We have talked a lot this week about the fact that we are loved by God and that He loves us know matter what. In our very hectic lives it is worth just taking a moment to be still and feel that God is always with us - no matter what.

English - we have continued on with our RWI lessons. During these sessions we all focus on phonics, reading, spelling and sentence development. We have also been working on our pre-cursive handwriting in which we focus on how to write our letters, starting on the line.

Maths - this week we have been working on one more and one less. In order to support our learning we have used number tracks and ten frames to show our numbers with counters. It is important that the children know that 5 is one more than 4, so one more than 4 is 5 and that 4 is one less that 5 so one less than 5 is 4. Staying the same fact in many different ways.

RE - this half term is all about Creation - we have started by looking at the Creation story and the wonderful world that the Lord that created for us. We have also started to write ‘I wonder…’ questions and what questions we have about creation and the world around us.

Science - our topic this half term is all about our bodies. This week we focused on our sense of touch and sight…we have been making observational drawing of conkers and their casings and describing what different objects feel like.

History - our focus is all about ourselves and life within our living memory. This week we have looked at toys from the past and toys that we play with and started to compare the two. This week we separated a variety of toys into groups of toys from the past and present. The children also started to make their own wooden toys!

Art - the children have started their Painting unit with work all about the primary colous and learning about how to use different brush strokes. This week their painting was based on the story of the Princess and the Pea.

We are very proud of all of the children, but these are our certificate winners for this week…..

Golden Award - Willow for a number of thoughtful and beautiful pieces of work in our RE topic on Creation. Super work Willow!

Writing Award - Amelia for super independent writing in RWI this week….finger spaces, full stops, capital letter AND great sentence construction. Excellent work!

Maths Award - Corey for super work on one more and one less this week - great work Corey!

General pieces of information

PE will be on Monday and Friday so please send the children into class in the PE kits on those days. No earrings can be worn for PE so please ensure that they are taken out at home.
Water bottles - This will come home each night to be cleaned and re-filled. Please only use the school bottles and ensure your child brings theirs each day.
I will not be in class on a Thursday afternoon, as it is my release time. This will be covered by Mrs Veasey and Miss Sanderson and is also when the children will have Music with Miss Hope
Homework Expectations - please see the Homework page for what I expect the children to do at home…..don’t worry, it’s mainly just reading!! Year 1 News letter Year 1 Homework Expectations - Autumn — Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School (squarespace.com)
PHONICS Support - take a look at Oxford Owl for information about how you can help your child at home with their phonics and reading. This is is a great site in general but the page linked has a super little video showing how the sounds should be pronounced. See how many sounds your child knows! How can I support my child with phonics? - Oxford Owl for Home

Thank-you to those of you who were able to make the Meet the Teacher pop in session yesterday. Please don’t worry if you couldn’t attend, it was quite informal and just gave me the chance to say hello and a little about Year 1. To be honest most of what I said was in the welcome letter, but I did just show a couple of the things we are doing in class. I will get the chance to meet all of you on Parents Day on Friday 21st October - more information to follow about how to make an appointment.

I spoke briefly about Phonics Screening which takes place in June - usually first week back after the half term holidays. I will hold a meeting about this nearer the time with how you can help prepare your child at home for this - probably in the Spring.

Main points of the meeting…

Importance of reading, importance of Phonics, importance of correct pencil grip and how we are learning to start each letter on the line.

Year 1 marks a big shift in gear for the children with the amount of work they are expected to get through and our daily timetable….it is a big change and takes a bit of getting use to, but all I ask of the children is that they try and they are doing just that.

Phonics Sound Sheet - these are the sound we work on daily in class and their rhymes.

Common Exception word list - these are the words the children should be able to spell by the end of the year

Handwriting Format - pre-cursive handwriting we are working on

Phonics Screening Information