Year 1 – May the 4th be with you

Hello Year One,

This is another of our weekly blogs, giving you the week’s lesson outlines in advance so that you can plan your own time and your own pace. Don’t forget – little chunks of learning with short breaks (we would suggest 15 minutes or so with 5 minutes to wiggle and move and have a rest, then back to learning for a while. We are busy little things at the age of 5 or 6 and so we love to move and stretch. You might even use a timer so that everyone knows that it’s not too long at the table.

Well done everyone for all that you are doing, children and grown ups. We know it is not easy and we so appreciate hearing from you. If you haven’t been in touch yet please let us know that you are okay by sending us a private email.  We are not here to assess your home learning and teaching, we want to know all is well. If we have heard from you, thank you. A short email and/or a photo once a week would be lovely

mrs.rands@wfps.org.uk  or   mrs.felstead@wfps.org.uk  or   mrs.worth@wfps.org.uk   (Please note the spelling of our names – we have had a couple of emails lost due to the wrong spelling of our surnames)

Here are some things to do this week. You don’t have to do them in this order of course. Check out the weather forecast so that you can plan outdoor activities when it’s a good moment.  (you could use https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2641430 to see what’s in store and watch the videos too)

PE – There are a host of different ways to keep active and fit. If you have stairs in your house, you might try to walk up and down them a few times in 5 minutes and see if you can maintain a good PACE.  That means not going too fast at the beginning and checking if you are breathing steadily and effectively. Or can you jog for 2 minutes on the spot, rest for 30 seconds and repeat? Really make sure you lift your knees and put energy into swinging those arms. Perhaps you will use your time outside on a walk to do a few extra exercises? Of course, there is always lovely Joe Wicks and his facts, trivia and spot the differences.

Phonics continues with Mrs Felstead’s amazing videos and activities. She so loves hearing all your kind words and interesting sentences using the sounds being taught. You can usually comment directly after the video, on the blog.

Maths We know that some of last week’s maths was quite tricky. We are all getting used to the online lessons and we will do our best to ensure they are both manageable and appropriately challenging.  Keep talking to us and telling us how you are finding them.  This week we are recapping some addition and subtraction skills but also making connections – a crucially important skill for maths throughout your school career! https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-1/

Literacy This week we are going to try to use the Oak Academy site which many other year groups are doing.

There are 5 lessons for the week which include some phonics to go with Mrs Felstead’s activity focusing on the IE sound. Then there are spellings, grammar about using capital letters for proper nouns (places or people names) and then learning how to write a story with the teacher writing it. We hope you enjoy it. Let us know how you find this structure.

On lesson 4 and 5, it encourages the children to write a story but if your children are feeling tired or finding it a challenge, do not push them too much. They could just write a sentence or two to go with one picture and they are learning anyway by watching the on-line teacher model her writing anyway..

Lesson 1  Katie in London

Lesson 2 To commit a story to memory

Lesson 3 To use capital letters for proper nouns

Lesson 4 To begin to write a story

Lesson 5 To continue to write a story.

READING – We have had a look at Oxford Owl’s excellent website which, during these unusual months, includes free access to eBooks which are colour coded just the same way as our school books. Please explore this site, and begin to read with your children as these will be familiar to them. We know it’s not quite the same as holding and smelling and feeling a real book but it’s a great way of reading the correct level of book. Please don’t feel you need to rush through the colours. It’s very important that your child can discuss what they read, can use expression appropriate to the text, can infer what might happen next, infer feelings or recall what happened a page or so back. https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/books/free-ebooks/

PSHE This week don’t forget to think of ways to be helpful around the home. Can you tidy 5 different things away each day? That will be 25 things (at least) by Friday 🙂

Geography and Science Can you create a weather diary chart this week? It can be your own design but needs to show each day of the week and what the weather is like in the morning and in the afternoon. You can draw pictures, use descriptive words or even research using the BBC weather site. But this is not a forecast this is a record of what really happened. Was the BBC’s prediction correct? Have fun. Make it colourful and interesting!

Stories will be coming onto the blog with different staff each day. Please look at other year groups if you want to – there are lots of teachers, teaching assistants and other members of staff reading stories (we all love books!) so feel free to have a nose around.

Have a good week.

The Year One Team