Year 1
Welcome to Year One!
I can hardly believe the summer term is upon us! Where did that year go?! Our topic this term is All Things Bright and Beautiful. Why not have a look over the curriculum poster to find out more about our topic?
Friday 15th July
We have finished making our bird feeders! Here are some photos of the creative process and some of our feeders in action. Look out for them hanging in the trees around school!
Friday 8th July
We have been experimenting with different methods of joining materials together. This is part of our design and technology project where we have been designing bird feeders!
Awesome Archery!
Friday 1st July
This has been such an exciting week! We had a fantastic day at the zoo on Monday and a fascinating visit from a real bee keeper on Tuesday! Have a look at the photos below.
Learning all about bees!
We thoroughly enjoyed a visit from Keith and Sue who told us all about honey bees and even gave us a taste of the honey their bees have made. We learnt so many interesting facts, here are some of our favourites:
- there are 3 types of honey bee; drone, worker and queen.
- bees do not like the rain (just like us)!
- they make honey and wax.
- the queen bee is the boss. She is long slender and graceful.
- honey bees are different from bumble bees.
- bees will only sting if there are very scared.
- when bees are happy, or if they have found a new place to live, they do something called the waggle dance! This is a figure of 8 dance which they do on the floor, not in the air.
- we have to look after the bees by planting flowers that they like (such as lavender) and making sure we don't harm them if we see one.
Did you know all of those facts? Do you know any other facts about bees? We would love to hear them!
Our trip to the zoo (27/6/16)
Friday 17th June
Sofia M is our Star of the Week this week! She wrote a simply stunning retelling of the story of Moses setting his people free. Well done Sofia!
This week we have been learning lots about mini beasts. We even went on a mini beast hunt around our school! We found so many mini beasts, why not have a mini beast hunt of your own in your garden or a local park?
We're going on a mini beast hunt!
We have been reading the story Aaaarrgghh Spider. We loved looking at this trantula skin today 👍
Friday 10th June
Due to our postponed sports day, we wrote letters to the queen to wish her happy birthday! We're going to post them to her and we hope to receive a reply soon. Watch this space!
Friday 27th May
Well done to Sophia C, Jonas and Romy who all received certificates in our whole school celebration assembly today! Our class wow was from Cece who shared her remarkable reading with the whole school! Well done everyone 😀
Friday 20th May
Congratulations to Olivia for winning the Year 1 Courtesy Cup this week. She is always quietly polite, kind and helpful so is a very deserved winner! Star of the Week will be announced first thing on Monday morning...watch this space!
As I was away on residential with the year 3 and 4 children from Monday until Wednesday, Year one have had a bit of a different week. I was shocked to find on my arrival back at school on Thursday morning that the classroom seems to have been taken over by the most beautiful ladybirds, bees, ants, spiders, hedgehogs and snails! It certainly has become a haven for mini beasts!
We had a visitor today! Nikki from the Open Wide Step Inside programme came to talk to us about brushing our teeth and healthy eating. You may remember we went up to Plymouth university to watch a film about teeth brushing a few months ago. Nike was dazzled by our teeth brushing knowledge and by our super smart and kind behaviour! She was so impressed that she awarded us this lovely framed certificate, we felt very proud to receive it!
Friday 13th May
Well done to Joann who is our Star of the Week. She has been working incredibly hard with her reading and is becoming a lot more confident! Bea is the winner of the Courtesy Cup this week, she has been setting a fantastic example by using impeccable manners at all times.
This is week we have continued our studies into the human body and how to keep ours fit and healthy. So far we have learnt about the importance of exercise, keeping clean, eating healthily and being happy! We have set up an investigation to find out how clean our hands really our, stay tuned for results (hopefully next week). Today (Friday) we thought particularly carefully about healthy eating and enjoyed learning a song all about the 5 food groups. Here is our 'song map' to help us remember the food groups and what their main jobs are. Can you follow it? We look forward to performing this song to you all at our class assembly next term.
