Future Story Writers Found!

This week 1MD continued their learning around stories by writing up the class version of Jack and the Beanstalk- Rude Rosie and the Sunflower.

Children used a story map to help form their sentences and all have written some fantastic stories. Next they will be writing their own versions of the story and learning more about descriptive writing.

In maths we have been reviewing our knowledge of money and counting. We have been great mathematicians because we have used our number bond knowledge to help us solve mathematical challenges.

Also children worked in teams to paint their model castles. Next step is to sponge on bricks, add grass or a moat and final details such as windows, drawbridges and flags.

Finally in PE we finished our movement pieces and performed for each other. I will be uploading videos of them to the blog very soon so keep checking back.

Tomorrow morning I will not be in class. If you need to get in contact with me urgently please email me or leave a message at the school office.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend sunshine!
Miss Dampier

Weekly Round Up!

It has been a fantastic week in 1MD. Children have learnt about time connectives and how to use them to structure their writing. Each child wrote a recount about our trip to the mosque and then applied this knowledge to write another recount of our trip to the local church on Wednesday.

The vicar showed us around All Saints, telling us about how the building was rebuilt from the fire, the key things in a church (the font, alter and lecturn) and about the many people that form the church community.

We compared this knowledge to the information we learnt about the mosque.

In maths, the children have been using a new piece of equipment called dienes that can be used to build 2 digit and 3 digit numbers. This forms part of our learning this year looking at place value. We also revisited 2D shapes to review our knowledge. Children had to describe a shape using specific key vocabulary.

In art, we have looked at some Islamic patterns, inspired by our time at the mosque and children designed and created mini prayer mats which will be displayed in the classroom this week.

Finally, on Friday, the children of 1MD took up the challenge of raising money for Children in Need. Thank you to all who battled the horrible, wet weather and came dressed as their favourite super hero. Unfortunately I did not manage to catch a photo of the costumes but I have to say they were fantastic!

Thank you to all parents who returned the trip letters for this Wednesday’s theatre visit. All parents who said they were available to help will have their names put into a hat on Monday morning and I will be informing the volunteers required by the end of the day.

As you may have seen another trip letter was given out on Friday for a visit to the cinema in Brixton which will take place in December. This is a great way to celebrate all the effort children have shown towards their learning throughout the term.

Have a great weekend, see you all on Monday.

Miss Dampier

Fantastic Fireworks and Number bonds Galore!

What an exciting week back at school 1MD have had! Not only have they been on a school trip but also pupils have written and performed a class poem all about fireworks. Children learnt about features of poems such as similes and onomatopoeia’s and used their knowledge to create a fantastic poem and 3D artwork.

Check this out!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H9OW6zMahFI&feature=youtu.be

In maths our focus has been on learning our number bonds to 10 and 20. Number bonds are 2 numbers that add together to make 10 such as 2 and 8 or 3 and 7. Knowing these number facts fluently means that you can transfer the number knowledge to new learning and recognise patterns.

This weekend I challenge you to show your number bonds to 10 using objects you find around the house just like the example below!

Learning Overview

In another busy week children have planned and written their very own lost toy stories accompanied by some fantastic illustrations. Our stories were inspired by the new book we looked at called ‘Dogger’. A story of a little boy, his lost toy and his big sister.

In maths the children have been learning all about subtraction. They were introduced to Meanie Minus and his gang of take away pals. Children have learnt about what happens to a number when you use the subtraction symbol and how this is written in number sentences. We also learnt that subtraction is the inverse operation to addition. We will be continuing learning about this in the coming week.

In PE children have been working on their throwing and catching skills. Over the last couple of weeks we have talked about great methods to ensure you can catch a bean bag successfully and we are now trying to apply our learning to catching sponge tennis balls. The class identified possible challenges that might affect their catching ability such as the ball being round and likely to roll or bounce away!

This week children will be looking more at old and new toys so please keep sending them into class.

Also tomorrow I will be sending home a trip letter that will form part of our next project after half term. As the trip is in the first week back I would like to try and get all the trip letters back before Friday. Your help with this would be really appreciated.

Finally, a couple of weeks ago a letter was sent home about headlice. Unfortunately it seems the little hair loving critters are still at large! In order to try and evict them from our class please keep checking and where necessary treating your child’s hair. Another reminder letter will be in book bags this week.

See you all tomorrow.

Miss Dampier

Weekly Round Up!

So another week is over and with only two more left before half term it is clear that the year is going very fast!

We started our week with an Autumn walk through Brockwell Park to the local launderette. This was part of our learning around the seasons and the new book we have looked at this week call Knuffle Bunny. The story features a little girl called Trixie who helps her dad do their washing at the local launderette but misplaces her beloved toy bunny in the process. She tries to tell her parents the problem but unfortunately she has not learnt to speak!

This week we have been trying to give her back her voice and write speech bubbles to share what she might be saying at different points in the story. The children have also been learning about prepositions to help them explain their route to our local launderette and have drawn maps to share some of the things they that they saw on the route.

