Home Learning Update

Due to an increased number of absences as a result of families choosing to isolate, we have created a bank of resources that can be used at home to ensure the children are still able to practise their key skills. All of the children will be able to access these tasks and we ask you to help support them as necessary and ensure they are appropriate.

We ask that you support your children to revise prior learning and do not introduce new concepts or ideas that require explicit teaching.

*ALL NECESSARY LOG IN INFORMATION WILL BE SHARED THROUGH PARENTMAIL*

Maths:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

Use this game to practise number bonds to 10 and 20.

https://www.mymaths.co.uk/

This is a fantastic resource for revising taught concepts. Use the tabs on the left ‘Number, Measurement & Geometry’ and try some Year 1 lessons and homework. Please do not attempt tasks designed for a separate year group. We have not yet taught ‘Multiplication & Division’ or anything about time. If there is anything that your children struggles with that requires more than ‘normal’ parental help, please try something else as it may be that your child requires more support in school to secure this skill.

 

Phonics:

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/

This is currently free to use (see details on the website), in the event that this changes, follow this link to the free tasks: https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/ChildrensMenu.htm Picnic on Pluto is a good way to explore sounding out, blending & reading. This does not follow our phonics scheme so it is very important to check with the children that they know the sound you select in advance.

https://www.spellingshed.com/

Use this website to practise Year 1 Common Exception Words

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/

This website can be used to support phonics and is expanding regularly with new free content. There are plenty of free ebooks that can be read, as well as information about how to pronounce sounds properly. Further resources will be shared on this page periodically.

In the event of a school closure, further tasks will be shared with the children through their Google Drive. All children have been set up with this and are in a Google Classroom with their teacher so can see work that is shared with them. The log in details for this will be shared through ParentMail. Find the Google Drive by going to GoogleChrome and signing in.

The Great Fire of London

We have been finding out about the Great Fire of London. We have seen how the firefighting arrangements were very different back in that time and we explored lots of pictures showing what happened at the time.

After being given a range of clues, the children wrote questions about what they wanted to find out. Please see the pictures below with the questions, perhaps you could find some of the answers online with the children so they can share their knowledge in class.

Year 1 have been super scientists!

This half term we have been learning about the different properties of materials, paying particular attention to materials that are absorbent. We learnt about what this means and why it is important that things are absorbent.

We had a challenge to find the best possible material for a vet to use in her animal beds.

To find out the answer we had to conduct an experiment.

We plannned our experiment, thinking about the materials and equipment we would need, as well as how to keep our test fair. Finally on Tuesday, it was time to test our materials to find out which was best – we were looking for the material that released the most water when squeezed into a measuring cylinder as this meant it had absorbed the most.

We worked out that the best material for the bed, as it absorbed the most water was Cotton Wool and we who,d recommend this to the vet!

 

 

Addition to 20

Since coming back from the Christmas holidays, we have been looking at adding 2 numbers together up to 20. We practised counting on, using a tens frame, part – whole model, bead strings and number lines to help us and now are very confident at adding these numbers together with resources to help us. We used an idea of going shopping for toys as a way of showing of our knowledge. We had to spend 20 coins and found lots of different ways of doing this.

More recently we have been learning about stopping at the number 10 for a ‘cup of tea’ which required us to break up (partition) one of the numbers in our number sentence so that we could count to 10 first before adding the rest. This is something we as adults take for granted but the children tackled this tricky concept really well.

Next week we will start looking at the various strategies that can be used when taking numbers away.

A busy start to 2020

Welcome back to Year 1. I hope everyone had a great holiday and had some lovely times as a family, it has been so nice to hear about every event or memory from the children since we have been back to school.

We have jumped straight back into our curriculum this term.

In Maths, we are starting to look at adding and subtracting numbers up to 20 and will move on to numbers to 50 by the end of the term.

In English, we are looking at a fantastic book by Oliver Jeffers called ‘Here we Are’ and have started to think about what the story is about and who it is for. This links to our Geography unit for this term looking at ‘Where do we fit in?’ where we will start to learn about our place in the UK and the world. This will fit brilliantly with some upcoming work where we will write a letter to a school we are twinned with in Kanyatsi, Uganda. Thank you also for your postcards and pictures or where you have travelled on holiday.

