Friday 27th April 2018

We are sure that you will have noticed – but this week has been our first ever Eco Week! We have had a wonderful week with the children thinking about how to reduce, reuse and recycle. The children have been very enthusiastic thinking about how they can have an impact on our environment and we very much hope that this will be a life skill that the children will share and develop at home. During the week we have:

·       Had a litter pick in the Robin Hood trail

·       Made posters about reduce, reuse and recycle

·       Had a walk to Batford Spring to look at the plants

·       Sorting rubbish into the different sorts of recycling

·       Making paper

·       Thinking about making musical instruments from junk

·       Made natural, Andy Goldsworthy – style temporary art installations

·       Shared our ideas for reusing corks - they were very imaginative! 

We have also been very concerned about the effect of the milk cartons some of us have at school. We have been thinking how we can reduce, reuse and recycle them. We realised that some children order milk but never drink it! This wastes 35 cartons a week and they might go to landfill! We thought about how we could reuse the cartons.

We don’t like it that they are difficult to recycle, and have a plastic straw in a plastic wrapper than can never be recycled! We have written some letters to people we think may be able to help. 

 We hope you have a lovely weekend and your children share lots of ideas for making a difference. Look out for some of the Sustainable St Albans activities in our area, including FoodSmiles Open Day at Hammonds End Farm on Saturday. 

The Year One team

Friday 20th April 2018

This week in English we have been researching rainforests. First we worked in groups and shared the information we currently know. Then we read and listened to a PowerPoint and learnt lots of new information. We recorded our new learning on our research sheet as we are going to be authors and create our own non-fiction books about the rainforest. We know they have to contain correct information! We then continued our research using the internet. Here are links to sites we looked at:

https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/search/rainforest/  
http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/rainforest.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuHuQwA-y5Y

Please have a look at them over the next week to help your child learn more interesting facts to include in their books.

On Friday we used our research and practised our writing by choosing a picture and writing two sentences about it. We tried to remember to use finger spaces, capital letters, full stops and form our letters correctly.

As part of our ‘Global Gardens’ topic we have been looking at maps and globes of the world. We located Harpenden, London and the countries of the UK. We then ‘flew’ to Mexico and we will be investigating the differences between Harpenden Mexico, including the climate, the physical geography and living in the different countries.

This week in maths we have been counting in twos, fives and tens. Here are some examples of problems that we have solved.  Follow the link to count in 10s   http://www.ictgames.com/newduckshoot10s.html We were learning about making equal groups. We then made equal groups. Follow the link to read Julia Donaldson’s Spinderella which reinforces equal groups. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0-Ynhr0Udk As part of our 'Global Gardens' topic we have been looking at plants in our area. First we idetified the different parts of plants and discussed what they plants uses them for. Please ask your child to explain to you!  Today in science we have been exploring our school grounds, looking at our own part of the global garden. We  identified different plants and thought about why the plants grow in the different areas. We will be comparing this to what we find when we visit Batford next week. When you are out and about this weekend help your children notice the plants and learn to name them. If you are available to help with the trip on Tuesday we will be leaving at 9:30 and back by 11:45.  We hope you enjoy the wonderful weather - and hope it lasts for a while!  The Year One team