Literacy in Year 1!
Willow and Maple class are really getting into our new Literacy story – “Traction Man”. They sequenced the story using pictures and were great at explaining their choices to each other and the rest of the class. If you want to watch a reading of the book at home, please find a YouTube link below.
In Year 1, we’ve been investigating the new resources we can use to help us learn.
We worked in small groups and partners to look at Cuisenaire rods, discussing their length.
Some of use stretched our learning further and found out that two rods placed together can be the same size as another coloured rod.
All of this information learned will help us later in the year and we can’t wait to find out more!
Willow class went for a small walk today discussing everything about seasons!
We talked about the season we are in now and what has just finished – discussing the key features of each season. We’re all hoping for snow to come in Winter and can’t wait for the all the fun we will have.
Willow class had a great time down at TCS participating in a KS1 Fun Festival.
We got to play a variety of games and practice a lot of skills, including; throwing and catching, kicking, balancing, gymnastics and many more!
We got a bit wet on the walk back but everyone left with a great big smile on their faces!
We had a very special visitor in school this week. Professor Pong visited us from the British Space and Alien Research Company to talk about the crash landing and what we all needed to do next.
We got to ask him all of our questions and found out we weren’t the only school in Devon to have an alien visit.
After his visit we discussed his original email and started trying to answer all his questions.
Thank you Professor Pong!
In year 1, we’ve been learning about all the crazy aliens that crashed into our playground this week.
Today we spoke about all the different features our aliens could have and used play dough to make them. Some of us even tried to draw what we thought our aliens would look like.
Have a look at our amazing creations!
Willow class had the opportunity to take part in a Fun Festival at TCS yesterday. We took part in a range of activities included Athletics, Cricket Rounder and Parachute Games.
We had a great time cooperating with children from different schools and even got to see some old friends! The activities were quite challenging and we all worked up quite a sweat.
Thank you to everyone at TCS and to the parents for making the afternoon run so smoothly.
Year 1 Spelling Focus: ‘ir’ sound
Handed out on Monday 13th May;
Tested on Monday 20th May.
- skirt
- birch
- confirm
- where
- house
Note: Spellings 1-3 focus on this week’s phoneme focus; spellings 4-5 are from the Year 1 High-frequency word list.
Please note; Spellodrome is available for your child to practice the weekly spellings alongside the year group’s Common Exceptions Words.
Today we introduced directions and the use of a compass to every child in Year 1. We had fun learning a few new ways to remember the directions and we each got to draw our very own version on the playground.
After all this fun, we came back inside and found different parts of Devon and discussed whether they are located in North, South, East or West Devon.
Check out these lovely pinwheels! We have been writing our instrunctions for a couple of days now on how to make a pinwheel and finally, this afternoon we were able to make them. Aren’t they fantastic?
We were adding and subtracting today, in Mrs Simister’s Store. Children were having to find different combinations of coins to pay with, as a well as working out what change they were owed.
Year 1 had a marvellous day on Dartmoor walking from Hay Tor, across the moor, to Smallacombe Rocks. The day was full of plant and animal spotting, sweating and enjoying being outdoors in the sunshine! Dartmoor smiled on us today. Thank you for all adult helpers and to the children for digging deep when they were tired and making it back to the coach in 1 piece!
Today we ordered numbers from smallest to biggest. This might sound easy but the learning really happened when we asked the children to explain how they knew. As you can see, these young mathematicians have described their thinking wonderfully.
Willow class thoroughly enjoyed their football workshop today, as part of our sports week. All children put in 100% effort and learnt some great new skills. What a wonderful way to spend a Friday afternoon! A massive thank you to Exeter City Football Club tutors.
We had great fun today learning how to fire arrows at a target. Great fun and some great skills learnt!
We took to writing on the tables to describe our trolls body parts, today. See if you can spot some disgusting, snot filled descriptions!
We made our very own setting and puppets of characters from The 3 Billy Goats Gruff story. They helped us re tell the story in our own words. Great fun!
Halves, quarters, eighths and even sixteenths of shapes were investigated today, during our maths session. Some children even discovered equivalent fractions! Excellent stuff Willow Class!
