Superstar of the week 26/04/18

This superstar was chosen for producing much more work in lessons and being really switched on and more confident in his own abilities. Good work!

Phonics - a guide video for parents!

In year 1, phonics is an integral part of the children's curriculum as it is the cornerstone of how they learn to read and spell.

Whilst the children learn and practise these phonemes (unit of sound) and graphemes (letter/s to represent the sounds) everyday, we are aware that some parents may not be over familiar with the exact sounds children are taught.

There are 44 different phonemes the children will learn in Reception and Year 1 and towards the end of Year 1, they will be tested on reading these sounds in 40 words - some real and some fake.

In phonics, the children have made videos to show their parents how to spell and pronounce the phase 3 and phase 5 sounds. You will notice, some of the cards they hold are hand-made by the children and they have invented the memorable sentence examples to match.

Any extra practice of reading these at home will benefit their reading and spelling and progress in upcoming phonics test in June.

Phase 3 sounds: 

Phase 5 sounds:

What have we been learning in 1G this week?

 This week the children shared their History homework with the class in a circle time discussion. They told (and showed) each other their favourite toys before we sorted them into different categories which the children came up with themselves.

Impact: the children can sort toys according to different criteria and use this information to form general judgements about toys today.

We decided that many of todays toys are made of colourful plastic, are electronic and are designed to be safe for children to use. This was a good reflection which we will use as a comparison when we look at  old toys.

REMEMBER: If any grandparents are able to come in to speak to children about old toys on Friday 27th April - please let the Year 1 teachers know. We would be very grateful!

In maths, we have begun learning about positions and directions using positional language such as;

before/under/next to/above/left/right/on/inside etc

We also looked at ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd etc) as a way of describing positions so we went outside and had some fun races whilst deciding the order that the children and teams came in.

 

 In the pictures below, the children are using Ipads to play money related games in preparation for their next maths topic. If they have a tablet or computer at home, the games can be found on the following website link.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/money

 

 

In ICT the children are studying algorithms and how to programme Beebots. They have used Beebots before in Reception however they were a little rusty so we had a lesson to remind ourselves of the different instructions. Once we had become familar with these again, we challenged each other in small teams to see if the Beebots could be programmed to reach a given spot on the floor.

 

Impact; the children are confident in being able programme a Beebot to move close to a given destination.

Superstars of the week 19/04/18

These boys were chosen as joint superstars because one has recently joined our class and has settled in really well, making lots of friends and trying his best in his work. The other has been very kind and helpful to our new pupil, showing him a true Stanley welcome which has allowed him to settle in so well. We are very proud of you both.

Africa!

Today in Geography we looked at the continent of Africa. We now understand that continents are large ares of land made up of any different countries. We have learnt about the oceans surrounding Africa, some of the largest countries (Algeria, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo), the Sahara desert and the names of some of the African countries and labelled some of them on a map before playing 'Mapingo' (Bingo).

Here is a link to the website we used today where there are some fun games the children can play at the bottom.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Africa/Africa_GL_1024_768.html

Challenge: What facts can you find out about Africa? Stamps for those children who find out anything interesting to share next lesson.

Superstar of the week 12/04/18

This superstar was chosen for completing most of her work during the time given in her lessons this week - something she used to struggle to do. I hope this superstar now inspires others to do the same!

What have 1G been up to this week?

This week in literacy we have been looking at, following and writing instructions. The children had to follow each other's verbal instructions to draw a picture which they not seen. Below were the results. Afterwards, we discussed whether the drawings were similar and how they could be improved - by better instruction giving or listening!

Below shows us following some instructins to plant a sunflower seed which we are taking home to feed and look after. There is a competition at the end of this half term to see whose sunflower has grown the tallest!

The children have written their own instructions on how to grow a sunflower which are displayed in the classroom window.

In History we have begun our new topic of Toys from the past. We started by thinking about toys from our own past (since we were babies) and how our tastes and capabilities have changed as we have grown. We had to order some toys in age order and we really at good at explaining and justifying why some toys are more appropriate for younger children whilst others are more challenging for older people.

This term 1G are having a big focus on our presentation and neatness so there will be daily morning competitions to see who can show Mrs Greatrex their neatest handwriting, forming their letters correctly and to the correct size. 

Remember lots of stamps can be won!

During our choosing time, some children have been working with play doh to create real looking flowers and plants as part of our new science topic.

In maths we have been finding fractions of amounts by sharing counters into halves (2's) or quarters (4's). 

We are getting really good at this now!