Learning  »  Class Pages  »  Archive 2014/15  »  Year 1

Welcome to Year One



We are a friendly, sharing, kind and caring class.  We enjoy coming to school and always look forward to the new learning we will be doing. We know that learning is not always easy but we try hard to persevere with whatever we are doing. We are trying our best to become independent and know that we should always have a go; it is ok to make mistakes! We are considerate of new pupils and staff in our class and make them feel welcome. We use the adventure playground at playtime to help us keep fit and love to do PE.  We look after our classroom by tidying up and putting things back in the correct place. We follow our class and the school rules and make sure we listen to and respect everyone!

Values

Caring
We have been exploring caring as our next value. We have thought carefully about who and what we care about and have tried extra hard to be caring within our classroom. We have realised that even simple actions can really show that we care.
Peace 
We have been talking about peace and what it means to us. We thought that peace could mean lots of different things such as relaxing and reading, finding a peaceful place to play, being calm and sleeping. Some people shared that they felt that their house was always peaceful and that they enjoyed having peace and quiet. We also discussed the idea that you might help two people that are not getting on so that they can make peace with each other.
Responsibility 
We have been learning about responsibility. We have talked about what it means to be responsible and how we can take responsibility for things. As you get older your responsibilities grow. In year one we thought about what we are responsible for, these included keeping our rooms tidy, looking after things in our classroom and making sure we look after our jumpers and book bags. We also thought that it was a great responsibility to look after someone that had hurt themselves, was feeling poorly or sad.  
Friendship 
October’s value was friendship so we spent a lot of time in class discussing what makes a good friend. 
We thought a good friend was:
  • Helpful
  • Makes you laugh
  • Plays with you
  • Listens and is helpful to you
  • Cares about you

We thought you might go to a friend’s house to play and they would share things with you too. 

As well as this we played a game in the class which gave us the opportunity to talk to people that perhaps we are not friends with but may be we would like to be. 

We really enjoyed thinking about this value and we think it has helped us to try and be a better friend.  

Topics

Art

This half term we have been exploring the artwork of David Hockney. We have looked at his pictures and thought about how they make us feel. Some pictures made us feel happy and excited but some pictures made us feel worried and scared. We have learnt about primary and secondary colours and made our own colour wheels using primary colours. We have used a range of different media to draw our own Hockney inspired artwork!

Multi skills 
This half term we have been lucky enough to have coaches in from Leeds United to teach us lots of different skills. We have really enjoyed learning how to dodge opponents successfully when playing games and how to use the space in the hall and outside more effectively. We have explored different types of movement and have really improved our fitness. We have also enjoyed developing our throwing and catching skills as well as playing all the games that hey have taught us.
I learnt how to dodge - Beth and Safina
I enjoyed running - Ewan
I liked playing all the games - Jacob
I can now side step - Matthew
It was really fun - Edie 
RE

This half term we have learnt about what it means to belong to different groups and religions. We belong to lots of different groups including our families, swimming clubs and Beavers. We have also explored what it means to belong to the Jewish faith. We have learnt about how Jewish people celebrate Shabbat by lighting candles, drinking wine and eating sweet bread called Challah. We have also learnt that Jewish people have a Mezuzah on their doors and that these have a special prayer in them. We wrote our own prayers thinking about our families.

Science

This half term we have continued to focus on developing our investigation skills. Naughty Nora loves to chase bubbles so we have been finding out which bubbles last the longest. We started with bubbles that Mrs Bailey bought from the shop, most of these lasted for 10 seconds. We then looked at other things that make bubbles such as hand soap, bubble bath and washing up liquid. We found that washing up liquid bubbles can last up to 20 seconds which is better than the bubbles Mrs Bailey bought.

We have also been investigating temperature and using a thermometer to track how the temperature has changed throughout the day and term. When it snowed we knew it was cold but didn't realise that it was 0°C and that as the day went on the temperature only changed a small amount. We then found out that the day after the snow the temperature went up by 4°C and that is why the snow melted.

