Welcome to Class 1

Taught by Miss Pugh with Teaching Assistants Mrs Broadhurst and Miss Bird

Spring Term 2020

Science Week

As part of Science week, Class 1 have been investigating floating and sinking. We created our own boats out of recycling and tested them to see which would float and which would sink, we had some great creations! We then went on to build flood barriers using things we could find around the classroom and outdoor area, we used plastic, sand, soil and even lolly sticks.

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Magic Potions!

During our maths lessons this week we have been looking at capacity. We started by reading The Princess and the Wizard and made our own magic potions in the classroom. We then moved on to creating our own magic potions outside (nothing to do with the mess we’d made inside!) where we had to measure accurately the ingredients for our magic potions. We created potions to make us fly, to turn invisible…someone even turned into a goat!

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World Book Day

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On World Book Day something terrible happened in Class 1! Someone had been into the classroom and made an awful mess! Luckily, Class 1 were around to help solve the mystery. We have been reading Jack and the Beanstalk in class and realised the mess was made by someone in the story. We began with a letter from whoever had made the mess, we then had to measure the footprint left behind to eliminate some of the suspects.

Mrs Broadhurst then found some more clues in the form of secret notes, we had to use special pens to read the clues. This left us with two suspects with red hair, Jack and Jack’s mum! I’m sure Class 1 will let you know who made all of the mess!

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Bolton Castle Educational Visit

All KS1 children had a very exciting day at Bolton Castle, Wensleydale. Despite the very cold weather the children enjoyed many different activities, including, medieval dancing, quill pen writing and handling artifacts. Thank you to the parent volunteers who came with us and to Dave Manning at the castle who organised a wonderful day.

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Gymnastics

Class 1 have been enjoying their gymnastics sessions with Mrs Broadhurst. The have been busy learning how to present their moves as well as taking part in a variety of stretches, tuck jumps, star jumps…lots and lots of different poses!

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Science

In Science this term we will be looking at forces. To explore pushing and pulling, Class 1 made their own playdough. We had lots of fun mixing the ingredients together (as well as making a mess!) We then started Playdough Disco, pushing, pulling, squashing and patting the dough. Playdough Disco is something we will be doing regularly in class to help make our fingers really strong, it will also help with our letter formation and writing!

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Outdoors!

Class 1 have been enjoying spending time in our outdoor area. We have enjoyed exploring in the cold weather, making ice buns and building castles. We have set up an experiment in the hope that our animals will freeze in the tuff tray, we have been checking everyday however it just hasn’t been cold enough for us yet! Who’d have thought we’d be wanting icy temperatures!

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Playdough Disco!

Class 1 have been enjoying taking part in Playdough Disco. We made our own playdough in our Science lesson and can now enjoy Playdough Disco daily. Playdough Disco is very good for developing the muscles in our fingers which will help with our writing, as well as being lots of fun!

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Exploring Ice

When the children arrived at school on Monday, something terrible had happened, some of the knights from the classroom had been frozen over the weekend! The children worked together to explore how to set the knights free, we used equipment from the outdoor area, cold water, warm water, we tried all sorts! Finally, the children were able to set the knights free.

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We continued expliring ice throughout the week, creating some beautiful piece of art using natural resources found in the outdoor area, it is just a shame they had to melt eventually.

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Maths

We have seen some fantastic maths over the last two weeks, we have been looking at place value to 20 in Reception and to 50 in Year 1.

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General Information

Reading Book Scheme

Listening to your child read on a regular basis, e.g. 4 or 5 times a week, really helps them to progress and your help with this is really appreciated. It would be helpful if you could please continue to do the following:

• Return the reading record and the reading books, to school each day, even if they have not been read.
• When you read to your child, please enter the date and title of the book and sign your name in the reading record.
• You are welcome to comment on how your child has done, but please don’t feel that you have to, just signing your name is helpful.

The children will have up to 3 books at once to work through. However, they do not need to read them all in one night.

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Home Learning – Reception

If your child achieves a task at home, please let us know, you can simply note it down on a post it and send it in with them and we will include it in their Learning Journey’s. Over the years we have had all sorts including:

• Riding a bike with no stabilisers for the first time
• Helping a parent/adult with a job around the house
• Being really polite at a wedding/christening/party
• Climbing up the stairs one foot to one step at a time
• Building a model
• Cooking/baking
• Gardening
• Drawings/work done at home

We believe that continuing your learning at home is extremely important. In Class 1, we strongly suggest little and often. Once the children have received their reading books, we encourage them to read to an adult four times a week, even if it’s just for 5 minutes – it doesn’t need to be the whole book.

The children also have a maths target, which are called SMIRFs (Space Mission Instant Recall Facts) and the children will need to practise these throughout the week, we will then check them on a Friday and if they know them we move them onto a new target. The children love being turned into little astronauts and are keen to move up the planets already! We have been doing SMIRFs for several years now and we have found they have helped to improve children’s knowledge and that it has in turn helped their arithmetic and speed in answering questions.

We thank you for your continued support! If you have any questions, please contact us.

Phonics

Articulation of the 44 phonemes is really important as the correct pronunciation enables your child to blend sounds together more easily. Click the link to hear the pronunciation of the sounds:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqhXUW_v-1s&feature=youtu.be
• Phonics Play – https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
• BBC bitesize – http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/phonics/play/
• Learn the alphabet- Boom Shake the Alphabet!
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emb2yvwAHtc
• Family Learning – http://www.familylearning.org.uk/phonics_games.html
• CBeebies on tablets is also very good.
• Phonics Bloom- full of games and activities https://www.phonicsbloom.com/
• Geraldine the Giraffe – Mr Thorne’s phonics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_NmgZWvWG4
• Tricky word songs- for learning those tricky words! https://epicphonics.com/teachers/phase/2
• Phase 3 phonic games and activities https://epicphonics.com/games/phase/3
• Phase 4 phonic games and activities https://epicphonics.com/games/phase/4

Maths

Hit the Button

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button