KS1 – Newsletter – 26.1.24

We our LOVING our topic of Africa in Key Stage One.

We have continued with our book ‘African Savannah’ in English. Year one have received more videos from Mr Koopman and this week have been researching and writing about giraffes and elephants. Their phonic focus was on /au/ and /aw/ saying /or/. They have also been learning about how to ask questions and wrote lots of questions to ask Mr Koopman over Zoom. Year two have been focusing on using conjunctions to improve their sentences and adding est to the end of words.

In Maths, Year One have begun to further their work on addition, working on numbers to 20 and some beyond. They have practised their numberbonds, added 2 digit and 1 digit numbers, used number lines and answered word problems. One year two have continued to work with money. This week, they have been investigating what coins they could use to make different amounts. The other group have been working on their subtraction problems. They have been using tens and one frames to exchange tens when subtracting.

The children had a problem to solve in Science today, linking in with design technology. They had to build a bridge for the animals to be able to cross the Savannah. They had to think about which material would be the most suitable for the job and why. They then tested out the bridges to see which were the strongest and remained standing.

In Music, Year one have been playing lots of singing games. They have been playing a game called ‘Button you must wander’ and singing songs on limited range notes. Year two have been learning about crescendos. The listened to ‘Bolero’ by Ravel and have been making their own crescendo pieces using percussion.

In Art, the children began to learn about a Nigerian artist called Nike Okundaya. They looked at her work on textiles and her use of patterns and tie dying in preparation for their own pattern making.

We have been looking at algorithms in computing again this week and thinking about how to write precise instructions. The children used a grid of the Savannah with animals on and wrote directions for the animals to get to the different foods. They had to give instructions such as 3 steps forwards, 2 steps left etc…

In RE, Year one have begun to read the story of Joseph and his technicolour dream coat. They heard about the dreams he had and what they meant. Year two continued to hear about parables that Jesus told and what he meant by them.

We all wore ourselves out in alternative PE on Friday afternoon. We move round the different activities each week. One group were noodle drumming, one group were playing balloon tennis and one group had a go at Boccia and curling.

Please see the notification about the African drumming workshop that we will be running for the children. We are looking forward to the event and would appreciate a voluntary contribution towards it.

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

Diary Dates:

Monday 4^th March – Parent’s evening

Tuesday 5^th March – Parent’s evening

Friday 22^nd March – African workshop (children only)

Monday 25^th March – 2.30pm Parent’s celebration