Thursday 22nd October
Well we made it to the end of our first term in Year 1 and what a great term it has been!
Despite the fact that the children didn't have a 'normal' start to Year 1, they have all just been simply amazing! They have settled into our 'new normal' so well with all of the new routines. It has been very strange asking the children to start Year 1 sitting at 'Victorian' style individual tables all facing forwards instead of in groups. It has been strange not having a seated carpet area at the front which usually allows children to move around within each lesson and give them a bit of a brain break. They have just accepted that hand washing is now a regular part of their day and that it is now normal to see adults in masks and visors. We expect so much of them and they just embrace anything we throw at them - they even do it all with a smile! With everything going on in the world, coming to school each day and working with such great children instantly makes everything brighter!
This half term we have been filling gaps in learning that they may have occurred due to lockdown and we have touched on some of the Year 1 skills. The children have done so well in their assessments this week and I look forward to sharing these with you in the near future. Next term, we will be getting our teeth stuck into the Year 1 curriculum. I will update the website over half term with all of the things that the children will be learning so you can have a look.
A few extra things...
Yesterday, I sent out a copy of next term's spelling list. There is also a copy of this in their home learning packs that I sent out a couple of weeks ago and I will pop a copy on the website too.
I am going to spend some time at the start of the next half term looking at children's reading colour book band and I may move children up accordingly.
I have sent the children's PE kits home for a wash. We have a small pile of clothes that don't have names in so if you are missing something let me know and I will try to hunt it down! Getting changed for PE in Year 1 can sometimes be tricky - especially at the start of the year. We try to keep the children's clothes/bags as separate and as organised as possible when they are changing but sometimes a sock/top does sneak into someone else's bag. If your child has come home with something that isn't theirs please send it back after half term and we will try to find it's home!
We ended the term with a Halloween afternoon. We made ourselves into mummies! Photos to follow.
I hope everyone has a great half term. Stay safe and see you all next term!
Miss Nadin :)
Thursday 22nd October
One last thing! I told the children that they can send some photos on Class Dojo during half term of anything exciting they get up to (if they would like to of course). I told them that I would love to see some pumpkins! We will share any photos with the rest of the class when we get back to use as a talking point.
Wednesday 14th October
We've had a great day today!
At the start of everyday the children come into school and practise spelling some high frequency words. With lots of repetition I am hoping that the children start to master reading and spelling these words!
Every maths lesson we practise counting. The children are great at counting in ones and tens to 100. They are doing so well counting in fives to 50 and twos to 20. This is really tricky but they're doing great. We also practise a couple of numbers each morning to try to eliminate numbers being written 'backwards'! Our main part of the maths lesson focussed on position words. The children sat on, above, below, under, next to, behind, in front of and between their tables. They then listened to some sentences that used position words and had to draw pictures in the correct place for example 'draw a lamp behind the chair'.
In English, we learnt another story involving some of the sounds that we have been focussing on this week. These were or, ar and ow. The story also includes lots of high frequency words that we are trying to learn to spell. The children told the story through pictures and then added actions to retell the story. This will help them to embed it ready to retell the story in their writing on Friday.
This afternoon we finally managed to get outside for our Science. I have been waiting to do this lesson with them for a few days now but it kept raining in the afternoon! We have been looking at a tree outside our classroom every week since the start of Year 1. We have watched the leaves turn from green to yellow slowly as Autumn progresses. From previous lessons the children already knew that trees are all different. Today we talked about different types of trees and that they all have names. We went around the outside of the school field looking at all the different trees and collected a leaf off the floor from each tree. We took these inside and using a leaf ID sheet from the Woodland Trust website we identified which trees we had in our school environment.
As you're walking around the local area with your children it would be great if you could talk about the different trees as we obviously don't have every type of tree around school. It would be great for them to spot some different ones.
Spellings! As you know the children do their spelling test on a Wednesday afternoon. We will try to get the spelling books marked and sent home on the same day as originally planned but this is proving a little difficult! I hope you can understand that due to time in the afternoon I might have to send them home on the Thursday instead. I have got their spelling books and will send them home tomorrow. Sorry everyone.
Have a great evening,
Miss Nadin :)
Thursday 8th October
Hi everyone,
The children have taken a pack home with them tonight containing word lists, phonics, writing and maths work. The pack of work is part of our contingency planning just in case our Year 1 bubble closes down suddenly and the children have to do their school work from home again. Hopefully this won't happen but we need to be prepared!
