Reading: Phonics
Today your child will have brought home a pack of sounds as well as tricky words. There is a letter explaining how to use these to help your child with their phonics learning.
After half-term, the children will start learning more and more alternative ways to write the sounds they know (for example, ie making the /igh/ sound). Each week we will send home the new graphemes for you to practise as well as any new tricky words we have learnt.
Have a look at the games you can play with the flashcards we have sent home here. For more information about Little Wandle phonics and videos of how to say some the sounds, look here.
A quick reminder as well that reading records should be brought in on a Thursday and library books should be brought in on a Friday.
Thanks a lot for your support. I look forward to seeing you at parent’s evening and the class assembly next week.
Mr McGriffiths
Geography: fieldwork
This week in Geography we have been conducting fieldwork in our school grounds. We were investigating what type of trees we had on the Green. We found lots of fallen leaves and collected them up. When we were back in the classroom we tried to identify which trees the leaves had come from.
Help at home by talking to your child about different trees, the seasonal changes in Autumn and maybe go out on a tree hunt yourself.
Tom Palmer local events
This year, some children at school attended an online workshop with author Tom Palmer. Tom Palmer has been in touch to let us know about some local events he is attending in half term.
Message from Tom
For children and families – I am also coming to Leeds on Thursday 2 November
2023 :
* Farsley Book Festival – 10am-11am more here
https://trumanbooks.co.uk/event/flf-kids-day
* Chapel Allerton Library – 2pm
* Pudsey Community Hub and Library – 4pm
Living and learning: Respect
Over the past fortnight in Living and Learning we have been discussing respect. First of all we discussed how we show respect to other people. We talked about respect meaning caring about other peoples thoughts and feelings. We were able to come up with lots of examples of how we showed respect both at school and at home.
This week, we spoke about how we can respect ourselves by celebrating what makes us unique. We looked at each other and compared ourselves, saying what was the same and what was different. After that, we said what some of our favourite things to do were. Our partners listened really respectfully to what me said and then drew some pictures of their partner doing their favourite thing. I was very impressed by both the listening and drawing skills shown!
Help at home by discussing what makes your child unique and the amazing things that make them awesome!
Science: Using our senses
This week in Science we have been learning about the sense of taste. We discussed what part of the body we use to taste and the different tastes there are. We talked about sweet, salty, sour, bitter and savoury. Then we had a taste test! Afterwards we discussed what kind of taste the food had.
The white bit was bitter.
The apple was sweet and sour.
The strawberries tasted nice. They taste sweet.
It is sour. It makes my lips sting.
Help at home by talking to your child about their 5 senses as well as different tastes they might experience.
Marvellous Maths!
This week in Maths we have been beginning to learn about addition. We have been using the language of parts and a whole. For example, 3 is a part. 2 is a part. The whole is 5. We have been drawing part whole models and writing out addition number sentences. Below you can see some pictures of Year 1 marvellous maths work. Well done Year 1!
Help at home by investigating how different numbers are made. Remember to use the language of parts and a whole. Your child could then practise writing some addition number sentences.
LOST! VANISHED! DISAPPEARED!
This week there was a mystery in Year One. The school bell that Mr McGriffiths uses in the morning had disappeared! The children were very keen to find it and bring it back. After reading the book Hermelin: the dectective mouse (watch the story here), we came up with the idea of creating a LOST poster. You can see our marvellous efforts below. If you do see the bell anywhere, please contact Mr McGriffiths!
Help at home by discussing where your child thinks the bell has gone and what has happened to it!
Autumn term after-school clubs
*Availability update*
Our after-school clubs are available for booking on schoolcomms. Please contact the office if you need any further information or help with booking places. Clubs will begin next week.
We are Geographers!
This half term we are learning about geography in topic lessons. Our unit is called Where in the World am I? It is all about where we live, including our locality as well as the countries, capitals and seas of the UK. Our vocabulary for this topic is listed below.
| atlas | a collection of maps, usually in a book |
| city | a large town |
| compass | a tool for finding direction |
| locality | an area or neighbourhood |
| landmark | an object or feature of a locality that has importance and can be used to help you find your way |
| physical geography | physical geography looks at the natural things in our environment |
| human geography | human geography looks at the changes in the environment by humans |
| to survey | to find the opinions of a group of people by asking them questions |
| issue | an important topic or problem that needs discussion |
This week we have been learning about the names of all the countries that make up the United Kingdom as well as their capital cities. We worked with our partner to look in the atlas to find the UK.
Help at home by discussing the four countries of the UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). The BBC bitesize website here and this song are great for helping the children remember too.
We are scientists!
This half term in Science we are learning all about the human body. We will be learning about the five senses as well as the names of body parts (see below).
In our first two lessons we investigated whether older people had longer feet. We drew around all our feet and then cut them out. Then we arranged the footprints from oldest to youngest. We discovered that older people don’t have longer feet. We also discussed what things made people have longer feet and we decided that the tallest people in the class had the longest feet.
Help at home by talking to your child about the names of different body parts or even play a game of ‘Simon Says’.