We have been counting in 2s starting at 2 but today we asked the question – Do you have to start at 2?
We decided that the answer is NO! You can count in steps of 2 from any number. Some of us started at 3, some started at 100, some started at 700. We worked out that to count in 2s, you count every other number.
Some children even managed to count in steps of 200!
This afternoon in Willow class we had a visitor come in to teach us some gymnastics. Today we learnt different balances which included the T balance, V sit and balancing on our tummies. We all worked really hard and kept trying until we could hold our balance. 
Today in Willow class we pretended to be the sun and the Earth to help us learn why we get the different seasons each year. When we were the sun we stayed still and our friend orbited around us slowly just like the Earth would do in space. We found out that it takes the Earth 1 year to orbit the sun and that the tilt of the Earth is the reason why we get autumn, winter, summer and spring. 
Willow class produced some excellent rhyming poems today in their “Big Write” with Miss Jones. This literacy topic has been led by Miss Jones as part of her final teacher training placement with Plymouth University. Well done guys!
As part of our topic: Under the sea, children made their own shadow puppets and experimented with making their shadows bigger and smaller.
Today during SOLE we were thinking about how to make a piece of Blu Tack float. We used trial and error to find out the best method of making the Blu Tack float. We tried making it flat, making it smaller, rolling it to a ball, making it hollow and finally placing it on paper. We realised that to make the Blu Tack float we needed to create a boat like shape. 
Today in PE we were practising different type of walking styles including walking in different directions, speeds, strides as well as using our facial expressions. We walked like fashion models and added gestures at the end. We are building up to choreographing a dance.
A great start to the day in our wonderful book day costumes! We loved having visitors from Redwood class come and read to us this morning. Fantastic sharing and celebration of the written word.
Ss were the order of the day in our Handwriting session today. We made sure they were the right way round, had entry strokes and were joined in a word. We practised writing words with double s in and realised it appeared in a class member’s name.
We continue to work really hard with our handwriting. Keep it up, Willow class!
Today in Willow class we looked at two pieces of descriptive text and drew an image from what we heard.
Children have started to use the terms adverb, adjectives, verbs, preposition and noun. Why not ask your child to try and give you some examples?
Today we used “colourful semantics” cards to help us learn about different word types. We then had our first go at improving a boring sentence using our new knowledge.
Year 1, watched our Trainee Teachers carry out the ” The Great fire of London science experiment” today. Different materials were tested to see which would burn the best. 
We have been exploring the order numbers and symbols go in when we add. We moved cards around to come up with different number sentences and then proved we were right using numicon.
We practised referring to the equals sign as ‘is the same as’. When we used that language, a few of us realised and proved that it is ok to write 10 = 6 + 4.
As part of our learning journey, Fire, we have been learning how to safely start a small fire. Using a fire starter, we have madly scraped and scraped to create a spark which we have then tried to blow onto cotton wool. We are going to be experimenting with a range of materials to test which burn best.
We were also lucky enough to try on a real fire fighter’s helmet that Grace borrowed from her neighbour. It was very heavy.
Year 1 had a fabulous time exploring a variety of different math activities during our maths open morning today. It was great to see so many adults getting involved too! Thank you to all visitors and we look forward to more open mornings with you!
Counting in tens and fives today, we were trying to reorganise our class carpet spaces.
Should we sit in rows of tens or fives?
Once again, the children in Willow class have been working really hard to improve their letter formation. Our handwriting session today focused on the letter h and b as these follow the same handwriting pattern.
The children all remembered to start on the line with an entry stroke. All lower case letters start in the same place. Why not ask your child to demonstrate at home. Many children have this as a writing target, so any practice at home helps.
Today we used our knowledge of counting in 10s and ones to help problem solve. The children were very enthused and worked hard to find all the possibilities.
We have had a festive and busy day today. Mrs Simister spent the day with us, getting to know the children and getting into the swing of school life again. She says she’s really excited about coming back and was very impressed with the children’s behaviour and hard working attitudes.
We have also been making Christmas decorations. Take a look at our Santas and their curly beards. Some of them have moustaches too.