You do not need to get the children to do any of the work just keep it safe at home. In the event of our Year 1 bubble closing down, I will let you know that the children can complete the pack of work. If this does happen there will also be lots of online learning too - the pack is just a starting point!
Within the pack there are a few things that you might find useful if you did want to do extra with your child at home even if our bubble doesn't close. This is definitely NOT an expectation but just in case I have explained what each document is below.
Phase 2/3/4 Phonics Assessment - This is the document that we have been using this term to assess the children with the phonics. It has all of the sounds in each phase and a list of words that include that sound. You could use this document to practise segmenting and blending the sounds to help the children to read the words.
100 High Frequency Words - This is a list of words that the children should be able to read by the end of year 1. We are currently working through the list and starting to practise spelling some of these words. This could be used to practise reading words they are unsure of.
Tricky words Phases 2-5 - Most of these are words that you can't sound out properly and the children just have to recognise. They link up to each phonics phase so at the moment we are looking at phase 2/3 and maybe even 4. This could be used to practise reading words they are unsure of.
Year 1 Common Exception words - Similar to the high frequency words, these are words the children should be able to read by the end of year 1.
Spelling Lists - I have included the weekly spelling list from now until Christmas just for your information.
High Frequency word handwriting practise - the children could use this to practise spelling high frequency words.
The phonics, maths and writing activities are to be used in the event of our bubble closing.
Hopefully our bubble won't close but we just need to be prepared.
If you have any questions, please get in touch!
Thanks,
Miss Nadin :)
Wednesday 7th October
The children will get their spelling test books tomorrow to bring home. I’m really sorry but we didn’t get chance to mark them this afternoon after the test due to the food tasting session. It was a busy but fun one!
Tuesday 6th October
This week in PSCHE we are learning about healthy food choices. We are planning to carry out some food tasting tomorrow afternoon to help develop children's opinions of what food they like and dislike. We have already checked for allergies across both classes but would like to inform you. If you would rather your child not join in the food tasting activity or have any concerns please do let the class teacher know by tomorrow morning.
Thanks in advance.
Year 1 teachers
Monday 5th October
We had a bit of a different start to the morning this morning. The Premier Sports team were in school today completing fitness testing of the children. Every child in the school is assessed on their fitness a couple of times throughout the school year just to check that they are at an appropriate level of fitness for their age. They had to run around an area of the playground for 3 minutes trying to get as far as they could without stopping. The Premier Sports team counted how many laps they did. It was tough but every child did really well. I joined in with them and every child managed to beat me!
In literacy, we focussed on the Phase 3 phonics trigraph (3 letters that make 1 sound) igh. We found lots of different words that had the igh sound in them. We used our robot arms to segment the different words into their sounds and then we blended them together to read the word. We had a go at writing some words with the igh sound and some children had a go at writing sentences with these words.
This afternoon in RE, we talked about items that would be found in church. We talked about a few things including the cross, the bible and stained glass windows. The children made their own stained glass windows and we are going to put them up on the windows in the classroom. We ran out of time to take photos of the finished stained glass windows - i'll try to remember to take some tomorrow as i'm sure the children would like to show you their masterpieces!
Have a great evening,
Miss Nadin :)
Thursday 1st October
The children have been fantastic today and I have really enjoyed my day with them - even more than normal! They are such a great class!
We started the morning off by practising spelling some high frequency words. These were the high frequency words that were in the story that we learned yesterday (e.g. called, was, he, there etc). The children are then going to have a go at writing the story tomorrow from memory applying all of their skills.
During our spelling session this morning, we had a fire drill practise. The children were brilliant with this. They got up quickly and quietly, lined up and walked sensibly outside to our assembly point. I was really impressed with them.
In maths, the children practised subtracting numbers from other numbers using the cubes to help them. We have spent 2 days on this to really master the skill. Tomorrow they will be doing a similar activity but they will be using pictures instead of cubes.
This afternoon, we managed to get outside in our science lesson. We talked about different types of trees and how each type of tree is different. Isaac S said that trees have different shaped leaves. Teddy told us that trees are different shapes (tall, short, wide, thin etc). Millie told us that some trees' leaves change colour and fall off but some trees stay green. We went for a walk around the school grounds looking at all of the different trees. We looked at the different size tree trunks, felt the bark on the trees and even spotted some conkers.
Thank you for sending back the data collection sheets that came in those brown envelopes last Friday. If you haven't returned it yet please could you just check that all of the information is correct and send it back to school.
