Today we had visitors in from Explore Learning to complete different maths challenges. The children were engaged and enjoyed debating each other’s ideas about which method was best!
Year 1’s Senses
This week, the children learnt all about our senses and which parts of our body are associated with which sense. For this, the children conducted experiments in a carousel style activity.
Smell The children used smelling pots and had to try and guess what was in each pot. Some guessed lavender and some guessed cinnamon.
Taste The children played a game in which they were given some fruit and they had to use their sense of taste to decide what the food was. They particularly enjoyed this one!
Touch The children were given a bag with different objects in and had to guess what the objects were according to their properties.
Sight The children played ‘Kim’s Game’ with Mrs Ruffell. This involved looking at objects in a tray and memorising them. Mrs Ruffell then took an object out of the tray and the children had to identify which object was missing. They were very good at this one!
Sound One child came into the middle of the circle and had to shout, “Stop!” The child who was holding a puppet had to say something and the child in the middle had to use their sense of sound to identify the child.
Y4’s Magnificent millinery
In Art, we are learning about European artists and designers. Yesterday, we learnt about the life and work of Coco Chanel, whose first shop sold hats that she had decorated.
Y4 Our new RE topic
During the autumn term, our learning in RE will follow three themes. In the second of our themes, Called, we reflect on our different experiences of being welcomed into new situations and groups, recognising the importance of welcome, of feeling comfortable with new situations and belonging to new groups.
Christians believe that everyone is invited to share in the life and work of God through Baptism. The Bible recounts God’s invitations to people to share in his life and work: among them Moses, Samuel, the prophets, Mary and the apostles.
“Through Baptism, men and women are incorporated into Christ. They are formed into God’s people and they obtain the forgiveness of all their sins. They become a new creation through water and the Holy Spirit. Hence they are called and are indeed children of God. Signed with the gift of the Spirit in Confirmation, Christians more perfectly become the image of their Lord and are filled with the Holy Spirit. They bear witness to him before all the world and eagerly work for the building up of the body of Christ.” (General Introduction to the Rite of the Christian Initiation of Adults)
This topic is rooted in an understanding of the sacrament of confirmation. Through this topic, children will use a developing religious vocabulary to give reasons for the actions and symbols used during this sacrament. Children will also come to understand what is meant by the following key vocabulary through this topic: chosen, response, Sacrament of Confirmation, oil of Chrism, mitre, crozier, sponsor, catechist, bishop, Holy Spirit, witness, anointing, Holy Trinity, enkindle, called.
Home learning in RE
During this topic, we will learn about the lives of people who have answered the call to follow Christ.
For your home learning, I would like you to find out about someone who has done something remarkable for someone else (within the local community or the wider world) and use what you find to make a poster about their life.
This challenge should be returned to school after the half-term break, on 5th November.
Prayer and Reflection
Almighty and eternal God,
you keep together those you have united.
Look kindly on all who follow Jesus your Son.
We are all consecrated to you by our common baptism;
make us one in the fullness of faith
and keep us one in the fellowship of love.
Amen.
Year 1’s Learning
Another week has flown by in Year 1!
During maths, we looked at number bonds and discovered that numbers can be ‘split’ in lots of different ways. The children have all used their manipulatives (cubes) really well to show this and have quickly moved onto pictures to show their thinking. Super work!
Our current computing topic is about programming toys and today, we looked at what an algorithm is. The children learnt that it is a set of instructions and, when these instructions are put onto a computer, this is called programming. The children used all of their learning from geography to direct their friends around the dining room, using words such as left, right, forwards and backwards.
Next week, we will begin our new RE topic and information about this will be put onto the blog.
Have a lovely weekend! 🙂
Mrs Teixeira
Year 1’s Week
Another wonderful week was had in Year 1 this week! The children completed their poems about noises around the school and then performed them to the class. I was extremely impressed with the way in which the children spoke confidently and clearly. I am sure that they are looking forward to sharing these with you at the next Sharing Friday!
