22 January 2023
Year Group Spotlight...
Curriculum Celebration: Year 1
Over the next couple of weeks, we will be celebrating the fabulous learning that has been happening so far in the Spring Term, within each year group.
This evening, we kick start these celebrations in Year 1.
In English, Year 1 have been studying poetry and have been busy looking at different shape poems, where they have used their fantastic reading abilities to read the poems out loud and then they discussed their likes and dislikes about each poem. Our talented pupils then wrote their shape poems, some of which were shared in our whole school celebration assembly on Friday. In Handwriting lessons, Year 1 are starting to learn how to join their handwriting and have started to apply this skill into their written work.
In Maths, the children have been introduced to base 10. They used the tens to count in multiples of ten and they could recall how many ten sticks they would need to make various numbers. The children know that all multiples of ten end in a zero. Last week, they progressed this understanding further by applying 'greater than', 'less than' and 'equal to' symbols, when comparing numbers to 20 and multiples of 10.
In PE, there has been excitement in the air as the children have started their new topic of gymnastics. So far, they have practised different standing and sitting positions including: the tuck, the crab and the L-sit position. In this week's lesson, Year 1 were inspired after watching a video of a Year 1 child's older brother during his gymnastics sessions outside of school. The children spoke about how he presented himself and travelled across the room showing detail in his work. Having been inspired, the pupils then practised balancing, travelling by rolling and perfecting their beginning and end positions.
At the start of every History lesson, the children take part in a ‘Flashback Four Quiz.’ This involves the children answering 4 questions which are about topics that they have studied in the past in order to retrieve key information. The children love this starter and show great team working skills when answering the questions. After their exciting starter, the children put the events of Neil Armstrong's life in order- their current topic of historical study. After this, Year 1 researched his life and wrote some facts down in their History books- creating factfiles. In their most recent History lesson, our Year 1 learners enjoyed learning all about Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 moon landing. Within the session, the children imagined that they were in the Saturn V rocket blasting off into space. They recalled facts about the moon landing and imagined that they were walking on the moon- some great links to Science were made too!
In Science last week, Year 1 used torches to form shadows. They learned that shadows are formed when a light cannot pass through an object. They learned and then applied some impressive scientific vocabulary, including opaque and transparent when testing different materials.
In Music, Year 1 have been enjoying listening to and appraising a blues song called: “How Blue Can You Get.” They have particualrly enjoyed practising and performing the song "In the Groove". We have some very talented musicians!
In PSHE, Year 1 started the term by sharing a discussion all about feelings. They wrote a word bank of different emotions and reflected on times they may have experienced these feelings. They identified strategies they could use to support these and who they could talk to (i.e. their trusted adults) if they felt they needed support with their emotions. Additionally, Year 1 have been discussing how we stay safe and why it is important to stay safe. In their most recent session, the children observed a park scene and identified all the areas that they thought were unsafe with explantions as to why. This work links to our safeguarding curriculum.
In Art, Year 1 have been looking at seascapes. In recent lessons, they have discussed different paintings by different artists and talked about the colours; how the paintings made them feel; and what they liked/disliked about them. They worked together in groups and presented their ideas to the class. As part of this unit, they have also been looking at primary and secondary colours and produced a colour wheel by mixing primary colours to create a secondary colour. In this week's lesson, the children explored Ancient Egyptian seascapes and recreated their own piece. They created their own artist inspired pictures and used watercolour paints and teabags to create the papyrus effect.
These are just some of the many highlights of Year 1's learning so far this half-term. We are incredibly proud of how Year 1 are progressing in all subjects and their resilience, dedication, perseverance and hardworking ethos in their daily Phonics lessons and reading sessions is simply exemplary.
Well done Team Year 1!
