Huge welcome to Year 1

What an exciting start to Year 1 we have had. It is wonderful to have the whole class back together with such enthusiasm for what the year brings. The class have settled in very well and it’s lovely how positive they enter the classroom with readiness to learn. With the developing outdoor area, we are making the most of the weather taking learning outside for some lessons.

Over the summer, I transformed the classroom to support Continuous Provision to enhance child initiated learning. I believe this has helped with the transition from Reception to Year 1. The children will have ‘challenges’ to complete throughout the week in the different ‘zones’ of learning. The amount of challenges will build throughout the year. For the Curriculum Overview, you shall find a link on the right hand side of the class blog. The journey to Continuous Provision is very exciting and allows the children to repeatedly secure their understanding of learning throughout the week.

Year 1 is a big Phonics year. Entering Year 1, children are ‘expected’ to be secure in all Phase 3 sounds, ready for learning alternative sounds in Phase 5. Phase 4 is a very small phase where no new sounds are introduced, but supports children to read quicker. Please continue to read with your child and encourage them to recognise Phase 3 sounds within words.

If there is anything you would like to discuss, I am happy to speak at the end of the school day (from a distance). 😀

Big smile,

Miss Perry

Thank you!!!

It has been a weird but wonderful year and I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching all your children. Their enthusiasm, engagement and excitement has been incredible every single day we have been in class. They adapted so well to Google Classroom online learning and showed such resilience.

A HUGE thank you to you all for all your kind words and thoughtful gifts. I am blown away. The book is just gorgeous and I shall treasure it. Reading the children’s comments and thinking back to the great times we had in class puts a huge smile on my face. Lot’s of children remember our ‘bonkey’ moment!

If you have the opportunity during the holiday, please encourage your child to read a variety of texts and practise their letter formation while handwriting. I wish you all a happy, safe and relaxing summer holiday.

Big smile, Miss Perry 😀

A fantastic first week back!

I would like to start by saying how proud myself and Mr King are with how sensible and positive the children, from both groups, have been settling back to school. They have been great educators to each other sharing what they know about keeping safe during this time. A huge well done and air high five to them!

I hope they have enjoyed this weeks learning. I have greatly enjoyed being back in the classroom with their smiley faces.

I would like to share a video with you that made my week. On Tuesday, both groups collected materials from their playground areas to make birds nests. We then went to the field and they got to work to create their nests. They all really enjoyed this activity and wanted to come back to check them the next day. Watch the video below see what they found.

All I can say is I have watched this video multiple times and each time it puts a massive smile on my face 😀

I hope you can all view the video. You may need to use this link if it doesn’t work; https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LvmRZ1giUPcOe6okn6tpR0sQocdCesVZtQJoXx043pM/edit?usp=sharing

Y1 Home learning

Hello Year 1,

As we are now back at school and as outlined in Mr Bedford’s letter, Mr King and I will be no longer be able to set and respond Home Learning in the usual way.

A fantastic resources is BBC Bitesize where you can find daily lessons for Maths, English and lots of other subjects. You can find the link on our Google Classroom, along with links to other handy websites.

https://classroom.google.com/u/1/w/NTQyMzU5Nz

Again, if have any queries you can email the helpline at: googleclassroom@stadrians.herts.sch.uk

You will find lessons from previous weeks in the ‘Archive’ section of the classroom.

I have moved all the videos which I have filmed so far, into a topic called ‘Videos’. This means they shall always be accessible.

Joe Wicks PE lesson’s – https://www.youtube.com/user/thebodycoach1

Stay safe,

Miss Perry

Year 1 Easter Project

Over the next two weeks, I would like you to research and collect information about a country which you can compare to The UK. This can be any country of your choice. I would like you to spend time thinking about how you are going to present this information, whether on a poster, a fact file, maybe even a video. You can choose how you would like to show off all your information.
As you have two weeks to complete this, I am hoping that would will be able to show lots of facts and information off. Take pride in your learning and presentation.

Once everyone has submitted, I shall add them to one section of the classroom. You will then be able to look at other’s learning to find out interesting facts about other countries.

Year 1 Home Learning

I are going to greatly miss seeing and teaching your children face-to-face during the duration of the school being closed. Please know that your children are still at the forefront of my mind. Mr King and I will do everything that we can to support them and you during this time.

I have sent the children home with a Home Learning book where they can record their learning. Enclosed inside was information regarding logging on to various platforms; MyMaths, Google Classroom and J2E. I also sent the children home with a planted sunflower and diary for them to start recording the life of their sunflower as they observe it grow.

Joe Wicks will also be streaming a PE lesson every morning at 9am onto his youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAxW1XT0iEJo0TYlRfn6rYQ

I shall be posting home learning in the ‘Home Learning’ section of the blog at 9am during the week. Please complete this depending on your families circumstance.

We are in this together and I aim to provide engaging and creative opportunities for learning during this time.

I appreciate your support and kind words and look forward to returning to normality soon. The class have made me so proud this year, blossoming into wonderful, thoughtful and kind individuals. My thoughts are with you all.

Hoping you and your families are well.

Miss Perry

Useful websites

www.phonicsplay.co.uk – phonics

www.phonicsbloom.com – phonics

www.teachyourmonsterstoread.com (website is free, paid app) – reading

www.oxfordowl.co.uk – reading

Go Noodle (Youtube) – ‘brainercise’

Cosmic Kids (Youtube and free app) – ‘yoga’

www.topmarks.co.uk – interactive games

Learning in Year 1 this week

Week beginning Monday, 16th March 2020

Below is a summary of the learning taking place in Year 1 this week.

English: This week, brings us to the end of our sequence based around the text Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers. The children have planned their own ending which is supporting them to write their own ending for the book, before having the published ending revealed to them. They shall then peer-edit their work to check for correct punctuation, spelling and look at re-writing a sentence to improve it.

Math’s: We are currently discovering Addition and Subtraction Word Problems. The children are encouraged to recognise what the word problem is asking them, to solve the problem and to use resources to support their working out.

Science: This week on our current topic on Plants, we shall be looking at the parts of a plant. They shall be dissecting a tulip to label the individual parts correctly. An on-going activity within the classroom, is also to record observations about their sunflower which has been growing for 3 weeks now. We also check in on our wide range of vegetables that we have growing around the room.

D&T: The children shall be carrying on creating their Islands that they have designed using junk modelling. We have looked slightly into ratio and discussed which features should be bigger/smaller than others.

Geography: Based around our current topic on The UK, this week we shall be developing our understanding of where The UK is in relation to other countries. We are going to travel up in a hot air balloon (power of the imagination) flying over the school, landmarks and human/physical features to create journey lines, using where we travel on a map.

Computing: Continuing developing the children into TV Chefs, we shall be developing our recording skills using an ipad to film giving instructions for a recipe.

RE: This week, we have looked at the beginning of Lent and discussed if any children have a Lenten promise. The children then wrote a Lenten promise which was added to our Tree ‘Remember Jesus and help me to change and grow‘. We shall also be furthering our understanding that Lent is an opportunity to change.

Phonics: Majority of children in their Phonics groups have been learning and continuing to progress their understanding of the slit digraphs.

Celebrating World Book Day

On Thursday, Reception and Year 1 came together to share books. Both classrooms were transformed into reading dens for the children, in pairs, to take it in turns to read a book aloud.

Hopefully we can make this a more frequent event as the children loved it!! It was definitely reading for pleasure!