Friday 28th February

This week in English we have been looking at poetry. We started the week by reading two poems about the woods (as our new topic is Enchanted Woodland) :

We discussed the vocabulary the poets used, decided which poem we preferred and why. Ask your child which of these two poems they prefer and why. They might like to pick out their favourite words that the poet has used as well.


Next the children used thesauruses to improve their word choices. Ask your child if they can use a thesaurus to improve the words: walk, cold and warm. 

On Tuesday the children worked in groups to create verses which we could use in our class poem, Enchanted Woodland.
Have a look at the poem that Woodpecker class wrote:

Enchanted Woodland

by

The Woodpeckers

Silently, silently golden leaves rustle

on the trees

Silently, silently leaves fall onto the

squelchy floor

Silently, silently the golden sun

shines down

Silently, silently the trees make shadows

on the ground

Silently, silently foxes creep out of their den dark and deep

Finally, the children worked independently to write their own Enchanted Woodland poem in their books. The children were using the class poem as inspiration.

This week in science we have been looking at the habitats animals live in. We have learnt that animals need food, water, shelter and space. We realised that animals need the same things humans do.

As part of our learning, we explored the Robin Hood trail looking for animals habitats. Ask your child which habitats they saw. This weekend you might like to go for a walk with your child or explore the garden and see if you can spot any habitats!

Finally, we thought about animals need to live in certain areas like the desert or underground. The children wrote in their books using their learning to explain what animals need from their habitats. Ask your child what animal they wrote about and what they new learning they discovered.

In Maths this week we have been discussing the concept of measuring and recording the heights and lengths of a range of objects. We discussed methods of measurement and how we could measure objects accurately and consistently.

We made a success criteria for measuring and suggested and explored a range of resources with which to measure including using multi link, diennes sticks and cm measuring rulers.

We used our measuring skills to draw accurate lines and then compare which objects were taller and which were shorter and which were of equal length. In our books on Friday we used rulers to measure and draw specific cm lines to help us complete some challenges such as can you draw a man that is 6cm tall.

The children used discussion and mathematical language to cement their understanding of the concepts of measuring height and length.

If you are in a mathematical mood over the weekend then you might want to try our maths measuring activity. Roll a dice and then draw a picture that many centimetres tall. Us the ruler to measure a line as a guide to help you and then draw the picture within that line. If you want to test each other further you can draw both height and length measurements.


This week we have also launched our world book day initiative, share one million stories. You will have been emailed a link which has the sheet to record how many stories you read at home with your child over the next 5 weeks. Please could this be sent into school each week on a Wednesday so that we can log the number of stories read at home and in school that week. 

We are looking forward to seeing those of you who can make it at our Fairtrade café on Wednesday. 


Have a lovely weekend,
The Year One Team

Friday 14th February

This week in maths we have been looking at counting in our multiples of 2, 5 and 10 and identifying the patterns we can see between the numbers used.
On Monday we use a 100 square to mark of the 2s all the way up to the number fifty in our orange felt tip pens on the grid.
We then looked at the number of twos that we had in 50 and built and drew a range of numbers in our multiples of 2.
We used a range of resources including Numicon, Diennes, counters and tens frames to show our groups and calculate our totals.

We looked at patterns we could notice when counting in 2s.

On Wednesday we looked at counting in groups of five and marking these on our 100 square in a different colour to show the pattern of how we count.
We used our resources to build and draw the given numbers in fives and checked the numbers using our fingers and making sure each time we counted five we put up another finger to help us count to the end total.

d In our book look session we played a number game using hand prints and dice to count in our multiples of five. Each player rolled a dice and then we placed that number of handprints onto the table. Each player tired to be the first person to count how many fingers we had in total and write that number onto the whiteboard. First player to do so scored a point. the first person to get to five points won the game.This might be a fun game to play at home over the half term break. Have a play and let us know how you got on.



On Friday we looked at counting it tens and talked about which of our resources was the most effective for counting in tens. We discovered that the Numicon tens and the diennes sticks were better as they showed the numbers in the clearest way.
We built and drew out numbers in multiples of ten and then coloured in our squares on the 100 square.

We also looked at patterns we noticed when counting in 10s.

In computing this week we have been drawing and painting animal pictures on the computer using our painting application called 2 simple. We used a range of animal books to research  key facts about our chosen animals and shared ideas about that we liked about them.

Each child chose an animal that had either claws, paws or whiskers linked to our topic theme and then designed their own animal drawing which they then copied onto the computer using our painting application programme.

This week in English the children wrote their own version of Percy the Park Keeper, After the Storm.
They chose to either keep the story the same as the original, rewrite the teacher version of the story or change certain parts to make it their own.
The children came up with ideas for parts they might like to change.
Ask your child to tell you something about our working wall and how it helped them to write the story.

Ask your child if they changed anything in the story or if they kept it the same.

The children used this planning sheet to plan their story, and then they made sure to follow it when they were writing. 

Ask your child what they were proud of in their story.

In Art this week the children continued using pastels and coloured pencils to replicate the artists' work that we have been looking at.
Finally, they looked at photographs of different animals and used pastels and pencils to draw the animals in their own style. The children were reminded of the techniques they learnt about last week (hatching, stippling and shading) to develop texture and light and dark areas.
At home you might like to have a go at drawing animals with your child, really focusing on the texture of the fur/skin and where the light is coming from.
Finally, the children evaluated their work by writing sentences in their books. They considered what they had done really well and what they would like to improve if they did it again. Ask your child what they wrote in their evaluation and see if they can have a go at working on the area they would like to improve over half term.

Just a reminder, the home school books have lots of ideas for things you can do with your child at home, including the maths facts and common exception words that they need to spell. Over half term it would be a good idea to have a look at these.

Have a lovely half term,
The Year One Team