Year 1

This week in English we have been reading ‘Funnybones’ by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. We looked carefully at the front cover and tried hard to predict what might happen next at different points in the story.

We learnt about labels – what they are and why they are important. We used the Word Aware approach to help.

We decided that a good label would have the correct word to match its object, letters that were evenly spaced, not too far apart and not too close together and writing that went from left to right.

We used post it notes to label things around our classroom.

We linked our Science learning about body parts to our English and labelled the different parts of the Funnybones’ skeletons. Have a look at some of our wonderful label work.

We have also been learning about lists – what they are and when they might be useful. We had a go at writing our own lists to remind the skeletons of all the different places they could visit. We tried really hard to make sure we wrote each word on its own new line. Here are some of our lists:

Finally we wrote captions to go with pictures of the Funnybones characters. We worked hard to make sure we included capital letters, finger spaces and a full stop.

How to help at home: 

• Ask your child to help write shopping lists, birthday lists etc
• Encourage your child to label any models or artwork they complete at home – post it notes are good for labels.
• Visit the library – can you find any non-fiction books that contain lists, labels or captions?

 Welcome back, everyone! It has been wonderful to see the bright, happy faces of all the children this week and to meet with you. We’ve had a fantastic start to the new school year, and I’m excited to share what we’ve been up to.

At the beginning of the week, our headteacher, Ms Adams,  sent out a letter sharing our school vision. A key part of this vision is ensuring that every child feels happy and ready to learn. With that in mind, we’ve dedicated this first week to focusing on the “happy face” element—making sure that every child feels welcomed, secure and excited about the year ahead.

In Year 1 we have been exploring our classroom areas and settling into year 1 routines.

We have been thinking carefully about the Golden Rules. Whilst thinking about the Golden Rule ‘Do Look After Property’ we hunted around the classroom for useful resources we might need to use and practised putting our belongings away neatly.

We have also been thinking about the ‘Zones of Regulation. We have been thinking about how we feel and which zone that would be in. We practised visiting our safe spaces within our classroom, figure 8 breathing and mindful colouring to remind us what we can do when we need to self regulate.

We had our first science lesson this week and have been learning about the human body. We have been following another of our Golden Rules ‘Do work hard’ by paying attention on the carpet and joining in with discussions. The children demonstrated what they had heard and talked about by labelling a friend’s body. It was great fun when a Lion and Panther laid down and Miss Bates and Miss Honnor drew around their whole body with the pen! Here are some pictures of what we did:

We are extremely impressed with how well the children have settled back in after the summer holidays and we are looking forward to the year ahead.

This half term in English we have been learning about traditional tales. We drew a story map and added actions to help us learn the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’. We tried really hard to use good expression in our voices at the right times.

We learnt and practised writing plural words. We found out that most of the time you can just add ‘s’ but if the root word has a particular ending then you have to add ‘es’.

We also learnt how to add the prefix ‘un’ to words to change their meaning. For example – kind became unkind.

Then we worked together to innovate the story by changing the characters, settings and some of events. Panther’s chose to call their story ‘The Three Cold Polar Bears’, and Lion’s called theirs ‘The Three Little Minions’.

We went to Reception to share our new class story with them. They were very impressed with our wonderful writing.

This week we have been working hard to make up our own versions of the story.

How to support at home 

• Visit the library and look out for other traditional tales to read. Can you find more than one version of the same story? What’s the same? different?
• Find some objects around the house. Write the singular word, then write the plural word. Do you need to add ‘s’ or ‘es’?
• Make up a new character for a story. Draw your character and then choose some adjectives to describe them.

In Design and Technology we have been learning the skills of cutting and peeling. First we practised on playdough, learning how to handle the knife. We carefully used the knife to chop the playdough into smaller pieces and also how to slice safely.

After this, we learnt how to use a knife safely when cutting real fruits. We made sure we tucked our fingers in when holding the fruit and we moved our knife forwards and backwards slowly. We were very sensible!

Year 1 then taste tested a range of fruits and picked our top 3 favourites. From this, we then designed our own fruit kebabs based on which fruits we enjoyed the most.

Finally, we carefully followed our designs and made our very own delicious fruit kebabs.

