It’s been another busy week in Year 1! From internet safety in Computing to comparing dogs and humans in Science, we’ve covered it all it seems in Year 1 this week.
We started off the week with some e-safety in Computing. We discussed what information we should share, including personal information like our home address or other information such as our favourite colour. We then worked in groups to sort the information we should share and not share.
In Maths, we have been using part whole models to help us find all the ways to make a particular number (number bonds). We have enjoyed using the models and the counters to help us find these number bonds.
Thank you all for your generous Harvest donations. If you do have anymore donations, please can we have them in by early next week. We have been practising our Harvest song ready to perform in the Harvest assembly next week too.
This week, we celebrated World Multiplication Table Day by using the Times table Rockstars chants to practise our tables.
We have had great fun exploring different ways to show the multiplication equations and our wonderful slide presentation shows just how whizzy we are getting at learning our times tables. Sample pages from our presentation can be found below, but the best version is on our Google Classroom, so please go there to see our great maths!
This week has been another busy week where we have been thinking about what changes are happening in Autumn. First we went on a very special Autumnal walk and collected lot’s of natural materials like twigs, small seeds, leaves. Then we used our creativity and imagination and created beautiful art. I am very impressed with all the children. They had fantastic ideas… they used small leaves for hair, twigs for arms and legs, seeds for eyes. Have a look yourself 🙂
On Wednesday we had a very, very special celebration. Our lovely school had a birthday!!! We had a fun afternoon with lots of surprises…. disco lights, loud music, musical statues…. and popcorn with film… so much fun!!!
We also planted some very special flowers around the special 60th birthday tree!
In Little Wandle this week we’ve learned these new graphemes and phonemes:
Please remember that it is really important to practise the new sounds with your child. A key part of our reading is encouraging the children to orally blend the sounds, so why don’t you play that game over the weekend: Can you touch your? You need to say some phonemes and your child will have to blend them in their head and touch the part of the body you say. For example: Can you touch your L-E-G?
Maths
This week the children were learning how numbers can be composed of 1s and we began to investigate the composition of 3. The children met number 3 and found out all about number 3. We went for a picnic and our 3 Learning friends had to share 3 chairs, 3 pears, 3 plates.
Gentle reminders: Please remember to book your Parents consultation on Arbour. We are still collecting various items for Harvest. So any donations would be highly appreciated. Thank you to those of you that already shared their family photos. We are creating a lovely gallery and the children love looking at the pictures and talking about their families.
Have a fantastic weekend! Looking forward seeing you all on Monday! Mrs Solakova
This week we had a belated celebration for St Adrian’s 60th birthday! Even though we did not attend the Mass on the day, we said some special prayers in class and had a popcorn party in the afternoon! We even got to watch a film as a special treat.
We also got to plant some very special flowers around a tree, planted after the special birthday Mass earlier in the week. We really enjoyed being able to be a part of the Mass in our own special way.
Now we have reached October, it means that we can celebrate Black History Month. During every week of October, we will be marking the month with a range of activities from crafts to singing.
We loved the Mercy Mass on Wednesday and sang beautifully as well as performing a moving dance to the Circle of Mercy song. We all wanted to perform in front of everyone, but there just wasn’t space for all of us in front of the altar, so we are looking forward to everyone being involved in performing it for you during our class assembly next year.
The Circle of Mercy is timeless
After the mass, we planted some viola plants under our new Mercy Tree and we were all promptly rained on, which stopped our camera working. At least the plants and tree enjoyed the rain!
Our new tree is planted by Bishop Paul, Brother Nelson and Father Michael along with Sister Margaret, the first head at St Adrians, followed by Mrs Hawkes, the second head and Mrs Porter, our most recent head. (Mr Bedford arrived a little later).
Last week, we attended the District Schools Award Ceremony and were very pleased to be awarded runner up in the Plant to Plate category. All through the year, we enjoy caring for the gardens outside our classroom and it was lovely to achieve this award as our outdoor spaces are so important to us and our wellbeing.
The Awards ceremony took place in the Council Chamber, with the Mayor of St Albans, which was very exciting!
Every child in year 4 was a credit to themselves and their school at Wednesday’s Mercy Mass. Along with the rest of the school, their singing was beautiful and rousing and they participated fully and respectfully in the service.
After Mass there were some celebrations inside and out. The children planted violas round the commemorative tree which had been planted earlier in the day. They then chose activities in the classroom, with many children deciding to play “Interland”, the game where the children learn how to be safe online. We also started our learning about Black History Month, learning about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King from “Horrible Histories” and sharing what we already know about these famous icons.
The classroom is looking bright and interesting with the children’s learning on the wall, including the home learning about Joseph. The paintings were done – carefully – in acrylic paints, throughout the week. Thank you for the painting aprons, at short notice.
What a busy week we’ve had! We were very excited to model on our new ‘Creation table’ and use our imagination to create different things. We’ve had castles, caterpillars, elephants, nests and so much more. We’ve been learning how to join, stick, link, fringe …. We were also labelling our work, thinking about all the different graphemes we’ve learned so far.
At the end of the week the children voted and please put your hands together for our winners! I wonder who is going to win next week…
Little Wandle This week we’ve learned 4 new sounds. Please practise the new sounds over the weekend and support your child with their Little Wandle home learning. This will really help them remember the new phonemes and graphemes.
In Maths this week we discussed why counting is as important as subitising. Last week we used subitising to identify the numbers in a set and this week we developed counting skills to enable us to identify how many they are in a set that cannot be subitised.
We also explored all sorts of things that can be counted, including sounds. We sang counting rhymes to support our learning. Why don’t you have a go too:
Have a fantastic weekend! Looking forward seeing you all on Monday! Mrs Solakova
It has been another busy week for Year 1. From a new book English to drawing the human body, it’s been a varied week in Year 1!
We started the week by looking at the human body. We played a game of ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ to get ourselves warmed up! Then, we drew and labelled our own bodies! We worked in small groups and drew round a real person, it was so much fun. We then labelled the different parts of the body together.
We also started our new text, Naughty Bus by Jan Oke. This endearing books includes lots of photographs and simple text to describe the adventures of a toy London bus, as a young boy plays with it throughout the day. Have a look at the video below to see the book come to life.
Thank you to the children who have already submitted their home learning via the Google Classroom. Now you all (finally!) have your log ins, I look forward to seeing lots more home learning.
Year 6 have had a busy start to the new school year and I have been proud of everyone who has put themselves forward to serve our school community through the many roles and responsibilities that Year 6 undertake.
It has also been great to celebrate the children’s learning through our classroom displays.
To start the year in RE, the children have been reading the story of the creation as told in Genesis. They have had great fun retelling the story in their own words and next week they will be writing the story in their own words. They are learning about nouns and adjectives, so retelling this wonderful story is a great way to put this new learning into practice and also show just how great they are at using full stops and capital letters in their super writing.
As part of their learning about the sacrament of baptism, the children are also beginning to design their own baptism candle using religious symbols that are important to them. We are looking forward to seeing lots more designs as they come into school.
