Week beginning 18th October

Well done everyone, we have made it to the end of the first half term of Year One! The children have tried their best to learn the new routines and have worked their socks off! We are really proud of them all and we hope you enjoy a well earned rest.

This week we have been learning about the traditional festival of Harvest, and have recorded a song as part of our school celebration. We hope you enjoy it!

The children have also enjoyed being scientists and learnt about the natural changes that the season of autumn brings. We have also looked at different leaves to help us identify the trees. Our word to remember is:

deciduous

(the type of trees that lose their leaves in autumn)

If you want to be scientists during the holiday, why don’t you go and explore the local area and see which trees you can find and identify them using their leaves.

In English this week we have been practising our sounds, and our reading and spelling of helpful words. We have practised our letter formation, name writing, and we also enjoyed reading the story of The Little Red Hen.

For our Maths work we used the 'part whole model' to find different ways to make numbers to 10. We practised saying number sentences out loud, and writing them down using the add and equals symbols.

I have set a task under 'homework' on Education City if you would like to practise this over the holiday. Your usernames and passwords are the same as last year, if you need any help logging in please email Mrs O'Connell. 

We ended our very busy week with the 'Dare to be Different' day and we wore fantastic outfits! Thank you also for your kind donations. 

We hope you have a lovely half term and we will see you on Monday 1st November. 

Mrs O'Connell and Mrs Al-Noah Xx

Week beginning 11th October 

We can’t believe that we are almost at the end of this first half-term. The children are now very settled and it seems as if they have been Year Ones for ages!
Amongst other things this week ,we have enjoyed reading  ‘Pumpkins Soup’ by Helen Cooper.It’s a story that shows how important working together is and respecting each other.The children wrote instructions for making pumpkin soup, so they will know what to do with any Hallowe’en leftovers 😊

We also talked about road safety, especially when crossing a road.They made some great posters, saying how important it is to stop, look and listen.

In RE the children looked at what happens in a church and what you would see inside. This linked to Harvest celebrations and we also looked at paintings of harvest time in the past.We talked about how machines have made a big difference. Watch this space for a little harvest surprise next week.

In maths we began by learning about ordinal numbers. We finished by looking at place value and recognising how numbers can be partitioned into tens and ones. The children enjoyed representing this with pegs, multilink, numicon and ten frames. 

We hope everyone is enjoying the weekend,

Mrs Al-Noah and Mrs O’Connell xx

Week beginning 4th October 

Hello everybody! 

First things first, next week we will have the photographer in school and they will be taking individual photographs of the children on Tuesday 12th October so please make sure your child looks camera-ready on that day and get practising those Year One smiles this weekend. 

This week the children have been superstars organising themselves in the mornings and now hand in their reading folders every day. Everyone has enjoyed their reading turns, thank you for your support with our new scheme and well done for reading regularly at home.

We have also been working on our handwriting, practising forming 'curly caterpillar' letters correctly, as well as all of the letters in our names.

In Maths we have been putting numbers in order, and finding out which numbers are more or fewer than another number. 

In Music we learnt about articulation and what the terms legato (smoothly) and staccato (sharply) mean in a piece of music. The children enjoyed singing Hot Cross Buns, Peter Piper, and She Sells Sea Shells using different articulation. Can you choose your favourite nursery rhyme and sing a line smoothly or sharply? I would love to hear them next week! 

The class have been practising their technology skills and taking their own photographs of their models and activities this week - consequently the photographs are still on the Ipads! To be continued..

Have a lovely weekend, 

Mrs O'Connell and Mrs Al-Noah xx

Week beginning 27th September

We managed to dodge the rain showers and have another great week in 1C. 
In maths we have been practising finding one more and one less than a number and also finding missing numbers on a number line to 20. Some of the children do reverse their numerals, so practising good number formation at home is always time well spent. 
In English we enjoyed reading The Bear and the Scary Night. We spotted rhyming words and also wrote speech bubbles for the characters. Our new phonic scheme is developing well. We are very pleased that most of the children have been completing their homework. When this has been marked we are putting the sheets in a separate plastic pocket ,inside the reading wallet. They can be kept there and looked at again for revision. We have also given some children additional little books, that can be used to develop blending skills. With the shared reading books, please could a comment be made in the yellow reading record if the children have completed a book or which page they read to. We can then change their book if necessary . Thank you for your support with reading at home. It is vital to a child’s progression with reading.

In geography we looked at some of the similarities and differences between villages, towns and cities. We identified some of the main features of Stretford. If you are out and about, see if the children know what different buildings are used for.

We also spent time learning about computers and identifying how they follow stored instructions to make different machines work. We followed this up by talking about what people use digital devices for and what you should do if you see something you don’t like when you are on a digital device – TAG (Tell A Grown-up). If you want to talk to your child some more about this, you may find the following website useful.

