Welcome to Class 1

Taught by Mrs Crowther with Teaching Assistants Mrs Broadhurst and Mrs Brooke

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Summer Term 2019

Welcome back to the Summer Term!

This term we will be learning about ‘Marvellous Minibeasts’ and ‘Holidays Past and Present’. We are looking forward to all of the additional exciting activities as well.

During this second half of the Summer Term there is a lot going on, including our trip to Harlow Carr on Wednesday 5th June, which we are incredibly excited about. We shall be sharing pictures on here once we return!

Sports Day

Class 1 absolutely loved Sports Day, they behaved impeccably and all tried their best.

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Art Week – David Hockney

Here in Class 1 we have loved Art Week! The children have explored colour mixing and how to create different colours. They also learned about ‘tinting’ – adding small amounts of white at a time to a colour to create different tints – and ‘shading’ – adding small amounts of black at a time to a colour to create different shades. They then learned about David Hockney’s “A Bigger Splash” painting and looked at several other paintings of splashes. They then used these as inspiration to then create their own ‘Splash’ artwork using the knowledge they had learned through out the week. It was fantastic fun!

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RHS Harlow Carr – Class 1 and 2

As part of our Science topic, Living things and their Habitats, we went to RHS Harlow Carr in Harrogate this week to learn about minibeasts.

We had an absolutely brilliant time and the children were all very well-behaved. We went on a bug hunt in the strips of meadow grass that Harlow Carr has planted and we found lots of flies, bees and ladybirds. We also went pond dipping and the children loved this. They got to dip into the pond with nets and then had to tip what was in there into some trays so we could look at them. We were amazed with what we found! There were Ramshorn snails, young Newts, Dragonfly Nymphs, a Whirling Beetle and so much more. We went exploring the rest of the gardens and discovered sculptures made of Willow and found the Loch Ness Monster, a giant bee (that Mrs Crowther first thought was an ant), a Diplodocus, a Stegosaurus and a T-Rex, as well as more marvellous minibeasts, trees and flowers. Thank you very much for all our parent/grandparent helpers and governors who gave up their time to come with us.

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Science – Habitats and Minibeasts.

In Science, we have really enjoyed beginning to learn about different minibeasts. We even went on a minibeast hunt around the school to see what different micro habitats there were and what minibeasts could be found in them. Here are some photos of the children hunting around. They found ants, woodlice, flies and spiders. They’ve also enjoyed looking after the plants in our outdoor area.

RE – Creation

In RE this term we have been looking at Creation. This involved us looking at the Christian belief that God created the world and that he is the Creator and Sustainer. The children were challenged to build a house out of Lego in groups and to consider how they felt about it. They said they were proud and excited. Once the challenge was over I asked them to consider how they might feel if it was broken, or destroyed. They said they would be ‘sad’ and ‘upset’. When one or two of the models were broken they expressed their feelings further saying they were ‘angry; cross; disappointed; frustrated and downhearted.’ We are then going to be relating this to the world and discussing how we can look after it.

The children have really enjoyed undertaking lots of different craft activities to create our ‘Marvellous Minibeasts’ display. They created Spider’s webs by weaving wool around paper plates, focusing very hard on the task. The children also enjoyed using cotton buds and paint to create some flowers following the ‘pointillism’ technique. They also enjoyed using tissue paper to make some snails and to make paper plate minibeasts. As well as this the children have followed plans and used tiny beads to make different minibeasts.

Phonics

In Phonics lessons the children have been building tricky words with the magnetic letters and playing tricky word hopscotch.

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Reception Outdoor Area

The children in Reception have really enjoyed using the new stage area to perform to their friends. They have been pretending to be Rock Stars as well as performing stories.

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English

The children in Year 1 have been reading the book ‘Jim and the Beanstalk’ by Raymond Briggs. They thought of questions to ask the Giant or Jim and then the next day had a go at ‘hot-seating’. The children loved pretending to be one of the characters and answering the questions.

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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/
• Family Learning – http://www.familylearning.org.uk/phonics_games.html
• CBeebies on tablets is also very good.

Class 1 Gallery