Just a quick reminder that Year 1 should come to school at 9:00 in the mornings (unless they have an older sibling who comes earlier). This is just to avoid mixing with the Year 2 parents/children who are dropped off at 8:50. Thanks for your understanding with this!
Have a great evening,
Miss Nadin :)
Thursday 29th September
The children have had a busy 2 days. In maths this week we are focussing on addition and subtraction. The children have been using objects and pictures to help them add numbers together to find how many there are altogether. I have been so impressed with how well they can do this. Tomorrow we will be moving on to subtraction.
In literacy this week, we are focussing on the phase 3 sounds ng, ai and ee. The children have done lots of activities over the last 2 days to practise thinking of words with those sounds, reading words, writing words and putting the words into sentences. Tomorrow we are going to do some more talk for writing. The children will listen to a story that includes words containing those sounds. The children are going to story map the story (draw pictures to tell the story) and then add actions so that they know it well.
The children had a lovely RE lesson with Mrs Robinson this afternoon.
I listened to all the children read today and assessed them to see if they were still on the correct reading book band from the one they left EYFS with. I got them all to read a book from their current book band colour and one from the book band above. I moved a few children up to the next band. I have kept the majority of children on the same book band level as I thought they could do with a few more weeks on that one and would benefit from reading more books in that band. I am going to assess the children again in the first couple of weeks back after October half term to see if they can move up.
All children who said that they had read their reading book at home a few times have had theirs changed. The children will be read with in school at least once a week so once they have read, either myself or one of the other adults around can change their books for them. If your child needs their book changing more frequently please could you ask them to give me their reading book and reading diary in the morning and I will be more than happy to change this for them at some point during the day. I will try to remind them too!
I will be giving the children merits for reading 3 times at home in a week (I will back check this each week just in case they read at the weekend). When they read at home, please record this in their reading diaries so that they get the reward they deserve!
We have our second spelling test tomorrow. Thank you for encouraging them to practise their spellings at home and for getting them on spelling shed. Just a reminder that the spelling list is on our class page on the website.
Have a great evening,
Miss Nadin 🐧
Friday 23rd September
We had a lovely day today!
The children practise counting to 100 everyday but now we also practise counting in tens and twos. Counting in 2’s can be tricky but they are doing really well with this. In maths, the children were focussing on their number formation again as we are really trying to tackle those ‘backwards numbers’. Some children also had a go at reading some numbers in word form and then writing the corresponding number.
The children started talk for writing in their literacy lesson. We read a short story together which included lots of words with the 4 phonics sounds that we have been focussing on this week (qu, th, sh and ch). Once we had read the story we made a story map which told the story through pictures. We then added actions to the story to help us retell it. The children were great at this and seemed to really enjoy it. I will try and post a video of it (if Class Dojo lets me). To say they had only known the story for about 40 minutes they did a great job! Tomorrow we are going to practise spelling some of the shorter high frequency words from the story and then on Friday they are going to have a go at retelling the same story independently in their writing applying all of their skills from this week.
This afternoon the children did their first spelling test. They all did a great job! Thank you for practising these with them and for getting them on Spelling Shed. I have sent their spelling test books home with them for you to have a look at. Please can the spelling test books be kept in the wallet with their reading book so that we have them in school for their next spelling test.
We also did our first proper PSCHE lesson. We talked about rules and the reasons why we have them. We came up with 5 different rules/agreements that we are going to follow in our classroom and these formed a ‘class charter’. Tomorrow we are all going to sign the class charter to say we agree to them. It included showing respect to others and the one I had a bit more input on - keeping our classroom tidy!
I have sent the children home with a small wallet with a coloured book band reading book in. The book is from the same colour book band as they were on from leaving EYFS. On my PPA day out of class on Tuesday, I am going to sit with all of the children independently to check whether that book band is still suitable and move them up if necessary.
Have a great evening,
Miss Nadin 🐧
Wednesday 21st September
As soon as the children came into school this morning, they wrote sentences about their weekend. It was great to read about what they got up to! We found out that quite a few children went to West Park as it was sunny at the weekend. Quite a few children enjoyed spending time with their Grandmas and Grandads. They made sure that they used all of their basic writing skills while writing their sentences. The children wrote their names on the back of their paper and we are now working on practising writing their surnames as well.
In maths, the children were practising the skill of adding one more and one less. Some children even had a go at adding 10 more and 10 less which was a great challenge. Tomorrow they are going to be practising similar skills using number lines so that they know how to use number lines to support their maths throughout the rest of year one.
In English, they were practising the sounds qu and ch and applying these in words and sentences. We came up with some silly sentences using words that contain those 2 sounds.
