KS1 – Newsletter – 12.1.24

Happy New Year Everyone! We hope that you have all had a lovely break and a well earned rest.

We have begun our new topic in Key Stage One this week, where we will be learning all about Africa. We have begun by finding out what the children think they already know and introducing our fabulous new role play and central displays for the children to engage with.

In English we have started to read the book ‘African Savannah’. It is written in the style of a diary, with lots of facts and pictures included. Year One have enjoyed some video diary updates from Mr Koopman who is from Namibia. They have been reading all about lions and writing facts about them. The phonic focus this week has been on words spelt with /ew/ making the sound /yoo/. Year two have been focusing on how to write in the past and present tense. They have also been reading different materials and identifying whether it is written in the past or present tense. Their phonic focus is /eer/ as in cheer.

Year One have begun their work on addition. They have done this practically up to ten and have demonstrated this using part, part, whole models, ten frames and basic number sentences. They have also begun to read and answer simple word problems. In Year two, one group is focusing on subtraction from two-digit numbers. The other group have been concentrating on missing number problems and how to use the inverse to identify the missing number.

In RE, Year One have begun to look at faith stories. This week, they began by reading the story of Noah/ Nur and his ark, found in both the Christian and Muslim faith. They learnt about how Noah and his family, along with two of every kind of animals, were saved from the floods upon the huge boat. Year Two have begun looking at the life of Jesus. They learned about how and why he was baptised and about the special friends he chose to follow him called his disciples.

We have all been learning about algorithms in computing. We have been learning about the need for the instructions to be very precise, otherwise they may not achieve the desired outcomes. This was demonstrated in fun ways when the teachers became robots. The children had to give them instructions which the teachers followed EXACTLY with some interesting outcomes. Year one were giving instructions of how to brush your teeth and year two were giving instructions for how to make a jam sandwich. They then ordered pictures to show exactly what order things needed to happen in.

The groups have swapped around for design technology and food technology for this half term. Therefore, the food technology group have been doing their first lesson about healthy eating looking at the healthy eating guide and have been learning the basics for food preparations etc.. The design technology group have been researching what African masks look like and then began designing their own.

In music, Year One have been looking at pitch. They have been using a bumble bee to fly up and down a flower according to the pitch. Year Two have been doing lego rhythms. They have laid out different lego blocks to represent shorter and longer sounds.

The sketch books have been out in art again this week. The children drew the numbers 2024 and have used a variety of patterns and sketches to fill in their numbers.

IN PSHE, Year One have been thinking about what decisions they can make for themselves and what decisions adults might make for them. They then focused on situations where they maybe felt sad, scared or uncomfortable and what they could do about it. Year two were thinking about what it feels like when they loose something that it special to them and what they could do to make themselves or someone else feel better.

Next week is week 2:

PE:

Monday – Class 1 and 2

Thursday – Class 1 and 3

Friday – Class 2 and 3

Forest school – Tuesday for all of Key Stage One