Here are some pictures of our final products:

How to help at home:

• Make an ‘Eatwell’ plate and explain why different types of foods are good for you
• Under adult supervision, practise slicing different foods with a knife using the correct grip
• Under adult supervision, practise peeling different fruits with a peeler

This week in Year 1 we have been learning to tell the time.

We began by securing our knowledge of some of the vocabulary related to time, including before, after, past, earlier and later. We also learnt the difference between seconds, minutes and hours. We were interested to find out that there are 60 seconds in 1 minute and 60 minutes in 1 hour.

Then we practiced making whole and half turns in clockwise  and anticlockwise directions.  We linked this to a clock using the numbers 12, 3, 6 and 9. We particularly enjoyed using hoops as clocks and gave a partner instructions to turn.

Then we discussed the difference between the minute hand and hour hand. We noticed that the minute hand was longer than the hour hand and that it moves around the clock much faster.

To help us become familiar with the layout of a clock we made our own clocks. We can also use them to practise telling the time at home.

We learnt that when the time is __ o’clock that the minute hand always points to the 12.

Once we were confident to tell the time to the hour, we learnt that when the minute hand points to the 6 the time is half past ___. We looked carefully at the hour hand and noticed that it pointed in between 2 of the numbers, we had to work out which number it had been past already to help us know what the time was.

How you can help at home:

• Use the clock you made at school to practise telling the time – you could test your family to read the times you make or you could challenge them to make some o’clock and half past times.
• Set yourself clock challenges – Every time the time is o’clock, hop on your left foot 10 times. Every time the clock strikes half past, hop on your right foot 10 times.
• Use a timer to measure out seconds, minutes and hours – what activities can you do in each of these time periods?

This year’s Sports Day was a great success! Thank you to the Year 6 children from Ashfield School who came to support and help assist with the activities.

First we had an opening ceremony waving our team flags and walking down the centre of the activities. Some of our younger brothers and sisters at Merry Hill joined us.

Then we completed a carousel of 5 activities which gave us a chance to show off the knowledge and practical skills we have been developing in physical education this year, including overarm and underarm throws, hitting targets with accurate aim and moving in a variety of ways with steady balance.

The children said they enjoyed the egg and spoon race using tennis rackets and balls and scoring goals! For our ‘resting’ activity we had a water break station and played . After that we had  class races, teacher races, mum and dad races and even grandparent races. We then had a well deserved rest and got to enjoy a family picnic with our loved ones.

How to help your child at home:

• Make your own obstacle course at home.
• Practise an over arm swing and under arm swing.

In Year 1 this week we explored melting and freezing. First we discussed what these words mean to us. The children came up with ideas of where they have seen melting water and solid ice. Year 1 came up with ideas such as lakes, ice creams and ice lollies.

This week we completed an observing experiment where we held an ice cube in our hands and watched it melt.  We were stunned at just how fast our ice cubes melted!

We also completed an observation over time to see how long it would take for water to become a solid. We wanted to find out if it takes longer for liquid  to become a solid or for a solid to become a liquid.  We put water in our school freezer and checked on it throughout the day. We checked it after one hour and the water still had not become a solid. We were very excited to see the water become ice the very next day.

We found out that the ice took longer to freeze than to melt in our warm hands. Have a look at our excited faces watching the ice melt!

How to help at home:

• Time how long it takes for an ice cube to melt in your hands.
• Create an experiment to compare what different materials will melt the ice the quickest.
• Reinforce the language of ‘solid, liquid, melt and freeze’ in a variety of contexts at home e.g eat your solid ice lolly before it melts and becomes a liquid!

In RE we have been learning about special books. We started the topic by thinking about books that are special to us. Now we are learning about books that are special to some religions. We are learning about the Torah, the Bible and the Qur’an.

On Tuesday we visited Bushey United Synagogue. We learnt that a  synagogue is a space for worship and prayer for Jewish people. We learnt all about the Torah and how special it is to Jewish people.

We were very lucky to see the beautiful Ark where the Torahs are kept safely. We learnt that the Torah is held with wooden handles to stop anyone from touching the paper.

