As scientists, how do we use materials in every day life?

Week 1

Congratulations to the Year 1s on an excellent start to 2024!

We've been quite busy, kicking off our new English unit centered around the text "Elmer." Exploring various features within the text, we identified nouns, adjectives, verbs, and conjunctions. We wrote our cold write where we tried our best to write imaginative stories about Elmer embarking on an adventure.

In math's, we started to loo closely at the numbers 10-20. Building on our previous learning of counting up to 10 last term, this week we've extended our skills to counting up to 20. Utilizing concrete resources has proven instrumental in reinforcing our counting abilities.

During our science lesson, we embarked on a material hunt, collecting an array of objects. As a class, we collaboratively identified the materials composing these items, sorting and labeling them into groups.

In computing, we looked at the importance of following instructions. We learnt that by following the instructions correctly, we get the correct results. We learnt that an algorithm is a precise, step by step of instructions used to solve a problem or achieve an object.

In Design & Technology, our upcoming project involves creating windmills. This week, our attention was on crafting stable structures, laying the foundation for our innovative endeavors in the coming weeks!

Have a great weekend and see you Monday :)

Week 2

In English, we continued to look at the story Elmer before innovating our story. We changed our character from elephant to a fish. We then changed the story to fit our new story about Nemo.

In maths, we continued looking at numbers. We looked at numbers 14,15,16,17,18,19 and 20. We also looked at counting one more or less within 20. We used base ten to help us to with our maths this week.

In science, we looked at describing the physical properties of a variety of different everyday materials. We used adjectives to describe the different materials we saw.

In geography, we began to learn about the UK. We learnt the UK stands for United Kingdom and that it is made up of 4 countries. These are England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We also learnt there are 7 continents and the UK is a part of the continent Europe.

In ICT, we have been looking at algorithms. In this lesson, we were following and creating simple instructions on the computer. We discussed why instructions are important when completing a task and why it is important to carefully follow each instruction. We also discussed why computers need precise instructions to follow and we learnt that the computing term for this is called an algorithm.

Have a lovely weekend!

Week 3

Year 1 have had a fantastic and busy week this week!

In English the children have completed their narrative stories based on Elmer the patchwork elephant and have included great adjectives and verbs. 

In maths we have continued to use the language of tens and ones when using a number line to 20. We have also been estimating on a number line and figuring out what numbers come between 0-10 and 10-20. 

In computing we have moved onto our maze explorer's unit of learning on purple mash where the children are leaning to use the forwards, backwards, left and right arrow keys to navigate. In DT we have been busy constructing our windmills and look forward to testing them out next week!

Have a great weekend :-) 

Week 4

Let’s jump into what was a fun filled week in year 1 

We had a fantastic time at our rebound fitness workshop. The children loved bouncing on the mini trampolines while listening to some music.

In English, we started our new unit on instructions. We read our model text 'How to wash a Woolly Mammoth. We followed this by looking through our text and we found 'bossy' verbs, adjectives, time words and conjunctions. We then completed our cold task which was writing our own set of instructions for taking a bath. We also completed our story maps and came up with actions to help us to remember our model text.

In maths, we started our new unit addition and subtraction within 20. We began the week with counting on from a given number to 20. We then looked at number bonds to 20 and using ones to help us with this. We finished the week with finding and making number bonds to 20. 

In geography, we looked at human and physical features in the capital cities of the United Kingdom. We completed a sorting activity for each of the cities and worked in pairs to decide if the features were human or physical.

In ICT, we have been using Maze Explorers to continue learning how to make simple algorithms. We practised using diagonal direction keys to move the characters in the right direction.  

Next week:

- Perform Drama workshop on Wednesday 31st January.

This workshops have been designed to support communication and language, expressive arts, music and geography. Using drama, dance and singing the children will go on a curious and fascinating adventure through the diverse environment of the Wild West. They'll race to the rodeo to undergo cowboy training, learn all about the different animals who live in the American West and search for the missing Horse with a Golden Mane!

- We are celebrating Number day on Thursday 1st February.

This day is dedicated to celebrating the importance of maths and numbers in our everyday lives. It will be a day filled with exciting problem-solving activities for our children to engage in. To make this day even more special, we invite the children to dress in something related to maths and numbers. This could be as simple as wearing a t-shirt with numbers on it or dressing up as their favourite mathematician.

Week 5

We have had another fantastic week in year 1. 

On Thursday we celebrated number day. The children looked great in their creative number costumes! We had lots of lovely activities planned such as paint by number, snakes and ladders, code cracking, what's the time mr wolf and drawing and a carousel of maths activities in the hall.

In English this week we have been writing up our instructions and identifying the various time words, bossy verbs and adjectives! We also started to innovate and change our text to be about a grizzly bear! 

In Geography we have been learning about human and physical features in the United Kingdom. The children worked in groups to explore various features in London, Belfast, Edinburgh, and Cardiff. 

Have a lovely weekend! 

Week 6

This week in English, we planned our innovated stories before completing our 'hot task' on giving an animal a bath. We then edited our stories checking our sentences for capital letters, finger spaces and full stops before publishing our set of instructions.

In maths, we finished our unit on addition and subtraction within 20. We used number lines to draw our jumps back when subtracting. We used our knowledge of number bonds to 10 to help us to find number bonds within 20.

In geography, we completed a fact file on a country in the UK. In this fact file, we gave information such as the capital city, drew and coloured the flag and named as many human and physical features in that country.

In ICT, as we had finished our computer science unit Maze Explorers, so we used computing time this week to log into Numbots and practise our maths. 

We hope you have a lovely break and see you all Monday 19th February!