Year 1 Update – Wk 6
This week the children had a wonderful time at Funzone in Kennedy Town. Thank you to all the parents who were able to join us, we hope you had a good time with your child and meeting other parents. The children have enjoyed reflecting together on what they personally enjoyed, when they were brave and what they would like to do again.
In our unit lessons the children have talked and written about what makes a good friend. They have also been around the school to observe what they consider to be good learning. It would be interesting to hear what they tell you about these two areas when reflecting at home.
In our Maths lessons this week the children have continued to focus on measuring. They have been comparing and sorting lengths using non- standard units such as cubes, teddies and learning links.
In our Literacy lessons the children have been working hard writing sentences, reading in groups and focussing on segmenting and blending our unit 1 phonemes.
As part of our unit of inquiry lessons the children have been going to the shared area and outside area. In these sessions the children have had opportunities to paint, do fine motor activities, play in role play areas, play with toys with their friends, use sand and water trays and ride on bicycles. The children are making great improvement in being able to follow the rotations and remember which groups they are in for different activities.
BHS Community Choir
Last January we held the inaugural meeting of the BHS Community Choir and went on to perform at the International Food Fair, the Chinese New Year show and the Summer Music Concert. The choir will re-form this year, starting on Thursday October 20th at 7pm. Everyone is welcome – no experience necessary! New and existing members are very welcome. Please click on this link to register: https://goo.gl/forms/fERvdJNghaaC1YYa2
Who We AreCentral Idea: People have abilities and interests who form who they are.
Next week we will be using the book ‘Beautiful oops’ as a stimulus to introduce growth mindset. We will be considering the positive side to making a mistake and how we can learn from and form new ideas because of a previous mistake. This is a vital part of Year One and we encourage all the children to always make sure they are willing to have a go even if they make a mistake.
We will be practising for our summative task for the week after when the children will be presenting their learning to their buddies.
Ms Jeves is completing her information literacy lessons this week if any have been missed. Our lessons with Ms Jeves have been a fabulous introduction to asking questions, being inquirers and finding out. The children should be able to tell you more about white, yellow and green hat thinking too.
Next week we will be starting a new unit about addition and subtraction. The children will be attempting different activities which will show what they can already do and what to teach them next. In order to show all they know, they will need to be able to cooperate, listen to others and take turns with others in groups of 4.
Playing board games at home such as snakes and ladders and games such as dominoes and pairs are very useful to teach and prepare these skills. We are aiming that the children will be able to show these social skills without an adult there to guide them.
In our writer’s workshop lessons next week the children will continue to attempt writing. In this lesson the teacher models writing sentences to the class using the “Think of a sentence, say the sentence, write the sentence, check the sentence” model. The children then are given a chance to independently write about what ever they want to communicate. In another lesson they will also be writing reflections on something they have learned recently.
We will continue to focus on using the Unit 1 phonemes to blend and segment words.
Phonemes: s m p t g a o c
Camera Words: I are the she was to
At school, as part of our language rotations all the children read to an adult at least once a week, usually twice.
As we were at Funzone we did not go to the the Golden Book Assembly this week. Some parents have been asking what are the sorts of reasons that our students are given Golden Book Certificates. The children are given the certificate when they were seen doing something in the previous week that the adults who teach them noticed. It may be linked to their social skills, their organisation, their level of effort, their confidence to have a go, their reflecting on their learning or something that they have shown an improvement in.
Meet Beatrice Bottomwell: a nine-year-old girl who has never (not once!) made a mistake. She never forgets her math homework, she never wears mismatched socks, and she ALWAYS wins the yearly talent show at school. In fact, Beatrice holds the record of perfection in her hometown, where she is known as The Girl Who Never Makes Mistakes. Life for Beatrice is sailing along pretty smoothly until she does the unthinkable–she makes her first mistake. And in a very public way!
