Welcome to Year 1

Thank you for stopping and looking at our Year 1 webpage. We hope you enjoy having a look at all our lovely learning.  In Year 1 we like to work and play hard, and we are looking forward to continuing our Learning Journey from where we left off in Reception! We have a lot of exciting things planned for this year, so please keep coming back to our webpage to see what we have been up to.

Careers Day 

We really enjoyed dressing up on Careers Day as someone who we aspire to be when we grow up. We talked about the skills and attitude we would need to have. LFC delivered a fantastic assembly for us and we enjoyed a workshop with the artist Tim Quinn.

Drop Everything and Read!

It’s that time again when we just drop everything we are doing and take some time to share our favourite books with a friend. It is lovely to see you reading together, sharing your thoughts and ideas.

RE - The Widows Mite

Year One learned about the importance of giving through the story of ‘The Widows Mite’. The children then researched the charity ‘Mary’s Meals’ to explore how charities can help other children across the world. 

DT - Dips & Dippers

Having explored existing products already on the market, the children then began to learn the different safe cutting techniques they could use when preparing their dips. The children discovered both ‘The Bridge Cut’, ‘The Claw Cut ‘ and the ‘Fork Secure Cut’. We are pleased to report that not one finger was damaged in the process!

DT - Dips & Dippers

We have started our DT topic by exploring existing dips (products) already in the shops. The children enjoyed trying different flavours and tried using vocabulary like ‘creamy’ or ‘spicy’ to describe them.

Willow Class Estimation Station WINNER!

.                                                   Maths

We have enjoyed exploring length and height in Maths this week, measuring in standard and non standard units.

Athlete in School 

We were fortunate to be visited by GB’s Danny Butler as part of the Great Athletes programme. The children enjoyed a workout session before attending an assembly where Danny shared some tricks and shared his journey as an athlete. Hopefully today will have inspired a few of our children to enjoy sports and be aspirational themselves!

             Stay and Read

We loved inviting our parents, carers and grandparents in for Stay and Read on World Book Day. 

World Book Day Fun 2025!

Yoga 

Maple class have really enjoyed practising our Yoga poses in PE this week. It is important to hold each animal pose strong for a few seconds before we flow into our next animal pose. 

Computing 

We have been learning to give commands to our Beebots. We can give directions for them to move forwards and backwards. We have been exploring using maps and floor maps to arrive at different destinations. It has been lots of fun.

Collective Worship

This week we have been learning about Jesus being tempted while he was in the desert for 40 days. As part of this learning we came together to sing songs that tell his story.

Glow in the dark disco!

 For our amazing attendance, we enjoyed a special 'Glow in the Dark' disco as a special reward!

Well done everybody!

NSPCC Number Fun Day!

We came to school with wacky hair today!
We shared maths themed jokes and had lots of maths fun!
Thank you for all the donations for NSPCC.

Maths!

 In Maths, we have been learning our doubles!
We have been using rekenreks and ten frames to show how we can make our doubles!

John Ndambo

We used all the techniques we have learned so far to create our final piece of art work.

Take a look at our masterpieces!

Gymnastics!

 We have been learning different rolls in PE. We have learnt how to a barrel roll, straight roll and forward roll.

We were amazing!

P.E Gymnastics
Year One have been working safely to perform rolls and use them in a sequence.

PE - Net and Wall Games

Year One have been enjoying our new topic, 'Net and Wall Games'. We have been learning how to get in to the 'Ready Position' and defend our space.

We created a colour wash and drew figures in the style of John Ndambo.

John Ndambo

We have been learning how to create a colour wheel using primary colours, mixing them to make secondary colours. Then we added materials to our colour wheel and was able to say if they were a primary or secondary colour.

1 More & 1 Less

 We have begun learning place value within 20 in Maths!

Look at how clever we are at finding one more and one less of a number. Willow class were using rekenreks to support their learning!

Maple and Laurel class Nativity

We really enjoyed retelling the Christmas story for all of our families.

Year 1 Christmas Party

Year One enjoyed a fun filled day of partying to celebrate the Christmas holiday and our first term together. The children enjoyed a well earned day of Christmas themed games and dancing to get ready for the big day!

Santa Dash
 We had so much fun at our Santa dash in school.

Christmas jumper day

We enjoyed Christmas jumper day. We all looked brilliant. Take a look at our Christmas jumper, colouring competition winners.

