Year one started a new unit in Literacy on Monday. This unit explores the story Stanley's Stick by John Hegley. Stanley's stick is not just a stick. With a stick in hand, Stanley's options are endless - he flies to the moon, writes in the sand, goes fishing, plays a whistle and rides a dinosaur - and his imagination takes over and the magic begins. Inspired by Stanley, we went out to find a stick to use our imagination and make our stick be whatever we wanted it to be! After reading the story as a class and writing their own alternative ending, children have worked in groups to sequence key events in the story and retell key scenes by creating picture captions. Finally, children will go on to plan and write their own version of Stanley’s Stick in past tense using their own object. Reception had fun in Drawing Club with the old cartoon favourite Trapdoor. They explored the vocabulary and created their own versions of the characters and settings before drawing their own monsters that might come out of the trapdoor! Year one have continued learning about place value in maths this week focussing on more and fewer and greater than and less than, and comparing numbers. We have spent most of the week introducing and getting to know the greater, less than and equal symbols and we are pleased to say that by today they were really getting in the swing of it. A good way to remember what symbol means what, is the greedy crocodile eats the greater number...meaning the greater number goes at the bigger/open end of the symbol and the number that is less goes to the smallest point of the symbol. Lots of photos in books and a pic collage here! Wider curriculum On Monday afternoon we learnt about Marie Curie in history another great scientist from the past. The children learnt how she discovered a treatment for serious illnesses which helped people all over the world. We also learnt that her work led to the development of X-Rays and the children were keen to share if they or someone they know, had had an X-Ray. Year one went on to draw and describe what they would like to discover to help the world. On Tuesday the children enjoyed their sessions with our Saints' coach. Their outdoor sessions are focussed on multi-skills. On Wednesday afternoon in D.T we learnt about mechanisms, levers, linkages and pivots. We found them in everyday objects such as door handles, scissors, toy cars and staplers and then we found them in pictures. After this we looks at a special moving monster the children are going to create with pivots and levers and had a go at designing one. We then spent time as a whole class discussing listening. What makes a good listener, how can we show we are listening, and what happens if we don't listen. On Thursday afternoon in Science we all learnt about day and night and why this happens. We watched a video clip, looked at some pictures and then experimented with blow up globes and our own torches. We then drew our own diagrams and our own day and night pictures. We learnt it takes 24 hours for the Earth to spin in one rotation, making one whole day! After this we then continued to learn about the Muslim faith of Islam. We reminded ourselves about Allah and then watched a video about a young girl telling us about the five pillars of Islam. We discussed how pillars are strong and what happens if they weren't there and then added an action to each pillar to remind our selves. On Friday afternoon we had our next P.E session with our SAINTs coach. After P.E we had a bit of independent learning time for being so focused all week. Reception parents- phonics sheets in book bags and links to sounds learnt this week on Class Dojo. Year 1 parents- maths homework, spelling and reading due in on Monday. Thank you Mrs Ware and Miss Ruby Literacy Tree (Year 1) We explored the themes in the book Here We Are this week. We agreed that the author (Oliver Jeffers) wants us to: Be kind, Be happy, Be caring, Be an explorer and Be a hero We thought that you can be a hero with really small acts like picking up a piece of litter or turning the light off. We have begun making leaflets inspired by this book which has a subtitle of Notes for living on Planet Earth. We are focussing on 3 ideas which are: Looking after our planet; looking after ourselves and looking after each other. Drawing Club (Reception) Drawing club was taught through a traditional story this week - The 3 Billy Goats Gruff. The children enjoyed joining in with the repeated refrains in the story and explored the story more through continuous provision for example seeing if the could make rafts to get the goats across the river instead of using the bridge! Maths In maths this week we continue our learning about place value in Year 1. This week we have covered the following small steps: Count on from any number; 1 more; Count backwards within 10; 1 less; Compare groups by matching. We have covered these concepts through practical work, through images and through written work supported by these in their books. They have done exceptionally well with their transition to this more abstract work. Reception have also begun some short more focussed maths sessions based on research from the NCETM (National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics). This week we the children have been encouraged to quantify sets of objects by subitising, rather than counting. When subitising, children can say how many there are in a small group of objects by ‘just seeing’ and knowing straightaway without needing to count. Their learning is also developed through our continuous provision where they have begun practising number formation, counting and creating repeating patterns. Wider Curriculum Year 1 and Reception. In History, we continued to learn about important scientists and engineers by finding out about the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. We investigated making bridges with paper and testing the strength with pennies. We folded the paper and found that it was stronger. Ellie suggested "the more layers the stronger the bridge" - great scientific thinking! While Reception then explored making bridges with blocks, Year one learnt more about Brunel's amazing structures including the Albert Bridge which is the bridge that crosses the Tamar on the Devon/Cornwall border and Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. He also built ships including the SS Great Britain. Year one designed their own bridges inspired by these. Year one were asked in their computing lesson on Tuesday - "What is technology". We learnt that technology is anything made by a human that helps us. The children showed their understanding of this concept by doing a technology hunt in the classroom and returned with: a hole punch, glue sticks, pencils, scissors and an iPad! In Science this week we focused on the question 'How do we see objects?'