Welcome to Hummingbirds!

We are Year 1. Our teacher is Mrs. Morris and the teaching assistants are Miss O'Brien, Mrs. Evans and Mrs. Brookes. They work with us on different days of the week.

We need to remember to bring our book bags everyday and our PE is on Monday and Thursday.

2023 to 2024

Autumn Term B

Week 5

Sleeping Beauty and Christingle

What a busy week this week! It all started on Monday when a theatre company came to visit and performed a pantomime called Sleeping Beauty. It was great! We wrote about the pantomime in our English books. Then on Wednesday we walked to St Wilfred's church to participate in a Christingle service. We learnt all about Christingle, made a paper chain and sang some songs. Then on Friday afternoon the children from Sir John Sherbrooke came to help us make Christmas decorations. In between we have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes and practising for our Nativity which we will be performing for our grown-ups next week.

Week 4

A letter to Santa!

This week the postman arrived at our classroom with a letter for us. When we opened it we discovered it was a letter from Santa! It was so exciting that we each wrote a letter to Santa with our Christmas wish list. But first we learnt all about the conventions of writing an informal letter and how to set it out. We drafted our letter out first and then wrote it on some Christmas writing paper. Then we put our letters in an envelope addressed to Santa and went for a walk to the post box to post them. We continued learning all about addition and subtraction during maths. We solved some addition and subtraction number sentences and had fun playing some maths games with our friends to practice our skills. We have also been Super Scientists and investigated which material would be most suitable for a firefighters mask.

Week 3

Goldilocks and the Three Crocodiles:

The conclusion!

This week we have created story maps for Goldilocks and the Three Crocodiles  and used them to write the story in our own words. We needed to make sure that we wrote the events in the correct order. We 'received a letter' from Michael Rosen and David Melling, the author and illustrator respectively, ask us to create a moving picture for the book. So we made snapping crocodiles using a lever mechanism during DT. Then we 'received' another letter from Michael and David asking us to write the instructions so that they could make a snapping crocodile too! So that's exactly what we did! In maths we we have focussed on subtraction. We have written and solved subtraction number sentences using a human ten frame and a pirate ship! We have also used counters and cubes to solve problems in our books. We have also been Super Scientists following on from last week and investigated which material would make a suitable shelter to protect Boxton the rat and Vlad the flea from the rain and the wind. We built some great shelters and then tested them using water to represent the rain and a hairdryer to represent the wind.

Week 2

Goldilocks and The Three Crocodiles

This week we have continued our story about Goldilocks. The book is an alternative version and Goldilocks meets three crocodiles! We have really enjoyed it. We focused on the crocodiles in the story and sorted statements about crocodiles into 'real' and 'not real'. We then generated 'I wonder...?' questions in preparation for researching information about crocodiles. Once we had researched some facts we used them to complete a fact file about crocodiles. In maths we have focused on adding more and solving addition number sentences using a ten frame and counters and also a number line. We have been Super Scientists and our investigation this week was inspired by the book 'Vlad and the Great Fire of London' which we read a few weeks ago. We focused on the end of the story where the people of London made shelters out of blankets. We went outside to investigate whether the blanket, being made of fabric, is a suitable material for making a shelter. We have also had our first Design Technology lesson. We made a slider to make a moving picture. We created a background and used characters from the Goldilocks story on the slider. We have also learnt about Diwali. We created some firework pictures, made a dive lamp from dough, made lanterns and decorated hands with mehndi patterns.

Week 1

Goldilocks...

This week during our whole class reading sessions we have been thinking about what we already know about Goldilocks to make inferences and predictions about a story. Only part of the cover of the book has been revealed so far. We have started to read the story, pausing in places to think about what might happen next. We have also used role play to help us to think and talk about our ideas. We have worked in pairs one of us taking on the role of Goldilocks and one of us taking on the role of Tiddles the dog. We have used our ideas to write in our English books from the point of view of the characters. We are looking forward to next week to find out more about the story! In maths this week we have been investigating number bonds to 10. We have used different methods such as the bar model and a ten frame. We have worked independently within the whole class to complete number bonds in our Golden Maths books. Mrs. Morris and Mrs. Brookes were blown away by our amazing work and we all ended up on the star!

We have been Super Scientists and went outside to continue our work on the season of Autumn, talking about the changes we observed. We also learnt about how squirrels and hedgehogs prepare for winter. We have started Design Technology this week. Our focus is 'Mechanisms' and making different mechanisms. We have looked at and talked about how different mechanisms work in existing products. 

Autumn Term A

Week 6

The Tin Forest

This week our text has been The Tin Forest. For English this week we have focussed on the story setting. We discussed the setting at the beginning of the story using adjectives to describe the setting. We also discussed whether or not we would like to live there and why. We compared the setting at the beginning of the story to the setting at the end. We discussed how the setting had changed and again whether or not we would like to live there. We used our ideas to write about the story setting. In maths we have focussed on identifying parts of whole numbers and discussed the part, part whole model. 

We have celebrated Harvest in the local church where our parents were invited to see us recite a poem, tell the story of The Little Red Hen and sing a song. We were amazing!

Week 5

The Little Red Hen

This week we have been focussing on the story of the Little Red Hen and learning about harvest. We sequenced the events and used the images to help us recite the story. We then wrote the story in our English books. We painted some of the characters too! We have also learnt a harvest poem and a harvest song. In maths we have been ordering groups of objects and numbers. We have continued to use the vocabulary of most, fewest, greatest, smallest. We have also been using a number line to count forwards and backwards, identifying one more and one less and completing missing numbers on the number line. 

Week 4

Vlad and the Great Fire of London

We started our week with an amazing drama experience! We re-enacted the Great Fire of London. We were even able to wear appropriate costumes! 

This week we read a text all about Vlad the flea and his friend Boxton the rat. The story was about their experience of the Great Fire of London. We discussed what was real and what was not real in the text. We created story maps to retell the the story orally and then we wrote it in our English books. In maths we compared groups of objects and numbers. We used words such as fewer, more, the same. We used symbols for less than, greater than, equal to compare numbers. We have continued being Super Scientists and have been learning about the properties of different materials.

Week 3

The Great Fire of London continued

This week we have continued our learning about the Great Fire of London. We learnt that Samuel Peyps wrote a diary about the events. We discussed the fact that the residents of London saved their treasured possessions and we talked about what we would have saved. We also learned how the people of London tried to extinguish the flames using buckets and water from the river Thames. Following the fire, a fire brigade was established. In maths we have been identifying one more and one less than a given number. We have also compared groups of objects by matching to find out which group was more or less or whether both groups were the same. We have been amazing artists and completed observational drawings of the dome of St Paul's Cathedral. 

Week 2

The Great Fire of London

This week we have started learning all about the Great Fire of London. In English we have been learning about London in 2023 and then we travelled back in time to September 1666. We imagined what it might be like as a resident at the the time and used our inference to discuss what we would say and do if our house was on fire. We were also historians and looked for clues in pictures as to what it might be like to live in London in 1666. In maths this week we have used mathematical equipment to represent numbers, learnt to recognise and read words for numbers and also count on from a given number. 

We have been Super Scientists focussing on identifying 'objects' and 'materials'. We found out that objects are made from materials such as wood, plastic, glass, fabric, paper and metal.

Week 1

Our new classroom!

Our new classroom has different areas where we can continue our leaning. They include the workshop area where we can paint and make. An enquiry area where we can be scientists, historians and geographers. A small world and block area where we can create real and imaginary worlds. We also have a maths area, writing area and a construction area. We have a carpet where we learn together as a class and an area where we work in groups to complete independent work in our books.