KS1 – Newsletter – 24.4.26

Welcome back! We hope that you are all feeling well rested after the Easter break.

We began our new topic on space this week. We began by role playing what it would be like getting in a rocket and flying into space. We have read the book ‘One Giant Leap’ all about Neil Armstrong and his team landing on the moon. During the week, we have identified key vocabulary that we will need and use during the topic. We have thought about what it means, but also looked at the phonics used to spell the words eg split digraph in space.

In maths, Year One have been learning how to count in 5’s. They have been able to write numbers in sequence in 5’s and have also been counting groups of fives. They are developing their reasoning skills, thinking about why something is incorrect or spotting patterns. In Year Two, one group have been learning about division through sharing. They have done this physically, but have also been sharing by drawing a number into different amounts of circles.  The other group have begun looking at fractions. First they have been looking at fractions of a shape and identifying a half, a quarter and a third.

Year One the children began to look at the Carnival of the animals in music. Today they heard ‘The royal march of the lions’ and ‘The swan’. Each animal features a listening activity, a movement activity and builds a greater understanding of the instruments in the orchestra. Year Two, have been using technology to look at how they can sequence sounds on Purple Mash. They have been exploring how to edit and combine sounds to make their own tune.

In art, the children have been looking at complementary colours. They looked at what colours the primary colours go with, eg blue – orange, red – green and yellow – purple. They then read a story written by the sister of Keith Haring, an artist who uses complimentary colours. Then then and a go at designing a picture using these colours.

In design technology, the children have been looking at rockets, specifically Artemis ll. They then thought about how they would like to create their own rocket and began to design it. Some children began food technology this week. They began by learning about how to stay safe in the kitchen and the importance of hygiene. They did a few experiments to learn about the importance of washing hands.

We’ve had the ipads out in computing. We were learning a new skill of using 2Question on Purplemash, to ask our class mates questions about their favourite animal, colour etc.. and the record it on a bar chart. We even took picture of things in the classroom like the plastic animals and added them to our own pictogram before asking questions.

Of course, we have begun to look at space as our topic. Therefore, our history lesson was based around learning about Neil Armstrong and his journey to the moon. We used ‘Now Press Play’ to listen to and act out his journey and landing on the moon.

For science we began to think about what things are alive and what things are dead. We thought about what showed us that something is alive or dead and how we know something has never been alive. We then categorised pictures of a whole variety of things, deciding whether they were alive, dead or had never been alive.

We have started a new set for our alternative PE sessions. This week we have done fencing, pilates and skipping. Some of these activities were new and we needed to learn some key basic skills. Some things we have built up on skills that we have previously learned and tried some new games to help us with our fencing skills.

We completed a Mindmate lesson in PSHE. This week we were thinking about what feelings we have and how our feelings might be different than our friends feeling in a given situation. For example, moving house, starting school, being in a play etc.. We discussed how none of the feelings are wrong, it’s just how we feel and those feelings can sometimes be determined by our personality eg someone feeling worried or very nervous about being in a play because they are quite shy.

Dates for your diary.

Monday 11^th May – 2.45pm Year One Parent’s phonics information meeting

Monday 8^th June – Cannon Hall Farm trip (Please log on to Arbor to pay)