Writing Challenge Treat!

This afternoon, Year 1 have enjoyed our special film treat, watching the Lego Batman movie, as a reward for completing our writing challenge.

Over the past 6 weeks, the children have been given a series of Superhero pictures to write about to encourage independent writing.  We have been impressed by the improvements they have made.  For each challenge they have completed, they have earnt a sticker towards their reward.  All of the children completed enough challenges to watch the film and some also had an extra popcorn reward.

We look forward to working towards a new treat next term!

Weekly News w/c 10th December

We have been very busy in year 1 this week!

On Monday we were lucky enough to be invited to the Year 3 and 4 Christmas play - Bah Humbug!

It was very exciting and the actors were brilliant, we particularly enjoyed the singing.

On Tuesday we learnt about Christmas traditions all around the world. We found out that in Australia some people go to the beach and eat seafood because it is so hot!

On Wednesday we played a game in our colour groups. We had to match numbers to make a pair. The orange cards had the number written in words and the green cards had numbers written in numerals. The person who had the most pairs won!

Wednesday was also our chance to watch the fabulous Rock Steady Christmas band performances - they were fantastic.

A special well done to Alex, Wilfrid and Ethan from Caterpillar Class.

We have also been learning about The Christmas Story and had a go at sequencing a muddled order. We then challenged ourselves to write some labels, captions or sentences to explain the Nativity.

Superhero Assembly!

Thank you to all of the grown-ups who came to our assembly this morning - what a fabulous turnout!  I'm sure you'll agree, the children were brilliant!  We were very proud of them learning and performing their lines and our 'Let's Go Heroes' song with such great enthusiasm.

They were all thrilled to receive their certificates to confirm they are now fully qualified Superheroes too!

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow night for our Christmas Fayre where the children will be performing again.  What a busy week!

Homework

We have had some fantastic Superhero homework handed in.  We created some cool Superheroes using 2D shapes and were able to identify lots of the shapes too.

We also planned and made some healthy lunchboxes, which would be fit for superheroes.  Some of the children even prepared the food for themselves and their families to eat.

Homework books are coming home again tonight - apologies for these not going out Friday as originally intended.  If your child has a second piece of homework to complete, the date for this to be returned is now Wednesday 12th December.  Thank you.

Weekly News w/c 26th November

This week in our maths lessons, we have learnt how to measure liquids using millilitres and we put this into practice by measuring different amounts of water.  Next, we wrote instructions on how to create exciting potions which will give us superpowers, like invisibility or the ability to fly.  Our next challenge is to see if we can follow our instruction and make the potions - so watch out for invisible or flying children coming your way!

On Tuesday, we had a karate session as part of our superhero training and had great fun learning how to punch and block 'karate-style'. 

We have spent a lot of time this week practising for our assembly.  We are getting better at remembering our words and are becoming more confident at speaking in front of an audience.  You can help us by asking us to rehearse our lines at home too.  We have also had great fun singing our special Superhero song and are looking forward to entertaining you next Thursday at 9am.

Christmas Fayre
Remember, tomorrow (Friday 30th) is a non-uniform day in return for a tombola prize for the Christmas Fayre.

On our parent noticeboard, there is a sign-up sheet.  If you are able to help us before, during or after the Christmas Fayre, this would be very much appreciated.  This is a big fundraiser for the school and any help is gratefully received.  Thank you.

Weekly News - w/c 19th November

It has been another exciting week in Year 1.

In English this week, we have been looking at comic strips and stories.  We learnt about speech bubbles and had a go at writing our own speech bubble conversations between two superheroes; Icy and Invisiboy.  On Thursday, we used our knowledge of comics and had a go at creating our own!

In maths this week, we have been learning about 3D shapes and their properties – ask us what the mathematical name for the corner of a 3D shape is!  We had a go at naming shapes and sorting them by colour, name and properties.  We also experimented to find out which shapes roll and which shapes slide.  We found out that the shapes that have curved surfaces could roll and those with flat faces would slide.

In science, we have been exploring our five senses in detail.  We had feely boxes and images and had a go at describing them with amazing adjectives.

As a daily activity this week, we designed and made our own traps to try and capture the Evil Pea.  Luckily, the traps worked and he was captured and put back in the freezer where he belongs! 

We have also started practising for our first Year 1 assembly.  It is based around our topic – Superheroes! Some of us will have brought home the words that we need to practise for this.

