Termly News

Autumn Term 2024

The Autumn term has been a very busy term! Everyone settled fantastically into their new classes and enjoyed learning lots of new things. There were lots of special days and events during the term which we enjoyed including Harvest Festival, Mad Hair Day, Reading Matters Week (when we all read with a Year 4 class!), Friendship Week and, of course, all of the fun of Christmas including our Christmas performance, ‘A Big Little Nativity’!

We have had daily phonics sessions throughout the term and we have learnt many new diagraphs which we have begun to try and use in our writing. We have enjoyed reading every week and have practised the skills of decoding, prosody (reading with expression) and comprehension. We have also had fun visiting the library each week and have enjoyed spending time reading and choosing books to take home.

In Writing, our focus has been to write sentences containing a capital letter, full stop, finger space and to use our phonics to help us spell words. As the term progressed, we began to join 2 ideas using 'and'. Each week, we have used a story as a stimulus for writing. We started the year by reading the story 'The Gruffalo'. Did you know that a Gruffalo visited Westfields Infant School? We watched a clip of it running around the school grounds. Later in the term, we used the book, 'The Jolly Postman' as a hook and subsequently read the stories associated with all the characters he meets. Some of our writing opportunities have included writing a description of the wolf in ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, the giant in ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and the witch in ‘Hansel and Gretel’. Each week, we learn new vocabulary from the stories we read and then we try and use some of these words in our writing.

In Maths, we have become skilful at counting forwards and backwards to and from 50 as well as identifying 1 more and 1 less than any number within 50. We have started to learn to count in 2s and 10s. We have found different ways to partition numbers to 10 and learnt how to record our work in part, part whole models. We have practised sharing numbers equally into 2 groups and we have learnt about measuring comparing lengths and heights.

In Science, we have been learning to name and describe materials. We have learnt about the properties of different materials and we have begun to identify why materials are suited to different purposes.

In History, we have looked at toys through time and we made a timeline of toys from old to new. We talked about how toys have changed over time. Later in the term, we learnt about Remembrance and the significance of poppies as a symbol of remembrance.

In Geography, we began the term by learning what human and physical features meant, identifying some human and physical features in our school grounds. Then we learnt all about maps and created our own maps of the Jolly Postman's route. We looked at maps of our local area and then we followed a map to find the route to the nearest post box where we posted a letter to the Giant in the story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. On the way, we looked for human and physical features in our environment.

We have also been learning about the seasons and we went on an autumn walk around our school grounds. We kept a weather diary during November and we will compare the temperatures later in the year to temperatures recorded in winter and summer.

In RE, we learnt about how Christians celebrate Harvest and celebrated with our own Harvest Festival in school. We learnt about the Jewish festival of Sukkot and we built our own sukkahs. Later in the term we focused on the story of the Nativity, thinking carefully about the journeys of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the wise men.

In Art, we practised using lines and shapes to create different textures and shades which helped us to draw a self-portrait of our faces We also learnt about the artist Andy Goldsworthy and we created sculptures using natural objects inspired by the shapes and patterns in his work.

Later in the term, we learnt to name the primary colours and studied the work of the artist ‘Mondrian’ recreating our own Mondrian pictures selecting the correct colours. We then used paint to practise making secondary colours. We learnt about the work of the artist ‘Kandinsky’ and we used our knowledge of colour to create our own work in the style of Kandinsky.

In D&T, we explored pivots and moving parts, using a range of materials. Then, we had fun creating our own moving Christmas characters.

Music has been lots of fun! We practised finding and keeping a steady beat and we played simple rhythmic patterns using long and short sounds. We also learnt to improvise using 1, 2 or 3 notes on tuned percussion instruments. We learnt many new songs this term and thoroughly enjoyed performing to an audience in our Christmas Nativity play.

In Computing, we have used laptops to develop our keyboard and mouse skills. We then created our own digital paintings, using inspiration from the artists we studied in Art.

Summer Term 2024

What a busy Summer Term we have had in Year 1 including lots of special events like Earth Day, Maths Day, Sports Morning and even our Year 1 trip to Wellington Country Park.

We have continued to focus on writing accurate sentences joining two ideas with the conjunctions ‘and,’ ‘because,’ or ‘so’. We have learnt to write words in their contracted forms and add suffixes ‘er’ and ‘est’ to words when comparing things. When writing instructions, we have used time words to sequence our writing and used ‘bossy’ verbs to ensure our instructions were precise. We have read some fantastic stories including: Paddington, Dear Greenpeace and Tidy and have practised our writing skills through postcard and letter writing.

