Year 1 - Purple Class
Miss Wright, Mrs McGrath & Mrs Wright
would like to welcome you to
PURPLE CLASS
Teacher email: cwright@westmeads.kent.sch.uk
Term 6
The Olympics
'Where in the World?'
Year 1 Curriculum Newsletter - Term 6
Computing
The children had a go at making their own books using an app on the iPads called "Book Creator". They were told to be as creative as they liked and they were given a choice about what they wanted to make their book about. They were excellent at taking and uploading photographs, typing to add text and they even learnt how to resize and move the pictures and text around the page! Well done Purple Class.
Term 5
'Food Glorious Food'
What's on the Menu?
Year 1 Curriculum Newsletter
English
We are reading the text 'Pattan's Pumpkin' by Chitra Soundar in our English lessons. So far we have compared the setting of the story, Kerala in India, to our local area, and we have also written descriptive sentences about the storm that takes place. We are working hard to extend our sentences using conjunctions such as 'and', 'but' and 'because'.
Maths
We began Term 5 by revisiting addition and subtraction. The children are now confident using the related language and have shown that they can add and subtract using a range of strategies, including tens frames, part-part-whole models and the number line! We are now moving on to multiplication and division for the first time. The children will be introduced to grouping, arrays and sharing.
Science
We started our 'Plants' unit by learning about the names of the different parts of a plant. The children enjoyed creating their own plant using craft materials and labelling it with the correct terms. The class also had fun planting lettuce and courgette seeds in our outside area as part of our whole-school growing project. We are excited to see what happens next!
R.E.
This term we are learning about Judaism. We began the unit by thinking about objects that are special to us, before looking at some objects that are special to Jewish people. The children wrote questions that they would like to ask to find out more about them. We are hoping to answer these questions next lesson!
Term 4
'All Creatures Great and Small'
This term we will be thinking about the question:
'What makes us different?'
English
In English we will be reading the book 'Moth' by Isabel Thomas. The children will enjoy the stunning illustrations in this book, while learning about the life and evolution of the Peppered Moth.
Maths
In maths the children have been exploring numbers 1-50 and the concept of tens and ones. They have enjoyed building numbers up to 50 practically both at home and in school...
Term 3
I Wonder...
This term we will be thinking about the question;
'Where will your imagination take you?'
Have a look at some of the amazing puppet theatres and character puppets we have been making at home and in school...
Maths
In maths, we have been getting creative with Number Gator both at home and in school. Have a look at some of the ways we fed him below...
Useful links
You may find the links below helpful this term;
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Term 2
Dragons and Castles
This term we are using the text "The Adventures of Egg Box Dragon" by Richard Adams to inspire our learning about Dragons and Castles (we will slowly reveal the book so we kindly ask that you do not share the story with your children at home).
Design Technology
As our stunning start we designed, created and evaluated our very own egg box dragons! The children thought carefully about the materials and tools they would need to make and decorate their dragon, and also considered how best to attach and join parts together so that their model stayed strong. See below for photos of our amazing creations and how they came together!
English
The children wrote some fantastic instruction booklets on how to create your own Egg Box Dragon. Have a look at some below!
History
In History the children have been finding out about why castles were first built in the UK and who built them. They have been working on sorting statements and have enjoyed learning about the different type of Norman-built castles and have discused their strengths and weaknesses.
Computing
In computing this term we have been using the Beebots to create and follow algorithms. The children had a go at coding the Beebots and debugged the algorithms when Beebot made a wrong turn!
Term 1
Here We Are
This term we are using the text 'Here We Are' by Oliver Jeffers.
This is part of our 'Recovery Curriculum' and is aimed at building a sense of community across the entire school, reflecting on the last few months, and helping us look forward to the future in a positive way.
English
To introduce our text for the term 'Here We Are' we looked at images of planet Earth on Google Earth, zooming into England, Whitstable and finally our school! We discussed our favourite things to do on Earth and thought of some recommendations that we could give to an alien that had never been here before! We had a go at writing these and Miss Wright also recorded us saying them to create our own class video. Please watch it below!
We have been working hard on our writing. We have written sentences about ourselves and the things that we like using the conjunction 'and', and we have also created our own fact files about endangered animals.
Maths
We began by sorting objects in different ways, e.g. size, shape, colour. The children enjoyed spending time in our outdoor classroom finding and sorting different natural objects. We have been practising our counting both forwards and backwards and have been revising concepts such as counting a group of objects accurately and finding one more/less. The children have also learnt the symbols less than, greater than and equals to (< > =) to help them compare numbers. Ask them which number the number-gator likes to eat!
Science
We are focusing on the human body in our Science lessons this term. In our first session we named and discussed the different parts of the body. In our groups we drew around one child on a big roll of paper and had a go at labelling as many different parts as we can! The children were very knowledgeable and even knew some of the internal body parts and their functions, such as the heart and lungs.
Mr Potato Head helped us to learn about the five senses! We created our own Mr and Mrs Potato Heads by cutting out and sticking down the correct body parts and matching sense labels.
Music
We have really enjoyed our Music lessons with Mrs Diamond in the outdoor classroom. The children have been responding to music using movement and have also been learning to copy different beats.
Art
This term we are working on our painting skills in Art. In our first lesson we learnt about primary colours and how these can be mixed together to make secondary colours. We had great fun creating our own colour wheels to show this!
Hello Yellow!
To celebrate World Mental Health Day we all wore something yellow to school. We revisited what is meant by 'mental health' and discussed ways that we can keep our minds healthy. The children shared some of the fantastic acts of well-being that they have been doing at home to raise money for charity, e.g. drinking 5 glasses of water in a day, colouring, playing a board game.