RE - The Christmas Story

Year One have begun our learning on the Christmas Story by listening to scripture that tells about the events of the Annunciation and Visitation. The children then re-enacted the stories themselves to better understand them and their significance.

Stay & Read

Year One enjoyed taking part in our school-wide, ‘Stay & Read’, today. Children had been invited to bring in a book from home or choose one from our class libraries, so that they could enjoy reading for pleasure. Family members had also been invited to drop in and read with their child. What a lovely way to spend a Friday afternoon!

DT - Leavers & Sliders

Year One began our new DT topic on ‘Leavers & Sliders’ by looking at existing products that already use these. Later in the week the children then began learning how to make these using ‘slots’ and ‘pivots’ to allow each join to move. Next week we will be designing our own Christmas cards that include either a slider or leaver. 

Maple Class

Movie afternoon

Maple Class enjoyed a movie afternoon for having EXCELLENT attendance. We had popcorn and biscuits, just like in the movies. We really enjoyed it.
                                      Well done Maple Class!

Mystery Readers in school!

There was a buzz in Year One this week as we were visited my ‘mystery readers’ during our story time at the end of each day. These familiar special guests turned out to be family members from some of the children in Year One who have come to share their love of reading with the children. Who will be next? Watch this space!

Science- Animal Groups

Year one continued our exploration in Science by learning about the 5 basic animal groups and sorting and classifying them by their similarities and differences.

Children in Need
We celebrated and raised money by wearing our own clothes. We made special biscuits and created Pudsey headbands too!

Anti bullying week

To mark Anti-Bullying Week, a super special day called ‘Odd Socks Day’ takes place. Odd Socks Day is all about embracing and celebrating people’s differences. 

Remembrance Day

We know who we remember on Remembrance Day and why we remember them. 
11.11.24

Year One at Chester Zoo!

To start our learning in Science for 'Animals inc Humans' with a bang, we arranged for the children to visit Chester Zoo today. The children were able to meet different animals from the 5 main groups Amphibians, Birds, Fish, Mammals and Reptiles, in order to give them real life experiences of the things they will be studying.

Attendance Matters

In Year One we know just how important it is to be in school every day so that we don’t miss out on any of our learning. We have all been working hard towards taking part in our Attendance Initiative today by making sure we have been in school whenever possible. To celebrate this hard work the children enjoyed making Halloween biscuits and creating Spooky Halloween faces! Well done everyone that has been hitting their attendance targets! 

Computing- Technology around Us

Year One continued our exploration of technology this week. The children were introduced to using keyboards today, typing their name before experimenting with changing the font, colour and background.

Science-Observation over Time

Year One have been recording the rainfall over the last 5 weeks. Having looked  back at our observations, we used Maths resources to represent each weeks rainfall to make it easier to interpret our results. Check out our findings below to see what we observed. 

Maths

 We have been making number bonds to ten using ten frames and counters and cubes.

Music

Year One have enjoyed weekly music lessons over the last seven weeks. The children have been introduced to the instrument, the glockenspiel, learning simple patterns of notes to join in with a song.

PE - Gymnastics

Year One have been busy in gymnastics this week, as we have been learning about the importance of ‘stability’ when holding our balances. We discovered that our bodies need to be tense in order to hold our balances for longer. Can you spot any future Olympians ?

Computing

Year One have begun our learning in computing this week by being introduced to the new vocabulary of ‘technology’. We discovered that ‘technology’ is identified as anything built by humans to help us in some way. The children went on a technology hunt around the school before trying to sort items into those that could be identified as technology and those that couldn’t.

Science - Observation over Time

Year One completed our final observation of the weekly rainfall in our Forest School this week. Next week we will look at the data we have collected and try to interpret our findings.

Science - The Seasons

Year One continued our exploration of the seasons by looking at Summer today. Having learnt about the changes we experience in the weather during Summer (and how this affects the behaviour of animals including ourselves) we then compared this season with Winter.

RE

As part of our RE, we having been looking at the 'Our Father' prayer.

Listen to Willow class practising the prayer.

In Maple Class we can recognise how the Our Father prayer draws us closer to God.

Mental Health Week
Year One enjoyed taking part in World Mental Health Day, wearing our ‘Mellow Yellow’ and taking part in lots of tasks to help promote mindfulness. We also completed  ‘Kindness Challenges’ to raise money for Childline and the NSPCC.

Geography!

