This Sunday marks the second week of Advent. We light the candle this Sunday to represent Preparation & Peace. We believe that both are fitting for this Sunday as we draw closer to the time we celebrate Christ’s birth. The wise men in the bible knew the scripture and took the necessary efforts to prepare and set out on their journey to worship the newborn King. The angels informed Mary and Joseph well ahead of time so they could prepare for what lied ahead of them. Today we must take the time to prepare our hearts our minds to lose sight of Christ.

At Christmas, we celebrate the first coming of Christ. It was this newborn baby lying in a manger that came to this world as a lamb. Although he is the King of Kings he walked this earth, breathed the air and lived as we do now. Everywhere he went he brought peace to those who sought Him for those who rejected him they found no peace. We are now waiting for the second coming of Christ when He returns as the lion and will bring the first and final peace this world has ever known to all the nations. Be like the wise men and prepare your hearts and seek Him now..

The children have been working very hard this week, this is what we have been up to….

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. At the moment we are working on the elements we need in a sentence, how to sort out mixed up sentences and how to write our own ensuring that it makes sense, is correctly punctuated and contains one or two pieces of information. We have now finished the ‘teaching element’ of all out pre-cursive letters - the children have now been shown how to write each of the letters correctly, now the children are expected to use those letters AT ALL TIMES.

Maths - this week we have been working on number bonds and how to use our number lines to help us with addition questions. We have contained to talk about parts and wholes, along with the various ways that the same number can be made up. This week we have focused on how to find the missing part, when we are given the whole and one part. This roved rather tricky at the start of the week, but we kept on going and had cracked it by the end of the week!

RE - this week we wrote our Advent stars which are now hanging in the classroom to make our Advent calendar. Each day we will turn over a star and read out a different promise which we will try to meet throughout the day. In this way we aim to become better followers of Jesus.

Science - this week we continued to focused on what animals eat and how to group then using the terms omnivore, carnivore and herbivore. This week we made a Venn Diagram showing this information.

Topic - this week we continued our theme of what lives in the Irish sea by learning about jellyfish and write a fact file about them - we also used the role play area, finished off some of our sea creatures and matched some facts about sea creatures with the correct pictures. Busy, busy!

Art - this week two more groups started sewing their Sea Creatures with Mrs Veasey and Mrs Hodgkiss, whilst the rest of the class made a coloured paper under the sea theme picture by folding and cutting little fish. A great time was had by all!

Our certificate winners this week are……

Golden Award - Erin for a renewed focus on work and improved attitude towards her work - keep it up Erin!

Writing Award - Alicia for beautiful pre-cursive handwriting in all subjects - your work is a delight to read!

Maths Award - Jacob and Priya for excellent addition work using a number line this week - great to see you working it out!

Filming will take place of our Christmas Poem on MONDAY 6TH DECEMBER - please ensure your children comes to school wearing their Christmas Jumper that day (any problems with this please let me know asap) and that they know their lines off by heart. Thank-you so much for all your help with this - we are practicing in class but that is not really enough time to really teach each child their lines off by heart. Your help is much appreciated. Children should wear normal PE kit on Monday, just with a Christmas Jumper on rather than their red hoody. Many thanks.

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. Water bottles must be taken home and washed daily.
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.