We have had another very, very hot week in Year One! The children have been absolutely amazing at making sure they stay hydrated, cool and as calm as possible! Thursday brought Transition Day and we were so proud of how brave the children were in exploring their new classes, their new classrooms, their new teachers and their new peers. They really are the most resilient and inspiring children and we feel so proud of them.
English
This week we have been revisiting the world of poetry, specifically Performance Poetry! We explored poems written by Julia Donaldson such as 'The Food Train,' which featured rhyming couplets, short lines and verses and a new line for each idea. The children spent some time practising reciting the poems and then had a go at writing their own titled 'The Play Train' all about our OPAL play and lunchtimes. We then focused on a poem called the Caribbean Counting Rhyme by Pamela Mordecai, another poem that includes rhyming words, repetition and exciting punctuation for added expression! The children ended the week by writing the most beautiful counting poems all about school. I really feel like this piece of writing was a true testament and showcase of how far they have come in their learning this year!
Maths
We have finished our learning about Place Value, focusing on numbers to 100 and have immersed the children into the world of money! We thought about the word 'unitising' and supported the children to recognise how many counters would be needed to represent the value of each coin, from 1p to £2. We then worked practically to demonstrate our recognition of each coin and how much value it holds. We worked together to order the coins in size from smallest to greatest and value from smallest to greatest.
Science
We continued our learning about animals including humans and moved on from last week's focus of Invertebrates and Vertebrates and learnt all about earthworms! The children were absolutely fascinated by the fact that earthworms have no eyes but do in fact have a mouth and small bristles all over its body to help it move and burrow! The children drew fantastic labelled diagrams and wrote a sentence including a new fact they had learnt.
We ended our week by having a wonderful talk about bees by a member of the Strathmore community. We left the talk feeling passionate and inspired to look after the bees because they are so, so important for the world around us!
A quick reminder that our trip to Shepreth is on Monday the 13th July! Please could we ask that your child brings in a small backpack to fit their water bottle, packed lunch, hat and suncream in. Please ensure your child is wearing suitable, comfortable footwear. We are really looking forward to what will be an amazing, memorable day for our children!