A cold and wet April

It’s hard to believe we are well into Spring when the weather is still rather dull. I read a beautiful book to my class on Thursday called Hello Mr World by Michael Foreman. It’s a powerful story to help children understand the effects of climate change which even includes a few tips of how the children can make a difference such as turning the lights off when they leave a room, turn the tap off when brushing their teeth etc. The children were really intrigued by the story and we ended up having an in-depth discussion about what would happen to the world if it keeps heating up. Where would the Polar Bears live? What would happen to the penguins if the ice melted? Would monkeys still have trees to swing in? Some of the children were concerned but left them feeling like they could make a change.

In Maths this week, we have moved onto division. We started the week by practising sharing out different amounts of cubes between 2 children. We shared the cubes out one at a time and then counted how many each child has to find the answer. Next, we practised sharing out the cubes between 3 children and then we even had a go at sharing between 4 children. We finished the week with learning how to solve problems by grouping. Next week we will be applying our knowledge of number bonds within 10 to solve problems. We will use resources to show part, part whole for numbers between 5 and 8. We will then create part, part whole models and find the missing parts to make the whole numbers. After that, we will use our knowledge of facts for 5,6,7 and 8, to solve problems and show our understanding.

In our English lessons this week, we learnt about the suffixes ‘er’ and ‘est’. We worked in pairs to compare different flowers, and when describing the flowers, we will add ‘er’ and ‘est’ to the adjectives. We also learnt about the difference between ‘er’ and ‘est’, and when to use each one appropriately. We practised orally composing and writing sentences using these suffixes. Towards the end of the week, we practised writing compound sentences using the connective ‘and’. In our English lessons next week, we will be continuing to use The Magical Garden of Claude Monet to act as a stimulus. In our first session, we will write a descriptive piece of writing about a picture from the book. We will use powerful adjectives to describe the picture and try to use the suffixes –er and –est to compare different things in the garden. After that, we will plan and write a letter to Claude Monet to tell him what we like about his magical garden. We will work hard to use ‘because’ to explain to him why we like it.

Just a few reminders:   

• Please make sure all your child’s belongings are labelled. Things do go missing and I’m convinced there is a black hole somewhere in the school that sucks them in and they never come back.   
• Please send your child’s water bottle and book bag into school every day.  
• Our Year 1 PE day is on a Monday.  
• Reading books in school are changed once a week and this will be every Monday. The books will be collected in in the morning and a new one will be issued that same afternoon.  
• Library books are changed on a Friday during our library time. The children are also welcome to change their books during lunchtimes when the library is open. 

Dates:  

Monday 6th May – Bank Holiday
Wednesday 8th May – Skipping Workshops
Friday 10th May – TAFF bring a Cake mufti
Saturday 11^th May – TAFF May Fair
WB 20^th May – Walk to School Week
Friday 24^th May – TAFF Scavenger Hunt
WB 27^th May – Half Term
Tuesday 11^th June – Sports Day
Thursday 13^th June – Swimming
Thursday 20^th June – Swimming
Thursday 27^th June – Swimming
Friday 28^th June – TAFF Disco

We like to think of ourselves as a friendly and approachable team and if there is anything you have concerns about, please let us know and we will do our best to help.  

Mrs Ford and the Year 1 team.