. Within this lesson we found out how light travels in straight lines from a light source, bounces off an object and enters our eyes via our pupils. We investigated how light travels in straight lines by making slit boxes and placing a torch inside to watch how the light travels out the other side. The children did so well at remembering this and we excellent at drawing diagrams about it. Well done! In D.T this week we began our focus 'Making a monster' by investigating and making sliders and levers. We linked this to the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff for Reception and to bridges for Year 1, by creating a character to cross a bridge using a slider. In R.E we continued asking questions about the Muslim faith and the religion Islam, by learning about the 99 names of Allah. We played games with our own names, names we give each other and I've tasked the children to find out the meaning of their own name! Our PE sessions were lead by our SAINTS coaches again and we did gymnastics in the hall today. Our PSHE lessons continued with getting to know each other, our school rules and expectations. It's been another incredibly busy week again! Well done everyone! Reception parents...please remember to support your children by sharing phonics flashcards, having a go at the phonics sheet and watching the phonics videos together posted on dojo. Year 1 parents...please remember to read with your child every night and record it in the book, support them with their Year 1 maths homework linked to our maths learning this week and also spelling practise. Thank you, Mrs Ware and Miss Ruby Welcome back to the new school year 2024/2025! This is Chestnut's dedicated page where you can find out what we have been up to this week. Remember Mrs Ware teaches Monday and Tuesday and Miss Ruby teaches Wednesday to Friday. We are supported in class by Miss Luxton and also Mrs Grant, who works 1:1 with a child. Thank you to all of you who attended the welcome meeting on Wednesday night. It was great to see so many of you there. We will touch base with you all soon regarding dates for phonics/maths workshops and also parent consultations. Please find the presentation on our class dojo page. Reception. This week the children have begun to learn their set 1 sounds, m, a, s, t and p. They have learnt the sound, the rhyme and the action to go with it (m...maisie mountain, mountain, s...down the slithery snake, t...down the tower, across the tower, a...around the apple). They will bring home flashcards in their books bags to use and also a handwriting sheet to practise the letter. Please go over this at home. You can also use these links to hear the rhymes in action. Please click in them to watch a short clip. https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/YO57gJVk/9XrNPIHI https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/fC8B7jKZ/mu257sfl https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/YjsyRIny/otdnf52w https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/YOu62BAs/8ozAvM7A https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/lmMIoxoJ/olC51BuT Drawing Club This week the children have been reading 'the Colour Monster', which is all about how colours can represent feelings. They have been drawing pictures that include the colour monster himself, a jar of emotions, a map and a new emotion. Wider Curriculum As we have introduced scientists and engineers to the Year 1 children, the Reception children have had the opportunity to play with the train sets and design their own trains. They have experimented with the torches as part of a science activity and have discussed things that are special to them as part of a RE activity. They have loved exploring their new classroom. The role play and dressing up area has been a huge hit, as well as the outside area! Year One Literacy Tree This week we our key text has been 'Here we are'. As part of our learning we have created posters, written commands, noun phrases and made a kindness jar. Maths Our maths focus has been place value, where we have focused on counting objects, representing objects and matching numbers as words to amounts. The children have coped well with this new, longer style of maths lesson and they have made a great start to their learning. We look forwards to sharing more with you about our maths curriculum as we settle into the new school year. Wider Curriculum Across other areas of our learning the children began their science unit. They began with what is a light source, where their experimented with torches and sorted light sources. In RE we discussed personal things that were important to us. This included objects and people. This led us to introduce Allah and God and their significance to their religions. In Art/DT we designed our FONTS Christmas cards (yikes!), in PE we practised ball skills with our SAINTS coaches, and in history we were introduced to George Stevenson, his invention and how it changed the world. As part of our PSHE lessons, we discussed class rules and expectations and throughout the week we have reflected on these and reinforced these! It seems that tidying up, maybe an expectation we need lots of practise at! |
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