This week in our liturgy we have been talking about John and how he came to pave the way for Jesus. John baptised people with water when they asked him how they could follow the Lord….but told them that soon someone would come who would baptised them with the love of God. We have learnt about how at the Baptism of Jesus people heard the voice of God for the first time and how the gift of the Hold Spirit was seen through the image of a dove.

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 has all been about subtraction, part part wholes and fact families. We have used the three numbers from a part part whole to write a subtraction question - making sure we know what each part of the calculation represents. We have extended this from last week by now writing 4 addition and 4 subtraction questions for each set of numbers. We have done this by moving the whole in the calculation. This has proved tricky with regards to subtraction, but we are getting there!

RE - this week has been all about the Presentation of the Lord, or Candlemas, and how Simeon and Anna responding to meeting Jesus after they had waited so long. We have also made a display of candles for our classroom.

Science - this week we have begun our new topic all about Materials. We started by examining a range of different objects and seeing if we could identify the materials they are made from. We expected this this week by recording our findings and writing sentences about objects and their materials.

Geography - our focus for this half term is all about maps and the various pieces of information that different maps provide. This week we made an aerial plan of our classroom using different shapes to represent the different objects in our room.

Art - this week the children focused on mark making, through paint, using a variety of different objects. Great fun had by all!!

Congratulations to this week’s winners…….

Golden Award - Carter for showing great respect to those around him, having great behaviour for learning and displaying beautiful manners at all times. carter’s focus is the reason he is making such good progress.

Writing Award - Mabel for working hard on her letter formation to ensure each letter is written the right way round - this is supporting all Mabel’s written work. Keep it up!

Maths Award - Lili for persevering this week with creating subtraction questions when the part comes first. Lili did not find this easy at first but she has kept on working hard and made great progress as a result.

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 - all the children were given a new school bottle this week. 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. Lost water bottles can be replaced at the school office, but I am afraid you will have to pay for those. Year 1 have white tops.

I will not be in class on a Thursday afternoon, as it is my release time. This will be covered by Mrs Gilheaney, Miss Simons and Mrs Connolly and is also when the children will have Music with Mrs Watson

Party Invitations - I am afraid that Miss Simons and I will not be able to give out party invitations in class. Please do not send your child into class with them for them to give out - it creates upset and fuss about something that takes place outside of school.Thank-you for your understanding with this matter.

Key Rings - please do not put key rings onto your child’s school bag, it create fuss in class and then upset if they are lost.

School bag - please continue to use the red book bag that your child was given in Reception, we don’t not have the room to store large bags. Many thanks for your help with this matter.

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)

This half term we will be learning all about Baptism. If your child has been Baptised, please could you send in a named picture of their Baptism for our display board. You can either send in a copy or email me one to year1@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk. Many thanks.

At Our Lady's we like to support our parents/carers in Online Safety matters.

Keeping children and young people safe online is one of the biggest challenges facing society today and it is all of our responsibility to ensure that children are educated to make positive, informed choices when they are online.

This month’s online safety guide gives helpful advice about…

Smartphone Safety Tips for Young People This information guide has tips to help young smartphone owners stay safe while enjoying using their device.

We hope you find these guides informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.

Catholic Life of our school..

The following resources are a great way of keeping you all informed of our current liturgy themes and of the weekly Gospel scripture, with some activities that the children can complete at home. We hope you find these resources useful and that they help you to support prayer and worship in your own homes.

https://www.paperturn-view.com/uk/wednesday-word/faithfulness?pid=MTA101634&v=74.6

http://www.tentenresources.co.uk/prayers-for-home/parent-newsletter/