Friday 6th May
What a funny old week it has been! With the bank holiday and polling day we've been part timers this week! We have still managed to get lots of learning done though. From mastering our computing skills to carrying out science experiments, it has been a jam packed few days! I particularly enjoyed reading the children's 'Enchanted Key' stories. I've put a few examples below for you to read.
Friday 29th April
Kayla is our Star of the week this week. She has worked incredibly hard during our literacy lessons and has written an excellent set of instructions of how to wash your hands. This is exceptionally helpful as we have been learning all about the importance of hand hygiene for healthy bodies! Romy is the winner of the courtesy cup for not only being polite, but also for being a kind and encouraging friend.
We have been thinking hard about what it means to be a good friend and why it's important. Here is the display we designed and created together. Although it's impossible to read each flower from this photo, next time you're at school why not pop in and read our ideas?
Friday 22nd April
Well done to Solomon who is our class Star of the Week! He has been working hard in all areas of learning but has particularly been trying hard to improve his writing. Congratulations to Cece who received the courtesy cup this week, she is kind and courteous at all times.
In RE we have been learning about Abraham and Jacob. We learnt that God told Abraham that he would have as many descendants as there are stars in the sky. Here are our own individual stars to represent that in our classroom.
Friday 15th April
Well done to Bea who is our class Star of the Week! Congratulations to Ianis for winning the Year One courtesy cup this week, he has been demonstrating exceptional manners!
We had fun in PE this week setting up balance and agility themed obstacle courses for each other! The children enjoyed giving their friends clear instructions to help them navigate the courses. They have been working hard to use their core strength to help them balance, we certainly have some future athletes here!
Friday 24th March
Congratulations to Zeyad, Cece and Rhonan who all were awarded certificates in celebration assembly. They have all been working their socks off and have made huge improvements to their writing. Even the illusive finger spaces have been making regular appearances! We are very proud of their achievements and of their determination to succeed. We also heard from Bea in celebration assembly who shared with us some of her recent hockey achievements, well done Bea!
This week we were very excited about the St Andrew's Easter service, held at St Andrew's church on Monday. As a class we created pieces of art to represent the changing moods of Easter, from the sadness when Jesus dies, to the joy of His resurrection. Can you tell which piece is which? If you'd like to have a closer look they are currently on display in the foyer.
Friday 18th March
If you're coming down to St Andrews today you'd better watch out...there have been mad scientists about!
Friday 11th March
We designed and made our own sailing boats.
Then we tested them to see which design was the best for sailing across the ocean. We made sure it was a fair test by only changing one thing at a time.
Friday 4th March
We had a great day today celebrating world book day and getting excited about many different stories. What is your favourite story? We listened to each other read and explored lots of different books. As a class we particularly enjoyed We're going on a Bear Hunt!
Have a look at our fabulous costumes!
We celebrated World Book Day!
We enjoyed sharing books with our friends.
Friday 26th February
Welcome back to school! I hope you all had a lovely half term!
We have had another busy week full of learning and play. We hope you enjoyed our assembly on Wednesday, we certainly had fun performing it!
Well done to Jonas, who is our Star of the Week! And congratulations to Besa for being awarded the class courtesy cup!
Thursday 11th February
What an exciting week we have had! On Wednesday we held a Christopher Columbus Day with Year 2! In the morning we made seaweed monsters, telescopes, ships biscuits and maps to plot our route across the Atlantic Ocean.
All jobs were completed under the watchful eye of Captain Ayaan!
Thanks to Sofia F's parents for creating this Columbus Day themed masterpiece. Believe it or not that's a cake!
We had yet more excitement in store on Thursday when we visited the University of Plymouth to take part in the Open Wide Step Inside programme. We enjoyed watching a film and learning all about keeping our teeth clean. Why not ask us to tell you some top tips about keeping teeth healthy? We're quite the experts now!
Congratulations to Ayaan, Kayla and Rio for receiving special certificates today. In lieu of the normal celebration assembly (which we couldn't attend because of the trip) we held an in class ceremony at the end of the day.