At the end of the week we had a class full of soft toys join us to help us with our description writing. We will be doing more work with our toys in the coming weeks to help us learn about old and new toys and writing our very own lost toy stories. I have asked children to bring in their soft toys again on Monday.

In maths this week we have been looking at measuring and symmetry. Children have been practising their measuring skills using a variety of objects finally leading to measuring the hall with metre sticks.

I want to end the round up by sharing some of the fantastic learning that has been going on at home. Over the last couple of weeks the children of 1MD have caught the learning bug and have been writing stories, building number patterns, adding money and developing their handwriting. I have been totally impressed by the effort that has been shown at home and school – with some children finishing their first writing books.

In response to this appetite for learning, after the half term, I will be posting a mid week challenge and a challenge as part of my weekly round up. I would also like to encourage children to bring in any learning they do at home so they can share it with the class and have it displayed in the room.

As part of our learning about the past I would like children to research old toys. What did their parents play with? What about their grandparents? I would like children to find a picture of an old toy and the year it was made or most popular. If children can bring in an example of an old toy that would also be great!

See you all tomorrow. Don’t forget your soft toys!

Miss Dampier

Learning Round Up!

It has been another busy week in 1MD with lots if great learning going on! This week saw the completion of our story writing learning and the Little Red Hen.
I asked the children to change the three unhelpful animals in the original story to three new animals of their choosing. They then had to write up their story also trying to include story language, connectives and golden sentences.
The children then had to apply their new story writing knowledge to try and write the story of Goldilocks and The Three Bears. I am really happy to say they all worked very hard and as you can see from the pictures, they have written some fantastic stories.

Not only are the class’s learning to write in English but they have also started to learn to write in French. I am sure you will agree it is very impressive.

Finally, in maths this week, we have been learning about money and time. We learnt about 4 coins- 1p, 2p, 5p and 10p and how we can use a combination of the coins to make different amounts. We also learnt about what the clock face looks like for o’clock and half past times.

Tomorrow we will be going on an Autumn walk. Please make sure your child has sensible walking shoes and a waterproof coat in case of rain. Also please ensure that your child has a full change of PE kit for the Tuesday and Thursday sessions. This would include a pair of shorts or jogging bottoms, a shirt and trainers or trainer- like shoes.

See you all tomorrow
Miss Dampier

What a great week!

Welcome to the weekly round up. There has been so much great learning going on in 1MD this week as you will see from the pictures below. As there is so much I could choose from I have decided to select some of my highlights.

In writing this week the children have started to write up the story of the little red hen with a few changes. We have talked about what makes a great ‘golden sentence’- capital letters at the beginning of a sentence, a full stop at the end, finger spaces and of course it has to make sense! there will be more learning around golden sentences throughout the year. I have to say I am so impressed with the writing that was produced- great quality! Our knowledge of sentences came in very handy on Friday when the children had to write reports for the police, as our book corner got broken into by a strange creature. Children also made wanted posters to alert people in the school about the criminal we were looking for.

In maths we continued to consolidate our knowledge of teen numbers using a range of equipment to represent the numbers.

Finally in our weekly metacognition session (where we learn about our thinking and how to be better learners) we started to talk about the feelings that we have when learning new skills. We discussed feeling frustrated and happy in equal measures. Then we all practised trying to tie our shoelaces. Some children already knew how to do this skill so they became great coaches for their classmates. We got so into learning our skill that we forgot that our afternoon break had started!

Next week we will continue our learning around Autumn so I would like to encourage all children to try and bring in 3 different types of leaves tomorrow for further study.

I also want to challenge the children to build their by own number lines at home using objects from around the house. So, for the number 1 there should be 1 object, for the number 2- 2 objects. Can you build a number line all the way up to 20?

Take a picture of your number line and email it to me at meshendiadampier@rosendale.cc and I will put them up on the blog!

See you all tomorrow- enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Miss Dampier

End of the week round up!

It has been another busy week in year 1 with children settling into class routines really well.

All of our literacy work, this week, has focused on learning a new story off by heart. The children learnt the story of ‘The Little Red Hen’ using actions and a story map. Masks of the four main characters (hen, cat, pig and rat) were made, plasticine models of each animal were created and children Hot seated characters to find out why they behaved a certain way in the story. Pupils were asked to write character descriptions, draw their own story maps and write from the perspective of the little red hen. The work produced has been fantastic! On Friday children got a chance to see the story as a written text and started to help me build a story writing toolkit, featuring story openers, connectives and golden sentences all which will support our work next week.

During our maths learning this week we have been thinking about counting numbers to 20 using a number line. The children were also introduced to bead strings to support them in their learning. We talked about how the colour of the beads help us count in 5’s, making it quicker to create numbers such as 6 (5+1).

Pupils were also introduced to a member of our class: Freddy the Maths Frog!

He loves learning maths and challenging children to stretch their brains. He will be making many appearances this year along with some of his friends!

On that note- he has noticed a problem with his number line- can you spot any mistakes? Leave a comment with you suggestions!