• · Saying our sentence out loud before we write
• · Using Fred talk to help with our spellings
• · Remembering capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.

Maths:

We have been looking at wholes and parts of whole. We cut up whole bananas and doughnuts into parts. Then we used a part part whole model and cubes to explore the idea of a group of objects as a whole.

DT:

We have now started sewing our puppets in our shared classroom. The children bring their design to help them choose the colours they need for their puppet. Once everyone has sewed their puppet, we will be decorating them too.

               

 

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember:

• · Continue reading lots of traditional tales together at home. Can you spot any new baddie characters? (In school so far, we’ve had a troll, several wolves, a bear and a tiger).
• · Can you cut up a whole into parts? You could try with a real banana, or cake, or something else your child is eating.
• · Please send in as many transparent plastic bottles for the children to make rain gauges in science next week. Thank you!

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Autumn 2, Week 2

English: No Dinner

We are continuing to read traditional tales. We have read the story of No Dinner about an old lady who outwits some scary animals who want to eat her. We have been thinking about what might happen next and writing our own next sentence using a different animal.

We are practising:

· Saying our sentence out loud before we write

· Using Fred talk to help with our spellings

· Remembering capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.

Maths:

We have been practising making 7 in lots of different ways. We have been exploring more than, less than and equals. We have been practicing grouping objects into sets and then comparing sets.

DT:

We have been loving our puppet theatre in class. We have been designing our own animal hand puppet to start making and sewing next week.

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember:

• · Continue reading lots of traditional tales together at home.
• · Can you group quantities and match them to the number?
• · Remember to write in your child’s reading record every time you hear them read. If your child has 4 comments in their reading record in a week, they’ll receive a raffle ticket to win a prize!

 

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Autumn 2, Week 1

English: No Dinner

We are continuing to read traditional tales. We have read the story of No Dinner about an old lady who outwits some scary animals who want to eat her. We have been using our favourite phrases from the book.

We are practising:

• · Saying our sentence out loud before we write
• · Using Fred talk to help with our spellings
• · Remembering capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.

Maths:

We have been exploring more than and less than and what equal means. We have been comparing objects and their size and mass using balancing scales.

History:

We have been thinking about the past and what History means. We have been comparing events that happened before and after we were born and putting them in time order.

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember:

• · Continue reading lots of traditional tales together at home.
• · Can you compare numbers/ quantities that are less than or more than another?
• · Remember to write in your child’s reading record every time you hear them read. If your child has 4 comments in their reading record in a week, they’ll receive a raffle ticket to win a prize!

                    

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Autumn 1, Week 7

English:  The Three Little Pigs

We have been designing a new house for the three little pigs that will withstand a wolf attack. We used what we have been learning in Science to choose sensible materials to make a strong house. We labelled our designs and then wrote sentences describing what we had created.

We are practising:

• · Saying our sentence out loud before we write
• · Using Fred talk to help with our spellings
• · Remembering capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.
• · Challenge: use ‘and’ to join two main clauses.

Maths:

We have been exploring different ways of making 8. We are also continuing to practice forming our numbers  correctly and counting to 100, forwards and backwards!

RE:

We have been learning about how Christians celebrate harvest. We also had a visitor come into our classes to share how Jewish people celebrate Sukkot. Some of us then chose to create a Sukkah; we remembered that the roof is made from natural materials that come from the land.

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember:

• · Use your Numbots login to practise Maths fluency (these were handed out at parents evening).
• · We have collected in reading books for the half term break as groups will be changing. You can login to your ‘Oxford Owl’ account to access reading books at home.

 

Have a lovely half term break!

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Autumn 1, Week 6

English: The Three Little Pigs

We are continuing to read traditional tales. We have created a story map for the Three Little Pigs and added speech bubbles and thought bubbles to show what the main characters are saying and thinking.

We are practising:

• · Saying our sentence out loud before we write
• · Using Fred talk to help with our spellings
• · Remembering capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.

Maths:

We have been exploring different ways of making 6. We are also continuing to practise forming our numbers correctly.

Art:

We have been using a range of tools to make different marks. We have also explored colour mixing and created new colours.

