Year 1 News - 15th December 2023
Wow! What an incredibly wonderful and busy fortnight the children have had.
Firstly, I must say how extremely proud I am with all the children’s efforts in the Christmas nativity: Bethlehem Bake-off. They have worked so hard learning lines, songs and dances in such a short period of time. A special thank you to all the grown-ups that came to support the children on Thursday and this morning.
They have also enjoyed a whole school pantomime: Cinderella, in which they enjoyed greatly and behaved exceptionally throughout.
We have also had a drumming assembly. They loved copying tunes, patterns and pitches.
As well as all this excitement, the children have continued to work fantastically in class. In English, we have written a set of instructions on ‘How to make a Leaf man’, we have been out and about around Ellington looking at Autumnal changes and collected leaves, berries and acorns to create our leaf people.
In maths, we have been working on fractions. We have been spotting halves of objects and amounts and beginning to represent halves in a variety of different ways.
In Science, we have started our new unit of work on Materials. We have been identifying different materials around our classroom and also talking about their properties.
We have been very lucky to have Mrs Hyams come and visit Year 1 to talk about her childhood. The children wrote some of their own questions to ask how her childhood was different to theirs. Fantastic listening throughout the lesson and fabulous respect whilst Mrs Hyams was explaining her childhood.
Finally, we have had a whole school ‘Careers Day’. Each class had an occupation from the health sector. Year 1 had doctors. We did some research in the work doctors do, why we need doctors and what equipment doctors use. We then had the opportunity to dress up as doctors and add bandages, plasters and listen to heart beats.
Thank you,
Mrs Horsley
Year 1 News - 1st December 2023
I cannot believe we are now in December. This is always a lovely, but very busy end to Autumn Term.
We are now well into the flow of our Christmas rehearsals for our performances of ‘Bethlehem Bake Off’ which will be showcased on Thursday 14th and Friday 15th December at 9.30am.
In English, we have been learning about Character Descriptions through the story ‘Leaf Man’. The children have been using their knowledge of adjectives and nouns to help write an entertaining description.
We are continuing with the book ‘Leaf Man’ and are currently writing instructions on ‘How to make a Leaf Person’. We have been out and about in Ellington collecting leaves and observing the Autumnal changes that happen.
In Maths, we have been learning all about 2d and 3d shapes. Again, we took a trip around Ellington to spot real life 3d objects. The children loved it and found lots of different shapes in our local environment.
In History, we have been learning all about ‘What is my history?’ We have looked at how we remember special events. We have also made a class memory box and each posted a memory that they children found special.
Thank you,
Mrs Horsley
27th October 2023 - Year 1 News
Wow! What a fantastic although somewhat busy first half term.
The children are now fully settled into their new routines and have impressed both Mrs Strachan and me with how much they are already achieving. In English, we have been performing poetry. We have been studying different poems by Michael Rosen and performed the poem ‘Yesterday’ to some children in different year groups. We also got a great reply from poet Michael Rosen himself on Twitter.
Please follow our Twitter (X) page @ellingtontweets to see what we get up to in school.
In Maths, we have been working on multiplication, working on how many lots of and using concrete manipulatives to help us work out the answer. We then moved on to division and sharing. The children have found these new concepts tricky however, they have shown great resilience by continuing to try their hardest.
In Geography, we have now completed our first unit of work ‘What’s it like to live here’ today we took a walk around Ellington to have a look at the different features we could see on our Ariel map.
In DT, we have completed our unit of ‘Making Windmills’. The children persevered and created some great working windmills.
Finally, we have been learning all about Harvest and why we celebrate it. We hope you enjoyed our Harvest assembly.
Thank you for all your support this term. It’s been very busy and we know everyone leads busy lives but reading at least 3 times a week makes a huge improvement to your child’s reading. Please continue to read over the half term holidays and most importantly enjoy spending some quality time with your children.
Thank you,
Mrs Horsley
Year 1 News -13th October 2023
Another great couple of weeks in Year 1. We have had lots of fun in English, focusing on letter writing. We all turned into Rabbit who stole Bears hat and agreed we should write an apology letter to Bear from Rabbit.
In Maths we have continued working hard on adding and subtraction with numbers up to 10. We have been learning to count in multiples of 5 and 10 and also practised counting up to 100. Please support your child at home by practising counting in these ways.
In PSHE we have continued our work on emotions, stepping out our comfort zone and working with children we wouldn’t usually. In Science, we’ve continued learning more of our senses and why they are important.
We worked very hard in our PE lesson on Wednesday focusing on agility and why we need to be agile. The children completed a circuit of different activities all focusing on agility. We were worn out by the end.
Thank you to all parents who attended the reading workshops on Tuesday. We believe it is important that you see how your children engage in lessons at school and what strategies we use to help your children learn. As well as this, thank you to all parents who came to the Welcome to Year 1 meetings on the last two Fridays. It allowed me to share end of year expectations and transition from EYFS to a more formal Year 1 learning environment.
Once more please continue to work with your child at home. Reading a minimum of 3 times each week and completing homework.
Thank you,
Mrs Horsley
Year 1 News - 29th September 2023
We have had another busy couple of weeks in Year one. We are now well underway with our whole class teaching. The children are adapting well to this. For some children, this has been a hard transition, however it will get easier as we now follow a weekly routine.
In English this week we have been looking at the book ‘I want my hat back’ written by Jon Klassen. The children have worked hard, predicting what the story is going to be about, and making puppets to help us with a group performance retelling the story.
In maths, we start every lesson with our CLIC session, recapping things previously taught and learning something new in our learning time.
We have managed to get outside to do a lot of outdoor learning this week, in Science we have drawn around human bodies and labelled them with the correct body part names. In Geography, we use a school map to go and find different features using our map key. We have been discussing aerial views and why they are important.
In PSHE we have continued learning about friendships and families, discussing emotions and how we can help our friends who show these different emotions.
In PE, we have been working on agility and balancing. Please ask your child at home what the terms agility and balancing means.
Thank you for your support with reading and homework. Please continue to read at least three times a week and sign in the reading record. Homework is handed out every Friday and should be completed by Wednesday, if this is not complete children will stay in at break time on the Thursday.
Mrs Horsley.
Year 1 News - 15th September 2023
We have had a busy 10 days settling into Year 1. The children have settled well into their new class and have adapted to their new whole class teaching lessons. I would like to take this opportunity to say that the transition from EYFS to Year 1 is one of the biggest jumps they will make during their time in education. Please help support us by encouraging them to read daily and complete their homework. The more reading, writing, and number work you support your child with at home, the easier the Autumn term will be for them to settle into their new routines.
We have been busy completing baseline activities in Maths to allow us to fill in any missed gaps in their learning. They have enjoyed our CLIC sessions this week, counting forwards and backwards, doubling and halving and counting how many are altogether.
In English, we have been practising how to form letters correctly. This is one of the most important skills for their writing as the formation taught in year 1 will help with their joining in Summer term and coming years. Please reinforce the correct letter formation at home so this becomes second nature.
We have also started in our new phonics groups. Your child will have received two reading books today to practise at home.
As well as all this we have also started our science topic: The Human Body, RE unit of work: Faith Communities, DT; Windmills, PSHE: Family and Relationships, Geography: What is it like in Ellington as well as having 2 sessions of PE.