Then we applied our first coat of paper mache... it wasn't looking good. Another day and another coat... they started to take shape! Finally, we applied a thick layer of paint.
Miss Williamson would like us to let you know that all of this wouldn't be possible without the support from the families. We have had such a fantastic week!
Thursday 1st July
This week we have been getting up to lots of exciting things. There have been several writing opportunities based around our trip as well as some active PE lessons.
This week we have been writing our leaflets about visiting Gosforth Nature Reserve. We have been encouraging others to visit and do all the amazing things we did, including bird watching and pond dipping. Children explored the features of leaflets, including using paragraphs, subheadings, maps and descriptive adjectives. They then applied this in their writing. We are hoping to display these in school so keep your eyes peeled on our school Twitter!
In Maths we have been doing telling the time to half past. Miss Williamson was blown away with how much we have remembered! Here is our favourite Supermovers clip for you to engage with at home:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/ks1-maths-telling-the-time/zk4t8xs
Finally, we have begun to apply our batting and bowling skills in PE to a mini rounders game. Children are getting to grips with the rules for this sport but it is proving lots of fun, especially in the sunshine!
In RE we made prayer stones and wrote our own prayers as part of our 'I'm Sorry' topic. We shared these with each other outside!
Friday 30th April
This has been one of my favourite weeks of the term! I have loved seeing the children so enthusiastic and motivated in their learning and activities. Read on to find out some of the fun things we have been doing!
English
We have continued with our instructional writing this week and wrote some amazing instructions on how to wash a woolly mammoth! We needed some help testing them out so we borrowed Poppy, the school dog, to make sure our steps were right. We included time conjunctions, imperative verbs and lots of description to help!
Maths
Continuing on from our Place Value topic, we have been looking at tens and ones. We have really focused on understanding representing numbers, working out one more and less using resources then applying this learning in different ways. We even went to Forest School to use natural materials. A stick was a ten and a leaf was a one. Something fun to try at home too!
Art
In Art we are looking at famous sculptors. We learnt about the statue of David. Oh no! His head broke! We had to design a new head to replace it.
Commando Joe’s
We finished the week with our Commando Joe’s day. Simba set us some challenges to complete in the African Savannah. It tested our problem solving, communication and team work skills!
First we made animal masks to help us get into role. We used these in our challenges, including the obstacle course across the African desert.
Then we had to build a hyena trap to help Simba escape the elephant graveyard.
Next we had to help Simba escape a stampede! We built a bridge to help him cross the river where the crocodiles roamed. On the way, we had to collect bugs (balls) to keep our energy up… watch out for the red poisonous ones!
Finally, we made our own obstacle course to get back to Pride Rock where the Commando Joe’s bear was! We even challenged ourselves to do this blindfolded. Miss Williamson was so impressed with how we used kindness, understanding and communication to support our peers to get across.
Remember to keep reading to get yourself on our reading ninja wall! Use this long weekend to do lots of reading before books are changed on Tuesday.
Children can come into school from 8:45. During this time they have the chance to read with an adult, it would be fantastic if you could support us and make sure that the children are there and ready to go.
Have a lovely bank holiday! See you next week.
In PE we have been playing badminton. We are super competitive and loved playing for points. We had to walk to the end of the yard, lie down and come back to our team without dropping the shuttlecock.
Friday 26th March
One more week until Easter! Next week is Holy Week and we have some lovely activities planned in Year 1. But for this week, take a look at what we have been up to…
English
In English, we have been reading Bob’s Best Ever Friend by Simon Bartram (a well-loved author in our class). We are building up to write our own adventure story just like him. We started our week with an immersive hook. We explored the different planets and thought about adjectives to do with their texture. We had so much fun! This helped us in our writing as we then used this to label the images of the different planets with lots of wow adjectives. Ask us to describe Venus, Mars, Uranus and the Moon.
In fact, we loved it so much that some of us made a solar system on the yard at break time!
Maths
In Maths we have been continuing with our work on counting in multiples of two, five and ten. We have been outside playing games to practise this. We have been using paint to make groups of ten. Lots of active ways to practising our counting.
DT
We made our final product! Check out our moving cars below.
RE
We created some beautiful artwork as part of our RE topic. We loved using the water colours to make a colourful background for our cross.
