Year 1AI: Blog items
Date: 3rd Dec 2023 @ 8:37am
What a busy few weeks we have had in 1AI!!!
It's looking a lot like Christmas in school and we are busy rehearsing for the Nativity performances next Tuesday. We are very excited to share our singing, acting and dancing skills to EYFS and KS1 grown ups on Tuesday 5th December in the morning and afternoon.
In class we have also been busy writing setting decriptions using some of the settings in the story Stickman. In maths we have continued to find the parts for numbers 7, 8, 9 and 10 in a systematic way. In science we have been learning about the properties of materials and using some vocabulary to describe these properties.
In our Connected Curriculum work we have continued our geography skills by learning about compass points and how we can use them to give directions to get to certain landmarks on a map.
Phew! Lots more to do in the last two weeks before the Christmas holidays!!!
Week 3 in 1AI - Diwali, Maths week and Anti-bullying week!
Date: 19th Nov 2023 @ 6:26am
We have had a very busy week in school! We started the week with wearing odd socks and discussing bullying for Anti-bullying week. We used our Jigsaw session to talk about this important topic and designed some odd socks.
On Thursday afternoon in Year 1 we had our Diwali celebrations. We found out about what Diwali was and the story behind this important Hindu festival. We made some Diya lamps out of clay and learnt some Bollywood dancing. Here is the video link for the dance that we were learning if you wanted to try at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fR-VUDvH9g&scrlybrkr=262b57f7
This week was also Maths Week. We were learning how to play some games, sharing and practising the skill of turn taking. We also designed some new board games all about odd and even numbers which will be laminated and put into our maths area for everyone to play.
In writing we also wrote our wolf sock puppet instructions.
Phew it has been busy this week!
Date: 12th Nov 2023 @ 9:09am
This week we have made some wolf sock puppets to support our writing for the next two weeks. We watched a video to help us to think about the instructions/steps that we needed to do to make the puppets. Whilst making the puppets we thought about the steps we needed to do to make them. We used time connectives such as first, next, then, after that and finally.
Next week we will be writing the instructions on how to make these sock puppets and putting them on the class blog. Come back next week to see the instructions! Let's see if you can follow the instructions to make your own sock puppet!
Date: 5th Nov 2023 @ 9:51pm
Welcome back to Autumn 2!
We have had an amazing start to the second half term. The children are raring to get stuck into their learning for our next topic.
Last Wednesday we invited our parents and carers to come into school and help us launch our new topic. The topic question that we are trying to answer is 'Could the three little pigs use a better material to build their houses?' In this topic we will focus on science knowledge about materials, design & technology and geography skills.
The building challenge was to work as a team using our learning powers to make a strong house for the three little pigs. We used large cardboard boxes, masking tape, selotape, paper and other boxes/tubes for our creations.
The teams worked really well and the houses looked fantastic! Some of them even had a swimming pool, a lab to make potions, a garage and a garden with animals.
Thank you to the fabulous parents/carers who came and helped us!
Date: 28th Oct 2023 @ 8:39am
What a busy first half term we have had in 1AI!!!
We are very settled into the routines and timetable of Year 1 and have really enjoyed answering our topic question - What makes us Incredible? We launched this topic with a superhero day and finsihed it by creating a padlet page describing how we have changed over time. We recorded our thoughts and sent the padlet page to Miss Higgins who is the histiry lead in school. She was very impressed with our historical knowledge of changes in our lifetime!
Next half term will be another busy one with the lead up to all things Chrismassey!! Ho, Ho, Ho!!!!
Attached is the parent overview for Autumn 2 so you can have a look at what we will be doing in our next topic question. Don't forget the first Wednesday after the half term holidays we have invited parents/grown ups from home to join in with our next topic launch. 1AI grown ups are invited on Wednesday 1st November at 2pm. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Date: 15th Oct 2023 @ 6:01pm
In science this half term we have been learning about body parts and what our senses are. We learnt about the job of each sense and which body part it was associated with. We used this song to help us:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzqx39K2omc
We carried out a Smell Pot investigation where we predicted what was in each pot using our sense of smell. We smelt each pot and then discussed what it might be and whether we liked each smell or not. We recorded our findings in a table and discovered what each smell actually was. We predicted correctly for some of the smells!
Date: 15th Oct 2023 @ 5:54pm
Last week we had a visitor called Rebaz who came into school. He was a freestyle footballer who was amazing at doing tricks with a football. He showed off his skills in an assembly on Thursday and then we got a chance to work with him later in the day. He showed us four different tricks that we could do with a football.
It was lots of fun!!!
Beware Evil Veggies are on the loose!!!
Date: 8th Oct 2023 @ 5:00pm
What a week this has been! We discovered some vegetables that were trapped in a brown sack which mysteriously came to our classroom on Monday. In the sack we found some vegtables that were trapped along with a letter. We had to describe which evil character would do such a thing! We designed our own evil vegetables, described them thinking of adjectives to describe their appearance and personality.