      

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember

• · Continue reading lots of traditional tales together at home.
• · Can you recall pairs of numbers that make 6? E.g. 4 + 2 = 6, 2 + 4 = 6 etc.
• · Remember to write in your child’s reading record every time you hear them read. If your child has 4 comments in their reading record in a week, they’ll receive a raffle ticket to win a prize!

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Autumn 1, Week 5

English:  The Three Little Pigs

We are continuing to read traditional tales and talk about a story structure (beginning, middle and end). We used the story spoons to act out the story and wrote sentences describing the wolf. We are practising:

• Saying our sentence out loud before we write                                                                                                
• Using Fred talk to help with our spellings
• Remembering capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.

 

 

 

Maths: We have been sorting numbers into odd or even. We know that even numbers have a ‘flat’ top and odd numbers have an ‘odd’ top.                                                                                                    

 

 

 

 

Geography: We have been learning what an ‘aerial view’ is. We used the ipads to take photos of items in the classroom for an aerial view.

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember:

• Read some traditional tales at home. Talk with your child about what is similar and different about a range of traditional tales. For example, there is always a problem, they have goodies and baddies. Using our knowledge of odds and evens, can you count in 2s? E.g. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 2, 4, 6, 8, 10.
• Remember to write in your child’s reading record every time you hear them read. If your child has 4 comments in their reading record in a week, they’ll receive a raffle ticket to win a prize!          

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Autumn 1, Week 4

English: The Sweetest Song by Hugh Lupton

This week we have continued reading ‘The Sweetest Song’ by Hugh Lupton. We made flowers to match the flowers in the story. We wrote sentences about a key part in the story. We practised using: capital letters, finger spaces, full stops and Fred talk!                                                                                                           

 

 

           

 

 

Maths: We have been practising forming numbers to 10 correctly. We have also been discussing which number is between 2 numbers. E.g. 5 is between 4 and 6. We have also been using ‘after’ and ‘before’ to show our understanding of numbers to 10. e.g. 9 is after 8; 6 is before 7.  

                                                                                               

 

 

                                                

PSHE: We have been exploring healthy and unhealthy lifestyles. We have sorted food and activities into healthy or unhealthy

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember:

•  Make sure you have activated your Tapestry account where you will find more information and live updates about what we are learning in class.
• Can you form your numbers correctly, starting and finishing in the correct place?
• Remember to write in your child’s reading record every time you hear them read. If your child has 4 comments in their reading record in a week, they’ll receive a raffle ticket to win a prize!

 

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Autumn 1, Week 3

English: The Sweetest Song by Hugh Lupton

This week we have been reading ‘The Sweetest Song’ by Hugh Lupton. Similar to Little Red, this story is about a girl who meets a wolf while out picking flowers. She then has to find her way back home.  

We have joined in with familiar parts of the story and used drama to identify characters’ feelings. We used capital letters, finger spaces and full stops to write sentences from the story.

Maths:

We have been looking at how the numbers 6, 7, 8 and 9 can be split into 2 parts, where one of the parts is 5.

E.g:

If 6 is the whole, 5 is a part and 1 is a part.     

If 7 is a whole, 5 is a part and 2 is a part.

PSHE:

We have been thinking about how we might be similar and different to our friends. We shared the things that are important to us and how we are all special in our own ways.

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember:

• Can you form your numbers correctly, starting and finishing in the correct place?
• Can you split 6, 7, 8 and 9 into 2 parts? Each time, make sure one of the parts is 5!
• Remember to bring your reading book to school everyday as book changing days vary depending on your child’s group. Children will need to return their book so that we can issue them a new one.

 

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Autumn 1, Week 2

English:  Little Red. This week we have continued reading the story Little Red by Bethan Woollvin. We enjoyed making masks for the story and wrote sentences about the wolf and Little Red. We practised using capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. We used our sound mats to help us spell tricky words. 

                                                                                                                                                   

                                     

Maths: We have been working out ways of making 5 using Rekenreks. We have also been practising our counting to 100.

                      

PSHE: We have explored what makes a happy classroom. We have also discussed ways we can calm down if we are feeling sad or cross.

Home Learning ideas for next week/things to remember:

· Keep practising counting to 100 – forwards and backwards!

· How many different ways can you make 5?

· Remember to bring your reading book to school everyday as book changing days vary depending on your child’s group. Children will need to return their book so that we can issue them a new one.