Year 1 Class Moles

Welcome to Year 1 Class - Moles!

Class Teacher: Mrs Robinson

TA : Mrs Kakoullis (The children call her Mrs K).

1:1 TA: Mrs Chapman (AM - Mon-Fri), Mrs Bevis (PM - Mon-Weds), Mrs Dignum (PM - Thurs/Fri) and Mrs Hall (PM - Mon)

The children all enjoyed taking part in the school Christmas performance and were amazing at singing and acting on stage!

Our topics for this year are:

Autumn 1 - Houses and Homes

Autumn 2 - The Dark

Spring 1 - Toys

Spring 2 - Growing

Summer 1 - The Sea

Summer 2 - Ourselves

This half term PE is on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Tuesday the children will be undertaking dance with an external dance coach. On Friday they will be learning team building games.

PE: Please ensure that your child comes to school in their PE kit on the days stated above. If your child is unable to tie laces they should wear velcro trainers. Earrings should be removed and long hair tied back.

Library: The children will visit the school Library on a Thursday. All children will be able to choose a book from the Library to take home and share. Please do ensure this book is kept in your child's bookbag.

Reading books: It is important that all children read to an adult on a daily basis and that a parent/adult signs their child's reading records to acknowledge that they have read to them. We kindly ask that reading books and records are stored in bookbags at all times to ensure that they can be changed regularly. Please do not put water bottles in book bags.

Homework: Please continue to support your child with their math's challenges. They can access additional reading material on Reading Eggs and maths activities on Maths Seeds. These can both be accessed on the Reading Eggs site and a login should have been provided in Early Years. Please speak to the class teacher if you need a login.

Homework and ways to help your child with their learning

2022-23

Autumn 2

Computing - The children have started this block familiarising themselves with the layout of the keys by playing 'Falling Letters'. This will help them with the e-safety aspect of copywrite and learning to name their own work. They will then learn to use some tools on a drawing programme and will apply what they have learnt to a digital piece of artwork of Van Gogh's 'Starry Night.'

Art - In art the children learnt about the colour wheel and primary and secondary colours. They then learnt to colour mix the secondary colours. They discussed which colours were warm and which were cool.

Art - The children learnt about Vincent Van Gogh and looked at his painting 'Starry Night' to identify some features of his art. They then created mood boards, trying out some of his techniques before applying what they had learnt, first in a step-by-step tutorial using pastels and then in an independent painting.

Geography - The children have been learning about the weather and seasons. They learnt how the weather varies according to the seasons and thought about how to dress appropriately for different seasons/weather conditions. The learnt which months fall in which season.

Maths - Subtraction: The children have been learning about addition and subtraction. Here they are learning how to subtract using a number line to count back.

Winter Art Morning - The children took part in a morning of art today, learning how to use charcoal to to create lines, shade and depth. Following an introductory assembly where they learnt about cool colours and looked at example pictures, they then followed step by step instructions to create their own art work. It was a messy but fun morning and the children produced some great workl!

Science - The children have been learning about animal classification and grouped animals in different ways saying why they belonged to this group. They also learnt about carnivores, herbivores and omnivores,and nocturnal amimals..

A visit from the owls - Today the children had a visit from three owls from Barleylands to get our topic of 'The Dark' off to a flying start! They learnt lots of facts about the owls and were amazed at how quietly 'Majesty' the Barn Owl flew over their heads. 'Elvis' the Southern White Faced Owl was really cute and the children laughed at 'Chaos' the Burrowing Owl as he an around the hall floor.

Autumn 1

Computing - The children have been using the Chrome Books and have been learning how to log on with a username and password. They have focused on basic skills of dragging and dropping and how to use simple tools on a drawing program. They also learnt SMART rules for staying safe on the internet and made a SMART bookmark.

Instruction Writing - The children are learning about writing instructions. They began by thinking about the purpose of instructions and when they might use them (e.g. in Lego packs, recipes, putting furniture together, etc). They then had to give/follow instructions to make a Multilink snake to understand that the instructions need to be in order, accurate and a little bit bossy (e.g. 'Put the yellow cube on the red cube.' - this helps them to understand imperative verbs).

DT - The children have used the text 'The Three Little Pigs' in several areas this half term (Science, DT, Geography and DT). In DT they have been learning how walls need to be strong, before commencing making a house later this week. Here they built walls and tested them using the hairdryer to represent the big bad wolf huffing and puffing.

DT (Continued) - The children have been learning about materials and how to join them. They then applied this knowledge when designing and building a house with a partner. Here are some pictures of them working.

Video (1).MOV

This is the song we performed for the Harvest Festival. It is called 'The Harvest Samba'.

Maths - The children have been learning to use part-part-whole models for addition. They have recorded their number sentences and realised that addition can be done in any order, e.g. 3+4=7 and 4+3=7.

Science - We have been learning about materials. The children have identified a variety of different materials and named them (e.g. wood, metal, glass, etc). They classified different materials (shown below) and have learnt about the properties of materials, hard, soft, rough, smooth, etc.They thought about why some materials are more suited to a particular purpose, such as glass for windows.

