Listen, Think, Learn & Enjoy . . .
This week in maths we have been counting in 10’s. Have a listen to our fantastic counting!
We have been learning lots of different ways that we can represent numbers. We have been experimenting with number lines, ten frames, dienes and numicon to show our workings.
We have also had to keep a close eye on Warren who has been asking us for help with representing numbers. Our careful counting skills have helped us to show, check and prove our workings.
In the afternoons we have been learning about the 4 seasons; Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer and the months of the year. At the beginning of the term we went on an Autumn walk and collected leaves to make some beautiful art work. We talked about what happens to the trees and leaves in Autumn as well as the weather, temperature and activities and celebrations that happen in Autumn including Halloween.
Last week we learnt about the season of Winter and discussed what happens to the weather, temperature and day light during the months of Winter. We also shared activities we enjoy doing during the Winter season including; opening presents at Christmas and making snowmen when it snows. We then made our own winter landscape using chalk and learnt how to make different effects using the chalk.
This week we have been learning about the season of Spring. We found out that the months of March, April & May fall within Spring and that this is when plants start to grow and when animals and birds are born such as chicks and lambs. We learnt that Easter is in April during Spring time too and that the weather starts to get warmer.
We also created our own spring paintings of blossoming flowers using mixed media. We created the stems with watercolours and a paint brush and then used our fingers and different colour poster- to create the petals. We worked so hard on these and we were so proud of our final result…look how amazing they are!
As part of our learning in English and phonics, we have started to use a story map to help us remember the story of The Magic Porridge Pot. We have been learning actions to help us re-tell the story.
To make this a little easier, we have broken the story down into a story mountain – Opening, build up, problem, resolution and ending.
We have put a couple of videos online but it would be amazing if you could get the children to show you the actions and help them rehearse at home.
Have a look at the story map and the text to help you along the way.
In Science, we have been learning all about the seasons and weather. We went on a nature walk around the school. We looked at the seasonal changes of autumn and the colours of the leaves. We also did our daily weather report where we looked at today’s weather (a really beautiful day) and started our weekly chart. It was on our lovely walk where we stumbled upon a surprise in the woods.
We found a trail of porridge leading up to a bonfire. On the bonfire was a cauldron full of hot porridge, a teapot and a chest containing a story.
We quickly learned about a magic Monster called Green Froggy, a Tricky Witch and Black Cat.
See how the rest of our learning unfolds…
Homework can always be a tricky thing to manage, especially at the moment when children are adjusting to a new routine.
As we continue to welcome children back after our extended time away from school, it more important than ever to help try to bridge the gaps in learning that children will inevitably have. We have put together some initial bits of work to help children learn at home.
Flash cards & key words- these words/sounds are really important for children to learn as these are the most common initial words/sounds that they will encounter within the early book bands. We have been playing games with these, such as:
Story Map and story – have a go at re-telling the story at home with the children leading the actions.
Key words – children will need to be able to recognise these by sight to help them become fluent readers. Spelling them accurately is also a target for their writing. Get the children to play games with these – even simple rainbow writing with colours is a really effective technique.
we appreciate that this can be a challenge, especially at the moment where children’s confidence may have waivered. Please don’t let reading become a worry at home, we will get there in the end.
At the moment, it is absolutely fine to just read the story to your child rather than them reading it to you. The conversations around this are just as important as the reading itself.
When reading 1:1 with your child, share the words if they are finding it hard. You’re turn, my turn etc.
If you only read a page at a time, that is absolutely fine, you can keep the book for as long as you need and you don’t have to get it all done in one night. Just sign the page off in their reading record.
Thank you for all your support.
Team One
During phonics this week, Mr Wood, Miss Bentley & Miss Jeal will be learning the sounds: j, v, w, x.
Miss Laskey and Miss Ablett will be learning: i & n.
To help the children, we will be putting some activity sheets online and sending home where possible. There are so many monster phonics videos online and others on YouTube that will give you loads of great pointers and activities to do at home.