Over the past few weeks we have been mindfulness colouring, making lent promise chains and making crosses in forest school all as part of our Weekly Lenten Reflections.
Finally, we ended the week on such a high. The ice cream man visited St Charles' and we all got to have a sweet treat in the sun.
Make sure you get involved with our design an egg competition! The children have had some lovely ideas of what they could do today. Make sure you bring them in on Wednesday 31st to be judged.
Another fantastic week Year 1! Keep up the amazing work, Miss Williamson is so impressed.
Computing
Linking to our English, we have been practising our skills on Word. We have been writing fact files about Mars. We learnt how to insert images this week.
Friday 12th March
Welcome back Year 1!
I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to see all your smiling faces and have the classroom full of life again this week. We have been very busy this week with lots of fantastic learning, read all about in our first blog back.
Maths
In Maths we have been learning about mass and weight. We have been using balance scales and non-standard units to weigh different objects in our classroom. We love to do Maths investigations like this because we get to use all our fantastic mathematical language; heavier than, lighter than and equal.
English
In English, something strange happened! This weekend, our caretaker Mr Siou found something unusual in the yard. When he checked the CCTV look what he found!
We have loved reading Man on the Moon by Simon Bartram. We met him on World Book Day. We had lots of clues and pictures that we had to use to try and guess what our text was going to be…
We also found out that we have a ticket booked to Mars. Unfortunately, we cannot go until July 2026 but we can write a recount about our ‘pretend’ trip to Mars.
Design and Technology
In DT, we have been learning about moving vehicles. To kick us off this week, we made porotypes using called axles and wheels. This allowed us to plan our ideas.
Music
Finally, we enjoyed ourselves with a song and dance outdoors and socially distanced of course. I have attached the lyrics to the songs we will be learning in class so that you can practise at home!
Remember to bring your reading books and record in everyday should an adult want to read with you at school.
I would like to say a huge well done to Year 1 and their fantastic return! They have achieved so much and should be so proud of themselves.
Friday 18th December 2020
Our final full week before Christmas and what a week it has been! Read on to find out all of the amazing festive fun we have had.
Firstly, I wanted to send a huge thank you for the very thoughtful gifts the Year 1 team received. I am very appreciative of all of the support over this term and believe the biggest gift has been educating your wonderful children.
Forest School
In Forest School this week, we used the natural materials to make Christmas trees. We used sticks and twigs to create a design and then tidied them together with ribbon. We think they decorate our outdoor area nicely!
English
We started the week very confused. Where was Jingle Jim our class elf? We followed the clues to Forest School where we found him in a tree! He had left us a letter telling us that Santa had lost all of our letters. But, we were not sad for long as Jim told us he was going to deliver our letters personally. Over the next few days he rested before his big trip to the North Pole. Meanwhile, we looked at the features of a good letter and wrote our own.
Maths
In maths we were looking at quarters and spent time quartering some objects, shapes and quantities. We ended the week by sharing amounts between four equal parts of a paper plate to consolidate our understanding.
Science
As part of our catch up curriculum, we focused on Working Scientifically by bringing elements of enquiry and curiosity into our experiment. We have been looking at polar bears and how they stay warm in the freezing temperatures. We began by thinking about what a good question to investigate would look like. We learnt about the six different types of enquiry. We then selected two approaches. First, we began by researching using secondary sources. From real scientists and the websites like the National Geographic channel, we learnt that polar bears have some very cool features to help them! We then conducted our own experiment to see if blubber really does keep you warm. However, our favourite part was checking in on the polar bear tracker to see what they were doing.
Have a look for yourself: https://polarbearsinternational.org/polar-bears/tracking/
We also created some art work based on our furry friends!
Finally, normality returned as we ate Christmas dinner, wore Christmas jumpers, had a visit from Santa and partied together!
Friday 27th November 2020
Well done Year 1, you have shone this week with your amazing work in all areas!
English
In English we have been writing instructions on 'How to make a gingerbread man'. We started the week by engaging our senses, smelling cinnamon sticks, ginger and sampling some gingerbread men. We wrote some sentences using the vocabulary we collected. We then identified the features of non-fiction writing before writing our own.
Maths
This week we have been continuing multiplication, looking at arrays. We started the week by doing it practically before recording it in our books. We then began to think about our next topic which is division. We looked at halving and sharing the cubes.
