Week ending 27th May 2022

 Hello Year One,

What a wonderful way to end this half term!

The children have loved this celebratory week!

They have drawn portraits of Queen Elizabeth and designed Jubilee hats for her to wear.

The cake making was not as successful as I would have liked but they enjoyed the process!

They loved learning the lyrics to 'happy' especially as it is Year One's class song. They hear this song when we need motivating or cheering up and it works! They change for PE to 'Happy' and sometimes we just have a good old dance!

The children were very proud to decorate Jubilee plates and I am glad they have a souvenir from this special time in history.

We have done lots of research on Queens, especially Queen Elizabeth 2nd and as it is her Platinum Jubilee week the children wrote about why the country will be celebrating over the coming week, some facts about Queen Elizabeth and how we would be celebrating at school.

The children designed fruit and vegetable prints and chose the colours they wanted to use. The final prints have been sent home and I am sure you will enjoy them. We even talked about what type of clothing the design could be used on as they are so pretty and colourful!

We have been learning the value of coins this week. The children can find values up to 20p using different coins, so if you go shopping maybe they could have a go!

Please ask your children to read as much as possible during the break. They have all changed their books and taken a couple of extra books home for the holiday.

If your child was give a phonics sheet please practice with them as often as you can. You can use other words or make up alien words with the specific digraphs. 

I hope you all have a lovely restful break and look forward to seeing you on Tuesday 7th June.

Ms Davis

Week ending 19th May 2022

 Hello Year One,

I have to start by saying how proud I am of all of you for your amazing performance in our assembly. You had so many lines to remember, a song, a dance and a whole story to role play and you did it perfectly!

YEAR ONE BEAR

We have a bear in our cupboard. He lives in a suitcase and loves being taken on adventures. He loves to stay at children's homes and experience life with them for a day or two. He is called Bear and he doesn't want to change his name.

He enjoys the simple things in life, like eating breakfast with a friend. He loves trips out to the park and prefers to be hugged at night. He loves having his photo taken!

Today he went home with Macy. He was very excited! Macy will take good care of Bear and return him to school on Monday. Macy will then be able to write about her adventures with Bear and maybe include some photos. 

Bear will go home with a different child every afternoon now and have a sleepover. Everyone will have a chance to take him home.

The children have been learning the value of coins up to 20p this week. It would be great if they could practice this over the weekend. You could ask your child to give you different amounts of money and let him/her work out which coins to use.

We read an amazing story this week called 'Anancy and Mr Drybone' by Fiona French. It is a West African traditional tale and the children loved it. A lot of writing has come from this story as the children have created lists, written character descriptions, created their own story map and planned their story sequences! Next week they will use all this preparation to write their own story in a similar style.

The children had great fun designing and making their masks! 

NEXT WEEK

English

We will be completing our stories next week and the children will be using adjectives to bring them to life!

The children will be revising split vowel digraphs and alien words. We will be writing about 'The Platinum Jubilee' and the reason why we will be celebrating. We will think about the different celebrations people will be having and how we at Little Heath will be celebrating.

Maths

We will continue to learn the value of coins and using combinations of coins especially when certain values are not represented.

ART/DT

The children will be drawing the face of Queen Elizabeth and creating a hat for her to wear at her Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

We will all be designing and painting a Jubilee celebration plate.

Year One will also be designing a pattern for a print.

On Thursday Year One will be making Jubilee cupcakes which they will bring home to eat.

PLATINUM JUBILEE AFTERNOON

As I informed you a couple of weeks ago we are holding a Platinum Jubilee Celebration afternoon on Friday, 27th May for parents. The event will start at 2.00pm and will take place on the school grounds. All the classes will be performing a song from every decade that the queen has been on the throne. Children will be sat in class groupings but parents will be allowed to sit with their children as long as the class teachers know that you have your child. On the day the children should come to school dressed in red, white and blue, refreshments will be for sale during the afternoon. At the end of the event children will be allowed to go home with their parents if the event finishes early. As the event is taking place outside it will be weather dependent. Fingers crossed though that it will be able to go ahead and help give us a rousing send off into the half-term break. If you would like to make a donation towards the refreshments, please send your donations in from Thursday 26th May. Please label any boxes you would like returned to you.

I will be looking forward to seeing you on Friday!

Just a few more pictures from our Willows Farm trip!

I wish you all a restful and happy weekend.

Ms Davis

Week ending 13th May 2022

 Hello Year One,

We have had a fabulous week. Our trip was amazing and the children were so excited! We packed so much into the day. The morning was taken up by learning about farm animals, feeding animals and holding some smaller creatures. The children saw a cow being milked and they could name all the food items we make from milk. We went on a tractor ride to see more animals.

