Cedar & Yew Class (Year 1)
Welcome to Year 1
2024-2025
Autumn 1
The children have really thrown themselves into their learning and are enjoying Continuous Provision- Busy Time in Year 1 - We have been so impressed with their enthusiasm and energy and cannot wait to get into our terms learning. Our first Topic is Being me in my World, where we will be learning about our bodies and The senses in Science. In history we will be learning about our own personal timelines and family trees.
We have also been working hard in our English, Maths, Art, Computing, R.E and Guided Reading sessions. We will also be introducing Spelling Shed and Handwriting sessions into our time table too. It's Busy busy busy in Year 1!
Important Information
PE Days - Monday (outside) and Wednesday (inside)
Library Day - Wednesday
PPA Monday morning.
The Year 2 Team.
Yew Class Teacher - Mrs Wood
Cedar Class Teacher - Mrs Davis
LSA's - Mrs Sweetman and Miss Martin
PPA cover- Mrs Barnhouse and Mrs Lowe
Science- Learning about our senses
Maths- identifying 2D shapes
Diwali Lanterns
Y1 Expectations
Summer 1
Year 1 have enjoyed starting their new topic 'Kings, Queens and Castles' this term. Using the story books 'The Queen's Hat' and 'The King's Hat', amongst other books, provided lots of ideas for descriptive writing. The children have enjoyed finding out about different members of the royal family, from most recent times to a very long time ago.
In History children have researched queens from different eras; Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II. They found out about the different eras and significant changes during these times.
Within Art, as well as during Busy Time during continuous provision, children have developed their tracing skills, drawing shadows and designing new stamps by tracing royal profiles. It has been great to see how much children have enjoyed learning these skills, transferring them into their independent learning.
This term there has been a lot of focus on measure during Maths sessions, understanding capacity and the language associated with this. The children have enjoyed measuring using different scales as well as different containers, investigating how far their quantity of water would travel. In order to embed their understanding of money, we now have a morning snack shop where children have to 'pay' for their fruit. Children have enjoyed being both the shop keeper as well as the customers. We've seen lots of shop role play now happening outside as a result of this!
Next term we will continue with our topic, focusing more on the 'castles' aspect. We are also looking forward to our trip to Windsor Castle! Watch this space for an update!
Spring 2
To kick off Spring 2 term the children were preparing for their Toys Exhibit for their Grandparents and relatives. The children were so excited to share their knowledge of Toys throughout history and did a fantastic job doing their first write ups in neat of a specific toy. We had a wonderful turn out and it was so lovely to see the children's excitement as they showed their family members some of the special toys that they had been learning about. I am sure for many older generations the chance to reminisce of toys from their childhoods too.
Toy Exhibit
This terms book focus has been one Mrs Wood's favourite childhood stories Dogger. The children thought about their own special toys as they re wrote parts of the story and how the main character felt when he lost his beloved toy. Our final focus book was Boxitects. Our children love to be creative and this was a great opportunity for them to demonstrate some of the school values of creativity and co-operation as they designed and built their own games using recycling/boxes.
Boxitects
Spring 1
This term Year 1 are focusing on Toys as our topic. The children have been very excited investigating both new and old toys, sharing their toys from home as well as having a toy talk from a toy expert, Mr Cushing! The children have enjoyed investigating how toys work, their materials and how they have changed (or stayed the same!) over the years. Children completed some observational drawings of their toys, using shading techniques to add detail. It was brilliant to see how focused children were on this task and loved sharing their work with their peers.
In English we have focused a lot on the use of adjectives and sentence structure. Children enjoyed the story of Lost in the Toy Museum... we even found a suitcase of lost toys in our classroom! To help the toys find their way home we created descriptive 'Lost and Found' posters, thinking carefully about what they toys looked and felt like. The story of Toys in Space took a slight detour... into space! Children were so interested in this subject we decided to create our own planets where our toys could travel to. Children enjoyed writing facts about planets and creating space books in their own busy time. Maps were also drawn during busy time, planning how they would travel to these far off lands.