Music
In Music we have been continuing with our song 'Hey You' and looked at another hip hop song called 'Me, Myself and I'. The children really enjoyed dancing along, clapping to the pulse and finding the beat.
Finally, remember to keep reading at home to move up our Reading Ninja Wall.
SURPRISE DELIVERY
We have had a special delivery this week! Our Elf on the Shelf has been isolating with Pip in Mrs Higgin's office for 10 days, ready to surprise the children next week.
Friday 20th November 2020
Congratulations Year 1 for another fantastic week! Read on to hear all of the amazing things we have done this week.
English
In English we have been planning, writing and editing our own tale of fear! It was lovely to see the children get so involved with creating their own characters who were anxious, worried and nervous just like Scaredy Squirrel.
Maths
This week we have been looking at multiplication. We started the week by making doubles and recording these on a whiteboard. We also did some fantastic problem solving! We then looked at making equal groups. We played lots of games to help us understand grouping.
Design and Technology
In D&T we have been continuing to think about what a 3D structure is and needs. We came up with lots of ideas on how to strengthen our structures. We used pasta and marshmallows to build 3D structures. Sticky work!
Geography
We have been looking at the human and physical features of our local area. We have listed all the things we may find in two different areas, Regent Farm Road and Forest School. We then went on a walk, virtually and around the school grounds, to see if we could spot any more.
Computing
Linking to our English, we have been using an app called Puppet Pals to retell the story of Scaredy Squirrel. We really enjoyed listening to our voices back and watching the character, Scaredy Squirrel, move on the page.
Finally, I hope that you have been able to access Teams to find the spelling overview for this term. A printed copy was sent home on Monday as well. Make sure you are practising every week for our test on Friday.
Friday 6th November 2020
It is already week 9 and we have so much to tell you! Please read about all of the amazing things we have done this week.
English
In English we have been reading a story about a scared squirrel called Scaredy Squirrel who is terrified of the unknown. We have collected lots of amazing adjectives to describe this character and considered the advantages and disadvantages of leaving the nut tree. Next week we are really looking forward to writing our own tale of fear!
Maths
This week we looked at 3D shapes and learnt about the faces, vertices and edges of common shapes. We were really good at reasoning and have begun to use ‘because’ in our answer to make us super mathematicians! Ask us what the difference between a square based and triangular based pyramid is.
PE
In PE we moved on from dynamic balances to look at coordination with equipment. It was really important that we had complete control over the ball. We perfected our stances, rolled the ball to our partner and challenged ourselves to see if we could roll it at the wall for it to come back.
Science
This week we ventured into Forest School for our Science lesson on materials. It was great to see the children so engaged as they were motivated to find all of the items on their checklist. My personal favourite was ‘find something that makes a good noise’ as the children were so inventive, using sticks to make music on the metal and wood.
Finally, we finished the week with a bang as we celebrated Children in Need! It was wonderful to see all of the children dressed up or down in their pyjamas.
I would like to take this opportunity to clarify the homework updates for Year 1.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Friday 6th November 2020
Welcome back Year 1! I have loved hearing about what you have been up to over the past week.
English
In English we have been writing sense poems all about fireworks. The children watched a virtual fireworks display, collected adjectives to describe them, sorted them into their senses and wrote their own poems. We even performed Crackle! Spit! by Marie Thom with actions. How many can you remember?
I hope you will all be listening out for all of the lovely sounds we talked about in class this weekend. Bang! Sizzle! Pop!
Maths
In Maths we have been exploring 2D shapes and will be moving onto 3D shapes next week. We have been on a shape hunt, completed a shape sort and even done some tricky problem solving involving quadrilaterals. Please ask us what a 2D shape is. This linked into our Design and Technology lesson as we were making 3D nets.
Computing
Linking to our English, this week we were introduced to our new unit called 'Animation'. We were surprised to learn that some of the clips Miss Williamson showed us were made using a technique called stop motion. We then used playdough to create stop motion fireworks displays. Have a look at some below! We think we did a pretty good job!
Mission Day
We also had our Feast Day for St Charles this week. Thank you to everybody who brought in cardboard boxes, we had so many! First, we learnt about what a mission was and all became missionaries on a journey to deliver a message. Sticking with the genre of poetry, we wrote acrostic poems using adjectives and key words from our school’s mission statement. Then we designed a badge for our school. Then we made our designs using oil pastels. Our favourite part was making them 3D with a banner.