It is important for children to become familiar with words with each sounds in. They don’t have to start with the sound.
For example, ob j ect.
We encourage children to decode each sound, by breaking the word down into sounds they know.
So, for cat, we could encourage c a t. We then blend the word back together to help our reading.
Things you could do at home:
Go on a sound hunt – looking for things with the sound on.
Quick fire writing using colour pens and anything fun.
Finding words in books and magazines etc.
Making the letters using objects around the house.
It is so important to help keep children on track with their learning, so we are always grateful for the support at home.
Thank you, Team One.
As part of our English and creative writing, we will be learning the story of The Magic Porridge Pot. This is centred around our new Monster Phonics monsters going on a little magic adventure.
Green Froggy, who lives in a teapot is a really helpful frog. She lives with her poor old Mum. Green Froggy has a lucky turn when she bumps into Tricky Witch, this is where the magic starts.
We will be using Green Froggy to unpick lots of ee spellings. Children can explore these spellings and experiment with different phonetically plausible ideas, which means that they might not always get it right but they are still learning the sounds
For example, Froggy could be Froggee, Froggea, Froggey etc. as they all make the ee sound.
We want children to focus on these and the other common learning language that they must learn in order to access colour banded books. If children can learn these words by site, they will soon start to pick up fluency which will help their reading.
We will also look at the characters, who they are, what they are like and things that could describe them.
Why don’t you have a go at making your own Green Froggy at home?
We will then focus on setting and other elements of the story.
To help the children learn the story off by heart, we will use actions to break down each part to learn the beginning, build up, problem, resolution and end.
We have put some words online for you to practice at home
Thank you, Team One 😊
We did it, the children had so much fun and don’t they look amazing. We are working hard to instil ‘ no worries’ as our year moto. We really want the children to take this onboard and not worry about little things.
To do this, we are using the language: it’s ok, it’ll be ok, we’re here to help, share your worries, throw those worries away, give your worries to your monster and importantly… Hakuna Matata!
Here are some of the amazing worry monsters that the children made.
To do this, we used papier mache, arts and crafts and poster paint all centred around a polystyrene cup.
We made it, and the children have been incredible. The Year One team would like to say a massive thank you for all your support. As the national picture changes with Coronavirus, our everyday routines continue to be challenged. However, we thank you for being so flexible and we will always try to keep you up to date as soon as guidance evolves.
Now the children have had a few days to settle in, we wanted to say thank you for a successful return to school. As ever, we continue to learn and adapt our routines to make sure that school life operates as smoothly as possible.
We appreciate that there has been a lot to take on board, so we wanted to outline some of the key information for you.
Coming into school.
As you are aware, entry times into school are staggered to minimise the numbers of people on the school site. Year 1 entry time is 8:55 from the SureStart gate.
Siblings
If your child is in Year 2 – 6 and they have a sibling in Year 1, they can come through the SureStart gate at the earlier time of 8:40 and go to class. We ask that this only happens if you have a sibling starting at the earlier time.
Things that can come into school.
Packed lunches can come into school alongside a separate water bottle so that this can be filled up and used throughout the day.
A sensible coat – we aim to teach outside as much as possible (even in the drizzle).
Sensible shoes – the children will still spend time in the Outdoor classroom and on the field – so mud is inevitable.
Daily Reading books – this will be organised in due course.
Things that can’t come into school
We kindly ask that children don’t bring in rucksacks, bags, book bags and P.E. bags – this will help us clean the classrooms regularly.
Unfortunately, Birthday cakes, sweets and invitations can’t be handed out in school at this time.
Cuddly toys and other things such as pencil cases and play things can’t come into school.
P.E time table
As P.E. kits cannot come into school, we ask that children come in wearing their P.E kit currently outside on a Thursday – we will update you if this changes.
As this isn’t our normal routine, we understand that this will take some time to get used to. In order to cover all weather, we ask that children come into school in:
Joggers or tracksuit bottoms (preferably school colours)
Trainers.