A second letter came the next day thanking us for describing the evil vegetables really well. We were left with the story 'Supertato' to read and learn all about the nasty character called the 'Evil Pea!' Miss Riley and Reception children came to warn us that something evil has been in their class doing lots of nasty things. This thing has ripped a sound mat! Broken some toys and scrunched up some children's work! We decided to warn everyone and write some Wanted posters describing the Evil Pea's appearance and personality.
On Friday during Golden Time we decided that we needed to make some Evil Pea traps just in case this awful vegetable came back!
Wow! What a week of learning in our writing sessions!!!
Date: 28th Sep 2023 @ 8:12pm
On Tuesday we worked with Mrs McAffer for the very first time this year. This half term we are looking at how primary and secondary colours can be mixed. We used the paint that we mixed into our very own local area landscapes. We used different brush skills/techniques to create different mark making patterns such as strokes, dabbing, splattering and twisting.
It was lots of fun!!!
Date: 24th Sep 2023 @ 7:47pm
This week it has been busy in 1AI!! We continued with our story 'My Mum is a Supermum' and had a go at retelling the story by drawing story maps, sequencing the story in the correct order and writing sentences that match each picture.
Here is a link for the story if you wish to watch it at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHYh33eQPBM
In maths we continued to use the language of more than, fewer than and equal to and compared two groups of objects/numbers. We also did lots of singing along to these videos which will help us to recognise numbers up to 20 and count accurately. Why not have a go at home:
Count to 20 forwards and backwards - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TIjoLW5oRw
Count to 20 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VLxWIHRD4E
In science we learnt about our body parts in using the story 'Funnybones.' We discussed all about skeletons and what each body part is called and where it is. We played Simon Says and danced along to the skeleton song. Have a go at home! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e54m6XOpRgU
Next week we will be working with Mrs McAffer in our Art lesson for the first time!!!
Date: 17th Sep 2023 @ 6:02pm
What a fantastic week we have had in 1AI!
It's been a week of first time things on our timetable for the children such as working the City coach for PE, starting gymnastics in the hall, going into Monday and Friday assemblies and getting stuck into our timetable.
We also launched our first topic 'What makes us Incredible?' In this topic we will be looking at history and science learning in more detail by thinking about how we change over time as we grow, name and recognise body parts, learn about our senses and how the local area (Tartan Street in front of school) has changed over the last few years. We dressed as Superheroes and completed these four challenges over the day:
- Creating a Superhero
- Designing a Superhero mask
- Creating a Numicon Superhero city
- Writing a Superhero story
We also danced along to some Superhero dances, listened to some stories and discussed what Incredible meant to us.
It was lots of fun!!!
Date: 10th Sep 2023 @ 8:51am
Welcome back to school and Year 1!! It has been an amazing start to the school year in 1AI. Children have started Year 1 with a fantastic attitude and are raring to get on with their learning. We have really focussed on setting the expectations of learning in Year 1 and working in the provision areas in the classroom. We have also thought of some class rules linked to the school rules. We used the story 'Pow!' to think about our learning powers and how we will be using them this year to help us. We also joined in with our first singing assembly with Mrs Kent. Next week we will begin our timetable in Year 1 and introduce lots of other things.
Have a great weekend!
Date: 18th Jun 2023 @ 8:55am
On Tuesday we worked with Mrs McAffer and started our project on the Maasai Shields. We started to look at the different colours, shapes and patterns on these amazing shields. We used our sketch books to practice drawing some of the shields that we liked.
We created some rubbings using different textures to create some interesting patterns. We used these bbings to cut out into shapes to use as a collage for our final shield pattern.
Next week we will finish the shields by using oil pastels and creating an edge using sewing skills.
Date: 11th Jun 2023 @ 5:39pm
Wow, I believe it’s the the last half term of Year 1!! Where has the year gone!
The children have come back into school raring to get on with their learning, and what a busy half them we have.
On Friday we launched our final topic called ‘How do we get to the Maasai Mara?’ We learnt a little bit about Kenya and looked at the Maasai tribe and in particular focussed on the necklaces worn by the tribe. We used paper plates, vibrant colours and pasta shells to create our own necklaces.
We also looked at patterns that can be found in Kenya and all over African countries. We tried to create our patterns taking inspirations from some fabric with those patterns already on them.
It was a great afternoon getting us started in our final topic.
Drawing workshop with Axel Sheffler ??
Date: 4th Jun 2023 @ 11:57am
On Wednesday 24th May we were lucky enough to have a drawing workshop with the one and only famous illustrator Axel Sheffler. He is the illustrator for the world famous Julia Donaldson stories. He used the story ‘A sqaush and a squeeze’ to show us how to draw the characters from it.
It was lots of fun and the concentration that the children displayed whilst doing the drawings was amazing to watch!
Date: 4th Jun 2023 @ 11:51am
On the last week of term we finished our science topic about plants by learning about trees. We found out that some trees are called evergreen and some are deciduous. We looked at the leaves of these types of trees that gave us clues of which type they are.