Thank you for reading so much and so often, this has meant the children have come back with a love and desire to read. Please continue to do this through the weeks.
To ensure we are fostering this love of reading, we will be visiting the library lots more this term. Our next slot is Friday 13th November. If you could please make sure that school library books are returned to school before this date so that we can quarantine them, thank you.
Finally, I wanted to thank you for such a wonderful start to this half term and say a huge well done to Year 1 for having such a fantastic week!
Friday 23rd October 2020
This is our final blog post of Autumn 1 and it is a good one! We have been up to some exciting things this week and can’t wait to share them.
Commando Joe’s
At the beginning of the week, there was a mysterious package dropped off by what looked like the army. As a team we went to investigate. We found a large box full of equipment to help us complete our TOP SECRET missions which were all linked to Traditional Tales. First, we had to rescue Goldilocks from the deep, dark forest where she had gotten lost. She needed help crossing the river so we used the equipment to build bridges. Then we had to help Jack collect the treasure by building a pathway across the beanstalk, past the sleeping giant, to the coins. The gold balls were worth the most points but to get them we had to read a red word. Finally, we had to scale the beanstalk. We completed this mission outside and used the equipment to build pathways and bridges across the different sections. It was very interesting to see what equipment each group selected for the different parts of the beanstalk. Luckily, we were able to save all the characters and complete our missions before it was time for lunch… yum porridge.
Geography: Our School
This week we spent two afternoons completing our Geography project about ‘Our School’. This has created a good base for next terms topic ‘Our Local Area’. We have used the Bee Bots to explore positional language and even turned ourselves into human Bee Bots giving our partners instructions. We also created treasure maps for the Forest School. Our favourite activity was using Google Maps to study the road that our school is on as we got to see how some of the buildings have changed or stayed the same.
History: Thomas Edison
Towards the end of this week, we were able to spend two afternoons completing a project on a significant individual called Thomas Edison. We were really interested in his inventions and what it meant to be an inventor. We created timelines of his life. Did you know that Thomas Edison was partially deaf? We then interviewed the inventor by considering what questions we would ask him if he was here today. We went on a virtual school trip to Cragside, creating links with our local history, and learnt about Robert Swan who introduced the light bulb here. Did you know that Thomas Edison took Robert Swan to court over the light bulb design? Finally, we created gripping adverts to advertise the NEW light bulb.
Your child will be coming home with additional reading books for the half term. Please ensure you continue to read with them during the holidays as I have been so impressed with how engaged the children have been with reading widely and for pleasure.
After the half term, we will be completing our Mission Day. I would like to ask if you could start collecting cardboard, in the form of cereal boxes etc., for your child to use at school. If you could bring this to school before the 4th November, this would help us greatly when completing some of the craft activities we have planned.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Year 1 for the amazing start we have had to the year. They have made so much progress in settling back into school routines and I can tell we are going to have a fantastic year because of this. I cannot wait to see what we get up to in Autumn 2!
Friday 9th October 2020
Another fantastic week had in Year 1! We have impressed everyone this week from our amazing journey stories to our ability to make shapes with our bodies in PE. Read all about it on our blog.
English
This week in English our class story was taken over by a sneaky character called Little Blue Riding Hat. We looked at what features were important in a journey story such as story language and wrote our own version inspired by Little Red Riding Hood’s mischievous little brother.
Maths
In Maths this week we have been working really hard on using mathematical symbols correctly when representing number bonds to 20. We have even used our bodies to create human part whole models. Say it with me Year 1, 20 (clap)… 18 (click)… 2 (click)!
PE
In PE this week, we completed a series of jumps from the large vault with Miss Williamson’s help. We were very brave and conquered our fears. By the end of the lesson, we were using the large vault to do half turns, full turns, star jumps, tuck jumps and pikes. Check out our action shots below.
Forest School
Finally, we attended Forest School where we learnt all about the animals that use our school as a home for their families. We decorated bug hotels and even made our own soft, warm nests for some mice. Let’s hope that they find some comfort from this cold weather.