In Year One, we have been working together to place pictures of the places we saw on our walk of our local area on a map! We had to think carefully to remember the correct order and used our key vocabulary (next to, near and far).

The next lesson we used these skills to begin to devise maps of our playground.

Deaf Active 

Laurel Class enjoyed taking part in our second session with Adam and Gemma from Deaf Active. This week we learned how to sign the names of lots of our favourite animals, as well as the second verse of 'Love me Do' by the Beatles!

Year One Weather Reporters

Year One’s work on the seasons has been progressing in Science as the children looked at the season of Winter this week. Having looked at the reasons why we experience Winter and the changes it brings, the children then had a go at putting together their own weather reports for Winter.

Welcome to the Laurel Class Gallery

We have loved exploring the work of Romero Britto this half term. Having spent several weeks looking at his work and practicing the skills of mapping out the proportions of the human face and using pastels and water colours to mimic his designs, here are our final pieces. Can you spot any members of Laurel Class?

English - National Poetry Week

Year One have been celebrating National Poetry Week this week by delving into the world of 'Nursery Rhymes'. The children enjoyed revisiting a lot of the rhymes they had learnt in Nursery & Reception, before beginning to look more closely at the way poets use rhyme within these texts. Each class then chose a famous Nursery Rhyme and put together a performance for the other Year 1 classes. Watch each classes video below and we think you will agree that we have 1 or 2 future stars of Stage and Screen!

Geography - Our Local Area.

Year One explored the area surrounding our school today. The children walked around the surrounding streets to discover what points of interest can be seen and use our fieldwork skills to start to plot these on a basic map. The children then began to use new vocabulary including ‘near’, ‘next to’ and ‘behind’ to describe the location of each place of interest in relation to each other and our school.

Art - Romero Britto 

We had so much fun learning how to produce our self portraits, in the style of Romero Britto. We loved using bold, bright colours to give our work a striking finish.

Laurel Class learn to Sign

Laurel Class are really excited to have been chosen to work with Adam and Gemma from Deaf Active, over the next ten weeks to learn Sign Language. Today we have learned to sign our colours as well as the first verse to ‘Love me Do’ by the Beatles. We can’t wait for our next lesson !

English - Oral Retell

Over the last couple of weeks, Year One have been immersing ourselves in the text 'Old Bear' by Jane Hissey. Before we begin to plan our own versions of the story we have attempted to memorise the key parts by orally retelling it using actions. 

Gymnastics 

In gymnastics this week, we have been developing quality when performing and linking shapes.
We worked together with a partner to create shapes.

Take a look at our photographs and look at the letters we made using our bodies.

School Council!

Well done to our Year 1, new school councillors! We held a vote to choose who would take on the important role for our classes!

Well done!

Democracy in Action

Having listened to the prospective candidates give their speeches, each child was given one vote to cast for the person they felt had the best ideas to make our school even better than it already is!

Art

We have been learning to draw different facial features using guided lines.

Kingsley & Co

We really enjoyed our visit from Kingsley & Co bookshop.
We were able to look at and read the books. We were also able to buy a preloved book to take home and enjoy.

RE - The story of Creation

Laurel Class enjoyed listening to the story of how God created the world (Genesis) and acted out each verse of the story to help give us a better understanding of the new vocabulary we heard.

Science - Observation (Wk2)

It’s the end of our 2nd week of observing the rainfall during it Autumn term. This week we’ve noticed that the rainfall has decreased!

Romero Britto

Take a look at our wonderful patterns, inspired by Romero Britto.

Science- The Seasons

Year One have begun our exploration of the seasons. Today we recapped each of the seasons and learnt that the different weather we experience during each one is caused by the way our planet

P.E Gymnastics

We have been developing and combining travelling movements to perform a sequence. We can travel like animals in the wild moving low and tall. We understand that a sequence has a starting and finishing position. 

National Fitness Day

On September 18, 2024, we celebrate National Fitness Day, a dedicated day to inspire and encourage everyone to be more active.

                    Maths

We have been sorting objects into groups. We grouped by colour, shape, size and object. It was so much fun!

             RE - The Bible

Year One began our exploration of ‘Creation and Covenant’ by introducing the classes to the bible. The children learnt how we consider the text as ‘the word of God’ and must treat the text with care and respect. The children carefully passed the book about, noticing how it is different to the other books we have in school. They then chose a place for our bible to be placed in Class where it can both be seen and safe.