Reminder: our assembly is Thursday 6^th December at 9am.  Please could the children come to school in their best superhero costume, they will need school uniform to change into after the assembly.

Have a lovely weekend!

Repeating patterns

We also looked at repeating patterns in our 2D shape work this week.  We were able to name a variety of 2D shapes, including squares, rectangles, pentagons, hexagons and octagons.

Why not challenge us to find some of these shapes around the home and ask us questions about them, such as, "how many sides does it have?"

2D Shape Hunt

On Tuesday, we went to Mulbarton Church and did a shape hunt. We found lots of great shapes as you can see!

Reading Cafe and fruit kebabs

We had a fantastic time at our Multicultural Reading Cafe this morning.  Thank you to all the grown-ups that came and helped us with our Diwali-themed art activities.

On Tuesday as part of our Superheroes topic, we learnt about the different food groups and where some foods come from.  We found out that fruit and vegetables can help keep our bodies strong and healthy and made some delicious fruit kebabs.

Phew, what a busy week it has been in Caterpillars!  

We launched our new Superheroes topic and started the week with Wonderful Writing.  

First, we talked about what makes a superhero and thought about some of their key qualities.  Here are some of our ideas:  

“they have special powers” - Danny

“they save the day” - Amber

“they help people” - Ellis

On Tuesday, we had a super visitor from Norwich Castle.  She was dressed as Matron Edith Cavell and told us all about her life.  We agreed that she was a real-life superhero helping soldiers of all different nationalities during World War 1.  We especially enjoyed hearing the tales of her dog Jack!

In maths, we have been learning how to double numbers up to 20 using Numicon and cubes to help us and have done some fantastic maths.  Next week we will be learning about halving numbers.  

Next week we will be enjoying more fantastic superhero adventures!  See you then!

Enchanted Woodland Topic

We have had a great start to year 1 learning about the Enchanted Woodland. We started with a wow day where we dressed up as elves, fairies and woodland animals. We made lots of enchanted woodland crafts and the children had a great day.

Throughout the topic we have learnt about woodland animals and their habitats, fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood which we learnt to tetell with actions through talk for writing and we have also learnt to identify trees using their leaves. The children have learnt about deciduous or evergreen trees too. 

Enrichment fortnight

What an exciting way to start the enhancement fortnight!  We boarded Mulbarton airlines with Pilot Theobald and took off on our flight to the Galapagos Islands.  We experienced the take-off, in-flight refreshment trolley walk through and landing.  Once safely departed we went off to listen to a story ‘We’re sailing to Galapagos’ by Laurie Krebs. 

 We watched some clips of Sir David Attenborough in the Galapagos Islands to learn more about them e.g. how they were formed, the endangered species that inhabit the island and the species that are yet to be discovered.  The children then enjoyed drawing and collaging an animal from the island e.g. the Galapagos tortoise, the Blue footed Booby bird, Frigate bird or a Black Iguana.

We have enjoyed a science day on Wednesday this week when we have looked closely at Sea Bream, Sardines, Tiger Prawns and Scallops.  We learnt about their anatomy and then cut them open to explore this more closely.  The children were very brave and fascinated about the internal parts and then sketched and labelled the parts of a fish. 

We became explorers like Sir David Attenborough and went off around the school site to investigate the insects that live in our school and attempt to record this by tallying.  We discovered butterflies, wood louse, ladybirds, grasshoppers, worms, ants and spiders to name but a few.  Looking through magnifying glasses to observe them closely was interesting and exciting. 

Then we explored the school grounds to sketch and record the different plant species that we have around our school.  The children were very engaged and excited at discovering so many different types of flowers and plants.

 We had a lovely last full week in year 1. On Monday it was our school history day and year 1 dressed as the medieval era. The whole school went onto the upper school playground and we made a human time line from Reception who were dressed as cavemen to year 6 who were dressed as people from the 70s.  They all had some super costumes. We started off by learning about castles and knights and learnt about jousting and banquets. The children designed their own shields and crowns and we also made flags with our house team logo. We carried on the next day with a jousting tournament using foam javelins and the children took their flags to cheer on their house teams. We also had a mini banquet with lots of fruits and crisps in the class room.

On Wednesday we had an Art and RE day. We learnt about Islam and looked at the Quran and a prayer mat. We then designed our own prayer mats and made scrolls with a prayer, wish or hope for the future.

In the afternoon we learnt about Islamic art and focussed on Moroccan tiles. The children designed their own tile on a foam sheet and used a block printing technique to print it.