This week in Year 1 we visited Reveley Lodge which is a Victorian home. We were very excited to find out more about the Victorian era.

When we arrived we travelled back in time to live like Victorian children. As a part of our English and History topics, we learnt all about the lives of Victorian children.  First the children dressed up in traditional Victorian smock dresses and waistcoats. The boys stood in front of the girls with their hands behind their backs. The girls followed with their hands infront of them.

We were quickly sent to work washing clothes using a posser, dolly tub and mangle.

After we did our days work with laundry, the children stepped inside a Victorian classroom, writing their sentences on traditional slate boards. They even had a visit from the  strict school inspector!

Finally, the children relaxed after their hard work. We enjoyed drinking a warm cup of tea out of a teacup and saucer! We even sampled a slice of  Victoria sponge cake!

We are looking forward to writing a recount of our trip and to explore Victorian Merry Hill.

We would like to say a big thank you to the fantastic team at Reveley Lodge and to our parent helpers!

How you can support at home:

• Use time words such as first, next and after that to describe your daily routine.
• Draw what happened at Reveley Lodge in order.
• Practise retelling what happened at Reveley lodge as you will be writing your recounts after half term.

In Geography this half term we have been learning about The United Kingdom. We started the topic by learning which 4 countries are in the UK and where they are located on a map. We also looked at the seas surrounding the UK. We challenged ourselves to correctly label a blank map of the UK without looking at the atlas!

We have also looked at the flag for the UK and the flags for each of the countries within the UK. We looked carefully to see if we could find any parts of each country’s flag hidden in the UK flag. We also talked about the colours and shapes that had been used in them and talked about their similarities and differences.

Over the last few weeks we have been learning about each country in the UK individually. We are learning the capital city for each country as well as some famous landmarks that can be seen there and about some of the traditional foods that are eaten.  So far we have learnt about England, Scotland and Wales. Next week we will be learning about Northern Ireland.

How to support at home:

• Spend some time looking at maps and atlases with your child. Can you identify any places they have been to? Where would they like to visit?
• Visit the library and look for books about the countries in the UK. Can you find out any new information?
• Ask friends and family if they have ever been to Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales. What can they tell you about it?

In science this week we looked at the plants in our local area.

We identified some common wildflowers such as dandelions, daisies and clovers. We also identified some garden plants such as bluebells and daffodils.

We then explored 4 different areas of our school grounds to try and find out where we can find the most plants. We found out that most wildflowers grow on the field and that most garden plants are found by the pond. We used hula hoops to take small samples of different areas. We enjoyed counting all the daisies on the field- some of us even counted more than 40!

How you can help at home:

• Take a small area in your garden or local park and count how many wildflowers/ garden flowers you can see.
• Complete an observation over time of a wildflower or garden plant – what changes take place?
• Draw and label the key parts of a plant.

This half term in English and Science our learning has been linked to the traditional tale Jack and the Beanstalk.

We learnt to tell the story using a story map and actions. We practiced and practiced until we could do it without any help from our teachers!

We noticed that the story contained sentences that have a ‘who‘ and a ‘what‘ in them and have the correct punctuation. For example ‘Jack climbed up the beanstalk.  We also noticed that some sentences had been joined using the conjunctions ‘and’ and ‘because’.  We had a go at writing our own sentences about Jack that could go in the story.

We also noticed that the story was written in the past tense. We learnt that verbs in the past tense usually end in ‘ed’, even though they sometimes sound like they end in ‘t’, ‘id’ or ‘d’. We practiced changing sentences into the past tense.

This week we have been busy working together to change the characters and settings in the story. Panther class’ new story is about Queen Elizabeth and a mysterious book and Lion class’ new story is about Lily and a steep mountain.  Have a look at our wonderful writing.

In Science we have been growing our own beans. Some of them have already started to grow so we have been very excited to come in each morning and look at them. We are keeping a diary to show how they are changing over time.

How to support at home

• Practice spelling the year 1 harder to read and spell words
• Visit the library to see if you can find any other traditional tales – maybe you could have a go at changing the characters and settings in them
• Grow your own seeds – how do you think they will look once they have grown? Remember to keep checking back on them.