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 Holy 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 being given the whole and one part, and finding the other part. This has proved tricky, 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 used our pirate maps from last week to give directions to our partner as how to get to different parts of our map.

Art - this week the children focused on mark making, through the stories of Hairy McClary, using a variety of different types of pencils. Great fun had by all!!

Congratulations to this week’s winners…….

Golden Award - Isabella for caring about her learning journey and working very hard at home to learn her number bonds and common exception words. Also for caring greatly about a wrong choice made this week and working hard with her friend to make it better. A very grown up thing to do.

Writing Award - Louis for making hug progress with his pre-cursive handwriting - I am very impressed! Keep up the hard work.

Maths Award - Remi for working SO hard on her subtraction calculations this week and for using all the resources she can to support her learning. I am SO proud of you Remi

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.
Trainers - if your children is wearing trainers with laces for PE they must be able to tie them by themselves. This is a health and safety issue - please ensure your child can tie their laces before sending them in lace-up trainers.
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 orange tops.
I will not be in class on a Thursday afternoon, as it is my release time. This will be covered by Mrs Debowska and Mrs McCooey and is also when the children will have Music with Mrs Watson.
Party Invitations - I am afraid that Mrs Debowska 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 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!! HOMEWORK EXPECTATIONS - YEAR 1 — Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary

Please ensure that your child is reading at home - school reading books, along with anything from home will be great, and ebooks from Oxford Owl. https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/

We expect children to read a minimum of three times a week to an adult at home. Each time they read please make sure you sign their reading record so that your child gets a sticker! There is a direct coloration between children who read regularly, and those who make increased progress at school. Please support your child in the learning journey by hearing them read, ideally each day, but a minimum of three times a week.

And please remember to sign their reading record so that they can receive a sticker on their reading bookmark. Thank-you so much for your support with this.

In Key Stage 1, children have common exception words to learn alongside their letters and sounds spellings. Common exception words are words in which the English spelling code works in an unusual or uncommon way. They are not words for which phonics 'doesn't work', but they may be exceptions to spelling rules, or words which use a particular combination of letters to represent sound patterns in a rare or unique way.
In Year 1 we are having a real PUSH on these words this term - to ensure that ALL children can read, write and spell correctly ALL of these words. They really do help support the flow of reading. You can really support your child at home by practicing these words. First of all, can they read them instantly? Not sounding them out, but just read them because they know them. Secondly, can they spell them? Thirdly, can they spell them correctly if they are writing their own sentence and are not told how to spell the word? These are all things you can help with at home - just 5/10 minutes each day will really help.
I have included a link to the Top Marks web page with a few interactive games which might hep!
Many thanks for your help.
Words and Spelling, English Games for 5-7 Years - Topmarks
Spelling games: Common exception words (spellzone.com)
Little Bird Spelling || Practise spelling Common Exception Words (ictgames.com)
Common Exception Word List - Year 1

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.

PIRATE DAY - WEDNESDAY 5TH FEBRUARY.

This half term our topic focus in Geography is mapping and in order to celebrate this topic we are planning on having a day dedicated to all things maps with a Piratey Theme! On this day I would like to ask the children to come dressed as pirates to really get into the swing of things - so stripy t-shirts, jeans/leggings, pirate hats…..be as creative as you can! I promise we will also be doing lots of map reading activities - with just a hint of fun thrown into the mix!!

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…

What Parents & Educators Need to Know about TikTok. This free guide explores the potential online safety risks of TikTok, letting you know how to safeguard children and young people who use the platform.

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. Thank you.

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/wednesday-word/joy?pid=MTA101634&v=160.3