Welcome back everyone! It has been great to see all the children enjoying the sun. Let’s hope it continues. Please make sure everyone has a water bottle in school everyday and a sun hat. Unfortunately, they will still need at least a jumper or cardigan as it can still be quite chilly in the mornings.

This week we have been concentrating on our phonics in preparation for the Phonics Screening Check next week. This will be carried out by myself and is a routine that the children are already familiar with. They may have already told you about ‘Alien’ words, please don’t worry, we still have our feet on the ground and have not had any strange visitors!

In maths, we have been consolidating our addition skills by using a number line to add ones and tens.  Next week we will be subtracting. Very soon the children will be learning how to tell the time on an analogue clock. Have you got one at home? Most clocks that we see are digital!

KS1 (Chestnut and Elm) Sport’s Day is on Tuesday 18th June at 10.30am. This has been on the school website since back in September so I hope most of you will be able to make it. Pupils will need to come to school in their PE kit as usual. They do not need a coloured t-shirt if you don’t have one, please do not buy one especially.

Over the half term, our class pumpkin plants have been eaten by slugs. Does anyone have any established pumpkin or courgette plants that they would be willing to donate to our class vegetable patch?

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs Dowell, Mrs Armstrong and Mrs Savoury

This week has gone so fast! There seemed to be a bit of a sickness bug going around at the beginning of the week but everyone is back up to strength now. We are really trying to encourage the children to have good hygiene habits. There are always tissues in the classroom for them to use to clean or blow their nose and we ask them to wash their hands afterwards. They are asked not to pick their nose.

I am sure that some of you will have heard about our sandwich making for Mr Grinling in ‘The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch’. We have identified verbs in the text and used imperative verbs to write instructions.

The children are all working hard to build their ‘Power Pack’. This is their core strength which is needed for neat handwriting. Ask them to show you these poses: Bear, Meerkat, Penguin and Lizard. They have also learnt finger exercises to build the muscles needed to control a pencil.

We have found out that one of the best items to use as a whiteboard cleaner is an old sock as they can put it over their none writing hand. If anyone can spare any CLEAN old odd socks for this purpose, it would be greatly appreciated. Please send them in.

Thank you so much for promptly returning all the Little Wandle reading books. Some children are keeping them in their trays at school so that we can be confident that the books are in school everyday for reading sessions. All the adults in Chestnut Class are very impressed with the progress in the children’s reading. Please keep it up!

In maths we have completed our unit on Fractions. All children can find half of a number using equipment and most can find one quarter of a number by sharing into four equal parts. Next week we will be learning about position and direction.

The children may have talked about ‘Alien Words’. These are made up words made from phonemes that they have been taught. The pupils are told to always spot the digraphs first, then blend the word, rather than trying to read the word on sight.

For example: terp, slone, toaf, paith.

PE is on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Have a fab weekend,

Mrs Dowell, Mrs Armstrong and Mrs Savory

What a busy spring term we have had! The children have worked hard to retain facts that they have been taught in all their subjects. They have enjoyed learning about Charles Darwin and the Galapagos Islands.  We researched about hot and cold countries including what it is like to live there. Their knowledge of wild and garden plants is growing and we will continue our work about plants into next term. As the weather warms we will be planting lots of flowers, fruit and vegetables.

Everyone’s reading is improving as we develop our phonic knowledge. Phase 5 is quite tricky as there are lots of ways to make the same sound. Our group reading sessions use books and resources from Little Wandle. On Thursdays, children will bring home a copy of the book that they have read in class that week. They must return this the following Thursday in order to take home the new book. We have a limited amount of books so we need to take good care of them. They will continue to bring home a matched Phonics Bug book to support their reading. This can be changed more regularly than once a week. We encourage children to read a book more than once to develop their fluency. Ask your child to read out loud as if they are performing. This will improve their expression and reading to the punctuation. Not all children need to point to each word any more!

The children have really enjoyed the variety of books that we have studied in our English lessons. They love listening to stories and pretending to be the characters in our Hot Seating sessions! Some of the questions and answers are very original and they are having to improvise a lot more.

In maths, they are beginning to multiply by making equal groups and then using repeated addition to find the total. Most children can count forwards in 2s, 5s and 10s. However, all need more help to do this backwards!

Over the Easter break, please start to introduce your child to o’clock and half past using a clock with hands. Most of the clocks we see around our homes are moving to digital: Alexa, phones, tablets, microwave… we still need to learn how to read the time on an analogue clock!

Here is the overview for next term:

Summer 1 Year 1 Curriculum Map

Have wonderful Easter!

Mrs Dowell, Mrs Armstrong and Mrs Savory.

At last, the sun is shining! However, the children still need waterproof coats so that they can go out to play at every opportunity. PE is on TUESDAYS and WEDNESDAYs only. We appreciate all of your efforts with correct uniform, the children look so smart when they arrive at school. They may look a little different when they leave but they’ve had a fun filled day of learning! As the weather gets warmer they are more likely to take off their jumpers and cardigans. PLEASE MAKE SURE THEY HAVE NAMES IN THEM SO THAT THEY CAN BE RETURNED TO THE RIGHTFUL OWNER!

The children have really enjoyed this week’s book, ‘The Weather Monster’. They have written descriptions of Ron and created their own Weather Monster to describe.

In maths, we have been measuring mass by using cubes. It is important that the balance scale is level when we measure mass accurately. Next week, we will be measuring capacity and volume.

On Thursday, it is World Book Day. Everyone is invited to dress up as a character from a book. Please do not feel the need to buy costumes, there are some great ideas for simple homemade costumes on the internet.

Have a fab weekend,

Mrs Dowell, Mrs Armstrong and Mrs Dowell.