On Friday we gathered in the hall with the other Year 1 and 2 classes for a short Remembrance assembly. We had made poppies during the week in class using red pencils, pens and glitter, adding them to a field of grass.

In Science this week we have been learning about the properties of materials. We spoke about hard, soft, rough, smooth, shiny and dull. The children moved around the room and found objects that matched these descriptions.

We have also been talking about UK Parliament Week with the children, explaining what parliament is and what the MP’s do there. The children were then asked what the issues are that they feel passionate about and drew these in an outline of a person. They had lots of brilliant ideas including caring about nature, the environment, their community and recycling.

We have had a busy week to round off our first half term in Year 1! Yesterday was a brilliant end to the half term as we had a visit from the author Jenny York. She used puppets, props and costumes as well as a few willing volunteers to help retell one of her stories and then we had the chance to ask her some questions about her path to becoming an author.

Number bonds of 10

In provision this week we have been checking how well the children have understood their Maths from last week by having the Numicon out and asking them to find as many number bonds of 10 as they can. We also used provision to assess how well the children could remember our Science work on herbivores, carnivores and omnivores, asking them to fold their paper into four and paint one in each section and then finish with their favourite animal in the last.

This week we have been innovating the story of Handa’s Surprise to make our own version. The children had a copy of our story map and covered the original animals and fruits from the story with a small sticker then over the top they thought of some new animals and fruits that they could have instead. On Thursday they then began to write up their new version of the story and including lots of describing words for the new fruits such as juicy, red watermelon and hairy, green kiwi.

This week in Science the children have been learning to group animals according to if they are a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore. Carnivores are animals that only eat meat, herbivores only eat plants and omnivores are animals that eat both meat and plants.

In DT we have started to sew our animal prints using a needle and thread. The children carefully attached the felt onto the paper using a basic running stitch, going up and down through both pieces to join them together.

The children have also practiced their weaving skills in provision to make a Handa’s Surprise basket. They took strips of paper and weaved them through the slits, going over then under and over then under to make their basket. This was great for their fine motor control. The children then added some decoration using felt tips.

This week we read the story Handa’s Surprise. In the story Handa fills her basket with 7 different fruits to take to her friend Akeyo. On the way lots of different animals take the fruit from the basket until it is empty but just before Handa gets to Akeyo’s, an antelope runs into a tree and knocks lots of tangerines in the the basket instead and they just happen to be Akeyo’s favourite!

After reading the story we chopped and tasted some of the fruits that Handa had in her basket including banana, pineapple, orange, mango and passion fruit. The children learnt to make a bridge shape with their fingers and thumb then cut in between to chop as safely as possible and keep the knife away from their fingers. After tasting everyone thought of some adjectives to describe the fruits such as soft, juicy and sweet.

This week we have also continued with our DT project to make our own animal print using paper, felt and sewing them together with a needle and thread. Having designed their animal print last week, the children used a pencil/chalk to mark onto the felt and cut using some sharp scissors. They placed the pieces onto an A5 piece of paper ready for sewing.

This week the children have also been using the colourful semantics to make some sentences. They begin who (orange) then move onto the verb, what they are doing (yellow) then finish with the what/object (green.) We came up with lots of silly sentences like ‘The unicorn is drinking clothes.’

This week in Geography we have been talking about human and physical features. We had a walk around the school grounds to see if we could identify different human and physical features. Physical features like seas, mountains and rivers are natural. They would be there even if there were no people around. Human features are things like houses, roads and bridges. The children could tell me that the playground and the school are human and the woods are physical.

who swallowed a fly! The children have continued to use our story map and actions to retell the song/rhyme this week. They have done a fantastic job at memorising the words. They have painted pictures of the different animals in the rhyme and they have had a go a making their own story maps. After labelling the animals that the old lady swallowed, they did their own labelling by drawing a person and labelling the parts of the body.

Wow! We can’t believe the first week back is over already and what a week it has been. 1BN have all had a great first week in year 1 and we are so impressed with how quickly they are settling in.

This week we have spent a lot of time going over the routines and expectations in year 1. The children have been practicing ‘ACE walking’ and should be able to tell you what this means and what it looks like. They have also been recapping what it means if an adult asks them to show 5; eyes looking, ears listening, lips locked, hands still and smart feet.

It has been great to spend time with the children in provision this week, really getting to know them and what their likes and interests are. We have had lots of different activities happening like writing, drawing, painting, reading, counting, building and so much more. The weather has been a challenge this week as our classroom gets so hot and the children have coped really well but I am sure they will all be ready for a good rest this weekend.

Finally a warm welcome to Ahed who has joined 1BN this week, the children have been fantastic at showing her the rules and routines and making her feel really welcome.