 

The children watched a show on stage and sang and danced in the rain!

They actually milked a cow!

They had a tractor ride to see where Peter Rabbit and his friends live!

Then it was time for lunch!

The afternoon was full of fun as the children managed to have a turn on many of the activities !

It really was a fabulous day and one I am sure they will always remember.

The coach ride home was strangely quiet!

We have also been carrying out pre and post visit activities as the children have been learning to name animals and their young. They will be describing farm animals next week.

We have worked on 'finding the difference' in our math's lessons. 

Today the children wrote a series on instructions on how to plant a bean. 

Next Week

English

We will be starting a new book next week called Anancy and Mr Drybone. It is a West African traditional tale. Our work will come from this brilliant story as the children will write character descriptions, plan a story by mapping and use this to sequence their own story.

Maths

We will begin exploring coins and their value. The children will compare the value of coins, calculate coin combinations for values that do not have a designated coins below 10p.

Art

The children will begin to explore patterns next week. They will be creating a variety of prints. They will be designing a repeated pattern which they will create using fruit and vegetables.

Geography

Next week the post farm visit activities will be completed as we describe a farm animal in great detail. 

It will be our class assembly on Friday 20th May at 9am. Thank you for sending in the change of clothes. I know the children are very excited to share their learning with you.

I wish you a relaxing and happy weekend.

Ms Davis

Week ending 6th May 2022

 Dear Year One,

We have been busy!

We are beginning to work on our class assembly which will take place on Friday 20th May. The children are excited to share their work with you. Thank you for sending the costumes in, as the sooner we get them the easier it will be nearer the time of the assembly.

This week we have been exploring comparison and difference in our maths lessons. You can continue this at home by showing the children two sets of objects with different values and asking them to find the difference or asking which group has fewer and then expecting them to prove this to you.

For English we have learned the story of the Little Red Hen and the children were able to write accurate recounts of the story.

The children are enjoying finding out about famous queens, especially as it will be Queen Elizabeth 2nd Platinum Jubilee soon. We have lots of fun ideas to help us celebrate!

There was lots of action in the technology room this week as the children made their salads. They chose really varied and interesting vegetables and had lots of ideas for dressings! I hope they were tasty!

NEXT WEEK

Maths

We will continue to explore comparison and difference. we will also work on odd and even numbers so you could talk about this with the children over the weekend.

English/geography/history

Next week Year One will be completing pre and post farm visit activities. These include writing about the animals we see and learning the names of male and female, adult and child.

The children will complete a comprehension task on Queen Elizabeth 1st. 

We will be spotting 'igh,' 'ie,' 'y' and 'i-e' in text.

Willows Farm trip

Tuesday 10th May is the day we have been waiting for! Please ensure your child comes to school in non-uniform and with long sleeves and trousers as they may wish to access the big slides. 

We have pre and post visit activities to carry out and will learn so much about farms, animals and crops.

We will not be going into the on-site shop as it is extremely expensive and we honestly won't have time. Your child will not need any money on the day of the trip.

Please arrive promptly on Tuesday. We will be leaving Little Heath just after 9am.

Please remember to send a packed lunch and at least two drinks for your child. I would advise against anything chocolate as the weather is so warm at the moment. 

I hope you have a peaceful weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather!

Ms Davis

 Hello Everyone,

We have had a great week!

The children enjoyed designing a vegetable salad and have created a list of ingredients. Next week they will wash and prepare their salads and bring them home to share with their families.

We have been problem solving in our maths lessons and the children can now recognise the start, the change and the result  when calculating up to 20.

For English we have learned the story of 'Jack and the Beanstalk.' The children were able to write accurate recounts of this traditional tale.

We have begun our history project on 'Famous Queens.' The children are very interested to explore this subject especially as it is The Platinum Jubilee soon.

NEXT WEEK

Maths

We will be exploring difference between numbers. The vocabulary the children will come familiar with will be fewer, more, greater than, less than and difference between.

English

The children will learn another very familiar traditional tale next week, 'The Little Red Hen.' They will write a recount of the story, role play the story and learn to recite the story.

History

Next week the children will be exploring life in Tudor times as we go back in time to when Queen Elizabeth 1 reigned. They will compare life now to life in Tudor times.

Science

The children planted beans last week and they will write about the process they followed to do so.

D and T

Each child will create their own salad. They have chosen their vegetables and are very excited to create a dish of their choice. I do hope you enjoy them!