Finally, in Science, we are learning about materials and their properties. We have named a collection of materials and have started to learn about their properties. Today we grouped our objects and looked at similarities and differences. For example, grouping all of the plastic objects together but understanding that plastic is not always one colour and can be bendy and sturdy.

 

Some beautiful candles

In RE this half term, we have been learning about the importance of candles as a way of celebrating an event or to help us remember things. We learnt the story of Rama and Sita and looked at how this started the festival of Diwali.

We then thought about why candles are important and realised that they:

• help us to remember if someone has died
• celebrate a birthday or special event
• help us in a power cut.

This linked to the Advent Calendar that some Christians use to help mark the onset of Advent. We learnt what each candle means and why they are different colours.

To finish our learning, we lit our candles and tried to watch the flame quietly before sharing what we were thinking of. All of the candles looked amazing!

A Royal Museum

To finish our learning about some of the Queens of England, we looked at some of the different transport that the Royals use – most notably the carriage. The children had to design their own carriage fit for a queen and consider the materials that would be best for the job. With the help of lots of parents we made the base or chassis of the carriage and then started to build our creations. A week later we were able to paint our masterpieces and eventually write down why each carriage was the best one for the Queen. Finally, we displayed all of our work for our peers to see. Have a look at the pictures and see what you think!

Thank you to all parents who were able to help at any stage of the making process!

A visit from the Queen

We heard that the Queen had responded to our invitation to come and judge the Christmas Knickers competition and today was the day! The children had designed a new Christmas pair of knickers and had written down why they should be chosen.  She arrived at 9.40am having stopped to listen to the year 3 drumming concert which she really enjoyed.  She had been out walking her corgis earlier but not Samantha, her favourite corgi, because she had a thorn in her paw so she arrived with her wellie boots on (but she did still have her tiara on her head!) She chose two winners from the class who were awarded a little prize. The photos show us just before and after having to bow and curtsy to welcome the Queen to our classroom.

Life in the Castle

Today, we were fortunate enough to have History Off The Page come to Halterworth and show us what life in a medieval castle was like.

We were transported back to the 1100s and a castle in Southern England. The men of the castle had all left to fight on behalf of the King and consequently the women and children of the castle had to take on some of the jobs. This morning we were able to try our hands at: soap making, ink making, scentbag making, weaving and being a medieval healer.  We also made small purses for our important belongings, finger guards with our initials on to protect the hand when using a bow and arrow, candle making to illuminate the castle and making small gargoyles to place in the castle to ward off evil spirits.

Some children also had the opportunity to learn to fire a bow and arrow as well as using a sword and shield in a practice fight.

After lunch, we split up into smaller groups to practise a skill, including juggling and tightrope walking, dancing, acting, serving at a table and jousting. At the Banquet, each group had the opportunity to share their skills and enjoy an authentic meal using traditional plates and goblets.

We all had a great time learning about life in a castle and the day wouldn’t have been possible without all the adults who kindly volunteered their time, so thank you very much. If you offered to help and there was not an opportunity too at this time, please continue to offer and we will be glad to accept in the future!

Romsey Abbey

On Friday, we had a trip to Romsey Abbey to look at as part of our RE topic on Special Places and why this is an important place for Christians. We also walked around Romsey and looked for different features that help Romsey to be a town.

On our walk we spotted lots of different things, including; the train station, police station, fire station, library and a supermarket. We also saw smaller shops, a bank, the town hall, the library and lots of tasty-looking places to eat!  We spoke about why these things are in Romsey and why Romsey is a town and how this is different to other nearby places.

Inside the Abbey we were given a tour and saw the Font, which was decorated with the Abbey’s Harvest offerings and then saw lots of other important parts including the altar, the grave of Alice, the daughter of a Romsey doctor from hundreds of years ago, and lots of individual little chapels. This included a chapel which was lit up in purple to celebrate the birthday of the patron saint of the Abbey – St Ethelflaeda.

Many people commented on how well behaved and respectful the children were, which is fantastic and on they way back, we spotted a beautiful rainbow! Please enjoy some of the pictures from our trip.