Blue Class

Mrs Baugh and Mrs Stafford

Term 6

The Victorians

'Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!'

This term the whole school is learning about the Victorians; In Year 1, we will be trying to unpick how children back in Victorian times had fun.

We started off the term with a wonderful whole-school dress up day. The children participated in traditional Victorian lessons (arithmetic, needlework, handwriting and drill). It as great fun not only for the children but the teachers had a blast!

Term 5

All Things Great and Small

We will be thinking about the question ‘What Makes Us Different?’’

The children have come up with some things that they would like to investigate and learn more about during this term, so we will be beginning to explore all of those areas very soon. 

Geography

We have been learning all about compass points. 

We learnt some rhymes to help us remember the points. 

N -   Naughty 

E - Elephants 

S -  Squirt

W - Water

__________________________________

N -   Never 

E - Eat 

S -  Slimy

W - Worms

We went outside and directed a partner around the playground. 

Have a look at some of our photos.

Maths

In Maths,  we will be kicking of the  term by looking at measurement and capacity. In the first week back we had an animal attacked where the children had to measure different footprints; it was great fun. The children now know how to use a ruler using centimeters. Next week we will be looking at capacity and how we can measure liquid. Later on in the term we will looking at repeated addition and division (grouping and sharing). 

W/b 23rd April - Measuring Maths

What fun we've had this week in Blue Class! At the start of the week, we looked at mass/weight and used scales to measure how heave or light objects around the classroom were. We found that glue sticks were not the same weight, it depended on how much glue was inside. On Tuesday Mrs Baugh took us all outside to measure capacity. We thought we were going to have a big water fight (we weren't) but it was just as fun. We used different containers and tried to fill them to: full, half full and empty. We got a little bit wet!

On Wednesday we stepped into the wizarding world of potion making. We are trying to make two potions; 1 will turn Mrs Lambirth into a tiger and the other will turn her into a rabbit. We are yet to see if it works!

English

In English this term we will be reading the books, 'Augustus and his Smile' by Catherine Rayner', 'The Bear and the Piano' by David Litchfield and 'The Important Book' by Margaret Wise Brown. We will be writing adjectives to describe, using the joining word 'and' to extend our sentences and writing short narratives. We are also having an increased focus on handwriting as we begin to join some of our letters.

Tuesday 24th April - Our Smile Hunt

Today we have been on a hunt for our smile just like Augustus.

We walked towards Tankerton looking for something that would make us smile.

We visited the castle and played in the Pirate Castle play park.

This made us all smile and we thought about how doing things that we enjoy. Lots of enjoyed running, jumping, sliding and hopping, but the thing we all enjoyed was playing with our friends. This made us all smile. 

Term 4

'Transport'

This term our topic is 'Transport'.We will be thinking about the question 'How do we get there?'.  At the beginning of term, the children shared some ideas that they would like to investigate and learn more about over the course of this term; we will start to investigate these in the next few weeks.

English 

We kicked of the term with a special visit from the author Sally Grindley (she has written over 150 books). We had the pleasure of listening to Sally  read one of her books called 'Shhh'. It is about giant who lives in a huge stone castle. The book takes you on a journey through the castle, where you have to creep past all the different characters on the way; just make sure you don't wake the giant up!

We also got to ask Sally questions about writing books of our own. We were all inspired to keep our writing neat and to make sure we always read it through. 

Maths

We have been learning some very tricky skills in maths. 

We have been learning about something called PLACE VALUE. We found out that place value tells us the value of each number. We have also learned how to partition a number in 10's and 1's.

We know how many 10's are in a number and how many 1's. This is very tricky skill and we have used lots of things to help us learn about it: 

10 frames

counters

Sticks

straws

Lolly pop sticks

Part , part whole models

And we are going to learn how to use something called 'Dienes' 

Term 3

Structures

How did the build that?

This term our topic is ‘Structures’ and we are thinking about the question ‘How did they built that?’. The children have worked together to decide upon some things they would like to find out more about and in addition to these, we will be discussing different types of structure and visiting Canterbury Cathedral to learn about how this structure was made.

