Year 1 - Off to a great start!

The children in Year 1 have had a fantastic start to the year! They have all settled into new routines really well and we have been so impressed with how independent and resourceful they are as well as how keen and interested they are in their learning.

It has been such a busy term that there hasn't been much time to blog - sorry! Here is an update on just some of the things we have been up to...

Harvest Celebrations

We took part in the Harvest Celebrations by bringing in some food we wanted to donate to the Hedge End Food Bank. The children brought in lots of tins, packets and boxes of food and we enjoyed lining them up along the classrooms to see how far they would reach.

We also used the opportunity to practice our number skills by counting to 100 and predicting how many we thought they was altogether.

 

Our Local Area

As part of our geography topic we went on two local walks. The first was to Norman Rodaway and the nearby woods, and the second was to the village. We used maps to find our routes and to help identify geographical features. We also compared the two locations and found that they were quite different. 

In literacy we were reading a story about a meerkat called Sunny who was looking for a new home. We tried to think which place he would like best....

The grass would be good for digging!

Sunny might like the puddles as it is very hot where he usually lives.

Sunny would like the woods because there are lots of  bugs to eat and trees to climb.

Some of us thought that the shade made the woods too cold for Sunny.

The roads might be too noisy for Sunny but the shops could be useful!

We thought Sunny would like this house the best as he could make tunnels in the roof.

Also in Geography we have been learning about the four countries that make up the UK and their capital cities. We play a great airport game which involved flying to the different countries and the capital cities.

Super maths

We have been learning lots inside the classroom too! In maths we have been learning lots of different ways to add and take away numbers. We have been using objects, bead strings and number lines and have been recording our work using number sentences.

Writing addition sentences using objects.

Learning our number bonds to 5.

Using number lines to add numbers.

We took turns to throw the bean bags and add up the scores.

We also used bead strings to add.

These boys set up a car shop to practice their adding skills. They wrote prices for the cars and used coins to buy them.

We used objects to take away amounts.

We wrote our take away number sentences to show what we had done.

We also used our number lines to solve take away problems.

Music

In music we have been learning about the four main families of instruments - wooden, metal, skinned and shakers. Mrs Watling taught us some great songs and we really enjoyed playing the different instruments.

Which family does this instrument belong to?

Which groups are these instruments from?

Do you know what family these are from?

Mrs Watling taught us how to hold the instruments to get the best sound.

Mystery visitor!

Towards to the end of the term we found lots of strange objects in our classroom and discovered the home corner had been transformed into a rocket!

After making some predictions and writing questions we found out the the objects were left by a friendly alien called Beegu!

We will be learning more about Beegu next term so look out for more blog updates!