Newsletters will be sent out each half term. This information will be about the learning for the half term with important key diary dates and links to enhance our learning.

• Autumn 1 Newsletter
• Autumn 2 Newsletter

These are the words the children will need to be able to read and write by the end of Year 1.

• T-L-5268-Year-1-Common-Exception-Words-Powerpoint.pptx

Look at our self portraits!
We took our time and drew our features step by step making sure our eyes, nose and ears were in the right place. We then looked in the mirror to add any features and use the right colours.
We evaluated our work and looked at each others.
We also made portraits out of the construction materials.

Continuing on with our celebrations in science, this week was all about musical instruments. The children got very busy using the junk modelling and made drums, trumpets, clackers, scrappers etc. Their imagination was amazing. They came up with different ways to attached the junk. We talked about the materials that they used and identified paper, cardboard, metal, plastic and wood and discussed which was the best material to use and why. A messy, fun productive afternoon was had by all.

Look at our portraits! We tried really hard and found this activity very tricky to only draw only half of our faces. We are super proud of our work.

This week we have been learning all about shadows. We made shadow puppets and also tried making hand shadows. We learnt about opaque. transparent and translucent materials. We explored around the classroom investigating with torches to see what objects the light could and could not pass through.

Art is our driver this half term. We started off using different types of pencils and learnt about 2B, 2H, 4H and 6B pencils, H means hard and B means black. We learnt that we can hold the pencil in different ways and use our wrists, elbows and shoulders to make movements. We made different lines and marks as we experimented in our sketch books.

We took part in a skipping workshop. We learnt to listen, take turns and run through the rope as it was turning. It was a bit scary for some of us but we all had a go and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

We are learning all about the UK. We enjoyed looking through the atlas books for the first time. Finding the UK, locating England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Map work is always so much fun.

We started our new topic in science this week called 'celebration'. We looked at a burning candle and observed the flame. We were very interested to feel the candle, learn new words such as wax, wick, and flame. It was fascinating to see the flame flickering and see the different colours in the flame.

This week we have been learning about the plus sign and making our own number sentences. We have looked at making different number bonds to certain numbers, e.g. 1+6=7, 2+5=7, 3+4=7 etc. We used lots of different practical ways to show our learning.

We went on an autumn walk to see what was happening in the school grounds during the month of October. Since the last time we went out the weather is colder and we were wearing our coats. The weather was damp and sunny with fog in the mornings. We also noticed that the days were getting shorter and it is getting darker in the evenings. We looked at the trees, some of the trees had lost most of their leaves and other trees still had their leaves. The leaves were changing colour. We learnt about evergreen and deciduous trees. We saw that the apples had fallen off the trees and that all the blackberries had been eaten. We also learnt about what was alive, dead and never been alive.

This week has been all about number lines. We drew big number lines on the playground using chalk, then smaller number lines on the tables in class. We learnt about the order of the numbers, which number comes next, before. We use the words greater than and less than. We found numbers on the number line from given questions and of course had fun.

We had a fantastic morning with Holly from Alfresco Learning. We spent our time outdoors learning about what houses were made out of in 1666 and why these houses burnt so quickly in the fire. We learnt about and made a wattle and daub wall using sticks, soil, straw but no pooh! This was great fun and very muddy. We worked great as a team, talking and helping each other.
We then made a different bakery for Thomas Farriner who had the fateful bakery on Pudding Lane. We used different materials to make a more stable building.
We had a great experience and history came alive.

This week we have been learning about fewer and more within 10 and then moved onto less than, greater than and equal to. We learnt about the inequality signs < > and =.

In our music lesson this week we had a go on the glockenspiels. We improvised and played along to a tune. We then followed the music notation and played the notes D and C in time to the beat.

Continuing on our printing journey. This week we made an impression of a leaf or shell using plasticine. We then put the impression on to an ink pad. Using a roller we placed the plasticine ink side down in our sketch books. It was fun printing this way using a different method and tools.

Continuing with our science lessons all about our senses, this week was all about taste. We also used our sense of touch and smell to help us describe the tastes. We ate a variety of different foods that were soft, crunchy, hard, salty, sweet, juicy, yummy and yukky. I was very proud of all the children especially those children who are very unsure of different foods. Everyone held and smelt the foods even if they didn't want to eat them. We also did an experiment with our eyes closed and holding our noses we ate some raw potato and apple, they both tasted the same!

We went on the laptops. With help we were able to logon and access the Purple Mash website. We explored how to change our own avatars. We learnt to be patient, take turns and only press the keys once!

We joined Bethan Woollvin who is an author and illustrator on her online zoom workshop. She read her new book Luna and the Sky Dragon. She then showed us how to draw Luna and the sky dragon. I was so impressed with the children's concentration and art work produced.

We acted out the events of the Great Fire of London

We are learning all about printing. We had a go at printing using different materials.

We also looked at pictures of the City of London from 1666 when the Great Fire of London started. We used our art sketch books for the first time and our artist pencils. We carefully copied a lined drawing of the buildings into our books. We took our time and looked for details to enhance of pictures,

We went on a technology hunt. We found out that there are many things in school that need technology for them to work.

We have been learning all about timelines. Looking at events within living memory and beyond living memory. We plotted when we were born, key events and when the great fire of London started.

We have been enjoying reading books for pleasure first thing in the mornings. A great way to start the day.

Our first maths lessons have been all about sorting. Building on our knowledge from last year and trying to be more creative on how the objects have been sorted.

A big part of our science learning this year is all about the seasons and the changes we see around us. Each month we will visit the school grounds and look for these changes.

This week we learnt all about September and that it is the first month of Autumn. Although the weather has been very hot we still managed to find some typical autumnal changes!!

We read these stories to help use settle into the New Year 1 class.

A 'Bag Full of Worries' helped us understand that all our feelings and worries can be real and we talked about how we could help ourselves if we had these worries. We now have a feeling box in class so that the children can write a note if they have a big feeling and we can deal with it.

We read the story 'Our Class is a Family' and we coloured in hand prints to show that we are one family in Year 1 and we will look after each other.