KS1 – Newsletter – 22.9.23

Key Stage one are very settled now and working hard. It’s lovely to see their happy faces while they’re learning.

History is our driver this half term and we have been looking at Cookridge in the past. We have looked at buildings that have been here for a long time and those that are newer, putting their dates on a time line. We talked about the fact there was a different Cookridge Primary School building but on the same site and there’s a newer Ralph Thoresby building which is on a slightly different site.

Our English lessons have linked into this topic of Cookridge. Year One have been writing sentences about our school and Cookridge as the place where we live. They are working hard on correctly forming their letters, starting and ending in the correct place. They have also been focusing on the /oy/ sound in phonics and have been selecting the correct spellings of /oi/ or /oy/ in words. In Year two the children have been practising the practising their handwriting too, whilst planning an information sheet about Cookridge. Their focus phonics sound this week has been /dge/ and /ge/. You will have received their new bookmark of spellings. Please help them by practising together at home.

We have all been practising our place value skills in Key Stage 1 this week. Year one have been practising counting to and across one hundred and recognising the pattern 1,2,3,4,5 continues through our number system. They have been counting on from different numbers and identifying missing numbers. In Year two, the children have continued to work on their work on Place value. They have been estimating and placing numbers on a numberline.

We did another experiment in Science this week. We wanted to know whether a raisin would float of sink in still water and sparkling water. We put raisins in each type of water and found that the bubbles in the sparkling water help to lift the raisins up to float before sinking again!

In Geography, we have been looking at maps of the world. The children were learning about the difference between land mass and water and what the seven continents are. We began to learn ‘The Continents’ song, so why not click the link and practise together! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzqdDdxr9VI

In RE, year one were thinking about what their favourite books are. They looked at the different types of books and what they’re used for eg. Recipe books, dictionaries etc.. they were then introduced to The Bible from the Christian faith and the Qu’ran from the Muslim faith. They learnt about why these books are important and how they should be used and cared for. In Year Two, the children began to learn about some of the key aspects of the Muslim faith. Eg their special book and place of worship. They learned that Muslims pray to Allah and they have a special prophet called Muhammad.

It rained again for our forest school day, but that didn’t dampen our spirits or stop us having a great time. Thank you to everyone who brought in a stick and for those of you who brought in extras. We played games such as ‘That’s not a stick’, we listened to the story of ‘Stanley’s stick’ and made our own stick people using lots of different materials.

Our PSHE, Year One have continued to look at the ways we are the same and the ways we are different. Having read the book ‘Giraffe’s can’t dance’ they worked with talking partners and wrote down things that they liked to eat, their favourite subjects at school, when their birthday is etc… We talked about whether these things were the same or different and the fact that we can still be friends either way. Year Two continued their focus on important people in their lives. They focused on who their family members are and why they are important to them. 

Next week is week 1:

PE: Friday – for all of Key Stage One

PPA day. Forest school – Tuesday for all of Key Stage One

Diary Dates:

25.9.23 – Parent event – 2.30 – 3.10