English

This week, we introduced the children to our new text Paddington's Post, a story all about the adventures of Paddington Bear and the post he sends and receives to the important people in his life. The children absolutely loved exploring the interactive letters, postcards, cards and maps within the book and they learnt all about the journey that a piece of post must take, from packaging it up and taking it to a postbox, to it travelling through the sorting office and finally reaching its destination! 

We focused on key parts of the story and practised annotating one of its illustrations using key words and descriptive phrases that we might include in a letter if we were Paddington writing to his Aunt Lucy in Darkest Peru! 

The children then had a go at doing just that! We thought carefully about why any piece of post must have an address and a stamp and the children articulately explained that an address helps the post person to know exactly where it should be delivered to. As the children were writing, they demonstrated an ability to remember capital letters for proper nouns, so that their reader (Aunt Lucy!) could understand they were talking about the name of a person or place. The children also challenged themselves to use 'and' to join two ideas in a sentence, mostly without any prompting from Mrs Smith or Miss D! 

Maths

In Maths, we completed an end of unit challenge for our topic of Place Value, focusing on numbers up to 50. We also completed a challenge ahead of our new learning about Length and Height. We reassured the children that it was absolutely okay if they found some of these questions tricky, as we haven't learnt about them at all yet! It was just for Miss D and Mrs Smith to understand how much they might already know. 

We have introduced language such as longer and shorter when describing length and taller or shorter when describing height. The children absolutely loved finding objects from around the classroom that were 'longer than a pencil' or 'shorter than their shoe!' 

Next week, we will be continuing our topic of Measurement and will begin focusing on Weight, Mass and Capacity. 

Phonics

This week has continued to be full of phonics assessments, and we are (still!) incredibly proud of the progress the children have made. Over the next half term, we will be revisiting sounds that the children are already familiar with, focusing on ones that we know will be presented in the Phonics Screening Check. For example, this week we focused on the following digraphs: 

  • ay found in words such as play, pay and may. 
  • ai found in words such as paid, train and brain. 
  • a-e found in words such as made, came and same. 
  • ea found in words such as bead, treat and meat. 

What is the Phonics Screening Check? 
The Phonics Screening Check is a short, one‑to‑one activity where children read 40 words—a mix of real words and “nonsense/alien” words. These nonsense words help show that children can use their phonics knowledge to decode unfamiliar words.

Topic Learning

In Art this term, we are going to be learning all about collage! We immersed the children in collages made up of brightly coloured, torn-up pieces of paper and we discussed how they have been put in specific places in order to create a picture. The children experimented with different materials to mark-make different patterns; we applied different amounts of pressure when we used colouring pencils, drew spirals with black fine liner pens and layered different colours on top of each other. 

In Geography, we revisited the four countries that make up The United Kingdom, as well as their capital cities and the four main compass directions. We narrowed our focus down to the town that most of us live in - Hitchin! The children drew pictures to represent something they know about Hitchin. 

In PSHE, we are learning all about money and fundraising! Each year group will have a different focus to fundraise for - In Year One, we are going to be fundraising for our school! Both classes will work together to decide what event might help us to raise the most amount of money. 

Reminders

  • PE days have returned to Monday and Wednesday.
  • Please could we kindly ask that you send your children into school with a spare set of clothes for our OPAL sessions and outdoor learning, as even though the weather seems to be changing for the better, there is always a chance of rain in England! 

We have had such a wonderful week back in Year One with our children and are looking forward to a sunny Summer term! 

Miss D, Mrs Smith & the Year 1 Team xx