I hope that you have all received your Teams login details and have been able to access it. I have uploaded the Spelling Homework to the ‘Assignments’ tab at the top of our Year 1 channel as well as providing a printed copy. If you would like to get more familiar with this online platform, please respond to the Spelling Homework Assignment with a picture showing me all the creative ways that you have been preparing for our weekly spelling quiz.
Congratulations for another amazing week! I am looking forward to Week 6!
Week 4
Friday 2nd October
We have had another fantastic week in Year 1 and can’t wait to update you on our blog!
English
In English, we have moved on from labels, lists and captions to start writing our own journey story. We started our week by venturing into the deep, dark woods to retell the story of Little Red Riding Hood. We really enjoyed playing the roles of the characters and began sequencing the events of Little Red Riding Hood’s journey. Towards the end of the week, we wrote our own setting description and Miss Williamson was blown away by the descriptive language we used. Next week, we are beginning to write our own journey story and we can’t wait!
Maths
In Maths, we have been representing numbers to 20. Please ask us what represent means as we have created our own catchy rhyme to help us remember to use all of the amazing mathematical language we have been taught. We then looked at ‘less’ and ‘more’ by comparing two groups of objects.
PE
In PE, we had lots of fun moving at different heights. It became quite challenging when Miss Williamson introduced some obstacles. We really impressed not only Miss Williamson but ourselves and earned a Class Dojo point for perseverance. Keep up the good work!
Next Wednesday, we will be returning to Forest School to spend some time outdoors with Ms Owens. This is very exciting and we will be learning lots of great skills that we can then apply in the classroom such as team work, confidence building and resilience. Please make sure that on this day you are well prepared to brave the outdoors!
Lastly, we have started our Harvest collection so if you would like to donate anything we would be very grateful.
Well done Year 1! You are making yourselves and Miss Williamson very proud.
Friday 25th September
We have had an amazing week in Year 1 and made Miss Williamson very happy with all our hard work! We have had lots of exciting and engaging things happen that we can’t wait to share with you on our blog.
English
We started our week by venturing into Forest School to complete an Autumn scavenger hunt. Back in the classroom, we continued with our work on labels, lists and captions, creating our own Autumn Checklist based on the things we found. We then labelled the leaves we found in Forest School.
I would encourage you all to print out the checklist we created as a class and go on your own scavenger hunt. Happy hunting!
Art
In Art, we looked at the artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo who was alive 500 years ago! He made portraits out of fruit, vegetables, meat and fish. Miss Williamson was super impressed with how well we were able to talk about his paintings and the ones we liked and disliked. We were so inspired by his work that we made our own fruit faces to hang in our classroom.
Computing
To finish off the week, we went on a school trip. Can you guess where? We travelled all the way to the San Diego Zoo to watch live footage of the animals. We were able to see penguins, pandas, giraffes and owls. If you would like to check in on our animal friends the link you need is https://kids.sandiegozoo.org/videos.
We also had our first visit to the school library to choose some books to enjoy at home. This was a very exciting time for Year 1 and we really enjoyed sharing our choices with a friend.
Lastly, PE is on a Tuesday and Thursday. Text messages will be sent out as a reminder. Please ensure your child is sent to school in the appropriate PE kit as we will be attempting to go outside as much as possible.
Congratulations Year 1 for another fantastic week! I look forward to seeing you all in school on Monday.
Friday 18th September 2020
This week in Year 1 we have been continuing to adjust to our rules and routines with lots of handwashing! I am so pleased with how well the children have responded to coming back to school. We have had a fantastic week and I am already looking forward to next week.
Mathematics
We started the week with a shape hunt in our classroom and on the yard. We found lots of shapes and were able to name them. Then we moved onto writing numbers to 20 in words and numerals. Make sure to ask us what a numeral is!
English
In English, we have been writing labels, lists and captions. We had lots of fun labelling parts of our bodies. We now know what a hamstring, stomach and lungs are.
Science
In Science, we were very lucky to visit the Forest School to explore the changing seasons. While you are out in the garden or on a walk this weekend have a talk with your child about the changes they notice surrounding Autumn.
Next week Year One will be visiting the library and selecting a book to take home to enjoy. Remember as this is a bonus book, the children can choose whichever book they wish, so it may seem too hard or too easy for them to read but it is a sharing book to enjoy at home that reflects the children's own interest.