                      PE

Year One have enjoyed working with Liverpool FC coaches this week as part of our PE lessons. Today the children explored the techniques required to roll and throw to hit a target.

Science-Observation over time.

As part of our exploration of the Seasons, Laurel Class have planted a rain gauge on the school grounds in order to study the amount of rainfall we have over the next four weeks. This week we found that 30 mm of rain had fallen. Come back to hear about our findings.

Science

 In Science, we have began collecting rain using a rain gauge to measure the rainfall across the different seasons.

After week 1, Willow class went to collect their rain gauge and we have had 30mm of rain so far! 

We are looking forward to observing this more over the coming weeks! 

        Art - Romero Britto

Year One began our exploration of the work of the artist, Romero Britto, today. The children started by looking at some of his work and discuss what they noticed about his style and what they liked about it.

Willow Class

Willow Class have been settling in to year one and having lots of fun!

Year One are settling in well!

We have all been super impressed with how well Year One have settled in so far. The children have set their own Class Rules as well as talk about what our school’s Mission Statement means to them. Below are a few pictures of Laurel Class exploring some of the challenges in our Continuous Provision area. Well done everyone on such a good start!

Parent Information Meetings

Ahead of our upcoming Year 1 information meetings on Tuesday 24th September (9am & 5pm) we have attached a copy of the Power Point we will be showing which details all the useful information you will need to know to support your child during their time in Year 1. We very much hope that everybody will be able to attend but understand that some people may not be able to do so, in which case we would encourage you to take a look at the document which includes information on our curriculum, how we teach RWI Phonics and support for you to help your child at home with their Phonics. If you have any questions, please contact Mr Turner at school.

PE in Year 1

This Autumn PE will take place on the following days:

Thursdays & Fridays.

On these days we would ask that the children come into school wearing their PE Kits. Please note that the school's PE Kit consists of a plain white t-shirt or Polo Shirt and black shorts/leggings or tracksuit bottoms (see below). Football kits, coloured tops or shorts/leggings are not permitted. If you have any problems with PE Kits please speak to your child's class teacher or our school Learning Mentor, Miss Wish.

Thank you - The Year 1 Team

Click on the links below for extra information about Read Write Inc and Phonics Screening Check. 

What is RWI?

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/7JALnRGT/U5UDJ2Lh

Phonics Screening Check

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/W254g0nH/Z2iPG09g

Why Read to Your Child?

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/YdhwaMue/UtyJ7XQy 

Goodbye to the Year 1 Classes of 23-24. We know you will be amazing in Year 2!

Taylor Swift Party in the Park

A little goodbye song from Maple class ❤️

Ash class went to Storybarn

Wow! What an amazing trip to Storybarn. We searched for story clues, dressed up as story characters, listened to stories, played games and went on a sensory garden hunt!

Willow class visit the Storybarn!

Music 

We loved performing to a song following a simple melody. We then created our own simple tunes recording a melody with 2-5 notes.

Music 

In Music this week we have been listening to songs, finding the beat and dancing along to it. It has been great fun. Miss Rock just loves dancing. We have been talking about how music makes us feel. We were all keen to play and perform a new song using a glockenspiel! 

Science- Sense of Taste

Laurel Class were learning how our tongues use tastebuds to send messages to our brain to tell us what our foods taste like. Using the key vocabulary SWEET, SOUR, BITTER, SALTY and SPICY the children then tried different foods and used their sense of taste to describe each food. We quickly discovered that Mr T’s jar of Marmite was an acquired taste!

English - Drama in the Classroom!

Willow Class enjoyed exploring how some of the characters in our book ‘The Last Wolf’ (by Mini Grey), were feeling. The children took on the role of each character and were interviewed by their classmates using by using the technique of ‘Hot Seating’.

Attendance Award

Willow Class enjoyed a ‘Teddy Bears Picnic’ this afternoon as a reward for their excellent attendance this half term. Great job guys, remember it’s so important that you are all in school every day or you’ll miss all our wonderful learning!

Willow Class Sports Day

Willow Class loved showcasing their sporting talents to their friends and family today. Everyone can feel very proud of both the effort and sportsmanship witnessed today. Well done Willow Class!

The Laurel Class Olympics

Laurel Class had an amazing time today as we took part in our Sports Day this morning. All of the children were absolutely amazing and who knows... we may have unearthed a few future Olympic Champions! Well done to everyone who took part.