This afternoon, we were lucky enough to have beautiful weather for outdoor PE. They continued practising throwing and catching. We played a game where they had to throw the beanbags into different sized hoops/ cones to score points. They were great at this!
At the end of the day they practised saying the days of the week which they are great at! We are now working on learning all of the months of the year in order. This can sometimes get tricky when we get to May June July! We are also practising identifying our left and right hands.
The children across KS1 will be getting their reading books at some point this week.
Miss Nadin :)
Thursday 17th September
The children have been working super hard for the last 2 days. They have been applying the basic skills in literacy by making an ‘all about me’ book. Yesterday, they wrote some sentences about themselves such as how old they are and what class they are in and today they wrote 5 sentences explaining their favourite things. They will be writing about their family tomorrow so it would be great if you could have a chat with them tonight to think of things that they could write about.
In maths, the children are really enjoying practising counting to 100 and counting in 10’s using silly voices. The suggestions we had today were dinosaur voice, parrot voice and even chomping on a carrot voice while saying our numbers. We are trying to master counting in tens. One to watch is the children saying 70, 80, 90 and then 20 instead of 100. They are really trying to remember that it’s 100!
The children started their Science topic yesterday which is Plants (specifically trees). They talked about what they already know about plants and they had some brilliant knowledge. Lola told us how cacti don’t need as much water as other plants and Nahla told us that some vegetables grow in soil. They also asked some great questions about plants. Aoife asked ‘why do leaves change colour?’ Hopefully we will get to answer all of our big questions as we go through the topic. The children then collected some leaves, sticks and anything else they could find and used these to make pictures. I will put some photos up shortly.
This afternoon, I showed the children a website called Spelling Shed. This links up to the spelling list that I gave out yesterday (there is a copy of the spelling list on our class page on the website). The children can use Spelling Shed to practise their spellings each week as it has a few games which match up to the word list. I have glued the children’s log in details for this on one of the first pages in their reading diaries. If the children had their reading diaries at home today then I will stick these in tomorrow. Going on Spelling Shed isn’t compulsory or homework but I will check it every Wednesday once they have done their spelling test and I will reward the children with a merit if they have been on that week so their hard work isn’t going missed!
Have a great evening,
Miss Nadin 🐧
Tuesday 15th September
The children have had a busy couple of days. We had our first outdoor PE session together yesterday. The children did so well getting changed independently. I was really impressed at how well some of them can do their own buttons up! We were practising turning our clothes the right way around independently when they were inside out.
Today the children had Mrs Robinson teaching them while I got on with some planning and a few more assessments. Mrs Robinson will teach the class every other Tuesday. We have almost finished all of the maths assessments now so I have been able to plan to fill any gaps that I have found. We will be completing phonics assessments over the next couple of days.
Mrs Robinson helped the children to complete missing number sequences in maths. The children worked really hard on getting their numbers 1 digit per square in their maths books. They were really focussing on getting their numbers the right way around.
The children wrote their own sentences in English focusing on getting their letters to sit on the line, using their phonics knowledge to sound out words, using finger spaces, capital letters and full stops. They have so much to remember but they are doing a great job. Mrs Robinson will always teach the children RE on a Tuesday afternoon when she has them every other week.
Tomorrow I will be giving out spelling booklets. The spelling booklets include all of the spellings which the children will learn up until October half term. I will also put a copy of this on the website tomorrow. The spellings are broken down into weekly lists of 10 spellings. I have included the date when the children should start practising each list and the date when each list will be tested in school. If you have any questions once you have received these then just let me know.
The children will be receiving reading books hopefully by the end of this week. This is consistent with all KS1 classes. We want to get the phonics assessments out the way first but I will let you know when we give them to them.
Have a lovely evening,
Miss Nadin :)
Friday 11th September
In maths this morning, we practised writing ‘teen’ numbers. We had to we make sure that we had the numbers the correct way around. Miss Nadin kept getting her numbers wrong and wrote 15 as 51. We had to correct her and write them the right way around!
As it is Roald Dahl Day on Sunday, the whole school celebrated it today. We talked about Roald Dahl books that we had heard of. Some children recognised Matilda, the BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Fantastic Mr Fox. We read a chapter from George’s Marvellous Medicine. The main character, George, got cross with his Grandma and decided to make a potion in a huge saucepan using things from around his house. We suggested things that he could use and we drew our own potions. We labelled some of the things around the edge. After this, we made a real potion in a huge saucepan. It was DISGUSTING! We mixed everything up and it turned a disgusting brown colour! More photos to follow on Class Dojo(we cleaned our hands between each stir of the spoon!) :)
This afternoon we did indoor PE. In indoor PE we are doing gymnastics. We started off by playing a Mr Men game and then we were practising doing the hop scotch. It would be great if you could ask the children to practise this over the weekend so they can show me on Monday!
