Gliders!

Date: 14th Jun 2025 @ 11:09am

This week we have launched our topic 'How did we learn to fly?' We have explored all of the different ways that we can travel and fly such as aeroplanes, helicopters, rockets and hot air-balloons. We have also discovered that gliders were the first form of transport invented to allow us to fly. He learned that the glider was invented by Leonardo Da Vinci (the artist) in 1490. His design included a giant pair of wings joined to a wooden frame. There was no engine so the only way to stay in the air was for the ;ilot to flap the wings!

We had lots of fun watching glider videos and then we made a model glider of our own! We then tested the gliders out in the playground. It was so much fun!

Year 1 Phonics Screening Check

Date: 5th Jun 2025 @ 10:32am

Next week (week beginning 9th June) children in Year 1 will be sitting the Phonic Screening check with Mrs Thewlis or Miss Wolfenden. The children have been preparing for this check in their phonic sessions for the last half term. The check will be carried out on a 1:1 basis with adults in a quiet space in school. 

Attached to this blog is the letter that has been sent out today (Thursday 5th June) and children will be coming home with a phonics activity booklet for their homework this week. There will be no spellings this week! 

Here are some websites with games and activities for children to do at home if you wish to do some additional practice:

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/5

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/5-7-years/letters-and-sounds

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to speak to one of the Year 1 team. 

Mrs Iqbal & Mrs Brierley 

Seas and Oceans of the UK!

Date: 31st May 2025 @ 7:53pm

This week as part of our "What can you find in the UK?" topic work we have been learning about the seas and oceans surrounding the UK. We have found out that the English Channel, the North Sea, the Irish Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean all surround the island of the UK. We have used maps to study the positions of the seas and oceans and we have found out some interesting facts such as how you can cross the English Channel by train through the Channel Tunnel! 

In the photos, you can see us completing the lost sea scrolls challenge! We were given a map of the UK with the seas and oceans missing! We used a map of the school grounds to find the lost sea scrolls. Luckily we managed to find them all and could remember their names and where they are located on the map! It was so much fun!

Flowers and Plants!

Date: 11th May 2025 @ 10:40am

In Science this week, we have been learning about plants! We have explored the two different types of flowers; garden plants and wild plants. We recapped the parts of the flower and then learnt about what the fuctions of the parts of the flowers are. We made a model of a flower including the parts and then explained to our friends what each part of the flower does to help it grow and survive.

What can you find in the United Kingdom?

Date: 5th May 2025 @ 8:37pm

This week in our connected curriculum we have been learning about what you can find in the United Kingdom! So far we have found out that the UK is made up from 4 countries England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We have also discovered that the UK is an island which means that it is surrounded by seas and oceans! This week we have been learning what the four capital cities are for the four countries and what landmarks you might see there if you went to visit. We explored the capital cities; Belfast, London, Edinbourgh and Cardiff using the Chromebooks and Google Images. We have also looked at photos to do our own observational drawings.

Night Flight

Date: 27th Apr 2025 @ 4:06pm

This week we have read the story Night Flight and over the next couple of weeks we will be working towards writing our own version of the story.

So far, we have explored the meaning of some of the vocabulary such as thrumming, lush, cautiously and gangly. We will aim to use some of these words in our writing to make it sound interesting to the reader!

We have also looked at pictures from the story and then sequenced them in the correct order. Then we looked at story sentence openers and used them to tell our partners the story. After we had orally practised sequencing the story, we practised writing the sentences on post its matched to each event of the story.

We are very excited to write our own version over the next couple of weeks as we will be sharing our stories with the Reception Classes!

Z-ARTS TRIP!

Date: 14th Apr 2025 @ 9:30am

Year 1 had a fantastic day at Z-ARTS this week! We were invited to explore their Alice in Wonderland themed exhibition which fit perfectly with our learning of traditional tales! The children throughly enjoyed role-playing the characters and playing with the props from scenes of the story. They also enjoyed getting creative by making their very own bunny or cat hats! 

Easter Parade!

Date: 14th Apr 2025 @ 9:19am

Thank you to parents and carers for helping your child create fabulous Easter hats or creations! The children had a fantastic time showing them during the Easter parade as part of our Easter celebrations. They were also very excited to perform their Easter songs which we hope you enjoyed!

Happy Mother's Day!

Date: 30th Mar 2025 @ 6:22pm

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mums!

The childtren and I hope that you like your mother's day cards and have a lovely day on Sunday!

TOYS! TOYS! TOYS!

Date: 9th Mar 2025 @ 6:40pm

We had lots of fun doing our toys topic this week. We brought in our own toys and shared them with our friends! There were so many variety of toys such as teddies, dolls, action figures and remote control cars! We loved showing them off and talking to the class about why we like them. We also explored the materals that atre used to make our modern toys and of course the most popular material was plastic.

The Toy Museum Visitor!

Date: 27th Feb 2025 @ 11:09am

This week we have launched our new topic -Would you rather play with toys from the past or toys from the present?' We are already very excited about this topic because we LOVE to talk, play and learn about TOYS!

On Wednesday, we had a very exciting morning because a visitor came and shown us her Toy Museum! We saw lots of intersting toys form the past and the present. The visitor told us many interesting facts about how the toys had changed over time and what materials they were made from. We also had lots of fun using our imagination to become toys ourselves and even invent toys of our own! 

In our writing lesson, we will be writing a recount about what happened when we went to visit the Toy Museum so that we can tell our parents all about it!