The Storybarn

Laurel and Maple Class enjoyed an amazing trip to the Storybarn at Calderstones Park today. The children enjoyed time in this imaginative play space dedicated to sharing the delights of reading. The children dressed up before listening to stories, making up their own and trying book related crafts. After lunch we spent time ‘hunting’ a mythical animal by searching for clues, before visiting the Sensory Garden. A big thank you to all the staff at the Storybarn. What an amazing day! 

Year One Football Finals

Having battled it out earlier in the week, each Year One class put forward their winning team into today’s competition . After an end to end game Ash Class defeated Maple Class in the first semifinal before Laurel Class overcame Willow Class on penalties. The final was a keenly contested affair ending in a 1-1 draw before Ash Class took the cup in a penalty shootout! Well done Ash Class and well done to all that took part.

Maypole Dancing

Year One enjoyed taking part in a session of Maypole Dancing as part of our celebration of Sports this week. Why not check out the highlights in Laurel Class’ video below?

Willow class tries Maypole dancing!

Willow class sorry prayers! 

DT - Free Standing Structures 

Year One have spent the last few weeks exploring Free Standing Structures as part of our current project. The children began by looking at existing products within our school grounds before learning different joins to build cardboard structures. The children were then given the challenge of designing and making a Zoo Enclosure. Check out some of our finished results below. 

Design Technology ~ Free Standing Structures

Ash class have been exploring free standing structures and thinking about how a structure can be made stronger, stiffer and more stable.  We had so much fun practising our new cardboard attachment skills. 

Bingo winner!

Well done Harry who was the Willow class bingo winner! To make it a little bit trickier we played bingo using 1 more and 1 less. 

Careers and Aspirations

We really enjoyed listening to one of our parents this week who kindly offered to come into school to talk about her role as CSI in the police. Our teachers dressed as a CSI and we took our finger prints in class. We also played a spot the difference game. Many of our Years were truly inspired today.

Reading Club

In Year 1 Reading club we love to read aloud with our friends and share all the books we enjoy! 

Geography

We have been sorting pictures of human and physical features in the UK. There are so many beau

Art 

We have been weaving in the style of the artist Margo Selby! We enjoyed making our colourful textiles using a needle and wool.

Maths

We have been learning to tell the time to the o'clock! How clever are we!

Forest School 

Year One spent a wonderful day outside with Mrs Wynne-Hughes in Forest School today. Helped by the glorious weather, the children enjoyed making dens, sculpting with clay, digging and playing in the mud kitchen! The session finished with the children toasting marshmallows on a open fir

Science- Classifying and Grouping Plants

Year One spent time out in the school grounds looking at Wild Flowers and Garden Flowers and finding different ways to group and classy them.

Science - Plants

Year One continue to observe the various seeds we planted a few ago. Each class has been watering and keeping a careful eye on their plants, with the sunflowers seeming to grow the quickest! Further updates to continue .

RE - Pentecost
The children spent time learning about the events of Pentecost when we received the gift of the Holy Spirit. They then spent time planning how to represent this through drama and ‘Freeze Frames.’

Computing

We have been practising the skills we’ve been taught to program a BeeBot from a starting point to a finishing point and we have been using ‘Scratch’ to program our chosen sprite.

Art - Weaving

Inspired by the artist Margo Selby, Year One have been exploring the technique of weaving over the last few weeks. Having initially practised the technique on paper plates, the children then moved on to creating their own mini looms to allow them to explore using 'warps' and 'wefts' to create their own final pieces. Watch this space for the finished results!

Art - weaving

Ash class have been practising weaving after being inspired by the crafts person, Margo Selby. We have been weaving around paper plates, it’s so much fun!

Art 

Maple class have had lots of fun practising weaving using wool and paper plates. The children looped the wool through the cuts starting at the top and following them around clockwise. Very quickly they mastered the art!

Dance

Laurel Class began our dance lessons this week by exploring how we can use '8 Count' to help us keep in time with both the music and each other. The theme of the music was seasons, and the children began by moving like snowflakes, alternating their moves on the count of 8. Britain's Got Talent watch out we are coming!

Science - Plants (Summer 1)

We were excited to start our 'Plants' topic this week. The children began by classifying different seeds before planting these so that we can watch them develop into seedlings over the next couple of weeks. Watch this space for more photos and videos of how they are getting on.

