Mr Hancox and Mrs Slusarczyk

P.E. Days and Forest School

PE: Thursdays (& Mondays from 5th October)

Can children please come in wearing their P.E. kits on these days.  Long hair must be tied up and any watches, earrings or other jewellery removed.  Children should have shorts for P.E. sessions; for safety reasons, only children wearing shorts can be allowed to use the P.E. apparatus.  Children should also wear a hoodie and jogging bottoms in case of cooler weather.

 

Forest School: Wednesday

Forest School sessions for Year 1 will begin on Wednesday September 9th, with three further sessions on Wednesday September 16th, Wednesday September 23rd and Wednesday 30th September.  As with P.E. days, children should come in wearing their P.E. kits including jogging bottoms (no bare legs in the copse for safety reasons) and a hoodie.  Long hair must be tied up and any watches, earrings or other jewellery removed.  In case of bad weather, they should also have a waterproof coat and wellies.  Due to the nature of forest school sessions clothes may get muddy, so please don't send your child in anything that can't be washed!

 

Home Learning

English:  Make time to read with your child for approximately 5-10 minutes every day, as well as practising the Phonics Tricky Words attached to the bottom of this page.  Our Library Day is every Tuesday, so children can also bring their library books back and exchange them for new ones then.

You don't need to record each daily reading session in your child's Reading Diary, but do make an entry at least two or three times a week; whenever they finish a book; or just to say that they enjoyed a particular story you've shared. 

Maths:  (20-30 minutes per week)  Following the White Rose Maths scheme, we're looking at Number and Place Value to 10.  Can your child count to 10 forwards, backwards and starting from any number?

Number recognition is also important in Year 1, and the children frequently struggle to recognise the tricky teen numbers between 10 and 20.  I've attached some number recognition flashcards to the bottom of this page if you'd like to practise at home.  The 'Out and About' cards on our maths page also have some great ideas for exploring numbers in everyday situations.

Picture News

Primary Picture News is a child-friendly look at some of the events going on around the world.  This week, the children heard about an increase in tiger numbers.  Ask your child about the story using some of the conversation starters above.

 

Class Reader

We read a range of books in our daily story time.  At the moment, we're reading 'Rabbit & Bear: Rabbit's Bad Habits' by Julian Gough and Jim Field.

Ask your child about the story.  Can they tell you what happened and which characters they remember?  Do they have a favourite part of the story that they could tell you about or draw a picture of?  Which of Rabbit's bad habits do they think is the worst?

 

A Taste of Our Learning

Week 4, Geographical jargon, marvellous materials and testing, testing

Our Geography unit this term is all about our local area.  We began by learning that, at its heart, Geography is the study of people and places.  We then went on to explore the difference between 'human geography' (geographical features that are built by humans, such as towns, bridges and dams), and 'physical geography' (natural features such as hills, forests, rivers and even the weather).

The children then took the iPads out to photograph some examples of both human and physical geography.  Can they tell you which is which from their photos here?

Our Science topic this term involves learning about 'Everyday Materials'.  The children explored a wide range of objects that had been placed around the room, all made from different materials with different properties.  The children were easily able to identify and sort the materials - including wood, plastic, metal, fabric, rock and paper - and soon got used to describing them using scientific terminology such as 'hard', 'soft', 'flexible', 'transparent', 'waterproof', 'absorbent' and 'stretchy'.

Which common everyday materials can you see around you?  Can your child identify the material and describe some of its properties?

We were lucky enough to be involved in a real-life Design & Technology situation this week, as education company Show Me came in to do some product research.

The children used a new range of whiteboard pens, giving their invaluable opinion on what they liked and didn't like about them.  They then suggested some (occasionally very blue-sky!) improvements, before doing a scientific strength test to see what kind of forces the products might have to withstand in the hands of a six-year-old.

Can your child tell you what they thought of the new pens?

Week 3 - Christmas crackers, serious celebrating and reading the rules

No, that wasn't a mistake in the heading!  Despite it still being September, we've been fabulously festive in Year 1 this week by creating some eye-catching Christmas cards.  With a backdrop of Christmas music to get us in the festive mood, the children finger-painted around stencils to create colourful relief images of Christmas trees.

