Year 1 Weekly Blog 12.4.24

'If I had not come, I could not have been the person I am today. I am a better citizen for the time I have spent in Nelson

Learie Constantine


We had a lovely start to the week during our collective worship, where we discussed and reflected on things that we haven’t seen but know are there. We are enjoying learning new hymns in preperation for Father Peter’s Jubilee Mass.

We looked through our RE books and the Holy Week Story books that we made before Easter and thought about the events of Holy Week, reflecting on what happened each day and sharing our thoughts and feelings.


What have we been learning this week……

Thank you for all the phonics work that has been completed at home during the holidays, I have been so impressed with the children this week. We have seen a huge difference, they are more confident and accurate speedy readers. Please continue to keep this up at home little and often is the best way to do this.


In Maths we are continuing to get better and better at counting in 2s keep this up at home each time going higher and higher. This week we have been writing equations and learning about addends (a number which is added to another) and the sum (the result of adding two or more numbers together). I have been drawing different objects on our smart board and we have been writing the equations down on our whiteboards. For example there are two blue counters and three red counters, two is the addend and three is the addend, five is the sum.

We can write this as five is equal to three plus two: 5= 3+2

We can write this as five is equal to two plus three 5= 2+3

We can write this as three plus two is equal to five 3+2=5

We can write this as two plus three is equal to five 2+3=5

Home Challenge:

Can you write all four equations for each picture (the example above is for the first picture):

Practice saying the stem sentences (… is equal to … plus… ect) and discussing which numbers are the addends and which is the sum.

In English we have started our Peter Rabbit topic, we named some rabbits making sure we used a capital letter and wrote the sentence I am ….. and I am… we had to think of lots of different adjectives to describe each one.

To prepare us for Year 2 we are focusing on taking our time when writing and checking our sentences to make sure they make sense, do we have capital letters, finger spaces, correct punctuation and is it our best handwriting. Our indpendence has grown and I am so proud that the children are thinking about their sentences and writing them down using their phonics mats to support them. Please encourage your child to write as much as possible at home. We are excited to announce that we have a new handwriting scheme called letter join. The children have used it this week in school so they are familiar with it and I have set them a homework challenge. Please look at the homework blog for more information.


History: This week was our final lesson on Learie Constantine, I have loved planning and teaching this unit and it’s lovely to see how many children have signed up for cricket next week. We have enjoyed developing our cricket skills in PE. Our final task was to decide if Learie was a significant person and did he have an impact in England. The children worked in groups and had to come up with at least five different reasons why he was a significant person. We found out that Learie helped the government during the war and he ensured that the men who had come from the West Indies had a job in the factories and a place to live. He fought for the rights of black people and had a huge role in the development of racial equality in the UK. He was influential in the passing of the 1965 Race Relations Act in Britain.

It has been lovely to hear that the children have been talking about Marcus Rashford, Simone Biles and Learie Constantine at home. The children have remembered so much information and could explain why Learie is a significant person.


Tea Dance

Thank you for those who came yesterday for our school perfomance of The Gruffalo, they were brilliant, well done Year 1 we are very proud of you.


Let’s Celebrate:

Well done to our certificate awardees: two Lizze Ladybird’s for a great start to the summer term you have reflected and thought about what you need to do to learn and challenge yourselves.

This person is taking Henry home for working so hard at home, your phonics progress is amazing keep it up! Well done.

Well done to these children, they have recieved their Bronze and Silver reading award, I know there are lots that are very close, don’t forget to sign in their books


Upcoming dates and Reminders:

Ridgeway Farm

As part of our Geography and Science topic we will be visiting Ridgeway farm for our school trip on Tuesday 21st May. We really encourage parental engagement so it would be wonderful if we could have some adult helpers. If you are free and would love to join us please can you send me an email. Please note It will be a full day trip leaving school at 9:30am and returning by 3pm, you will need to bring a packed lunch and mobile phones can not be used around the children or to take photos of the children. There will be school iPads and photos will be uploaded to the blog. I will let you know the cost of the trip next week.

  • Our PE days are back to Mondays and Fridays.

  • Please can you bring in water bottles every day and remember to bring in reading folders so we can quiz and change books.

  • Polite reminder that all children across school should bring water in their bottles and not juice. This is something that we discuss regularly in school as part of our discussions about healthy snacks and healthy lunches. Please can you bring in healthy snacks please refer to the poster for suitable snack, we always have fruit avalible too.

  • Please can you bring/keep spare uniform in bags, as the weather has been wet recently, children have fallen over in puddles and it can sometimes be tricky finding spare uniform for them in the right size.


If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me at:
d.drummond@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Thank you for all of your support 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Drummond, Mrs Carragher and Mrs Davis