Year 1 Update – Week 3
Monday 2nd September DCK lunches start for those who have pre-ordered.
Monday 9th September – BHS CPD Day – School will be closed to students.
Thursday 26th September and Wednesday 2nd October – Parent Consultations – Please look out for the email which will instruct you to make an appointment via The Gateway. The booking system for sibling appointments is already open and the booking system for all the other children will open on Wednesday 4th September.
This week the children have been very busy adjusting to whole days at school. We have been really pleased by how well they have all settled and how they have managed all of the new school routines. All three classes have now had their PE lessons with Mr Teahan, Music with Mr Gibson and have enjoyed their first Mandarin lessons. We are sure that the children will be very tired by the end of this week so please ensure that they get lots of rest and sleep. It is recommended that children of this age have between 10-11 hours of sleep a night.
Lunches at School
All of the Year 1 children have enjoyed their first full week of having lunch at school. We have been impressed by the children’s ability to follow the lunchtime routines and be as independent as possible when eating their lunches. Please continue to give the children some choice in what they eat for their lunch and encourage them to be independent by allowing them to feed themselves using chopsticks or a knife and fork and providing them with a lunchbox and water bottle that they are able to open and close without difficulty.
Meet the teacher
Thank you so much to all of the parents who attended the Year 1 Meet the Teacher evening. It was so lovely to meet so many of you! The presentation will be available on the school website but in the meantime if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact your child’s class teacher.
In the upcoming weeks the children will start their Who We Are unit of inquiry and be investigating social skills and their interactions with others.
They will be focusing on the Central ideas:
We connect with each other to create learning communities.
This week we have been talking about red and green choices and thinking about how we can make our classroom environment a happy place to be. The children have been learning how to connect with others by asking people’s names and asking a friend if they can play with them.
Next week we will continue to reflect on the connections that the children are making with their friends and will begin to look at the types of play that they like to engage in.
Numbers can be used in many ways for different purposes in the real world.
This week the children have been practising their counting and number recognition skills by playing counting games, making number lines and ordering numbers on a cut and stick number square.
Next week we will be looking for numbers in our environment by going on a number walk around the school.
Mathletics
By Monday 2nd September your child will receive their Mathletics username and password. Please help your child to complete the tasks set for them and have fun playing Maths Live. It is expected that an adult will support your child whilst they are completing these tasks. If you have any difficulties using the website please let us know.
Writing helps us to connect and communicate
In English this week we have started to think about what we know about reading. The children came up with some interesting ideas about what reading means to them including; reading words, enjoying pictures, bedtime stories with mummy and daddy and going to the library to choose their own books. They have also been continuing to make book choices and have discussed what they have enjoyed about the books they are choosing.
In our writing sessions the children have started to write about their play choices in their Play Journals. The children have been encouraged to draw a picture and write a sentence to go with their picture. At this early stage we really want the children to see themselves as writers and want them to be confident to “have a go” and use what they know about letters and words to help them write.
Big Universe
On Monday 2nd September the children will receive their Big Universe username and password. Big Universe is a fantastic reading resource that you can enjoy with your child at home. Please take some time to explore it with your child and have fun reading some online texts together. In the coming weeks we will be exploring Big Universe with the children in class.
Get Ready to Talk
As we work on developing the children’s language skills, each week in the Weekly Update we will be asking you to take some time each week to sit with your child and talk about something linked to our unit of inquiry.
This week we would like the children to talk to you about their name. Over the next week, please take some time to have a discussion with your child about the meaning of their name and how and why you chose their name. We would like the children to share this information with their classmates next week in class.
Golden Book awards are given to individual children to celebrate something great they have achieved. The certificates are presented in a weekly whole school assembly.
As the year 1 children are still very much settling in they will not attend this assembly for a few weeks. We will inform you of when they do and who received the award from each class.
Home Reading
On Monday all of the Year One children will bring home their first home reading books. Please take some time each day to sit and read with your child and discuss the book that they have chosen. The discussion about the book is incredibly important in helping your child to develop their reading comprehension skills. After you have read with your child please sign and comment in the Home Reading Journal that will come home with the book. Please note that all children will bring home a Magenta book to start with and as the class teachers complete their assessments adjustments may be made to their reading level. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact your child’s class teacher.