Phonics

As many of you are aware extra phonics sessions will begin on 11th May. These will be taking place at 8.30am most mornings. There will also be extra sessions on Monday and Tuesday afternoons.

If your child has been selected for extra sessions please do not worry. Approximately 12 children will be attending the extra sessions and they are just to ensure fluency of digraphs, trigraphs and blending.

Some of you have asked whether you can work on them at home. That is fine. I have copied the more complex digraphs and trigraphs below:

ea, oi, oy, au, ie, ae, ue, oe, ph, ar, wh, aw, ew, ir, ur, ay, u-e, a-e, i-e, e-e, o-e

There are programs on the internet to help you with the pronunciation of these. If you add 'Phase Five Phonics' should have access to a specific program.

Willows Farm

We are all extremely excited for our trip to Willows Farm. A text has been sent to you regarding clothing for the day. I initially wanted the children to wear school uniform, but they may be going on the big plastic slides and it would be ideal to have trousers on to access this equipment.

I have a full crew of helpers now. Thank you to all the volunteers!

Tiredness

The children seem particularly tired on Mondays. This I know can only be expected to a certain point as they have had to readjust to the early morning rise, but if possible it would be so beneficial for them to  have an earlier bedtime on Sundays. 

PE Kits

Please can you ensure that your child has a full PE kit in school at all times. For the coming months they will need shorts, a t-shirt, plimsols, warm joggers, sweat top and trainers. 

I wish you all a very happy, long, holiday weekend!

See you all Tuesday.

Ms Davis

 Hello and Welcome Back,

It was great to see you all again on Wednesday. The children certainly seemed to have made the most of the Easter holidays and the wonderful weather!

The children have had a fun week back, using the new outdoor area (beach shack) and enjoying being back with their friends.

Today they had 'dress up' afternoon and I took a few pictures! The children are allowed to choose a dressing up costume on a Friday afternoon and it is a very popular choice. They often get into 'character' and have some fun playing make believe games.

You have probably noticed that some mornings I play music from different cultures as the children come into school. This is very popular and it has become a mini dance lesson as the children love to try the variety of dance styles from around the world. This morning we had music from India.

English

We will be continuing with daily phonics and spellings. Our topic is 'Traditional Tales.' We will begin with Jack and the Beanstalk. The children will be learning to sequence the story, answer comprehension questions, role play the characters, write character descriptions and interview characters from the story. We will follow this by reading a contemporary tale from a different culture and the children will be making lists and creating their own versions of the story.

Maths

This half term we will be working on problem solving, money (coins up to £1) and using standard and non-standard measures. We will be comparing values, finding the difference between values and counting in twos, fives and tens.

Science

We have already started some of our new topics. For science we will be exploring growth. This includes plants and animals. This week the children planted their own beans and will monitor and record their growth on a weekly basis. They will be finding out what living things need in order to survive.

We will be using our trip to Willows Farm to highlight certain areas of this topic as we visit animals of different ages and look at the vegetable garden to find out what we could grow in the Spring and Summer.

DT

Design and technology links with our science project as we will be designing and making a vegetable salad. This has to be attractive and appetizing!

ART

Our art lessons will focus on printing. We will be using a variety of materials to print with and hope to get some exciting designs!

PSHE

We will be looking at friendships this half term and thinking about how we can be a good friend to others.

History

This half-term we will be looking at famous queens. This will tie in well with the Queen's jubilee!

We begin with Queen Elizabeth 1, the Queen Victoria and we complete the topic by looking at the reign of Queen Elizabeth 11.

RE

We begin by exploring three holy books, The Quran, The Torah and The Bible. We will move on to learning faith stories.

Next week I will be discussing this term's home project with the children and I will post the information on my blog.

I have some volunteer helpers for the Willows Farm Trip. If you would be interested in coming with us please let me know. 

Have a great weekend. 

Ms Davis

Week ending 1st April 2022

 Hello Year One,

Happy Easter holidays to all of you. You have all worked really hard this term and deserve a good rest!

The home project was a huge hit! The children were so proud  of their achievements and enjoyed addressing the whole class to discuss how they were made. They love it when they are allowed to ask if their audience has questions and have become good at responding appropriately. One of the great outcomes of this project was how different each and every home was. This is what they have been learning in our history topic so it worked well. They were also proud to explain how their parents, siblings, grandparents and friends had worked with them. 

We were sad to say goodbye to Mrs Reusch today but we had a fabulous party to wish her well. 

There was a lot of dancing, pass the parcel, musical games, miming games and word puzzles. Everyone had a great time!

Have a well-deserved rest and enjoy plenty of Easter treats and I will look forward to seeing you all soon.

Ms Davis