Does the rain fall the same amount around our school? - continued!

Date: 9th Feb 2025 @ 9:06am

After 1 week we measured the amount of rainfall collected in our 3 rain gauges! We were very excited to find out if they had collected the same amount or which one had collected the most.

The results showed that rain gauge 3 in our garden area had collected the most rain with a measure of 40ml! The other rain gauges had collected less than 10ml! We explored why this is and we thought that it was to help the plants grow! 

Park Setting Description!

Date: 3rd Feb 2025 @ 6:31pm

Year 1 have been reading 'The Shark in the Park' in English and we have been working hard to write a setting description of the park. We have explored lots of different adjectives, verbs and prepositions! Take a look at our amazing final pieces!

Does the rain fall the same amount around our school?

Date: 25th Jan 2025 @ 7:53am

Our new connected curriculum is 'Why is the weather so wonderful?'. We have been learning about how meterologists study the weather patterns and use diffferent types of equipment such as rain gauges, wind socks and weather vanes. 

As geographers, we wanted to role play being meterologists and asked the question does the rain fall the same amount around our school? First, we studied a map of our school and predicted where and if the rain would fall more in one place or another. Then we have made our own rain gauges using plastic bottles and labelled them bottles 1,2 and 3. We then plotted on our school map where they should be placed to collect the rain water. Afterwards we used our school maps to find the places to place our rain gauges which was lots of fun. Each week we will go and retrieve our rain gauges and measure the arount of rain fall. Most of us predicted that the rain will fall the most in Stuart's garden because the garden needs rainwater to grow the plants. 

Log on next week to see if we were correct!

3D Shapes all around us!

Date: 25th Jan 2025 @ 7:36am

Last week, in maths we were learning to recognise and name 3D shapes. We explored the classroom to find different 3D shapes and the sorted them into groups. We problem solved the differences between a cube and cuboid as they are similar. We found that the most popular shape was a cupoid and the least popular shape was a triangular prisim. 

Have a look at home and see which 3D shapes you can find!

Happy New Year!

Date: 11th Jan 2025 @ 1:22pm

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It has been wonderful having the children back this week! We have enjoyed sharing what we have been up to over the holidays with our friends and of course celebrating the snowy weather!

Christmas Lunch!

Date: 4th Jan 2025 @ 6:31am

On the last Wednesday before the Christmas holidays we enjoyed our Christmas Lunch. It was delicious!! 

What can you hear?

Date: 8th Dec 2024 @ 11:37am

Year 1 have been learning about the senses in science. This week we have been exploring the sense of hearing. We went on a listening walk around the school and recorded all of the sounds that we could hear on our observation sheets. We especially enjoyed exploring the upstairs areas of the school as we don't usually visit these areas. We heard lots of different sounds and shared them as a class.

DT houses!

Date: 24th Nov 2024 @ 11:29am

1HB have been learning how to make attachments to models. We have explored how to attach a flange and tabs so that we can then use these skills to make a stable model house for someone living in Clayton. The flange was very useful to make a chimney and the tabs were perfect to make a moveable front door. We had lots of fun designing and making our models. Next week we will evaluate our models to conclude what worked well and what we could do to improve them.

Exploring House Materials!

Date: 10th Nov 2024 @ 8:25am

In writing, are preparing to write a non-fition book to describe the materials used to build a house. First we started by learning about how a house is built and what materials are used to build them. The next day, we explored some of the materials by visiting stations in the class room. As a class, we used our senses to describe brick, wood, slate and plastic to generate lots of adjectives for our working window. We will use these adjectives within our non-fiction books when we come to write them.

Houses

Date: 3rd Nov 2024 @ 9:27am

We have launched our writing topic this week by reading the traditional tale of "The Three Little Pigs". We have explored the features of a brick house and considered why it was the best house. We have also completed lots of different challenges to label the features a house. We have designed and labelled a house using graph paper and then used the constrcution blocks to build our designs. We have used card, tissue paper and shiny paper to create a collage houses and named their features. We have been busy in our funky fingers area, using the sticks or peg boards to make houses, we then labelled the features using post its. 

You can't take an elephant on the bus!

Date: 26th Oct 2024 @ 7:52am

In English, we have been reading the story 'You can't take an elephant on the bus!' In writing, we decided to write a fact file explaining why you can't take an elephant on the bus. We generated lots of adjectives to describe the elephant and we also explored what the elephant might do on the bus. Take a look at our amazing pieces of independent writing!

Sketchpad

Date: 13th Oct 2024 @ 3:56pm

We have enjoyed our computing lesson this week. We have been learning about the importance of logging on using a username and password. We have also been developing our mouse control skills using the website Sketchpad. We had fun using the different tools and drawing pictures on the Chromebooks. 

Greater than and less than!

Date: 27th Sep 2024 @ 2:28pm

In maths this week we have been learning about more than and less than. We have been exploring different objects by comparing quaitities. We have also been learning about the <, > and = symbols and using them to write number equations to compare numbers.

LAUNCH - What is in our local area?

Date: 22nd Sep 2024 @ 1:38pm

This week 1HB launched our new topic 'What is in our local area?' We went to explore the boundaries of our school from the outskirts of our playground. We enjoyed looking at the houses and sharing where we live with our friends! We were also excited to talk about our experiences of visiting the local chip shop and of course the sweet shop! We learned about how Clayton is the town where we live and that Clayton is a town in the city of Manchester. Next week we will exploring maps of our local area as well as using them to plan and follow routes.