KS1 – Newsletter – 24.1.25

A huge well done to purple team who earned the most team points last term and went on the rewards trip to the Big Swing on Thursday. Everyone had a great time and looked quite exhausted when they came back!

*Special request. If you have any old black/ grey/ brown socks (Clean but condition doesn’t matter) please send them into school. We would really appreciate it.

Having learnt a lot about Samuel Pepys, we all began to write a version of his diary this week. We planned it, thinking about what he saw, did and how he felt. We put in as many details as we could, ensuring accuracy but also description. We then published our work for our special folders. In Phonics, Year One have been learning how -y at the end of words can make an /ee/ sound eg sunny. Year Two have been Adding -est and -y to words ending in e for example shine – shiniest and shiny.

Year One have continued to learn about subtraction. Having done lots of practical taking away, they have been looking at how they can subtract when they can’t physically move objects. One group in Year Two have been finding the answers to missing number problems independently. They have been talking through the problem and what strategies they could use to solve it. The other group have been doing subtraction part whole models, subtraction word problems and a mixture of addition and subtraction questions to ensure they can identify the difference.

Obviously our topic driver for this half term is The Great Fire of London, and we are learning all kinds of facts about it during English etc.. We have also been looking at it in our history lessons. We have been thinking about what London looked like in 1666 and how that compares with London now and why.

As Chinese New Year approaches, the children have been looking at images from their celebrations in Art. They then made their own red envelopes and copied some Chinese calligraphy saying things like ‘friendship’ onto the front. They then designed a coin on foil to go inside.

In Music they were also thinking about the Chinese New Year – or Lunar New Year. The children then learned a new song written by our very Mrs Durrant. They added percussion to it and created their own dances. She then filmed each of the musical performances to be able to use in our Chinese celebrations.

In Design Technology, the children were thinking again about the design of their fire engines. They looked at ‘steps to success’ and what they needed to do to make their fire engines well. In food technology the children were practising their cutting skills. They made a fruit salad and tried some different kinds of fruits like pomegranate.

In RE, Year One learnt a new story that appears in both the Christian and Muslim faith. This time it was about a man called Noah/ Nur, who was told to build an ark and take some of each animal aboard. We had the ark out and the children enjoyed retelling the story and finding pairs of animals. Year Two continued to learn about how Jesus taught in Parables. This week, they heard the Parable of the wise and foolish man and The Parable of the talents. We talked about what Jesus meant by the stories and what people could learn.

We did some bird watching in Forest schools, staying really still and listening out for the noise they make. We also created some bird feeder using lard and seed, that we needed to squeeze together and attach to a string, before hanging in the trees around the forest school area. There were other activities finishing the other half of a bird picture and creating paint using charcoal and water. Using our special ‘paint’ we created more bird pictures.

It was all about how to keep clean in PSHE for Year One this week. They were thinking about how to clean each part of their body, including their teeth and why this is an important thing to do for our health. Year Two were thinking about where money comes from. They learnt about how when you have a job you get paid, but different jobs earn different amounts of money. They thought about which jobs they would enjoy doing to earn their money.

It has been the week for alternative PE. Again the children got to have a go at Fencing, Go Noodle, Noodle drumming and Class 3 had a go at classroom foosball.

Diary Dates:

4^th April : 2.30 – 3.00 – The Great Fire of London celebration event