Science investigation - Oh no...there is a hole in the roof of the Little Pig's house. The children had to investigate different materials to see which would be most suitable to make a patch until it could be repaired.

Geography - We have been learning about our local area. We looked at a map and learnt what the symbols represent, how a key is used and about the compass points. We drew maps of our own.

PSHE - Being Me in my world: The children have begun by learning about their rights and responsibilities as learners in class. One of these is the right to feel safe. We talked about what makes them feel safe and where and how we could bring this into the classroom. We looked at the PSHE Charter (rules) and the children have signed their agreement of them.

RE - This week the children have focused on the meaning of friendship. They have discussed ways of demonstrating friendship and what makes their friends important to them. We read some Bible stories and discussed Jesus as a friend and thought about when Jesus may have found it hard to show friendship and how he may have been feeling.

2021-22

A special treat - On what was the hottest day off the year so far, the children were delighted to have a visit from the ice-cream van.

Junk Orchestra - Today we took part in 'Junk Orchestra' and made music using instruments made from repurposed materials. It's quite amazing what you can make with items that people classify as 'junk.' If you would like to make some instruments there are some links to videos under 'Special Events.'

Forest School - The children undertook a wide variety of different activities, from making dens and a mud kitchen to toasting and eating marsh mellows (vegan).They all had a fantastic time!

An Important Visitor

Today we had a very important visitor in Year 1. Michael Almond is an ambassador for the Queen and he came to share a book and to talk to us about the Queen and her Platinum Jubilee. He shared the book 'Little Elizabeth' with us and asked/answered questions about the Queen. Mr Almond looked very important in his uniform and had lots of medals which he told us about. We loved sharing the story and talking with him about the Queen. Mr Arnold later sent an email commending us on our behaviour and attentiveness.

Teddy Bear Festival: Year 1 brought their teddy bears to school for an afternoon of fun sporting activities organsied and run by Mrs Barton and her Year 9 helpers from Billericay School. The teddies were thrown, bounced, balanced and used in a variety of other ways as they helped the children participate in races and activites. The children had a fabulous time (and the teddies less so!)

Drama 4 All - We took part in a drama lesson about reducing, reusing and recycling waste.

Father's Day - The children had a great time choosing a present for their Dad for Father's Day.

Our Amazing Learning - Summer 2

Computing - The children have been learning about data handling. They have learnt what data is and that is easier to understand when presented in a pictogram. They have gathered data and used it to make their own pictograms. They have analysed the data, asking and anwering questions to demonstrate their understanding. The children also demonstrated what they have learnt about e-safety this year by making flap books.

Maths - Money: One of the things we have been learning in maths this half term is 'money.' We worked on coin and note recognition, recognising how much a coin was worth, making totals and equivalence, and problems solving using money.

Design Technology - We revisited healthy eating and foods which are healthy/unhealthy. The children then tasted a variety of fruits to see if they liked or disliked them to prepare for designing and making a fruit kebab.

The children had great fun designing and making their fruit kebabs and they thoroughly enjoyed eating them! They will evaluate their work to complete this block of learning.

Science - Humans: The children have been naming parts of the body. Here they challenged one another to find particular parts of the body, which they then marked with a Post it note.

Science - The Senses: We explored our senses using a variety of objects. We investigated different tastes and smells, making predictions of what they might be. It was great fun!

RE - We have been learning about Judaism and the New Year celebration of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We looked at some some artefacts that are important to Jews when they celebrate this festival, such as candles and Challah bread. We learnt lots of information about how this festival is celebrated and how important it is to Jews.

PE - In PE we have started practising for sports day.

PSHE - We have been learning about changes. We used a baby photo of ourselves to think about how we have changed since we were born. We discussed how we might continue to grow in the future.

Our Amazing Learning - Summer 1

Our School Trip to Southend on Sea

Computing - What is technology? We learnt what technology is and hunted for examples of technology around school. We sorted pictures into 'technology/not technology. We discussed how technology makes our lives easier (when it works) and can be fun, but sometimes can have negative connotations too.

Computing - E Safety/sending an email: The children revisited our SMART internet safety rules and talked about how to stay safe online. We discussed the purpose of an avatar and all the children created one of their own, remembering that it should not look like them. They then learnt how to send safe emails and wrote and sent an email to a storybook character.

Science - Animal classification: We revisited the way in which animals are classified.

We then looked at sea creatures and classified these, looking closely at the structure of the animals to see what made them fit that classification group.

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Design Technology - We designed, made and evaluated 'Under the sea boxes.' We were able to use skills that we have previously learnt such as springs and sliding mechanisms.

Clay - We made fish out of clay. We used different tools and learnt about 'slip' and how we can use it to join pieces of clay.

PE - Tennis: We have been learning different skills for playing tennis.

RE - Judaism: We learnt about Shabbat - the Sabbath.

Music

The children have been learning a unit of music called 'Your Imagination.' They listened to 'Daydream Believer' by the Monkees for musical appreciation, saying if they liked it and why/why not. They identified a piano, electric guitar, drums and trumpet playing and we talked a bout a bass guitar. The children then played call and response clapping game - they are getting very good at this. They learnt the song 'Your Imagination' and played percussion to it, following a musical score.