Year One - Science Club
Year One began Science Club with a bang this week by trying the famous ‘Skittle’ experiment. The children made predictions and explored how changing the temperature of the water would affect the results. What will we try next time?

Computing
Year One enjoyed putting together all our recent learning in computing to program simple algorithms on the app ‘Scratch Junior’ and change the appearance of their chosen sprite and background before having it move and in some cases talk!

Year One visit Goodison Park
We had an amazing time visiting the home of Everton Football Club, Goodison Park. The trip was to start our new history topic this half term on ‘Significant historical locations’ in our locality. The children were given a tour of the ground before taking part in a workshop on the history of the ground. Thank you to everyone at EFC for a wonderful morning.

Willow class visit EFC!

Ash class at Everton Football Club 

Fractions

We have been finding half of shapes and quantities of objects.

Easter Fun Day in Year 1

Year One had lots of Easter based fun in school today. Having watched Year 2’s celebrations for Easter Sunday in church, we then took part in lots of Easter activities including Bingo, Basket making and biscuit decorating! A big shout out to Willow Class who got to take part in an Easter Egg hunt as recognition for their amazing attendance. Keep this up everyone!

Easter Hat Parade

Year One had lots of fun taking part in the schools Easter Bonnet Parade this morning. Despite the weather a fun time was had by all! 

Science - Materials

Year One finished off our exploration of the most suitable materials to use to build the Three Pigs house by looking at the windows. We met the vocabulary TRANSPARENT and OPAQUE and tried a number of materials to see which might work best.

Comic Relief 2024

Year One loved taking part in Comic Relief, telling jokes to do something ‘funny for money’. Check out some of our jokes and see if you can spot any future comedians!

Science- Materials

Laurel Class continued our exploration of materials and their properties today by investigating the best choice of material for the Three Little Pigs roof. We were introduced to the terms absorbent, non absorbent and waterproof today and discovered which materials had these properties.

DT - Dips & Dippers (Make)

Year One had lots of fun making and trying our dips today. All the children were careful to use the new safe cutting techniques we had learnt so that they could prepare the vegetables they had chosen to use. We were very proud of everyone who tried their dips, which were given a resounding thumbs up! 

Ash class have had such fun learning new cutting skills in our design technology cookery lessons. We know how to use bridge and claw cut.

Science- Materials 

Laurel Class enjoyed working as Scientists today to investigate the suitability of Straw, Sticks, Cardboard and Bricks, for the walls of the Three Little Pigs houses.

World Book Day 2024

Year One had a fantastic day celebrating World Book Day today. The children enjoyed sharing our chosen characters with the rest of the school (as well as a bit of a dance on the playground!) during our parade. We were lucky enough to visit other classes and share stories together. We then went back to class to complete an author study on our chosen author, Oliver Jeffers, and review his book ‘Lost and Found’. What a fun day! 

DT - Dippers & Dips
Laurel Class began our Work on designing and making ‘Dippers & Dip’ by first exploring existing products on the market. The children got to try a range of different flavoured dips before using their sense of taste to categorise them and decide whether they liked the flavour. We then held a class vote to decide which was our favourite. Well done to everyone who tried new flavours today ! 

Maple class enjoyed cutting and slicing a range of vegetables in DT. We practised the bridge cut and claw grip  ready for next week when we make our dips and dippers!

History- Toys Old &. New
 

Year 1 rounded off our exploration of the changes made to Toys within ‘Living Memory’ by trying to place some of the toys we’ve met in CHRONOLOGICAL order on simple timelines. We then tried to use simple Historical vocabulary to show the passing of time. 

Science - Materials 

Year 1 continued our exploration of materials today by conducting an experiment to see which materials would be the better choice to make an umbrella. We were introduced to new vocabulary like ABSORB and WATER PROOF as we explored each materials properties.

Maths - Measure

Having met new vocabulary like MEASURE, MASS and WEIGHT this week, we continued our exploration of measure by using the balance scales to COMPARE the MASS of different objects we found around the classroom, understanding that the size of an object will not always make it heavier or lighter.

History- Toys Old & New

Having spent our first lesson looking at toys from the PRESENT, today we explored toys from the PAST. Mr T brought in some of his own childhood toys including Star Wars, Action Man and Gordon the Gopher! We will then spend our third lesson comparing these in order to understand how things have changed within living memory.

