Friday 26th January

This week in English we have been learning the story ‘Alien Party’. First we listened to the story and joined in with the repeated phrases. We added actions as the teacher told the story in order to help us remember it better. We then drew a ‘storymap’ as we listened again. We drew up to ten simple pictures to help us learn the story and to use as a reminder when we tell the story. Ask your child is they can tell you the story.

The next day we ‘stepped’ the story. This is when we work in pairs and say a noun and a verb to tell each part of the story, taking a step forward each time. For example Ali sobbed, Connie helped. Ask your child to tell you the story in this format.

After that we worked with a different partner to tell the story in pairs. We worked together holding a beanbag whilst we were talking and passing the beanbag to our partner when it was their turn to speak. Ask your child if they remembered to:

·         Take turns

·         Listen carefully

·         Use a storytelling voice 

·         Use actions

On Friday we created a class mood map about how Ali was feeling at different points in the story. Ask your child how they think Ali was feeling when :

·         He was planning to go to the party

·         When his rocket would not start

·         When he saw the booster had fallen off

·         When Connie said she would help

·         When could not find the booster

·         When she fixed the booster

·         When he started the rocket

·         When he asked Connie to come

·         When they zoomed off together

·         When they arrived at the planet

·         During the party

·         When they left to go home

Finally we did an activity called ‘Phone Home’. This is when we work with a partner and pretend it is the next day.  One child is Ali and they get a phone call from their mum or dad. We then work together and have a conversation like this…

  Ring ring….

Mum or Dad: Hello what have you been up to recently?

Ali: Well, yesterday was very exciting because I was going to a party

Mum/Dad: Did you have a good journey?

Ali: Eventually yes. But not at first!

Mum or Dad: Why? What happened?

You could try this at home and maybe this time they could pretend to be Connie.

All of these activities are designed to deepen our learning of this story so we can ‘magpie’ ideas for when we write our class versions of the story next week and our own versions of the story the following week. Please encourage your child to start to thinking about what they would change and what they would ‘magpie’ from the original version. 

This week in phonics we have been learning to segment, blend, read and write words with the 'or' phoneme. We practised the 'or' spelling and also learnt the alternative 'au' spelling.

This week in maths we have been revisiting subtraction.  We talked about the vocabulary of subtraction – take away, minus and subtract.  We remembered the number always gets smaller when you subtract unless you subtract 0. On Monday we used tens frames. 16 - 5 =11

First there were 16 counters

Then 5 were taken away.

Now there are 11 red counters left.

16 -5 = 11

On Tuesday we used a number line to take way by counting back.

We remembered to count carefully, not to count the first number in our count and  not to cross our hands when counting back on the number-line.

On Wednesday and Friday we began to subtract by crossing the 10.  First we worked in pairs using the part whole model alongside a number line and bead strings and then we worked on our own.                      1.    Read the calculation.  2.    How many do I need to take away to get back to 10? 3 3.    Write this number in the first bubble 4.    Record this on the number-line – jumping from 13 to 10 5.    If I partition 5 into 2 parts, 1 part is 3, what is the other part? Write this in the second bubble. 6.    Record 2 jumps on the number-line 7.    Take away this number to find the answer? 8                  Home learning for this week includes

   Play subtraction fingers.

Shows 9 fingers. 9 take away 4 leaves? Chant 10+1=11, 10+2=12, 10+3=13……..  Ask your child ·         if I have 14 and I take the ones away how many will I be left with? ·         if I have 16 how many do I need to subtract to get back to 10?

Follow the links to play

·         Hit the Button – subtraction within 20  https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

·         Arrow Cards – make numbers from 11-20 http://www.ictgames.com/arrowCards_revised_v5.html to see how  many tens and how many ones are in the number.

·         Bridging through 10 game http://www.ictgames.com/spacejumps.html

    We have continued to enjoy our computing lessons - this week we have been entering an algorithm. We tried to predict where the instructions would take the Beebot. 

This week in science we had to make a shelter for Professor Penny Planet as she was going to explore an uninhabited planet where it rained a lot so it had to be waterproof.  She wanted her shelter to be dry, warm, safe and light in weight so she could move it from place to place. We worked in pairs to make our shelters.  Then we tested them like real scientists.  We checked to see if we had used a material that would keep her warm.  Also that the shelter would keep her safe so we used torches to check there were no holes where aliens could get in.  We moved our shelters around to test they were easy to move. Finally we tested our shelters by pouring water over them to check they were waterproof and would keep her dry.  After we recorded our findings.

We hope you have a great weekend - and have fun at the disco! 

Year One team