Our daily phonics sessions have continued and we have been working hard to try and use our phonics to help our spelling whenever we are writing. We have enjoyed reading every week and have practised the skills of decoding, prosody (reading with expression) and comprehension. We have continued to read a lot to get as many certificates as we can on the Dino Reading Challenge and many children have had Tyrannosaurus Rex Certificates which is fantastic!

In Maths we have continued to practise counting forwards and backwards within 100 from any number as well as identifying 1 more and 1 less and 10 more and 10 less than any 2-digit number. We have counted in multiples of 5 and solved related problems. We have used our number bonds to 10 to solve problems and work out number bonds to 20! We have learnt about multiplication and division using the language of equal groups and sharing as well as investigated quarters and found quarters of small amounts. We have learnt about 3D shapes and used vocabulary including faces and edges to describe the shapes. We have explored capacity and have also continued to practise to tell the time to the hour and half hour.

Maths Day was lots of fun! We enjoyed completing a Maths trail in the school grounds, some of the questions made us really think! Then we learnt all about symmetry and painted symmetrical butterflies. After that we made memory games to play with Year 3. It was a very busy day filled with marvellous Maths.

In Science we have learnt about plants. We grew our own beans and identified parts of the plant including leaves, flowers, petals, roots and stem. We also carried out an experiment using cress seeds to find out what plants need to survive. We have learnt about habitats and have thought about how plants and animals adapt to suit particular habitats. As part of this learning we have explored the school grounds and found of a variety of insects and creatures. We extended our learning on our school trip to Wellington Country Park where we found out about pond habitats . 

We went on a summer walk and noticed many signs of the change in season including flowers blooming, the sun shining and the trees full of leaves.

On Earth Day we spent lots of time outside including going on a litter pick to keep our school grounds neat and tidy.

In History we have learnt all about The Great Fire of London. We were very excited to enjoy workshops with a theatre company which brought our learning to life. We have compared London in 1666 with London today. Whilst learning about fire we also had a visit from the fire service to teach us how to stay safe.

In DT we have designed and made a healthy sandwich. We even got to eat our sandwiches after we had made them - they were yummy!

In Art, we have learnt about the designer Orla Kiely who is famous for her fabric and pattern designs inspired by the natural world. We used string to create printing blocks in leaf shapes. Our prints look amazing! We also worked on our drawing skills, thinking about representing the line, shapes and space in things we observe.

In RE our focus has been Belonging. We talked about different groups we belong to and then learnt about Christian Baptism. We have also been learning about the Jewish Shabbat and have discussed how the concept of belonging is important to both Christians and Jews.

During our weekly Computing lessons we have learnt to use ScratchJn and have been adding backgrounds and characters and making them move. We have also completed some simple programming.

Spring Term 2024

We have been very busy in Year 1 in the Spring Term including lots of special events; Safer Internet Day, World Religion Day, World Book Day and Science Week!

Our writing focus has been to write accurate sentences joining 2 ideas with the conjunction ‘and’ or ‘because’. We read the story, ‘The Tiger who came to Tea’, discussed reasons why we thought the tiger was polite and what the tiger did in the story that was rude and then used because in our sentences to justify our answers. We have also learnt to write questions and use a question mark at the end of a sentence. We have read lots of other fantastic stories which we have used as a basis for our writing including: Whatever Next, Aliens Love Underpants and The Big Jungle Mix-up. We have practised using time related words such as next, then and after that to re-tell the story ‘Man on the Moon – A Day in the Life of Bob’

Our daily phonics sessions have continued and we have been working hard to try and use our phonics to help our spelling when we are writing. We have enjoyed reading every week and have practised the skills of decoding, prosody (reading with expression) and comprehension. We have continued to read a lot to get as many certificates as we can on the Dino Reading Challenge and many children have had Tyrannosaurus Rex Certificates which is fantastic! We particularly enjoyed celebrating World Book Day in our comfy pyjamas and had fun sharing books with children in Year 5. Lots of children took part in the home/school project to decorate a potato as a book character!

In Maths we have practised counting forwards and backwards to and from 100 as well as identifying 1 more and 1 less than any 2-digit number. We have worked on number bonds to 10 and within 10 writing addition and subtraction number sentences to show the number bonds. We have counted in multiples of 10 and solved problems with 10’s. We have also learnt about money counting in 2p, 5p and 10p coins and solved simple problems involving money. We have learnt some of the properties of 2D shapes using the language sides, corners and vertices. We have practised telling the time to the ‘o’ clock and half past an hour and have compared weights using the language heavier than and lighter than.

