This week has been all bout Remembering……remembering the people we loved who have died and have gone to Heaven to be with God Our Father, remembering the Saints who achieved great things in their lives, remembering the words of Mary when Gabriel came to give her the message from God and remembering the soldiers of past and present conflicts who have sacrificed so much for each and every one of us. A somber topic - but one which is so important. I have been impressed with the way Year 1 have discussed this topic and it has been wonderful to see them wearing their poppies with pride.

This week we have been learning…..

English - we have continued working in our RWI groups on our Set 1, 2 and 3 sounds. We have also continued our work in phonics, handwriting, spelling and punctuation in our own sentence construction. We are focusing hard our pre-cursive handwriting and starting each letter on the line, along with our reading work. We are now up to the letter ‘u’.

Maths - this week we have been continuing to learn about the part, part whole model. This helps us to see a number as the whole and think about the two parts that make up that number and how that can be different. for example if 7 is our whole then our parts could be 3 and 4 or 4 and 4 or 5 and 2 or 2 and 5 and so on. This week we have focused on how to work out an unknown digit when we know two others. We have used our number lines and our fingers to help us count! The children have made good progress with writing their own calculations.

RE - this week we have continued to learn about Mary and how special she is, particularly to us as the Patron Saint of our school. This we have learnt about the Feast of the Annunication, when the Angel Gabriel came to tell Mary the news that she was to give birth to the Son of God.

Science - this week we re-focused our attention on animals and grouping them according to their observable features. This week we worked on how we know an animal belongs to a certain group - so we know a robin is a bird because it has feathers.

Topic - this week we continued our Under the Sea theme by looking at the seas that surround the \united Kingdom.

Art - this week one group started sewing their Sea Creatures with Mrs Veasey, whilst the rest of us made a jelly fish - great fun was had by all!

All the children have worked hard this week, but these are the pupils we are celebrating this week…..

Golden Award - Alicia for being a lovely friend in Year 1 and setting a great example to others in how to be kind.

Writing Award - Cameron for working hard to complete independent sentences in RWI lessons

Maths Award - Reggie for great work writing calculations to match a part part model diagram

Unfortunately, Covid 19 is still very much with this and the spread without our society shows no sign of going away. Please help us to do all we can to keep each other safe by keeping your child at home if they are unwell or showing ANY of the symptoms of Covid 19. If anyone in your household tests positive for Covid 19 you must all go for a PCR test. If a child from a household where there is Covid 19 tests NEGATIVE then they can come into school, but we would ask that that child tests daily using lateral flow tests to ensure they remain negative and do not pass the virus onto others. Thank-you for your help with this matter - we must all remain vigilant to keep each other safe.

If your child is isolating from school due to Covid 19 and they are well enough to work, you can find their work on the HOME LEARNING page of the Year 1 section of the website. I have using Oak Academy units as they all contain a little video and a task for the children to complete that does not require you to print anything - your child just needs a piece of paper and a pencil!! And maybe some colours for the art activities! https://www.ourladyassumption-sch.co.uk/yr1-home-learning

Please DO NOT send the work into school with your child on their return, but send photos of it through Class Dojo and add work to your child’s profile. You will each get an invite to this through the email you gave to school when your child was in Reception.

If your child is off school, please inform the office and NOT the Year 1 email or Class Dojo. Many thanks

Any questions or queries either catch me or Mrs Veasey at the gate or email using year1@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk.

Things to note…

Children should have their water bottles each day
PE is Monday and Friday
Earrings cannot be worn for PE
Earrings should only be small, plain, gold or sliver studs
Children should have long hair tied back for school
School bags should just be the red book bags you were given in Reception
Please keep reading folders in the children’s school bags so that they have them on the right day - many thanks.

SICKNESS BUGS - lots of Year 1 have still been absent from school this week with sickness bugs. If your child is sick or has diarrhoea, please ensure they stay off school for a full 48 hours after they were last sick or had an incident of diarrhoea. This ensures the bug does not spread through the rest of the class.

We have continued to talk about the importance of hand washing. We can monitor this when children wash their hands in class, but not when they go to the toilet in class time. Please can you stress to your child the imprtance of hand washing for their health and safety and that of others. Many thanks.

We are happy to support local author Dina Elizabeth Slater (who has close links to Our Lady's school!) as she launches her fantastic new children's picture book, 'Arthur and the Magic Book'. We want to take the opportunity to share a link to the free eBook for you to enjoy. Below there are also links to Dina's website, should you wish to find out more information.
Website: www.artandetta.co.uk

EBook: https://bit.ly/3k6VI9O

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artandetta