We investigated tree bark and leaves outside in the playground. We found some leaves on the ground and observed them closely discussing what type of tree they came from- evergreen or deciduous. Them we did some leaf rubbing some using wax crayons which showed 5e veins and patterns really closely.
We also looked at the bark on the tree trunks. We saw little insects living in the bark and learned that it helps to protect the tree trunk. We did some bark rubbing some using wax crayons.
Coronation Day Celebrations in 1AI!??
Date: 8th May 2023 @ 4:32pm
On Friday we had an amazing day in school celebrating all things related to King Charles Coronation Day. We started the day with a fabulous assembly led by Miss Higgins and Year 3 where we learnt about what was going to happen in the coronation ceremony. During the morning we went outside and played various fairground games and had a selfie with the king himself!!
In class we also learned more about King Charles, sang our special coronation song that we were learning in singing assembly, made a crown and our very own Union Jack flag.
It was lots of fun! ?
Date: 28th Apr 2023 @ 8:41am
This week in science we have started to learn about garden and wild plants. A garden plant is something that is grown by someone and need to be looked after. These plants would normally be grown in a garden or park. A wild plant is one that will grow anywhere! We used an identification key to find out the names of some of the plants that are wild and garden plants. We used an identification key to draw plants and label them. Have a go at using the identification when you are out and about and see if you can spot anymore garden or wild plants...
Topic 5 Launch - How does your garden grow?
Date: 28th Apr 2023 @ 8:11am
Last Friday we launched our next topic with Stuart the gardener. Our topic is called How does your garden grow and we thought the best way to launch it would be to work with Stuart. We planted some seeds, used our sense of smell and searched for minibeasts under logs and other areas of the garden space in the playground. We now need to take care of our plants and watch them grow! Hopefully at the end of this topic we will be selling these plants and making some money to buy our own class trees to grow in the garden area.
Date: 17th Apr 2023 @ 4:39am
The last week of term we had lots of Easter fun! We learnt about the Easter story and created some Easter cards and sang some Easter songs in music. We also had a fabulous Easter bonnet parade around the Daily Mile track on the playground. Nursery, Reception and Year 2 joined us to show off lovely creations to each other and our grown ups from home. It was lots of fun!
Computing meets Design & Technology!!
Date: 26th Mar 2023 @ 5:40pm
Last week we read the story 'Space Tortoise.' In this story the main character wanted to get to the other side of the park where he could see all the lights. He decided to build a hot air balloon to get to the top of what he thought was a rocket! It was actually a clock tower a bit like Big Ben.
This inspired our computing work where we were using the chrome books to plan and design our very own rockets. Then we used design and technology skills to build a rocket using recyclable materials, paper, masking tape and card.
It was lot's of fun!!!
Date: 19th Mar 2023 @ 7:56am
Last week we celebrated British Science Week in school. This year the theme was called Connections, which celebrated how science is connected in so many ways. We started the week with our connection visitor in the form Kayvon who was a City coach. He used body part names in lots of fun games that we played using our bodies and controlling a ball.
On Tuesday we had a connection workshop in school where we learnt about Lyda Newman who invented the first hairbrush. We worked with someone called Ady who gave us lots of facts about the inventor Lyda Newman and played some drama games to support our learning about materials.
Don’t forget to join in with the Science Week competition. See the letter which was sent home on Friday!
Date: 13th Mar 2023 @ 5:13am
Last week we celebrated World Maths Day! We learnt about 3D shapes. We learnt about what they looked like, their name and which everyday objects they reminded us about.
We used our drawing skills and remembered information from science about the seasons to produce our artwork. We made the 3D shape a square based pyramid using the net. On each side of the pyramid we drew a picture linked to each season.
Date: 12th Mar 2023 @ 7:47am
This week we started our next unit of work in Computing. This half term it is linked to our topic about transport. We started by recapping how to log on to a chrome book using our username and password details. This half term we will be linking computing, design and technology and science learning all together to create a rocket. We started by watching a video about how to make a rocket out of a plastic bottle. Then we opened up docs on the chrome book and in pairs typed list of things we will need to make the rocket. We were practising our typing skills and becoming familiar with where the letters were on the keyboard.
Watch out for another blog in the next few weeks showing our finished rockets! ?
Date: 6th Mar 2023 @ 10:59pm
Last Friday we celebrated World Book Day in great style across school. In Year 1 we made some bookmarks that we took home, shared books with our new Year 5 reading buddies and joined in with the whole school assembly to parade our costumes.
We also did some work around the story Dolly Daydream by Jan Johnson who is a local author and one of the Year 3 children’s grandma! We read the story, discussed friendship qualities and did some artwork to draw the main character Dolly Daydream. We also designed some alternative front covers for the book. In the afternoon the adults in KS1 performed the story Dolly Daydream and we even had a visit from Jan Johnson and got to ask her some questions.
It was a fun day!!