History - Old Toys

Today we really enjoyed looking at the old toys Mr Turner played with as a child. Some of them we still play with today. Lots of the old toys were made of plastic and fabric but they do not move as well as some of our toys and they don’t light up or make noise.

Maths- Measure

Laurel Class have spent our maths lessons this week exploring how to measure the length or height of objects using standard and non-standard units of measure. It was lots of fun and everybody has begun to use rulers correctly in order to sort objects from shortest to longest. 

Continuous Provision- Science

Laurel Class spent some time in our Science area in Continuous Provision in order to revisit our learning on materials, guessing the material each object is made from, describing how they feel and naming some of their properties.

Continuous Provision

Ash class have been having lots of fun practising new skills in our CP areas. We have been investigating materials, practising cutting skills and sorting old and new toys. 

Measure

Ash class have been using objects such as cubes to measure objects around our classroom. We are now able to use a ruler to measure in centimetres.

Science -Materials

Laurel Class had lots of fun exploring materials that float today. We worked together to make predictions before testing each material to see if our predictions were right. We did however get a bit soggy!

Children’s Mental Health Week

The children enjoyed being part of Mental Health Week, taking part in dance, meditation and activities to reinforce the importance of their own voice.

Geography!

We have been exploring and investigating materials during our Science lessons. We have looked at the properties of material, if materials are man made or natural and identifying the materials used to make objects. 

NSPCC Number Fun Day

We loved coming to school with our waxy hair and chanting all of our favourite Maths songs! 

Maple class really enjoyed the artists workshop painting with various tools such as paint brushes, sticks and sponges to create a picture. We used both primary and secondary colours to create our paintings! We made fish, trees and plants! It was so much fun! 

NSPCC Number Fun Day

Laurel Class enjoyed joining hundreds of other schools across the country to take part in the NSPCC’s annual Number Fun Day. The children took part in counting challenges, played board games as well as sharing maths related jokes and riddles they had prepared. All this while modelling some very whacky hairstyles!

‘How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh?’     Ten-tacles 

PSHE - Spring 1 - Respectful Relationships

This week Year 1 have begun their new PSHE topic, thinking about ‘Respectful Relationships’. Laurel Class enjoyed talking and learning about being kind, polite, taking turns and sharing. 

Related Facts

 Our amazing work!

We have been learning our fact families with related numbers within 20!

Art - John Ndambo

We have been working very hard to create our own piece of Art work taken inspiration from John Ndambo. First, we practised all the skills needed. We practised how to colour wash, then practised making the people, trees and grass! Then we put it all together to create our final piece.

They are amazing!

Art

We had a special visit from an artist. She taught us how to use different strokes using our paintbrushes. She taught us how to flick and dab. We then used these techniques to create our own bird painting.

Science - 'Stop the Block'

The children enjoyed a visit from the team at Mad Science today to learn important life skills today, about what can and can't be flushed down the toilet. As you will see from the video below, putting the wrong things down the toilet can cause big problems! Don't forget everyone, remember the 3 P's, pee, poo and paper!

Snow!

Laurel Class found some time to venture outside together and have some fun building snowmen! It also gave us the opportunity to take another look at how the seasons affect our weather. 

Science - Materials 

Year one have begun our exploration of ‘Materials’ this half-term by investigating some of the objects we use every day in school. We tried to identify what material each object was made from and began to describe them.

Maths - Addition & Subtraction within 20.

Year One have begun our exploration of addition and subtraction within 20 this week. We revisited the Number Bonds to 10 and how we can use this knowledge to help us solve bonds to 20.

Willow Class Party!

We had the BEST time today at our Christmas party!
Lots of colouring, singing, dancing, eating and watching movies! 

Laurel Class Nativity
Congratulations to all the children of Laurel Class who put on a spectacular show this week. You were all amazing. Today Walton, next stop the West End !

Willow Class Nativity Pictures!

 Wow! What a brilliant performance by Willow class today!

Take a look at us in our lovely costumes!

Music

Laurel Class have been enjoying our music lessons, developing our ability to identify the beat within a piece of music and use our bodies to replicate it. We have also begun to use the Glockenspiels to join in with a song we have been learning in our lessons!

Science - Seasons

Laurel Class have continued our regular investigation of the seasons and how these affect our weather. We are now only a few days away from Christmas so we are still very much in the middle of Winter and the weather and the trees around our school reflects this. Wrap up warm everyone!