As a class treat, we took the children into the hall for some party games and some dancing. We all had a lot of fun.
We have been comparing numbers and working out the order they go in. We have been explaining how we know if a number is bigger or smaller than another number by looking closely at the digits.
The 100 square has helped us. We read a 100 square like a book, starting at the top and moving from left to right. The interesting thing we found out was that lower numbers are at the top of a 100 square and higher numbers are at the bottom.
1st December 2016
Willow children worked in their teams to help reassemble poor little Jim’s torn up letter to Father Christmas.
They learnt about the structure and format of a letter, and labelled it using he new words they had learnt. Can you spot the heading, the greeting, the body, the closing and the signature of the letter below?
25.11.16
Willow children put their directional and positional language skills to test today. They gave their partner a direction to follow and helped each other get from one place to another, like human SatNavs!
“Turn left”.
“Under”.
“Around”.
“Over”.
“Through”.
If we get lost. We know who we can ask each other for directions!
24th November 2016
We have spent the whole day carefully crafting our lanterns for our Christmas lights parade.
Collaboration was our goal today as we worked together to secure our frames and wrap them in tissue paper.
This was sticky business, but the results were amazing!
Thank you to all our parents helpers today too. It was great to have you!
What a busy day we have had here in Year 1! Our lantern making has got off to a tremendous start thanks to the parent and grandparent helpers who gave up their time to assist the children in cutting, taping, wiring and decorating.
All the children began by practising their lantern shapes on a smaller scale first, using straws. This then helped them construct their actual lantern frames using willow. We are half way there now. On Thursday, we will be finishing them using tissue paper and PVA glue. They will look spectacular.
We are really looking forward to the lantern procession this Saturday and hope to see you there. A massive thank you for all your support.
We have started looking at positional and directional language today. The children have watched a fun clip and have noted down any positional words, known as prepositions, on whiteboards. We have quite a collection now. We played another game, Where’s the Monkey, and practised using the prepositions in context.
We have also started to program a Beebot using forwards, backwards and quarter turns. We will be exploring Beebots more throughout the week, plotting routes for them.
18.11.16
We were running out of paper in our big write today, and here’s why: the children couldn’t stop writing!
They loved retelling the story of Rama and Sita, using all the story language they had learned over the past three weeks. Amazing work Willow Class!
17.11.16
This morning, Willow Class worked in teams to sort shapes into different groups. Here are the groups they came up with:
Can you work out why the shapes were sorted in this way?
Carrying on with our current maths topic on shape, the children were set a challenge today – to use spaghetti as sides and marshmallows as corners to make 2D then 3D shapes. We watched as squares came together as faces on cubes and as triangles became pyramids. The children were so focused and driven that they asked for this activity to be left out in SOLE this afternoon.
Our next challenge is to work out how to add to our cubes to make them into cuboids.
We have been noticing some very naughty bs and ds in some writing recently. Today we watched how to carefully form b and d and have learnt a couple of useful tips.
When writing b, you start with the back first. If you forget which way each letter goes, make a bed with your fingers and that should help.
The ones we practised today were spot on. Keep up the careful handwriting, Willow class.
Year One had a fantastic introduction to the school’s anti-bullying week with a workshop this afternoon.
During the workshop, they were fully engaged and involved in a story performance, which told them about what bullying is and how to recognise it.
They learnt all about how to be a good friend and what to do if they ever felt like they or a friend are being bullied.
We are all winners!
We have been continuing our Literacy by looking in more depth at the Rama and Sita story. Today we used colourful semantics cards to improve boring sentences. We added adjectives for detail and have been using the conjunctions and and because to join ideas. The children are getting better at identifying adjectives now. They love making up actions and facial expressions to go with different adjectives. Demonic, fierce and evil were particularly scary!
We have started learning about 2D and 3D shapes. Some of us went for a walk around school, both inside and out, searching for shapes in our environment and taking photos on the iPads. The rest of us will be doing this activity tomorrow.
We have also been exploring shapes, sorting shapes and building with them.
Why not ask your child to explain the difference between 2D and 3D shapes?