Rejoice: the Lord is nigh." As Christmas draws near, the Church emphasizes the joy which should be in our hearts over all that the birth of our Savior means for us. The great joy of Christians is to see the day drawing nigh when the Lord will come again in His glory to lead them into His kingdom. The oft-repeated Veni ("Come") of Advent is an echo not only of the prophets but also of the conclusion of the Apocalypse of St. John: "Come, Lord Jesus," the last words of the New Testament.
This Sunday is known as Gaudete Sunday. The term Gaudete refers to the first word of the Entrance Antiphon, "Rejoice". Rose vestments are worn to emphasize our joy that Christmas is near, and we also light the rose candle on our Advent wreath.
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 in all their work.
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 thought about the gifts that we can bring to the baby Jesus. During Advent we are working on the things we can do each day to make ourselves better people - we have turned these ideas into gifts for Jesus. We are going to give Jesus our friendship, love, time and care for others.
Science - this week we continued to focus on Animals - what they look like and what features they have that make them part of the same group - for example birds all have feathers and beaks, but their features are not always the same colour.
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 another group of children finished off the sewing their Sea Creatures with Mrs Veasey and Mrs Hodgkiss and all children made their Christmas card for their family.
This week we also filmed our Christmas poem ‘T’was The Night Before Christmas’ - thank-you so much for all your help with teaching the children their lines. We hope you will enjoy our film, which will be posted here next week!
The children have all worked very hard this week - this week’s awards go to…
Golden Award - Austin for being a super role model in Year 1 and striving hard through Advent to prepare himself to meet Jesus at Christmas.
Writing Award - Elsie for super independent writing in RE about what gifts we could give to the baby Jesus.
Maths Award - Sienna for marvellous number bond work, finding how many more are needed to make 10.
PLEASE SEE MISS HAGGERTY’S BLOG FROM LAST WEEK WHERE SHE ADVICES PARENTS TO KEEP THEMSELVES SAFE BY WEARING MASKS AT DROP OFF AND PICK UP TIMES - WE MUST ALL DO WHAT WE CAN TO KEEP EACH OTHER SAFE. NO-ONE WANTS TO BE ILL OVER CHRISTMAS. Our Advent journey towards Bethlehem.... — Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School (squarespace.com) (towards the end under Covid Measures.
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.
14th December - PTFA Christmas Jumper Day - please donate £1 and also Christmas Dinner Day
17th December - finish for Christmas Holidays at 2pm. NO NEED FOR PE KITS ON THIS DAY AS WE WILL NOT HAVE TIME FOR PE!
We hope to have a lovely last week of term in class - filled with Festive Fun!!
And finally……have a lovely weekend, stay safe…..Mrs Hollinghurst and Mrs Veasey