English

We began this half term by focusing on non fiction writing. We have learnt about the features of instructions and enjoyed following instructions to make a pirate hat. We learnt that following instructions is easier when there are pictures to help you and also when you work with a friend so you can work out any problems together. We learnt lots of different time conjunctions and used these when we wrote our own instructions about washing your hands.

We have also been using the Paddington stories to help us with our story writing. We have really enjoyed exploring all the scrapes and adventures Paddington gets into. We have written letters as if we were Paddington and also written our own Paddington stories, imagining that he comes to visit our school and all the chaos he could cause.

This half term we have been learning about traditional stories. With Mrs Winstanley we have been looking at the story of Cinderella in preparation for our pantomime trip. We have read a range of traditional stories and have enjoyed acting them out. When we read 'The Magic Porridge Pot' we role played interviewing the villagers which we really enjoyed. We also really liked the way the story started (Once, not twice but once upon a time) and used this when we were re telling it. We have learnt that our writing needs conjunctions and adjectives and have practised doing this when we wrote our own character descriptions of the troll from 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'. To show how much we have learnt about traditional stories we then wrote our own version of 'The Ugly Duckling'. We found this really tricky but all persevered and did so well!

Computing

We have been learning about programming. We have learnt how to give BeeBot three and four step instructions to get from one place to another. We found it harder than we thought it was and had to spend time 'debugging' different parts of our instructions so that they worked. We found it particularly hard to work out which direction BeeBot would be going once he turned.

We have really been enjoying learning how to use the Learnpads. We can now switch them on independently and the program or activity we should be using. We are looking forward to using them in our learning this year.

Maths

We are enjoying maths and are getting more confident at recognising and ordering numbers all the time. We are focusing on our counting, addition and subtraction skills so that we can use different strategies such as counting on and or using a number line. We have really enjoyed exploring shape and symmetry and can now sort shapes into a Venn diagram.

We have been learning lots about number bonds and have been trying hard to remember which numbers you can add together to make a given number. We have learnt rhymes and different strategies to help us to do this such as counting on and using our fingers. We have also been learning about and becoming careful with our measuring skills and have enjoyed investigating measure in many different ways. Mrs Bailey has been helping us to remember and check that we are writing our numbers the right way round and we are getting much better at this as well.

All about me

Our first topic this year has been really fun and has given us a great opportunity to get to know each other and learn about year one. We have enjoyed exploring our senses and learning about all the different things we can taste. We have investigated different things and have found out that the oldest person in the class is not always the tallest. We have explored our local area using Google Earth and really enjoyed finding out about our school and looking at where we are in relation to other places in the U.K.

Toys

This half term our topic has been all about toys. We started the topic by thinking about our favourite toys and why we like to play with them. We then began to learn about how toys have changed over the last one hundred years as well as speaking to our parents and grandparents about their favourite toys. Lots of us brought in examples of these and we really enjoyed looking at them. We learnt lots of facts about toys in the past and found out that toys have changed a lot over the years, we have been really surprised that thirty years ago there were no computers and no one played on the Wii or had an ipad.

St Mary's Christmas Experience

Year one and two visited St Mary's Church for an interactive Christmas story experience. There was a carousel of five activities that we all took part in. These included learning about how the shepherds felt when they saw an angel, meeting Mary and speaking to her about our worries and thinking about getting our hearts ready for Christmas. We also learnt about the different places in the Christmas story and put them on to a map as well as thinking about presents we would give to baby Jesus. All the children were very well behaved and enjoyed the visit, including the biscuit and juice at the end.

It was super because I liked all the stories - Freddie
I learnt lots about Jesus - Imogen
I learnt about the angels - Max
My favourite part was writing with the feather pens for a present to Jesus - Safina
I learnt that God is always with you- Henry M

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