ENGLISH

This term we are thinking about books that involve different types of structures. We are starting with 'Tiny' by Paul Rogers and Korky Paul. We are going to make our own versions of the story and create mini books. We are thinking carefully about our presentation, particularly our handwriting this term too!

We will also look at some other high quality texts: 'Tin Forest' by Helen Ward and 'A River' by Marc Martin. We will be thinking about writing letters and describing the settings from these stories.

Maths

This term we are learning different skills to help us add and subtract including count on and back. We are using our 'Maths of the Day' mascot Motty to motivate us to be great maths learners and are looking forward to completing some more fun and challenging problems.

Reading

This term, Year 1 would like to regain the Buster’s reading trophy as last term it was mainly shared between Year R and Year 2. We started the year so well and would like to get back to that. Remember, reading every day is really important, particularly on a Wednesday night and don’t forget to record how many minutes your child has read for on the bookmark! Let’s work together to get the reading trophy back into Year 1!

We will also continue to use the school library this term. Remember, the designated library day for Purple Class is Tuesday and for Blue class it is Thursday. Please can you ensure that your children brings their library book in on the relevant day to change. Thank you.

Outdoor Learning

This term we are going to be learning outdoors at least once a week. Our outdoor learning session will take place on a Monday Afternoon (although we do take our learning outside at other times). During this time, all children will go outside and their learning will be based around the outdoor environment. This term we wil be thinking about structures and will have a go at building shelters and dens using different materials. We are also going to explore the school environment and think of ways to enhance it, with a particular focus on looking after the mini-beasts. The children already have some great ideas about creating ‘bug hotels’ and ‘mini-beast shelters’. During this time, Blue and Purple class will be working closely together giving the children the opportunity to learn with different children.

Watch this space for some pictures of us learning outdoors!

Term 2

Heroes and Villains

This Term we are looking at heroes and villains. We are asking ourselves What makes a hero or villain? The children have discussed this question and have come up with lots of ideas and further questions they would like to explore throughout the term. We will be kicking off the term by looking at Guy Fawkes and working out whether he was a hero or a villain. 

Thank you for your fantastic home challenge work there are some great examples that you can have a look at in the classroom. 

Pizza Express Trip

We had a fantastic day today at Pizza Express, learning about how to make a pizza by having a go at shaping the dough, adding tomato sauce (or Pasata!) and adding Mozarella cheese. 

We then watched as the Pizza's were placed in the oven to cook! 

The best bit (well for Miss Boxer and Mrs Stafford anyway!) was when we were back in school and got to eat what we had made - it was yummy!  

Take a look at the photographs of us having a great time...

Term 1

Food, Glorious, Food!

Is this healthy or not?

Favourite Food

A huge thank you to all the children and their grownups who sent in their photos of their favourite food. They are currently on display outside our classroom (above the pegs). The next time you're in school,come and have a look at the wide variety of foods. If you've not yet sent in your photo/picture, there is still a little bit more time left. 

English

We have started our exciting Year 1 writing journey looking at the classic picture book 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle. We have used this text to help us to remember the days of the week and begin to learn to spell these. we have enjoyed memorising the different foods that the caterpillar ate each day.

We have also been learning about the countries of the UK and their capital cities. To coincide with our topic, we have also tasted some traditional foods from each country.

We had great fun tasting and came up with some fantastic adjectives to describe what we could taste, smell, feel and see.

Maths 

The children have  had a great start back, and have been really busy in maths. In Week 1 we read Eric Carl's  'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' in which the children had to order correctly the days of the week; The children also did some counting and addition. This week we have been focusing on number bonds to 10 (perhaps you could try this at home). We have been using 'Maths of the Day' activities, counters and 10 frames to do lots of practical activities. 

Science

In Science this term we are learning about 'animals including humans' and will be looking at different animal groups (mammals, reptiles etc), parts of the human body and how to stay fit and healthy.

Watch this space for more information and photos...

PE

This term our PE is Netball and Tennis. Our PE days this term are Monday and Friday - please make sure you have your PE kit in school on these days.

We are very excited that our Tennis lessons are being taught by a qualified tennis coach from Appeti Tennis - we look forward to learning some great new skills.

In Netball we are learning all of the skills required to play a successful game including travelling, passing and shooting, as well as teamwork.