Palmers Cross Primary School

Year 1

We hope that you and your children had a very enjoyable Christmas break and we would like to welcome everyone back to the start of the Spring Term. The children appear to have settled back into school and are enthusiastic to continue with their learning.
 
 
 
 

January 2020

Thank you to parents and carers who attended the phonics meeting.

CLICK HERE for the information we shared.

 

The spring term is always a busy time for children in Year 1. In English, we will continue to focus on the use of capital letters and full stops when writing sentences. The children will begin to use question marks and exclamation marks and will be encouraged to continue using the conjunctions ‘and’ and ‘because’. We will also learn how to apply prefixes and suffixes to words and children will have the opportunity to practise these skills across a range of different texts, including, stories with familiar settings. In Maths, we will continue to practise counting forwards and backwards in ones, fives and tens up to 100. The children will have the opportunity to consolidate their understanding of how to add and subtract two numbers together by solving word problems and we will continue to practise reciting number bonds to 10 and 20. Later on in the term, we will move on to solving multiplication and division using apparatus, mental strategies, number tracks and number lines.  In Science, we will be learning about a range of materials and their properties. Children will have the opportunity to investigate the properties through simple investigations.  
 
Our theme/topic this term is ‘Paddington’s Space Mission’ where children will learn about Neil Armstrong and Tim Peake and their missions into Space. As artists, children will look at the work of Peter Thorne and Vincent van Gogh’s starry night. Children will create art in the style of both artists – we cannot wait to get started!  Children will learn about animations using a computer where they will be able to plan and make a 2D animation of their own.
 
Pupils will continue to remain in their classes for the majority of lessons, with the exception of phonics sessions for which they will be ability set and may have a different teacher and be in a different classroom or learning room. Phonics sessions ran this way in Reception so your child will be familiar with working with different teachers. Throughout the year, children will have a weekly spelling test. This will be on a Friday morning and new spellings will be given out on Friday with the spelling test result of that day underneath.
 
Just like in Reception, reading is a massive focus in Year 1 therefore please continue to support your child’s reading at home regularly. We remind you that children’s books need to be in school every day. We would also encourage you to write a comment in their home/school diary, building you child’s confidence and the link between home and school. Any extra practise at home is always welcome!

Please support your child by encouraging them to read the words using their phonics skills. Phonics is particularly important during Year 1, as children are required to take a phonics test in the summer term, which consists of 40 words (real and nonsense) to read – we will have a parent meeting to discuss the phonics-screening test in the spring term.
We will continue to out send creative homework for each half term and weekly Maths or English homewok. We hope your child will take pride in their books completing the homework each week towards a reward at the end of the half term.
 

Year 1 children have a busy term ahead in phonics. There are some great links and tips for parents at  Oxford Owl

Please CLICK HERE

PE for class 1 will be:
Term 1 –
Monday – Dance
Thursday - Multi-skills

Term 2 –
Thursday – Multi-skills
Friday - Gym
 
Please ensure that children have the correct PE kit in school at all times. In the interests of safety, no jewellery, including earrings, should be worn on PE days. It would also be appreciated that all items of uniform (including PE bag and pumps) is labelled with your child’s full name and class.
 
Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you in anticipation of your continued support.
 
We have much to be excited about for the Spring Term and we look forward to a term packed full of learning and progress.
 
Mrs Williams

January 2020

Class 1 had an amazing morning with their parents getting active with warm up games and then working in teams to score points. It was great fun for all and competition was high but the children showed fantastic sportsmanship throughout the morning. They represented our school amazingly! Well done Class 1!

  

In science this week we have been putting down our knowledge of materials by looking at a number of objects and thinking of scientific words that we could use to describe how they felt.
We also discussed what materials we knew about already before we begin to learn about which material we think would be best for a space suit.
Look out for our experiments to see what we find out!

  

Today we had our inspiration day to launch our Paddington's space mission topic.
We helped Paddington go to the moon by making rockets and testing how far they would go.
Liam decided his rocket would go the furthest because it had less tissue paper which made it lighter.
He was correct in his prediction! Well done Liam.
We did a space dance with Paddington on the moon and in the afternoon had tickly fun making footprint alien paintings. It was messy! What a great day we had!

 

September 2019

Children in Year 1 showing their counting skills using different objects.

 

 In science we went for a nature walk to look for signs of Summer and Autumn noticing that Summer was ending and Autumn was beginning to show.
  
 

January 2019

Class 1 had a lovely day learning all about Road Safety and how we can keep ourselves safe when crossing the road. We learnt what a Lollypop person would do to help us, how we can hold hands with a grown up when crossing the road and we even learnt a song to help us remember what to do when we cross the road. 

  

 

November 2018

Remembrance day was a lovely day for Class 1. We were all very excited to make our poppies to display outside of school ready for our Remembrance day in school. On the day we made beautiful Flanders fields pictures using masking tape, paint and poppies. We also wrote our own instructions about how to make a poppy biscuit and then in the afternoon followed them to make our own biscuits. Yummy! It was a lovely day to remember those who gave their lives for us. Thank you!

  

 

 

October 2018

In science we have been exploring our senses including our sense of touch to see if we can figure out what something is by feeling items and not looking at them. This helped us understand that our sense of touch helps us understand the world around us. 

Congratulations to our newly elected school councillors!

 

In our English we have been learning all about instructions. We spent some time following written instructions to make different craft items such as a paper plate fish. 

 

 

Photos from2017/2018

Year 1 were taken back in time and visited a Victorian school where they were taught by a Victorian teacher, in a Victorian classroom, whilst wearing Victorian clothes. They were given a short Maths and English lesson and were even required to write on a slate board. The children were then able to explore the Victorian town and experience what life was like for a Victorian child.

  

 

 

 

 

Spring Term

January 2017

 One of Wolverhampton's Lollipop Ladies volunteered to help show children in Reception and Year 1 how to cross the road safely. The children then took it in turns to show each other how to cross the road.

 

 

Autumn Term

  Children In Need

In science we have also been looking at materials and their properties. This week we have sorted materials according to their properties. When discussing the properties we have been using our scientific language. Angel- 'this glass is see through. We can call it transparent'.   

  

In year 1 our homework project this half term was to build a waterproof boat to rescue Grandpa pig. Everybody has been very busy building and testing their creations.

 

In DT we have been learning how to prepare food safely and hygienically. This week we prepared salads and chopped the vegetables using taught grips such as 'the claw' and 'the bridge'. We really enjoyed tasting what we made, all our hard work made it taste even more delicious.

  

 As part of our learning about black history month we learnt about great sportsmen. We then painted a portrait of Muhammed Ali using skills from our art topic.

 

As part of remembrance day we created poppies using different drawing techniques. we found that 'dotting' was a really effective method.