This week our focus has been on the Feast of the Ascension, which we celebrated yesterday. We have been taking a lot these last few weeks about Jesus appearing to the disciples and preparing them for the task ahead. Now that task is upon them - as it is us. We are now the vessel through which word of God will flow - and what a wonderful job the children are doing. They make me proud of them every day the way in which they strive to be good disciples of the Lord - well done Year 1.

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. We are continuing to work hard on our common exception words, reading them in class every day!

Maths - this week we have been working on numbers up to 50. We have read the numbers, made the numbers with tens and ones and also found which number comes next using our clue cards to help us. we have looked at how to make a number with 3 tens and 5 ones and what that number would be.

RE - this week has been all about Jesus returning to His Father at the Ascension. We celebrated this feast day in church on Thursday. We have spoken about the mixed feeling of the disciples, knowing that Jesus had returned to His Father and sending them out into the word to spread the Good News.

Art - this week the children have continued their Sculpture Unit today making their clay animals….much fun was had by all!

Science - this week we continued our new unit all about Plants by focusing trees and how to name a tree by identifying their leaves and their seeds.

Topic - this week we continued with our Geography unit about the four countries that make up the UK. This week we focused on Blackpool and its features. We looked carefully at lots of photos of Blackpool to see what we could spot. We made posters showing all that we could see.

ICT - we have continued with our Data Handling unit by organising a set of data with pictures and numbers to make it clear to a reader using the programme sketchpad

Well done to this week’s winners….

Golden Award - Demilade for showing perservance and a can do attitude towards all aspects of learning in a completely new environment. We are very proud of how well, and quickly, you have settled into our Year 1 family.

Writing Award - Antonia for super independent writing applying ‘special friends’ to his own work.

Maths Award - Natan for super ten and ones work on numbers up to 50.

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 Mrs Watson
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!! Yr1 Homework — 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
Earrings - please ensure these are only small gold/silver studs as stated in the uniform policy - some of the earrings in school are getting a bit too big. Many thanks
Nail Varnish - please ensure any nail varnish is removed for the pupils come into class. It should not be worn at school.

PHONICS SCREENING - Year 1 Phonics Screening will take place the week of 12th June. (First week back after our half term holiday) Please ensure your child is is school this week as each child must complete an individual phonic assessment at some point during this week.

Thanks so much for those who were able to come to the short meeting on Tuesday - lovely to see you. Hopefully everyone received their little information pack - I would be REALLY GRATEFUL if you could take some time over the holidays to remind children of the ‘special friends’ and read some of the words from the pack. Two weeks is a long time for little people to have a break and then come back to their screening! A little bit of practice each day would go a long way! Many, many thanks. (See the Oxford Owl video link above for how to say the sounds.)

Please note that during this week I will not be in class in the mornings so Mrs Veasey and Miss Sanderson will be delivering English and Maths.