T-shirt (preferably school colours)
School Jumper
Indoor P.E – in order for each year group to have access to the school hall and for it to be cleaned, each year group will have an allotted day throughout the week. This will change weekly, enabling all year groups to have access. You will receive a text the day before each indoor P.E session so that the children know when to come into school wearing their P.E clothes. Outdoor P.E days will stay the same each week (See above).
Reading
In order for the children to be really successful, fluent readers and after having an extended break from their book bands, we feel that it may benefit children to re-visit their previous colour bands. We want to make sure that the children can confidently access a range of reading books whilst regaining some of the skills that they may have forgotten during lockdown. We believe that this will really help children to regain their confidence and continue their love of reading.
Please continue to help us with as much reading at home as possible. This can be reading any material from shopping lists to ingredients and a bed time story is always a great way to finish off the day.
We are here to help
Whilst there is always an adult on the playground at drop off and pick up times unfortunately, we won’t be able to chat during these times. This is to keep our school environment as safe as possible whilst minimising people on site. We kindly ask that, if it is urgent, please ring the office where you can arrange a time for a teacher to call you to discuss your concerns.
Kindest regards
Year One Team
Did you know that Monsters seem to be appearing all over Warren Park. Our exciting new phonics scheme, all around monsters, witches and ghosts, seemed to have opened the doors to a whole host of new friends.
Year One have been reading some lovely worry stories this week to help them understand our emotions and how we feel. We decided it would be great to make our very own worry monster.
The aim of our worry monster is to help catch and take away worries that we might be feeling throughout the day. If we can share our worries with someone, it often helps us to feel a little bit better. The children have been amazing at this and we are working hard to instil our class moto, Hakuna Matata – It Means No Worries!
We decided to combine collage work with Papier Mache as a starting block for our ‘worry monster’. The children loved getting stuck on and they worked really hard to follow instructions to help start their art project.
Have a look at some of their work and don’t forget to check back to see the finished result.
Here are a few links for you if you would like to join in at home.
Papier Mache for beginners
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPSlrKZwvYI
Lion King Hakuna Matata
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7pbs4En0tI
Boy did we have fun. We wanted to explore different paints and brushes so we thought, why not have a bit of a painting party! Year One used poster paint and watercolours as our choice of media and then fun really started. Using inspiration from ‘Squiggle Whilst You Wiggle’, we used various strokes and hand exercises to practice brush and pencil control.
These are all really useful things to do at home to help children develop strong hand muscles. This will help their handwriting and fine motor skills. Have a look online for ideas if you would like to try this at home. There are lots of videos on Youtube.
Things you could try at home:
Paints, colours and different pens
Playdough, soft dough
Water and jugs
Threading beads
Excitingly, we have joined a new phonics scheme called Monster Phonics and the children are loving our new monster family. We understand that phonics can always be tricky to get your head around so we will try to offer as much support as we can throughout the year.
Here is a short power point to explain our new monsters and a link as well which explains each one.
In order to help children, keep up and catch up from lockdown, we will be sending home key words for the children to practise. They will need to be able to read and spell these fluently in preparation for the statutory phonics decoding checking later on in the academic year. We can’t emphasis enough how important phonics and reading is for the children and no so more than ever given the time of that they have had off school. As much help at home as possible will always be greatly received.
Meet the Monsters vid https://youtu.be/5u0N7LJIW0Q
In science we are going to focusing on weather and seasonal changes. We thought it would be a great idea to go on a leaf hunt and collect some samples to look at the changing colours of Autumn.
Children discussed a range of things that they associated with Autumn and we were able to bring some of these ideas together with our art curriculum. We wanted to sort some of our colours into shades of light and dark to make a contrasting collage. The children then carefully selected their own leaves to have a go at making a fantastic collage of one of our new Monster Phonics family, Brown Owl.
Have a look at some our amazing Brown Owls.
As ever, we try to navigate our way through some unusual times but always want our lovely children to be as settled as possible, whilst also gaining an understanding of what is happening in the word in a child safe way.