Thank you for all of your support in home reading. I have been reading your comments and it is extremely encouraging to see how much is being done at home.
Each morning, I will ask different Guided Reading groups to change their books and they will therefore need their books out of their bags and will need to put them on my chair. If you could please remind the children of this on their particular day and, if you are unsure of their group, they know them. The timetable for this is as follows:
Monday Group 5
Tuesday Group 1
Wednesday Group 2
Thursday Group 3
Friday Group 4
Alongside home reading of their school book, could I please ask that the children continue to practise their High Frequency Words which were sent home last year from Reception. If you do not have them, then please send a note in with your child and I can get some sorted for you. It is important that the children are able to sight read these words as some are ‘tricky’ which cannot be sounded out with phonics. Short, snappy testing of these words each day will really help the children’s reading and writing!
Autumn
Today, we started to look at the months of the year and the seasons. The children understood that we are in September and that the season is autumn. In order to support this learning, could the children please look for some signs of autumn over the weekend (dry leaves etc) and bring some in to share on Monday.
Have a lovely weekend and thank you for all of your support!
Mrs Teixeira 🙂
Y4 Bright sparks!
We are learning all about electricity in science. Today, we tested circuits to make a bulb light. We learnt that you need to have a complete circuit if it is to work.
Electricity can be dangerous and we were told never to play with electricity.
Y4 Elections
I was really pleased that so many children put themselves forward to represent our class on the school council and I was very impressed with the quality, thoughtfulness and humour with which each child shared their ideas for this role this year.
The votes have been counted and verified and I am delighted to announce that our class representatives on the school council for Year 4 are Sophie A and Noah.
Congratulations and thank you to everyone who took part.
Y4 Parents’ meeting
It was good to meet so many of you on Thursday. I hope that you found the meeting useful.
For reference, a copy of my presentation can be viewed below. I have also repeated some of the key points that were shared at the meeting.
Reading books
Children are able to change their reading book during the ‘soft start’ each morning. Before selecting a new book from the school reading scheme, I ask children to complete a short book review and add this to their reading folder. Children are encouraged to supplement their reading from the reading scheme with books from home and books borrowed from libraries.
Pen licences
In year four, children progress from writing in pencil to writing in pen. I will let each child know when I think that they are ready. I will also provide the pen when the great moment comes. There are two things that I look for to tell me a child is ready for a pen:
- Their writing is consistent in size and fluently joined.
- Their handwriting style is serviceable and does not hinder the speed of writing.
Multiplication tables
At the start of year four, children nationally are expected to know many of their multiplication tables by heart. These are the 2, 5 and 10, the 3, and the 4 and 8 times tables. We will check the children’s recall of random facts drawn from these multiplication tables each week.
During the autumn term of year four, we will also introduce and secure the rapid recall of 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12 times tables. We will add these to our weekly multiplication check as these are introduced.
Children are also expected to be able to count on and back in multiples of 10, 25, 50, 100 and 1000.
Our Week in Year 1
Year 1 have had another brilliant week!
In our Maths lessons this week, we have continued to secure our understanding of numbers up to 10, thinking about which words we can use to compare numbers. The children learnt lots of new vocabulary such as bigger than, more than, greater than, smaller than, less than, fewer than, the same amount as, equal to and as many as. It would be great if you could continue to use these words at home so that the children become more familiar with them.
In our English lessons, we started to look at what shared writing is and completed a piece together. As a whole group, we planned and wrote our own version of Gervase Phinn’s poem ‘Noises Off’ using sounds from the dining room.
Ongoing home learning
Can I please ask that the children learn how to do their ties and top buttons over the course of the next week as these are the pieces of clothing which cause the most trouble to the children!
Additionally, can I ask that the children are encouraged to get ready as quickly as they possibly can at home as our PE lessons are currently being cut short by some time to allow for extra changing time.