Friday 5th February
During our RE lessons this term we have been learning all about celebrations. In particular we have learnt about birthday celebrations and Christian wedding ceremonies. Today was Twinkles 6th birthday so we decided to hold a party for her. We wrote a card, sang Happy Birthday and thought about all of the things that are super special about Twinkle. After that we played musical statues, pass the parcel and finished up with some yummy popcorn. What a fun celebration it was!
Happy Birthday Twinkle!
Friday 29th January
In PE this week we have been creating pirate sequences! Have a look at some of the moves we have included.
We are looking forward to sharing our pirate dances with you!
Congratulations to Rhonan who received the Courtesy Cup as well our Star of the Week award this week! He has certainly had an awesome week!
Friday 22nd January
Well done to Evelyn who is our star of the week! She has been demonstrating our Christian value by being a kind, loving, respectful and trustworthy friend at all times. What a wonderful achievement!
Congratulations to Ghalyah for receiving the courtesy cup this week, she has been trying so hard to use good manners each day.
On Thursday we began our dance lessons! We are learning about interpretive dance, we enjoyed watching some examples before becoming choreographers ourselves.
First we had to practice our movements. We worked with a partner to choreograph a flight themed routine.
After we we had perfected our pieces we performed to each other. We hope to share some of our dances in our upcoming class assembly!
Check out the awesome puzzle these boys put together during choosing time. They are very proud of themselves for working together
to complete it with no adult help!
Friday 15th January
During literacy this week we have been learning the story Whatever Next by Jill Murphy. This story sees baby bear go on an adventure to the moon! We have been using actions and story maps to learn the story, keep your eyes peeled for our own adaptations in a couple of weeks!
Can you use the story map to tell the story so far?
We are becoming confident with describing the properties of common 3D shapes, why not see how many 3D shapes you can spot in your house?
Congratulations to our Star of the Week Evie! Evie, who despite only arriving at St Andrew's earlier this week, has worked her socks off to learn the story Whatever Next and was able to perform it to the class with some of her new friends! Great job Evie!
Friday 8th January
Welcome back to school! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a restful break.
This week we have started our new topic 'To The Edge of the World'! This is a topic all about voyage, adventure and discovery! Over the next couple of weeks we will be learning all about the history of flight, from the first hot air balloon to the modern day aeroplane. It promises to be an exciting start to the term!
Well done to Ianis for earning the first Star of the Week award of 2016! Ianis has been demonstrating exceptional kindness towards his classmates and has been a top Friendship Detective. Friendship Detectives are children who spot others being kind and then tell a grown up about what they have seen!
Friday 11th December
Congratulations to William for being star of the week, he has been blowing my socks off in literacy! William can now talk about what nouns, verbs and adjectives are and even use some in his writing!
This week the courtesy cup has gone to Jonas, his impeccable manners have not gone unnoticed by adults all around the school
Friday 4th December
This week we have been enjoying applying our phonics skills to lots of different games...we are Sound Explorers!
We were really fortunate this week as Simon James came back to hear all of our stories! The children loved reading their stories to him and it was so fantastic to give them the opportunity to write for a different audience!
Congratulations to George for being Star of the Week, he has been being exceptionally kind to others and making sure everyone has a friend to play with!
Kayla is the winner of the courtesy cup this week; she is always incredibly polite!
Friday 27th November
What an exciting week we have had! We had a visit from Simon James this week, who talked to us about being an author. We loved hearing his stories and we were fascinated to watch him complete a beautiful painting before our very eyes!
We loved hearing about the Worm International Rescue and created our own worm rescue tunnel.
Our worms have been enjoying the peace and quiet in the worm rescue tunnel!
Congratulations to Sophia C who is our star of the week! She wrote a stunningly creative adaptation of Pinocchio which we all very much enjoyed!
Well done to Ayaan who is the winner of the courtesy cup this week. His immaculate manners have not gone unnoticed by children and adults around the school!