We have also been talking this week about what makes a good friend. We are encouraging the children to try and always be kind and thoughtful towards others.We have been focusing on sharing and what is or isn’t appropriate behaviour towards others, especially in the playground. 
 

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend, despite the rain !

Mrs Al-Noah and Mrs O’Connell

Week beginning 20th September

Hello everyone! We have had a super week in 1C.

Your child has brought home their sounds and reading folder containing their sound sheets
(homework), shared reading book and a sounds or phonic book. The homework is something we have done in school but is to be repeated at home to give your child extra practise and boost their confidence! Just to remind you the sounds or phonic book is very important as it consolidates the learning in class.

We will be changing the books once a week, and giving out the new sound sheets (homework) on a Thursday or Friday. The completed homework will be collected from their folders by the end of the week for us to mark and return to you as soon as possible. This gives the children one week to complete their reading and the sound sheets homework.

Please make sure that your child’s reading folder is in their book bag EVERY DAY. The children don’t have a set reading day so their reading folder is needed daily.

We have also been learning how to represent numbers using different equipment in Maths.

The children are also enjoying the music session on Oak Academy. We have been learning about loud and quiet dynamics.

In geography we have been talking about our route to school and things we see on the way.We looked at local landmarks such as the mall, library and park. We are pleased that lots of the children have managed to learn their address.

In science we talked more about pets and then how we could sort them into groups.We looked at whether  they had fur, feathers or scales.

Once again thank you for your patience while waiting at the gate on Howard Street.

See you on Monday!

Love Mrs O’Connell and Mrs Al-Noah Xx

Friday 17th September 

A wonderful week in 1C.The children are really getting into the swing of things.

In maths we have spent time looking at odd and even numbers and practising counting backwards from 20. The ability to do this really helps the children with their subtraction skills.  We have been listening carefully to hear and then write pairs of rhyming words . We also identified rhyming words in familiar nursery rhymes. We are encouraging the children to recite these rhymes in front of the class and are very impressed with their confidence. We also used playdough to help with phonic knowledge.

The children had their second football session and are developing their ball control skills.

As part of our topic work we have been looking at paper maps and also finding out about how people can use the technology of google maps to find places. We found out about the journey of a letter and have talked about putting an address on the envelope. It would be really helpful if you could help your child learn their address- and post code if possible!

We enjoyed more painting on Friday and this week we added white paint to a colour to make it become lighter and lighter. We talked about  “pale colours.”

Reading 
Your child will have brought home their new plastic phonics/ reading folder in their book bag. Inside is a reading book to share and a  yellow reading record in which you may like to write a comment.This can be to say how well they have read, enjoyed the story or anything they may have found tricky.Please support your child with reading this book, especially with any unfamiliar words. Next week they will also start to bring home a phonics book and phonic homework sheets to complete. We will be sending an accompanying letter to explain how this will work on a weekly basis. We are excited about introducing our new scheme . The children will soon become familiar with the activities and their growing phonic knowledge will really help their literacy development.

Have a lovely weekend everyone 😊

Mrs Al-Noah and Mrs O’Connell

Friday 10th September

Well done on your first full week in Year One! We have been very busy in the classroom with lots of number work and reading. Everyone has written all about their families - well done! We have also talked about how we look after each other and decided on our own class rules. 

We talked about how we take care of pets for science, and even created our own patterns using pitch for our music work. The children have also enjoyed mixing colours and painting their own pictures. I have added some photographs so you can have a sneaky peek. 

PE Update: We have now been given both of our PE slots. Our sessions will be on MONDAYS and THURSDAYS. Please send your child into school dressed for PE, wearing jogging bottoms/ leggings, trainers, their white PE top and usual green school jumper on these days (including Monday 13th September). Please remember that long hair should be tied up.

Have a lovely weekend and I will see you on Monday. 

Mrs O'Connell xx

Tuesday 7th September

Hello everyone! I'd just like to say what a super couple of days I have had, the children are working very hard and you should be very proud!  It is a pleasure to get to know them all.  

You are also welcome to email us if you need to:

Monday/ Tuesday/ Wednesday Mrs O'Connell aoconnell@victoriaparkinf.co.uk 

Thursday/ Friday Mrs Al-Noah kalnoah@victoriaparkinf.co.uk

Enjoy the sunshine!

Mrs O'Connell xx

Friday 3rd September

It has been great to welcome the children back to school this week. They have certainly made a good first impression 😊 They have been so sensible and well behaved and already seem like Year 1s. 
It is a pleasure getting to know them and we look forward to the year ahead.The children have enjoyed playing with the new resources in 1C and becoming familiar with new routines. 

Mrs O’ Connell and I are always available to speak to if you have any questions or issues.

Have a lovely weekend, 

Mrs Al- Noah