DT

 In DT we have designed, made and evaluated a Christmas card with a moving mechanism. Children first explored and practised how to make a sliding part or a lever. The Christmas card was designed and then made.

Take a look at our amazing Christmas cards!

Estimation Station!

 Well done to Willow class estimation station winners! This week, we had three winners!

The amount of chocolate snowmen was 17! We had guesses which were 1 more and 1 less than 17 so the prize was shared!

Well done!!

Maths!

 We are started to look at place value to 20 in year one! In Willow class, we have been looking at different ways we can show 20!

'Mathvent' Calendars!

Wow! Look at some children from Willow class who have made their own 'Mathvent' calendar at home! 

DT

In DT we have begun to look at sliders and levers! First we explored some existing products, looking at books with moving parts.

We then practised the skill, making a sliding moving part (a part that moves side to side or up and down) and then a lever (a moving part that moves in a circular motion, held down by a pivot).

Here is Willow class practising the skill of making a lever and slider. 

Christmas!

 Willow class getting into the Christmas spirit!

Maths

We have been learning all about Shapes. We have learnt about 2D and 3D shapes. Here we are exploring making some shapes using wooden lollipop sticks!

Children in Need

Year One enjoyed taking part in Children in Need today. The base was a sea of yellow ears, and we enjoyed making Pudsey style biscuits. Thank you to all our families that sent in a donation, which will be sent on to the charity. 

Chester Zoo

As part of our learning in Science Year One paid a trip to Chester Zoo this week. We all loved seeing all the different animals, and used the opportunity to develop our understanding of the different groups that each belonged to. Laurel Class especially enjoyed the penguins who put on quite a show for us!

Judaism

 We have been exploring another religion; Judaism. We were learning all about Abraham and his stars.

Abraham was someone who really loved and trusted God. He was a great leader. He told people that there is only one God, some people at that time thought there were lots of gods. God promised Abraham that his descendent would be as many as the stars in the heaven or the sand on sea shore.
We drew our family in a star and added them together to show a beautiful, full, night sky!

Maths - Shape

Year One have begun to look at 3D and 2D shapes this week. We have been exploring each shape noting which ones rolled and which ones stacked and examining them closely to see why. We have found examples of 3d shapes in real life and used the faces on these shapes to explore the 2D shapes within them.

Rapunzel

This half term, we will be reading 'Rapunzel' by Bethan Woollvin. We have been learning some new vocabulary from the book, such as; cackle, suspected and secretly. Look at the picture of some of us cackling like the evil witch!

Continuous Provision

Year One have enjoyed using our Continuous Provision area this half term in order to revisit and consolidate lots of the learning we have been doing in class through play, as well as our ability to work independently or as part of a team.

Willow Class - Estimation Station!

Well done to our 2 estimation station winners this week!

Willow Class - Estimation Station!

Well done to our estimation station winner! With a grand total of 23 chocolate eyeballs, Kevin has won with an amazing estimation of 21 so he was only 2 away!

Well done! Don't eat them all at once!

Maths!

In Maths this week, we have been exploring different number bonds within 10. We have used lots of different resources to help us. Look at these two superstars working hard to write the number sentences for number bonds to 8 and 9!

Geography!

In year 1, we have been looking at maps. To start our new learning, we first had a walk around our local area. We looked at the different buildings, houses and roads. We used new vocabulary to describe places. We used the words; near, far, next to...

Geography!

After our walk, we then mapped out everything we saw on our walk. We included; the junior school, the dentist, barber shop and even the street signs. Take a look...

English in Year 1 

We have been reading the story Old Bear this half term. We have been learning to describe the setting by writing a list poem, act out parts of the story and describe the characters. We used our story friends to help us re-tell the story in our own words. We are now going to write a letter to one of the characters who is stuck in the attic.

Maths 

This week we have been learning how to use a part whole model. We can use counters and a part whole model to help us find out about addition within 10.

Art - final piece of work

Today we finished our Romero Britto inspired work. We included geometric shapes, bright colours and a colour wash to finish our self portraits.

National Fitness Day

We decided to get super fit on National Fitness Day! We had great fun running, jumping and counting how many star jumps we could do in one minute.

Art - Romero Britto

We have begun exploring the work of the Brazilian artist Romero Britto. Today we have been experimenting using geometric shapes and bright, vibrant colours in the same way that Britto does. We discovered that if we made patterns using oil pastels and then applied water colours the pastels would reject the paint. We hope you like our work.