It’s the weekend! Well done to all of the children on yet another fantastic week of learning. We are getting used to school life and our routines once more and are settling back into the Chilton Way.

We are trying to get through readers as we are aware that some children may have moved levels. Please bear with us as we work our way through the class.

Some things we have been focussing on in class which you can support your child with at home are as follows:

Practising the alphabet. Children know the song, but sometimes struggle to match the letter sound with the correct letter name. We have practised saying our names in letter names rather than sounds.

Number bonds to 10. This helps with our addition as we get older and need to work out calculations in our heads. Number bonds to 10 need to be learnt off by heart.

Listening. We have spent time this week practising our listening and we know that we have to keep our bodies still, turn our voices off and listen carefully. Different activities to practice listening skills included sitting still to listen to all the sounds we can hear, listening to audio books then answering questions about the story (some great ones are on Epic) and playing games such as the word association game.

Learning/ talk partner work. We change learning partners every Monday and it is really important that children know how to be a good partner. We have reminded children to label themselves partner A and B, they have to face one another to speak, take turns and be supportive if their partner is unsure. You could try practising being a good learning partner at home.

Fine and gross motor skills which will help to strengthen muscles in the body. We have been providing activities in groups which help to promote children's motor skills such as lego, playdough (dough disco) and wonderful walking. This is where children walk in a variety of ways such as tiptoeing, giant steps, walking with heel to toe, walking forwards and backwards. 

Maths

This week’s maths focus has been on addition. We have been learning strategies which will support us when we have to solve problems mentally. We have been discussing how in maths we can make lots of connections to what we already know to help us. We started the week reviewing our number bonds to 10, we sang Farmer Pete to help us remember them. Then we used what we know about our number bonds to 10 to help us solve number bonds to 20. We worked really hard this week on presenting our calculations neatly in our maths books. Moving on from this, we looked at all the number bonds we could find of a given number. For example for 6 we found:

 

6 + 0 = 6

5 + 1 = 6

4 + 2 = 6

3 + 3 = 6

To put these strategies into practice, we then used the ‘making 10 strategy’. This is where we added two 1digit numbers on a tens frame and made the first number up to 10 and added on the extra. This used our number bonds to 10 knowledge and our number bonds of other numbers too.

RWI

Children have continued to learn set 2 and 3 sounds this week. We practise reading these sounds so we can recognise them in words and also spelling with our new sounds too. We have been practising handwriting during these sessions also, ensuring our letters are beginning in the correct place in order to have the correct letter formation. In topic we learnt about the pyramids in Egypt. We then learnt about King Tutankhamun’s tomb and wrote about the treasures he was buried with using adjectives.

 

Topic

This week we wanted to broaden children’s knowledge and understanding of the world in a new and different way. We spent time learning about important and famous landmarks around the world and some history behind them. As mentioned, we started off with the famous pyramids in Egypt. Children enjoyed learning the practices of Ancient Egyptians and how they buried their Pharaohs. The children also learnt about the Statue of Liberty and how it was given to the USA by France as a gift in celebration of them gaining their independence from the United Kingdom. Finally we learnt about Stonehenge. We discussed how and when it was made and also some of the reasons people believe it was used for. To end the week, we focussed on the impact people are having on these famous landmarks around the world and how we might protect them. We made our own Stonehenge from Lego and discussed what problems it might face having so many annual visitors and what we could do to protect it.

 

Important messages

• PE is on a Tuesday please ensure your child comes in to school wearing their PE kit.
• Next Friday we will be celebrating the end of our Explorers topic. We plan to be using face paints with the children, please let your class teacher know if this will be a problem.
• Posters have gone up in the windows of the conservatory by our classroom doors regarding an ART competition. If your child would like to take part, please check the poster for further information.
• Please encourage your child to read as much as possible at home.

EASTER NOTICES

Children invited to bring an Easter bonnet to school on last day of term (1st April)

There will be a chance to 'parade' around the classroom, should they wish

Prizes for most creative efforts

Easter egg hunt for all on this day

 

Enjoy your weekend!

 

From the year 1 teachers

 

Mrs Walker, Mrs Barlow and Mrs Marazzi