As artists, how do we make our mark?

Week 1

What a fantastic week of learning in year 1.

In English, we started our new unit narrative unit 'The Way Back Home' and we completed our box of tricks, cold write and story maps for this new unit.

In maths, we began the week counting on from 20 to 50 before learning to make groups of tens and ones using numbers between 20-50.

In science, we began our learning on classify animals. We looked at classifying animals into groups of birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and fish. We looked at the different features of each of these groups.

We are looking at explorers in history. Our first explorer we looked at is Amelia Earhart. We learned about how she was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean by herself and how her plane vanished and it is thought she ended up in Gardeners Island. We read about the items that were found on the island such as a shoe, pieces of clothing, freckle cream and some bones.

We began drawing and writing simple sentences in our ICT lesson this week. We are looking at creating animated stories this term.

Art is our focus subject this term and we started this unit by looking at different types of lines. We looked at horizontal lines, wavy lines, vertical lines, cross- hatched lines, diagonal lines and broken lines.

 Have a lovely weekend and see you on Monday :)

Week 2

In English, we have started to innovate our model text. We have innovated our character and our location in our new story.

In maths, we have continued learning about numbers to 50. We have been looking at number lines to 50 before then estimating on a number line to 50.We ended the week looking at one more or one less to 50.

We have continued our explorer's topic in history. We learnt how Bessie Coleman was the first African American woman to perform in an airshow. We learnt that she travelled to France and got her pilot's license. 

In science, we continued learning about animals. We focused this week on similarities and differences between different animals.

In art, we explored line and mark marking to draw water. We listened to music to inspire us with drawing our lines and we used a range of different materials. We used dark, light, thick, thin , wavy and straight lines in our drawings.

In computing we have continued to write and draw our animated stories.

Week 3

Another busy week in year 1! 

In English, we planned our 'hot write' and then wrote our narrative stories. We then edited our stories looking for capital letters, full stops and any spelling mistakes. We also published our hot write. 

In math's, we started our new unit on measurement. We started looking at height and length while using vocabulary such as taller, smaller, longer and shorter. 

In history, we looked at Bessie and Amelia and then compared both of these amazing women. 

In science, we learned the difference between carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. We looked at the difference between these diets. 

In RE, we have continued to learn about 'Shabat' and how it is a time of rest and how it mirrors how God rested on the 7th day after creation.  We also looked at the Friday night meal and how it is important part of Jewish family life and how it helps Jewish families feel closer to God. 

In art, we continued our unit called ‘make our mark’. We drew and overlapped 2D shapes combining different materials to create an abstract composition inspired by Kandinsky. 

We also celebrated World Book Day and had a great day of activities including a runway of our favourite book characters!

Week 4

We have had another busy week in year 1. 

As it has been national science week we have been doing lots of exciting activities. Year 1 started off by learning about Eunice Newton Foote who discovered that an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can cause global warming. The children also created a seasonal timeline to showcase their learning so far about seasons and created a poster full of ideas about what the world may look like in the future! The children also had a fantastic science experiment where they looked though different animals poo to see if they could find out if it belonged to a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore (of course it was not real poo!). They concluded that the carnivores poo had bones in it, the herbivores poo just had plants, grass and leaves and that the omnivores poo had both plants and bones!

In English the children started their new unit of writing which focuses on newspaper reports. The children looked though a model text of a news paper report all about Amelia Earhart! They had a go at spotting various features and memorised the article! 

In history the children started to learn about a cosmonaught called Valentine Tereshkova who was the first female to go into space! They drew fantastic pictures of her and write down some fun facts about her life. It would be great if you could start collecting some recycling for our explorers day as one of our activities will be junk modelling! 

In maths the children finished their learning about length and height and went on to learning about mass. They had a go at estimating and figuring out the weight of different objects using non-standard units of measure such as cubes! 

Have a lovely weekend, we look forward to seeing you back on Monday! 

Week 5

What a brilliant week we had in year 1! We had the best time in our scootability course this week, learning the skills and knowledge to ride safely.

In English, we innovated our newpaper report on Amelia Earheart to Bessie Coleman. We linked our history learning to our newspaper report. In our writing we tried our best to use the suffix 'ing' and adjectives.

In maths, we continued our mass and volume unit. We learnt the difference betwen volume and capacity. We used vocabulary such as heavier, lighter, empty, nearly empty, full and nearly full. We have also just started looking at comparing volume and will continue this learning next week. 

In history we looked at Mae Jemison as our explorer this week.  We learnt that she was the first African American astronaut to enter space. We looked at her journey on becoming an astronaut and how she loved the stars, planets and space.

In ICT, this week we had finished our animation story unit. We looked at touch typing on Purplemash. This teaches the children how to correctly type on a keyboard.

Week 6

We have had a fantastic busy week in year 1!

In English the children worked hard at writing their very own newspaper reports on Mae Jemison. They included headlines, facts and pictures! They then edited them using their green pens and published them. We are very proud of their fantastic work! 

On Wednesday we had our explorer's day! The children looked great in their costumes! We started off the day by making the most of the sun shine and explored the grounds of Chennestone. The children then drew their favourite explorer on to the playground and wrote adjectives around their pictures describing thier explorer using chalk! After that the children worked together to junk model either a plane or spaceship. It was lovely to see the children from both schools working so well together! In the afternoon they had to navigate through some orienteering activities in the gym using a range of different resources. 

In science, we finished our learning on animals by looking at food chains. We look forward to putting it into practice at Chessington in our first week back! 

Have a lovely break! and safe break everyone!