The children's Christmas cards will be coming home today, giving you plenty of time to order cards, tags and other goodies featuring your child's design in time for Christmas.  Click here for more details from the Cauliflower Cards website.

In World Faith and Philosophy, we started our look at the Harvest Festival by discussing celebrations in general.

The children talked about things we celebrate and created a long list, including everything from birthdays, Christmas and bonfire night, to Halloween, scoring a goal and moving up a swimming group.

They then drew pictures to illustrate things they might celebrate and how they like to celebrate them -  many of which involved cake!

Ask your child about their favourite celebrations.

Our PSHE topic this week was all about making and respecting rules.

We began with a class discussion about rules, talking about many of the rules we have at school, such as not running in the corridors and walking through the fire circle in Forest School.  We then moved on to why we have these rules, which the children were able to recognise were there to keep them safe rather than just spoil their fun.

They also came up with their own ideas for some extra school rules we might want to adopt!

Week 2 - Fabulous forest school, cool counting and tracking down technology

The children had their first Forest School session of the year this week, and loved the opportunity to get their hands (and everything else!) dirty.

Alongside climbing trees, building dens and cooking up a storm in the mud kitchen, the children also whittled sticks and listened out for the different sounds they could hear in the copse and coming from the surrounding fields.

Ask your child what sounds they could hear and what their favourite Forest School activities were this week.

 

In Maths, we've been working on number and place value by sorting and counting groups of objects.  We talked about the different ways we could sort objects (by shape or colour for instance) and the children then had a number of challenges to complete using different objects around the classroom.

They've also been honing their number skills in other ways, from jigsaws and dot-to-dot puzzles to matching activities and cut-and-stick games.

Ask your child about their favourite maths activities this week?

Our Computing this term is all about technology inside and outside the classroom.

We began by talking about what 'Technology' means, defining it as "Something made by people to help us".

Next, the children went on a technology hunt around the classroom, finding both electronic and non-electronic examples of technology, which included everything from computers to pencil sharpeners.

What examples of technology can your child find around the house?

Week 1 - Welcome Back!

We've had a busy first few days back!  First, we created our Year 1 Class Charter based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).  After going through the Articles that were most appropriate for Year 1, the children chose the Rights they felt were most important to them and included them in our Class Charter.  These included the Right to be heard (Article 12), the Right to an education (Article 28), the Right to play and rest (Article 31), and the Right to nutritious food and clean water (Article 24).

Which Rights did your child choose to draw a picture to illustrate?

As this week was all about settling in and setting expectations for the coming year, that also included learning about how to keep ourselves safe online.  The children heard the story of Smartie the Penguin and we talked about what to do if we ever see something online that makes us feel sad, scared or worried.  This message was backed up by a video featuring Jessie and Friends, and enabled us to create and sign our own Year 1 E-Safety Charter, which you can find alongside the Class Charter at the bottom of this page.

Can your child tell you how they can keep themselves safe online? 

As part of the settling-in process, the children have also had plenty of time this week to get to know their new classroom.

During Explorer Time, everybody has checked out all the different areas of the classroom, from the shop and role-play area, to the creative zone and outdoor spaces.

Not only has it given the children time to get to know their new classroom, but also to get to know their two new classmates too!

Ask your child about what they've enjoyed most about their first week in their new classroom.

 

Phonics Word Wall

We go through all the words on our Word Wall every day as part of our Phonics lesson.  The tricky words are organised and labelled to indicate which Phonics Phase and book bands the words will appear in (Pink, Red, Yellow/Blue, Green/Orange), mirroring the order in which the different Phonics sounds and phases are taught.

Age-related expectation is that children should be reading Orange books by the end of Year 1, and should therefore be able to read, recognise and understand all the words down to the bottom of the board when they appear in a text.  They should also be able to start using them in their own writing, utilising the Word Wall in order to help them with their spellings.

 

Internet Safety and Parental Controls

There have been instances of children across a number of year groups discussing inappropriate Internet content they have viewed at home.  Please ensure that your Internet-linked devices at home are suitably supervised and protected using the parental controls available.  For advice on how to keep your child safe online, including the use of parental controls, click this link to the NSPCC website.  If you'd like to know how to set up parental controls specific to gaming - limiting game time, in-game communication or setting spending limits for instance - click on this link to the EA Games website.

Our Learning Behaviours