Year 1

Summer Term - Literacy

We have enjoyed reading 'The Lonely Beast' by Chris Judge. We started off looking really closely at an illustration from the text. We used the illustration to make predictions about what the story might be about. Next, we watched the 'book trailer' and learnt some more about the Beast. We composed some interesting questions that we would like to ask the Beast if we were to ever meet him. After that, we finally read the text. We were so excited and absolutely loved it! We had great fun role-playing parts of the story. We looked closely at different parts of the story and had a go at writing in role. We wrote some super diary entries as the Beast! 

Summer Term - Maths

This term, we have loved learning more about place value in numbers to 100. We have had lots of fun building numbers using Base 10, comparing numbers using < and > signs and ordering numbers. We also really enjoyed measuring length, height, weight and capacity using non-standard and standard measures. Recently, we have been looking at making groups of objects and adding these together as an introduction to multiplication. 

Summer Term - Science

We have had a busy term being scientists! We revisited our learning on plants and animals from earlier in the year and also looked at materials. First, we learnt the names of different materials and then went on a materials hunt around school! We learnt about what different materials are use for and why. We really loved carrying out an experiment with some different materials that we had in school. We wanted to find out which of the materials were waterproof. We tested each of the materials and recorded the results. 

Summer Term - Other Curriculum Areas

We have had such a busy term so far! In computing, we looked at collecting data and seeing how we could use technology to present the data. We made pictograms on the I-pads. Geography has been so much fun! We revisited our learning about continents and oceans from earlier in the year. Then, we learnt about the equator and where hot and cold climates can be found. In PE, we were so excited to start our swimming lessons! We are working so hard on developing our water confidence and even our distance swimming. We loved showing our grown-ups how confident we are in the water at the school Sponsored Swim. 

Spring Term - Literacy

We have had another fantastic term exploring some really high quality texts in our Year 1 Literacy curriculum. We started the term looking at 'One Day on Our Blue Planet - In the Savannah' by Ella Bailey. This text was absolutely fascinating as we began to explore what life is like in a very different part of the world to what we know. We enjoyed learning about some of the animals that you'd expect to find. The language and illustrations helped us produce some really effective poems as well as some informative non-chronological reports about African Lions.

We have also loved our weekly 'Word Aware' lessons on a Thursday. We focus on our the KS1 'word of week' during these lessons. We play games with the word, make sure we know what it means and practise adding it into a sentence. 

Spring Term - Maths

We started this term looking at the value of each digit in numbers to 20 and beyond! We enjoyed making 2-digit numbers using Numicon and Base 10 to understand the value of each digit. Then we used our knowledge of place value to compare amounts of objects and numbers. 

We also learnt learnt lots of new positional and directional language. We had lots of fun giving each other directions to follow. We learnt how to use 'left and right', 'quarter, half and full turn', and 'clockwise and anti-clockwise' to give directions. We loved combining our knowledge of directional language with our programming skills to direct the Beebots around. We used real Beebots and virtual Beebots online. We even followed a line dancing routine using our new directional language! 

We have just started to revisit addition and subtraction again. We have been working so hard to learn our number bonds of 10 and started to learn the bonds of 20. We have been using these number facts to help us with some new addition and subtraction strategies.   

As always, we have also been combining our knowledge and resilience to try some tricky problem solving!

Spring Term - Science

Our new science unit this term fitted in wonderfully with our literacy as we began learning all about animals, including humans. We learned about what an animal actually is and how they are different to plants. It was also really interesting to learn that there are so many different types of animal - mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish! We enjoyed learning about the different animal groups as well as the similarities and differences between them. 

We have also revisited our learning about plants. We reminded ourselves of the parts of the plant, talked about the jobs of each part of the plant, recapped the difference between wild and garden plants, and looked again at deciduous and evergreen trees. We enjoyed going on a tree hunt and seeing how the deciduous trees had changed since the Autumn Term. The deciduous trees branches were now bare, but the evergreen trees still had all their leaves. 