Friday 20th November
This term we have been doing a great job of developing our agility, balance and coordination in PE. This week we have put our balancing skills to the test on some gymnastics equipment.
Well done to Lola for being Star of the Week! Lola is always so kind to everyone, she often checks to make sure everyone is ok!
Friday 13th November
This week we have been learning all about remembrance. We have been experimenting with watercolours to paint some pictures of poppies. We think they are beautiful, what do you think?
Well done to Ayaan and Olly for being Stars of the Week. It was far too hard for me to choose just one star!
Congratulations to Phoebe for receiving the courtesy cup!
Friday 6th November
Welcome back! I hope you all had a restful half term and managed to get out and enjoy some of the unexpected October sunshine!
This week we have been learning about bonfire night including the story of Guy Fawkes. We have been working in teams to sequence story cards, and telling the story to adults and each other.
Congratulations to Ghalyah on being our Star of the Week! She has been working hard to become more confident with reading and writing, what a star!
Well done to Evelyn who is the winner of our courtesy cup this week. She has been demonstrating excellent manners at all times!
Friday 23rd October
We have continued to learn Jack and the Beanstalk and have started to change parts of the story to make it our own. Have a look at some of the fabulous story maps we have been making!
Congratulations to Solomon, Bea and Evelyn who received certificates in our celebration assembly today!
A huge well done to Cece for winning our class courtesy cup this week!
Friday 16th October
This week we have been learning more about the Story of Jack and the Beanstalk as part of our study of traditional tales in literacy. We have had some very impressive giants...keep your eyes peeled during our assembly on Wednesday 25th November!
We have been enjoying making the most of the dry weather and taking some of our learning outside!
We have been having such a lot of fun acting out the story of Jack and the Beanstalk! This is the only photo I managed to take this week, I do think it captures the spirit of our class perfectly!
We were fortunate enough to have a visit from the author Abie Longstaff this afternoon! We really enjoyed listening to her stories and spotting some of our favourite characters!Some children in year 1 are really keen on being authors when they grow up so it was great to meet her and hear about how she became an author.
A huge well done to Cece doe being Star of the Week for being incredibly kind and helpful to all of her friends all of the time! She is a shining beacon of friendship, one of our Christian values! Congratulations Cece!
This week the Year 1 Courtesy Cup has gone to Adam for always using exceptionally good manners and being incredibly polite to everyone. Well done Adam!
Friday 9th October
It's the end of another fun packed week in year 1! We particularly enjoyed our Internet and Technology Safety day on Wednesday, what do you think of our costumes?
Well done to Olivia who is our Star of the Week! She has been trying hard to use our new sounds in her writing!
Congratulations to Sofia Martin for winning the Year 1 Courtesy Cup this week!
Friday 2nd October
What a week we have had! We have been learning to count to and back from 100 in maths, writing captions in literacy and finding out all about schools of the past in topic! The highlight of the week has got to be our first class trip to the aquarium on Wednesday. It was such a fantastic day enjoyed by all (children an adults) and, as ever, the children represented St Andrews impeccably.
Congratulations to Zeyad who is star of the week for excellent work during phonics!
Well done to Lola who is the first person to receive our brand new class courtesy cup! This will be awarded each week to someone who has demonstrated outstanding manners all week. Congratulations Lola!
Friday 25th September
During literacy this week we have been learning about labels. First of all we labelled our body parts and then we labelled things around the classroom!
Next week we'll be writing captions!
Congratulations to Sol who is our Star of the Week for always being exceptionally honest. Well done Sol!
Topic
Our topic this term is ‘School's Magic' and it is a focal point for our learning across the curriculum. Throughout the term we will be exploring schools in the past and how St Andrew’s has changed over time, our school building and the properties of everyday materials, as well as studying schools and life in a non-European country.
PE
Throughout this year in PE we will be focusing on developing agility, balance and coordination. This term we will be honing our skills and becoming more confident! We have our fingers crossed for some more sunshine so we can head outside to enjoy applying our skills to lots of exciting games and activities.