Year 1

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 in the text inspired us to find out more about lions using other non-fiction texts. We produced some informative fact files about African Lions using the information we found out. 

We have been focusing on using capital letters, finger spaces and full stops when writing sentences. We even looked at how to ask and write questions using question words and question marks. 

Spring Term - Maths

We started this term looking at the value of each digit in numbers to 20. We enjoyed making 2-digit numbers using Numicon, Tens Frames, Base 10 and on the Rekenrek to help us gain a secure understanding the value of each digit. Then, we used our knowledge of place value to compare amounts of objects and numbers. 

We also learnt some new positional and directional language. We had lots of fun giving each other directions to follow. We learnt how to use 'left and right' and 'quarter, half and full turn' 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 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 science unit this term fitted in wonderfully with our literacy as we began learning all about animals, including humans. We learnt that some things are living, some things were once alive and some things were never alive. We looked closely at humans and our basic body parts and how these are similar or different to other animals. It was also really interesting to learn that there are so many different classes of animals - mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish! We enjoyed sorting animals into the different classes. 

We have also revisited our previous science topic on plants. We reminded ourselves of the parts of a plant and their functions. We recapped our learning on the parts of trees and the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees. 

Spring Term - Other Curriculum Areas

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

We started the term with two days dedicated to DT. We loved being able to immerse ourselves in the product design cycle and made some super moving vehicles.

Our art unit this term was about sculpture. We looked at different types of sculpture and then made snail sculptures out of clay. We used a technique called 'etching' to make different markings on our snails. We looked at the artist Louise Bourgeois's giant spider sculpture. As a class, we collaborated together to make giant spider sculptures using rolled up newspaper. 

We had a fantastic time during our outdoor learning afternoons! We focused on developing our team building skills through lots of fun games.

In P.E, we have been working on 'fitness' and 'gymnastics'. We have been so lucky to have Mr Sheppard from the Sports Commission working with us in gymnastics.

In PSHE, we have been thinking about how to care for ourselves, others and animals. We had a visit from Teddy and Roxy our school Reading Dogs. We loved learning about how to look after a dog and asked lots of thoughtful questions.

Autumn Term - Literacy

This half-term we have absolutely loved our class text 'Whatever Next!' by Jill Murphy.  First, we looked at the front cover and made predictions. Baby Bear visits the moon in the story, so we enjoyed using our phonic knowledge to write lists of things we would take to the moon! Finally, we sequenced the story and had a go at retelling it. 

In Year 1, we have been working so hard on our letter formation and writing a sentence. We are trying to remember our finger spaces, capital letters and full stops. 

Autumn Term - Maths

We started this term by learning more about numbers to 10. 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. We even started to compare numbers using the greater than/less than signs!  

We also 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.

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 school garden, identifying some of the plants in there, and going on a wild plant hunt around the school outside area. We have also enjoyed learning about the parts of a tree and different types of trees. We have learnt about evergreen and deciduous trees. We were excited to see the leaves start to fall from all of the deciduous trees when autumn arrived!  

Autumn Term - Other

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.  We also enjoyed a wonderful trip to Cobo Beach for our sea swimming activities.

In geography, we thought about the four seasons of the year and the months that are in each season. We focused on autumn. We went outside and collected leaves from the trees. We enjoyed making some colourful leaf rubbings! We also looked at our daily weather chart for the first time. We began talking about the weather each day and taking turns to change our weather chart.

We have been exploring line and colour in art. We looked at Bridget 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 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. Our next challenge was to design a moving picture based on the story 'Whatever Next!'. After planning our designs, we used our knowledge of sliders to make moving pictures. We loved making our pictures move and started to independently add sliders to some of our other drawings and paintings. 

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.