Spring Term- Other Curriculum Areas

We have certainly been kept busy this term with some of our other curriculum areas!

History has been fascinating! We spent a couple of weeks learning about the lives of two very significant individuals - Mary Anning and David Attenborough. Both of these individuals had or have a love of the natural world and really contributed to our understanding of the world around us. We found Mary Anning particularly interesting and loved looking at her fossil discoveries!

Our D&T project this term was a textiles project looking at joining materials. Our project brief was to make an animal puppet. First, we learnt about different ways of joining fabrics. We had a go at joining fabric by stapling, using safety pins and glueing. We decided that stapling would be the best joining method for our puppets. Next, we cut out a template for our puppet and thought carefully about our choices of materials. We drew a plan of our puppet design to follow. We used out cutting and stapling skills to make our puppets. Finally, we got creative and decorated our puppets using a variety of materials. 

Linking brilliantly with our positional and directional language learning in maths, we have had an introduction to programming in our computing lessons. We have used the Beebots and the virtual Beebots online to practise programming a device. We have great fun completing a variety of challenges, such as directing a Beebot under a bridge that we had made!

Autumn Term - Literacy

This term we have absolutely loved our class text 'Out and About: A First Book of Poems' by Shirley Hughes. We have enjoyed lots of the poems from the look. We looked at all the different seasons but with a particular focus on autumn. We loved looking at the poem 'Water' and exploring water. We composed poems with the theme of autumn and really thought carefully about our senses when composing our poems.

Autumn Term - Maths

We started this term by focussing on numbers to 20. We worked hard on our careful counting and looked at how we could represent groups of objects in different ways. We drew pictures and used different resources (such as Numicon, counters and cubes) to show amounts of objects. Next, we practised our number formation. We learnt some funny rhymes to help us remember the correct formations and tried hard to keep our numbers neat! We enjoyed playing different games to practise counting forwards and backwards and to find one more/one less than a number to 20. We even started to compare numbers using the greater than/less than signs!  

We had lots of fun exploring 2D and 3D shapes! We played lots of games to help us recognise, name and begin to describe the shapes. We have also started looking at some financial literacy. We thought about what money is, why we need it and how it can be earned. Then, we concentrated on recognising and understanding the value of different coins and notes. We have enjoyed practising using money in our class shops! 

Autumn Term - Science

We have found our science unit on plants very interesting! We have learnt about the main parts of a plant and the difference between wild plants and garden plants. We loved spending time in our own school garden, identifying some of the plants in there, and going on a wild plant hunt around the school outside area. We have also found learning about the parts of a tree and different types of trees. We have learnt about evergreen and deciduous trees and enjoyed observing the leaves fall from deciduous trees during autumn.  

Autumn Term - Other

We had a fantastic time during our outdoor learning afternoons in Year 1! We were really creative and made our own tree people using natural materials. We also enjoyed being resilient and collaborating in groups to build twig towers.

We have been developing our dance and yoga skills during our indoor PE sessions and have been practising some of the fundamental movement skills during our outdoor PE lessons.

In art we have been exploring line and colour. To begin with, we looked at Bridgette Riley's art and used this as inspiration to experiment with different types of line. We used chalk to experiment with creating different types of line and used this to create a whole class piece of artwork. Next, we moved onto looking at colour in art. We learnt about primary colours. We experimented with mixing primary colours to make other colours. We had such fun using both playdough and paint to experiment with colour mixing!

During our DT unit on mechanisms, we looked at how sliders can be used to make things move up, down, left and right. We explored how to make an 'up and down' slider to make a rabbit pop out of a magician's hat. Our next challenge was to design a moving picture with an autumn theme to share with Reception. After planning our designs, we used our knowledge of sliders to make moving pictures. We loved making our autumn pictures move and started to independently add sliders to some of our other drawings and paintings. The children in Reception loved seeing our autumn moving pictures!