Weekly Newsletter 6
It’s been another fun and busy week in Year 1! The children have enjoyed a range of activities, including creating beautiful rangoli patterns to celebrate Diwali!
English
This week, we wrapped up our learning around Puffin Peter by writing alternative endings to the story. We were blown away by the children’s imaginations — our puffin friends found themselves getting married, hosting underwater discos, and even driving Lamborghinis! It’s been wonderful to see their growing confidence and creativity in writing.
We also began an exciting new poetry unit, where the children explored the deeper meanings of colours and how words can express emotions and ideas through poetry. We have started by writing lists of things that are our favourite colour, before we start to add some exciting descriptive language to bring our poems to life!
Maths
In Maths, we continued our work on addition and subtraction. The children were introduced to fact families, learning that numbers can be connected in different ways to make related addition sentences — for example, if 3 + 7 = 10, then 7 + 3 = 10. This helps children understand how numbers link together and strengthens their number sense.
Phonics
This week, we reviewed Phases 3 and 4 and began exploring Phase 5, focusing on new graphemes such as ou, oy, ay, and ea. The children also practised reading longer words like lightning, farmyard, and cartoon by breaking them into smaller parts. This helps build fluency and confidence when tackling more complex words.
Our tricky words this week were: all, are, here, and today.
Topic
We launched our new Design and Technology unit this week — all about bunting! The children explored different examples of bunting and began designing their own unique piece. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be creating a collaborative stream of colourful, creative bunting to decorate our classroom.
Science
In Science, the children put their knowledge of materials to the test with a fun experiment to find the best material for Incy Wincy Spider’s umbrella! They made predictions, tested a variety of materials, and worked in teams to draw conclusions based on their results. It was fantastic to see them thinking like scientists and working together to solve a problem.
Autumn Day – Monday 20th October
In Year 1, we learn about the seasons in greater depth, and what better way to celebrate them than with a fun-filled day of seasonal activities! On Monday, we’ll be kicking things off with Autumn Day, where the children will explore our beautiful autumnal landscape and take part in a range of autumn-themed activities across all subjects.
If you have any lovely autumn-themed books at home, we’d love for your child to bring them in to share with the class. And if your child hasn’t brought their wellies into school yet, please send them in on Monday so we can get outside and enjoy our seasonal adventures!