With a well-being focus, we have been exploring a range of emotions and this will continue to be a theme throughout the year. This week we have been talking about things that make us happy and excited, as well as things that make us worry.
We have been reading some lovely stories this week but we thought it might be nice to put a story online so that parents and carers could also do some ‘worry work’ at home.
Have a read of the story ‘The making of Milton’, it’s a great way to explore and talk about some worries that the children may be feeling during their new transition into school.
There’s even a great craft activity for you to do at home if you like.
What a strange time it has been but we still been having lots of fun at school. For those of you lovely children that haven’t been able to join us, don’t worry, we’ve been working hard to make our school just as fun as it always was.
Starting a new year group can always be a little bit of a worry but stop, take a deep breath and think about all the fun we’re going to have.
Next Year, we are starting an exciting new phonics scheme and we cannot wait to play all the games with you. Over Summer, it would be amazing if you could go on the website and even YouTube to watch some of the fantastic Monster Phonics videos.
Over the summer, we would love you to make your own monsters, just like the ones in our new monster family. Take some pictures of you and your monsters; in the woods, on the beach, in the country side anywhere exciting! and send them to the Year One Email address ready for September.
Just a little heads up, as there will be little changes to our school routine along the way. When children go to the Boulter Building, they will need to wear their own coats outside during COSMIC. Although we will do our best to keep children away from mud, don’t wear best coats. As usual we will provide foot wear, which will be cleaned as part of our routine.
Children will not be able to keep PE kits in school so please either wear PE kits or bring it with them with you on their day. You will be text when you PE day will be during the week.
Sadly, book shop is unable to run at the moment but we will keep you posted.
Don’t forget to stay safe and enjoy yourselves.
A massive thank you from Mr Wood, Miss Laskey and Miss Bentley 😊
Click here to view or download the Year 1 welcome to parents leaflet
Hello, my name is Miss Bentley! I am really excited to meet you all and I can’t wait to start our adventure together in Year 1. I am looking forward to getting to know you all and finding out about some of your favourite things. When I am not at school, I love to draw and paint and my favourite colour is blue. I also love to read and my favourite book is Giraffes Can’t Dance. Fun fact – I have a little dog called Melvin and we like to go on lots of walks together. My favourite animals are dolphins but you can’t tell Melvin that as he thinks he is my favourite. I know we will have lots of fun together next year! I hope you are as excited as I am, see you soon Monkey Trees!
The links below will open the planning documents.
We find ourselves in the very unusual situation of having to ask the children to work at home for the coming weeks.
As a team, year 1 will be contactable via our year group email:
yr1.staff@warrenparkapps.co.uk
This will be checked daily during term time and between the hours of 9am and 3pm. If you have any questions regarding the workbook or the home learning pack, drop us a line and we will do our best to support you with an answer.
To help support your child at home please view our
Web Links Page or our Online Learning Resources Page
Here is a non-exhaustive list of FREE online education resources. Some require registration.
– See individual login details on pack.
https://ec1.educationcity.com/
A flexible range of teaching resources for your education needs wherever you are.
– see sheet regarding free month subscription
This is more for printouts, and usually at a fee, but they are offering a month of free access to parents in the event of school closures.
– free eBooks upon registration
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/
Lots of free resources for Primary age
Learn computer programming skills – fun and free.
https://scratch.mit.edu/explore/projects/games/
Creative computer programming
https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/
Activities and quizzes for younger kids.
https://thekidshouldseethis.com
Wide range of cool educational videos
All kinds of making.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/radio
Listening activities for the younger ones.
https://naturedetectives.woodlandtrust.org.uk/naturedetectives/
A lot of these can be done in a garden, or if you can get to a remote forest location!
Educational online games
https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/?fbclid=IwAR2wJdpSJSeITf4do6aPhff8A3tAktnmpaxqZbkgudD49l71ep8-sjXmrac
Activities and quizzes