Yeadon Westfield Infant SchoolYear 1: Blog items
Date: 28th Mar 2024 @ 2:39pm
It has been another busy half term of hard work and good fun, with the children really blossoming in their learning. We can already see them growing taller and more confident (there is certainly less room for them all on our carpets) and looking like they are nearly ready for Year 2!
Great progress has been made in phonics, reading and writing, and it is lovely to hear so many children read with beautiful expression and some fluency. They don’t just read in their reading lessons but we can hear them reading along with us in every lesson as they follow the information we use on our Smartboard resources.
In maths we have been doing lots of work on number, counting in 2s, 5s, 10s (using coins and objects) and 100s as well as counting in 1s forwards and backwards. Skills in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division have been a focus, as well as measuring length, money and fractions.
In science the children have been learning about plants, and how to grow them from seeds and bulbs, carrying out investigations into what seeds need to germinate and then continue to grow healthily. British Science Week gave us a great opportunity to carry out further investigations into melting, dissolving, floating and sinking and the best materials for a parachute – the children loved doing these!
History has continued to be a favourite through our study of castles, and we can’t wait to visit Skipton Castle just after the holiday to see where it all happened! In design technology, the children made their own working drawbridges and in our amazing dance lessons with Nicola from Leeds Rhinos they have been creating a dance showcasing the parts of a castle, the life and battles of a knight in shining armour, a tudor dance within the castle and then contrasting that with the life of the prisoners in the dungeon!
In this last week we have been getting in the mood for Easter in RE, in our Easter bonnet making and parade, and in our lovely annual Easter celebration in St. John’s Church with Reverend Richard and Curate Caroline. Thanks to everybody who came to help us walk to church along the Greenway in the sunshine and especially for the help with our origami crosses!
Have a great break everybody and see you all in April for our next brilliant topic which is Oceans and Seas! Fingers crossed for some fine weather…
Date: 9th Feb 2024 @ 1:39pm
It might have been a short half term, but we have certainly packed a lot in, and the children deserve a well-earned rest!
In maths they have been counting in 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s and 100s, learning about the place value of two-digit numbers, adding and subtracting using number tracks and number lines, odd and even numbers, naming and drawing 2D shapes on dotty paper, reading o’clock times and drawing hands on clocks to show o’clock times, and finding half of amounts and shapes. In phonics and reading, everybody is working hard every day in our different groups, and we have been doing some writing about castles to practise our sentence skills.
Our big castles topic has got off to a great start and the children are loving all the lessons that support this topic. We started with geography, learning about the town of Skipton and why it was a good place for a castle. In history so far, the children have learned about the first castles, the parts of a medieval castle, what life was like inside a medieval castle (ask them about the toilets!) and how to attack and defend a medieval castle. In science, we learned all about materials and their properties, which linked very nicely to why castles had to be made from stone rather than the original wood. The children also worked in groups to make their own model castles using junk materials, so of course they had to choose the most suitable materials to make each part. These castles look brilliant and showed us they remember all about the parts of castle they had learned in history!
Art this half term has been a big project all about making their own coats of arms, and this has involved a different key art skill for each section. They look fantastic!
In PE, we have been busy learning about running, jumping, throwing, defending and shooting (balls and beanbags) – all key games skills – as well as continuing with our daily running.
On top of all of this, we have also fitted in PSHE lessons about medicines, E-safety lessons for Safer Internet week, RE lessons with Mrs Gilligan and computing lessons all about algorithms. Phew! Let’s have a break …
Date: 22nd Dec 2023 @ 12:38pm
The children had a special surprise visitor this morning. Santa chatted to the children and delivered a present to each class. Thank you!
Date: 22nd Dec 2023 @ 10:19am
The children have continued to work so hard this half term! It is fantastic just how well they have settled into Year 1, and Key Stage 1 as a whole.
Our space theme continued threading its way through our learning, particularly in science, and the children have had a brilliant time conducting investigations into astronaut-related science. Our latest was to learn about the gloves astronauts need to wear in space and to experiment with how to mend a hole in a latex glove to keep it airtight and watertight!
In history we have studied Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot (always a favourite) and the reason why we have a Remembrance Day every year. In geography the children have been finding out about the United Kingdom and are beginning to name and locate the countries and their capital cities. While we were performing our nativity play, we also had a look at when these events are believed to have happened, and followed the journey Mary and Joseph would have taken from Nazareth to Bethlehem and then on into Egypt to escape King Herod.
As you will see from what the children have brought home, they have been learning about colours, complementary colours, and blending skills in art. We hope you like their calendars – they worked incredibly hard on these as the final product of the sequence of lessons! In DT, they learned how to make salt dough, and then designed and made their own Christmas decorations.
On top of all that (not forgetting all the maths, phonics, reading, writing, PE, RE, music and PSHE) we can’t forget the nativity performances! Wow! We are so proud of our Year 1s and the way they took to moving around the space as villagers, lighting up the night sky and singing! They were amazing in their supporting roles, and they are definitely looking forward to being in the limelight as Year 2s next year!
The children now all need a well-earned rest, so we hope you all have a very happy and healthy Christmas and New Year! We will see you in a few weeks to make a start on our new theme – we are all looking forward to CASTLES!
Date: 14th Dec 2023 @ 2:54pm
The children have enjoyed sharing books in Year 1 today.
Date: 7th Dec 2023 @ 9:30am
The children in Year 1 had great fun at the Santa Dash yesterday.
Date: 15th Nov 2023 @ 2:15pm
The children started Antibullying week wearing odd socks and celebrating their differences.
Date: 27th Oct 2023 @ 9:22am
The children have settled brilliantly into Year 1 and have been working hard. They certainly deserve a break!
They have been loving our space topic which has brought about great learning across nearly all subjects. In science they have learned about the solar system and the conditions needed for plants and humans to live. In art, they have made space pictures using painting, collage and pastel drawing techniques, while in design technology they have planned, made and evaluated model rockets and made space rocks (buns) in cooking. In geography we started by asking the question “What on Earth can be seen from space?” This has led to work on the continents and seas and hot and cold places on earth. In history we have learned about the space race, Neil Armstrong and Tim Peake. In computing the children have used laptops to learn about keyboard and mouse skills (designing and typing), followed instructions (algorithms) to create a model rocket, flown their rockets and measured the distance travelled and finally recorded their measurements as data. Whew! We have covered so much!
In addition to all that, we have of course been working daily on phonics, reading and writing (we managed to get some space work into that too) as well as maths, PE, RE and PSHE. The children are getting fitter with their daily running and have shown some great skills in PE. In music they have been learning singing and performance skills to get ready for the Harvest Festival.
We are so proud of how far they have come, how they have become real Year 1s so quickly and of all their achievements.
Well done Year 1 – you are amazing!