Science has focused on plants this term, carefully watching for signs of Spring. Children have investigated the features of trees and other plants, labelling the different parts and their functions. The children have then gone on a wild flower hunt around the classrooms, which then helped them with their Art skills when using watercolours to paint the different flowers.
Next term we look forward to continuing with our Toy topic, as we will be preparing for our Grandparent's Toy party in the coming weeks.
Mr Cushing Visit- History of Toys
Autumn term in Year 1
Year 1 have had a great start to the year; what a busy term it has been! This term our topic has been Me and My World. We have focused on settling into Year 1, getting to know our new classmates and settling in to a new way of working, starting Continuous Provision. This topic has served well for History, asking simple questions about the past and present, understanding our family trees as well as personal timelines; understanding significant events in our lives. It has also been a great link for Science, identifying human body parts before extending this learning to other animals, their senses and diet.
At the beginning of the term, we focused on the story of The Tiger Who Came to Tea, writing invitations to our toys so that we could have our own tea party. Children focused on using question marks in their invitations. The children loved the tea party, whilst it also gave purpose to their writing.
We have also managed to complete a variety of Art and DT activities this term, including junk modelling linked to the story On Sudden Hill where children had to design, make and evaluate their creations (and what a variety of designs we had!) Throughout the term children have enjoyed using a variety of resources in an open-ended format. Both directed and independently, children have used the Construction area to link to our topics, including building UK landmarks such as Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, identifying and creating both human and physical features.
Other stories have included Oliver’s Vegetables and Oliver’s Fruit Salad where children had to create their own fruit kebabs, carefully following instructions before then having to write their own set of instructions to follow. These stories provided the children a great opportunity to make observational drawings of fruit and vegetables, both within their direct learning time as well as independent learning… we certainly have some budding artists in class.
Martha Maps it Out was a super link to Geography, where we spent a lot of time investigating a variety of maps, from finding countries on a globe, to identifying capitals of countries within the United Kingdom. Children also had to follow a map of the local area in order to complete our visit to the local library. Children loved identifying local landmarks on the map, discussing with their partners where they were and what they could see. This also linked to identifying and using prepositions. Some children worked independently to create their own maps of the local area and beyond. It was fantastic to see such collaboration and pride in their finished product.
Throughout the term children have focused on number in different contexts. They have secured their knowledge of numbers to 20 and beyond, investigating and identifying doubles and adding and subtracting one more/less. Children have particularly enjoyed measuring length this term, comparing who is taller/shorter than one another. Close to Christmas children could also investigate and compare the length of Santa’s sleighs as well as some toys which had been stuck to the table by a very cheeky elf! Children could measure using non-standard measuring tools such as cubes or counting bears.
A change to Continuous Provision has seen children being more independent in their learning, taking on challenges in different ways. Children’s imaginations are really growing and their enthusiasm for learning knows no bounds. We now look forward to our Spring topic of Toys!
Autumn Term in Year 1
Welcome to Year 1
The children have had a great start to their time in Year 1. They have really impressed us with their attitude to learning and willingness to embrace the new 'Continuous Provision' style of learning for this year group. Continuous Provision is a less formal style of teaching, providing opportunities to ‘learn through play’ and encouraging children to become active learners who can therefore make independent choices whilst feeding their curiosity and exploration skills. The aim of this style of teaching is to “build” confident, resilient, positive and reflective children who love to learn, embedding essential skills for lifelong learning. You will find further information on 'Continuous Provision' in the forthcoming letter, and there will also be the opportunity to come into the Year 1 classrooms and outside areas to look at the way that Continuous Provision is organised.
Other information:
PE is on a Wednesday (Outdoor PE) and a Friday (Indoor PE). On Fridays, please ensure that the children come into school with shorts underneath their jogging bottoms, or have a pair to change into for our indoor session, so that they can use the equipment safely.
Library day is on a Thursday.
Teachers
From left to right: Mrs Barnhouse, Mrs Davis and Mrs Wood
Yew class: Mrs Barnhouse (Monday-Tuesday) and Mrs Wood (Tuesday-Friday)
Cedar class: Mrs Davis (Monday-Friday)
Meet the Year 1 team
LSAs
From left to right: Mrs Sweetman, Mrs Bush and Mrs Wallace