In Science we have learnt so many new facts. Our focus on animals has included grouping animals as mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish or insects as well as learning the scientific vocabulary: carnivore, herbivore and omnivore. We have learnt about our senses and had fun experimenting with our senses to predict the flavour of different jelly, (the best use of our senses was taste of course!).

In Science Week, we loved working with Year 4 to create clay moths and then used natural materials to camouflage them. We also created posters showing the concept of time through the seasons. As part of our science and geography work we have learnt about the different seasons of the year. In January we went for a cold, winter walk in our school grounds and in March we went on a spring walk and noticed many signs of the change in season including blossom and buds on the trees.

In History we have learnt all about the first man to walk on the moon. We were very excited to enjoy class interactive Space Workshops with Mr Chaplin from Westfields Junior School which was certainly lots of fun and full of fascinating facts!

In DT we became engineers to design and make our own moon buggies with a moving axle! First, we had to think carefully about the design and after we finished making it we evaluated what we liked, what worked well and what we would change if we made it again. This was quite tricky but we persevered. For our home learning project we also made space rockets to bring into school.

In Geography we have identified the four countries that make up the UK on a map. We have learnt to name the capital city of each country and have learnt some interesting facts about each country.

In Art, we have explored different types of torn paper to make a collage. We had fun creating animal works of art; what do you think?

During our weekly Computing lessons we have learnt to program a Beebot and have practised collecting and sorting data using the program, J2E Data. We also learnt about practical ways to make sure that we stay safe when using the internet on Internet Safety Day. We discussed who we could talk to if something made us feel unsafe and we made posters to help us remember

In RE we enjoyed World Religion Day. We learnt about Islam and painted mendhi patterns on hand pictures and made a mosque with wooden bricks. Our theme has been welcoming. We looked at a palm cross and learnt about Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Then we made palm leaves and acted out the event.

Autumn Term 2023

What a busy Autumn Term we have had in Year 1.  We all settled in to our new classes quickly and have shared lots of fun learning new things.  There were lots of special days and events during the term which we enjoyed including Harvest Festival, Mad Hair Day, Reading Matters Week (when we all read with a Year 4 class!), Time to Shine and of course all of the fun of Christmas including our Christmas performance, A Big Little Nativity.

Our focus in Writing throughout the Autumn term was to write sentences containing a capital letter, full stop, finger space and use our phonics to help us spell words.  As the term progressed we began to join 2 ideas using 'and'.  Each week we used a story as a stimulus for writing.  We started the year by reading the story 'The Gruffalo'.  Did you know that a Gruffalo visited Westfields Infant School?  We watched a clip of it running around the school grounds.  Later in the term we used the book, 'The Jolly Postman' as a hook and subsequently read the stories associated with all the characters he meets.  We wrote sorry letters to Baby Bear, descriptions of the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, a new potion for the witch in Hansel and Gretel and even a diary entry pretending to be the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk.

Throughout the term we have had daily phonics sessions and have learnt many new diagraphs which we have begun to try and use them in our writing.  We have enjoyed reading every week and have practiced the skills of decoding, prosody (reading with expression) and comprehension.  The new library has been fun to visit where we have enjoyed spending time reading and choosing books to take home.

In Maths we have become proficient at counting forwards and backwards to and from 50 as well as identifying 1 more and 1 less than any number within 50.  We have started to learn to count in 2s and 10s.  We have found different ways to partition numbers to 10 and learnt how to record our work in part, part whole models.  We have practiced sharing numbers equally into 2 groups and have learnt about measuring comparing lengths and heights.

In History we have looked at toys through time and made a timeline of toys from old to new.  We talked about how toys have changed over time.  One particularly memorable session was when we brought in our own cuddly toys and created a Year 1 Toy Museum!

In Geography we have learnt all about maps and created our own maps of the Jolly postman's route.

Then we followed a map to find the route to the nearest post box where we posted a letter to Baby Bear.  On the way we looked for human and physical features in our environment.

We have also been learning about the Seasons and went on an Autumn walk around our school grounds.  We kept a weather diary during November and will compare the temperatures later in the year to temperatures in Winter and Summer.

In RE we learnt about the Jewish festival of Sukkot and we built our own sukkah's.