We can’t believe we have spent a whole week in Year 1!
Have a great weekend :)
Thursday 10th September
This morning in maths, the children were looking at patterns which were made up of different 2D shapes. They remembered what the shapes were called and they drew the shape that came next on their whiteboards. They then cut out different 2D shapes and made superheroes out of them. We are really focussing on getting the children to practise their cutting skills.
In literacy, they wrote some silly sentences. The children were trying really hard to get their letters to sit on the lines in their literacy books. We took some time to practise the letters that hang below the line like a cats tail (f,g,j,p,q and y). Ask them to show you how well they can do this! They made sure they used their phonics knowledge when spelling words, that their sentences started with capital letters and ended with full stops and that they had finger spaces between each word.
Have a look at some of our pictures on Class Dojo from this afternoon!
After the children had finished their basket activities, we continued our discussion about our achievements. It was great to hear about all of things they have achieved so thank you for chatting about this with them at home. We then moved onto the fourth Dovedale REACH value which is challenge. We talked about facing challenges at school and that challenges were great as we can learn from them. We discussed how we felt when we overcame a challenge. The children were challenged to follow a step by step tutorial to draw Fish Finger (our penguin). We made sure that we never gave up! I will post some photos of some of their drawings.
Miss Nadin :)
Wednesday 9th September
We had another busy day today! This morning, the children continued to practise their letter formation to show off what they can do. They also showed off their skills by ordering numbers. This afternoon, the children practised using their cutting skills, they used the building blocks to create towers and some of them even drew a picture of Fish Finger. Have a look at the photos! I have spent some time this afternoon working with the children individually to assess their maths skills. This will help me to see if there are any gaps in learning that have occurred due to lockdown. We can then target any gaps to make sure the children get back on track!
At the end of the day, we started to discuss the third Dovedale REACH value which is achievement. The children had a quick think about something they have already achieved in their lifetime. Some children talked about learning to swim, learning to ride a bike and passing a dance grade. It would be lovely if the children could talk about some of their achievements at home tonight so that they can come in tomorrow and we can continue our discussion around this.
Miss Nadin :)
Wednesday 9th September
Good morning,
Just to let you know that in Year 1 the children receive a piece of fruit from school that they can have at playtime. Yesterday they had a packet of raisins but from today they will get fresh fruit. If your child would prefer to bring in a piece of fruit from home to have then this is also fine.
The children came into school brilliantly yesterday morning even with the change of gate! Just to clarify, the Year 1 children now come in through the Side Blue Bunting Gate at 9:00 unless they have EYFS siblings (these can use the main green gate). I will be around the gate to help guide them again.
Miss Nadin :)
Monday 7th September
Wow what a fantastic first day we had!
Thank you so much to the children in Penguin class for a fantastic first full day in Year 1. They all came into school with a smile and were simply brilliant all day long. What a lovely class!
We all had a very busy day today. We did our first pieces of work in our new Maths and Literacy books this morning. We were practising getting our numbers the correct way around in Maths. The children were also practising making sure their numbers sat in the squares of our Maths books and didn't escape outside of the squares. In Literacy, we met our class teddy which, of course, is a penguin! We decided to name the penguin and after lots of suggestions we chose Spencer's idea suggestion which was Fish Finger. We then wrote some sentences in our Literacy book about the mischief Fish Finger got up to in school over the summer holidays. We tried really hard to use our phonics knowledge when spelling words, capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.
This afternoon, we were talking about one of the school REACH values which is respect. We spoke about ways that we show respect in school, at home and with our friends. A lot of the children told me that they show respect at home by tidying their bedroom, helping with the washing up and helping their grown ups around the house so I hope what they told me is true! :)
The children have settled into the new routines of our 'bubble' well. They have been fantastic at staying in their chairs, washing their hands many times throughout the day and keeping their own equipment to themselves. A strange situation for year 1 but I am sure after a few days it will seem completely normal!
It was lovely to see and very briefly meet a couple of parents after school tonight. Hopefully I will be able to say hello properly soon!
I'm looking forward to seeing Penguin class again tomorrow. Have a lovely evening,
Miss Nadin :)