Year 1 - Spring 1 - Week 4

Date: 28th Jan 2022 @ 2:29pm

Yet another fantastic week in Year 1! We have been busy mathematicians this week and have been comparing and ordering numbers, using our STAR vocabulary “greater than”, “less than” and “equal to”, to explain our thinking. After exploring the story in great detail, we were thrilled to finally find out what happened at the end of “The Lion Inside” and we certainly weren’t disappointed! Although many of us were shocked by the ending, we were very happy with the outcome and have enjoyed writing from the point of view of Lion and Mouse to describe their new friend. In addition to this, Year 1 have loved transforming into gymnasts and creating some fantastic balancing sequences in PE and have enjoyed exploring the diets of animals to help classify them into carnivores, herbivores and omnivores, in Science.

In Re this week, we listened to the story of ‘The Calling of the Disciples’ and learnt how Jesus chose his first disciples, Peter and Andrew. In the story, Jesus asks Peter and Andrew, two fishermen, to take their boat out and to drop their nets. After a day without luck, Peter and Andrew are certain they won't catch anything but do as Jesus asks. Suddenly they find their nets bulging with so many fish they can hardly bring them aboard. The fishermen insist Jesus is 'too good for them' but then, Jesus asks the fisherman to follow him. Helping us to remember the story, we had fun using drama to retell how Jesus chose his first disciples. There were some excellent and very entertaining performances, which demonstrated Year 1’s super understanding of the story!

Year 1 were extremely excited to take the first steps on our Young Leaders Award journey this week! On Friday, we began the first part which focuses on kindness. To begin our session, we used adjectives to describe what cotton wool feels like. When feeding back to the class, we realised that all the adjectives being shared were all very positive. We then repeated this activity but this time, we described sandpaper. We immediately realised that the words we used to describe the sandpaper were the opposite of those we used for the cotton wool and made the connection that these adjectives would be associated with things that aren’t so nice. Next, we imagined that cotton wool was a type of word and shared with our shoulder partner some “cotton wool words” that would make someone smile. Some of the words that were used included “well done”, “amazing” and “fantastic”. We then shared with the class the kind of words that we would call “sandpaper words”. Year 1 answered the question, “what type of words should we use and why?” Using their yellow thinking hats, Year 1 reflected on their own experiences to help them to answer this question. Everyone said that we should be using only cotton wool words and there were so many reasons why, including because they make people smile and they are kind! Year 1 made their own list of cotton wool and sandpaper words and wrote about the importance of using only kind words. As Young Leaders, it is important we understand the significance of our words because others will only want to follow a good role model who is kind! It was a brilliant session to begin our Young Leaders Award and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for us next week.

Well done for a wonderful week of learning! Have a great weekend and we will see you on Monday.

Year 1 Reminders

• During Spring 1, PE will take place on a Monday and Wednesday. Please ensure children come to school in the correct PE kit on these days.

• Children should bring only a small and healthy snack, such as fruit or a cereal bar, to have during their morning break time. Please ensure that grapes are cut in half.

• This month's top book picks from 'Love Reading'have been released today. It shares exciting new story books from a variety of authors for different age ranges.