We very much enjoyed our Geography work where we focused on comparing our local area with a coastal area. We thought carefully about the similarities and differences between the two areas and really enjoyed watching Barnaby Bear at the Seaside to help us to learn about coastal areas. Use this link to access the video:
youtu.be/azhK5uf3t_0

Thank you to everyone who took part in the History sharing homework this week. It was great to find out about the toys and the games that our adult family members/ friends used to play with when they were children. The children will be continuing their work on toys and games from the past next week when they will be comparing Victorian and modern day toys. 

We have started our Read Write Inc approach to Phonics this week and have learnt the ay, air, ir, ou and oy sounds. These have been added to your Spelling Shed lists. 

Our PE sessions will now be taking place outside and we will be focusing on ball skills such as rolling, throwing, catching and bouncing. Please ensure that your child has warm layers to wear for outdoor PE. 

We took part in a class challenge as part of Engineering Day. Our challenge was to build the tallest paper tower using just paper and tape. 

We split into small groups and discussed our plans. Then we had ten minutes to build our tower. At the end of the ten minutes we had noticed that each group had stacked their paper on top of each other (just like Miss Leggett had done when stacking up the resources at the start of the challenge). We thought about what we could do to the paper so that we didn't just stack it one piece on top of the other. We then had ten more minutes of tower building time. 

After that we paused and took some time to look at what the other groups had been doing with their towers. We had a final ten minutes of tower building time. 

At the end of the tower building time we got together as a class and discussed how we could find out which tower was the tallest. We used a metre stick to measure the towers. The tallest paper tower was 40cm tall. 

We then took some time for reflection and discussed what we would do differently next time if we were to repeat this challenge. 

In English, we have come to the end of our Train Ride story and have focused on using adjectives to describe the sea/ sand and used verbs/ adverbs to think about the action that Grandma did to Molly when they met at the train station and how she did it. Next week we will be planning and writing our own train ride stories. 

In Phonics we have focused on the 'ar' digraph and the 'igh' trigraph. We very much enjoyed playing this game to help us to spell words using the sounds that we have learnt www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/alien-escape?phase=3

In Maths we have continued our work on addition and have focused on writing addition number sentences, using part whole models and exploring number fact families within 10. 

In Music we have come to the end of our unit of work Hey You where we have listened to and appraised some old school hip hop tracks such as It's Like That by Run DMC. We have worked hard on learning to rap/ sing the Hey You song and finding the pulse of the music. We have used a variety of musical instruments to find the pulse too. 

In Computing this week we have started our work on E-Safety. We talked about what personal information is and the importance of keeping this private when online. For further information regarding E-Safety take a look at the thinkuknow website: www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

Today we began our Design and Technology unit-Moving Vehicles. We thought about different types of vehicles and what their purpose was. We then worked with Mrs Smith to build our own moving vehicle out of Mobilo. Take a look at what we made: 

As part of our Geography work on our local area, we went on a village walk to see some of the key features of our village. We saw places such as the school, church, village shop, the pub, war memorial, village hall, tennis club and the park. 

We had a lovely morning celebrating Harvest. We began by singing a song called Busy for the Harvest busy_for_the_harvest.pdf. Then we took part in a variety of Harvest themed activities such as Harvest colouring pages and Harvest I Spy. We also looked at some books about fruit/ veg that is harvested, how plants grow and life on a farm. Our Harvest activities were brought to a close when Mary from the church group read a Harvest prayer for us. We thought carefully about how lucky we are to have such wonderful food and had reflection time to think about the foods that we are thankful for. 

As part of our Science work on Seasonal Change, we focused on the season of Autumn. We began our lesson by watching the video about Autumn and listening to the piece of music called Autumn by Vivaldi www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03npddx/melody-series-1-12-coat-of-leaves 

Then we got into pairs and went out into the school grounds to see if we could see the signs of Autumn on our checklist. We found items such as red leaves, orange leaves, blackberries, conkers and conker husks. We then collected Autumn leaves that had fallen to the ground to make our leaf hedgehogs back in class. 

In Phonics this week we have been focusing on the 'or' and 'ur' digraphs. These lists have now been added to Spelling Shed. 

In Maths we have been using the <,> and = signs to compare numbers. We have also been ordering groups of objects. We have practised counting each object carefully to find the total number in the group.

We had a wonderful Science morning on Wednesday where we focused on the signs of Autumn. We went out into the school grounds to see if we could find the signs of Autumn that were on our checklist. We found signs such as red leaves, blackberries, conkers and conker husks. We then gathered some of the Autumn leaves that had fallen to the ground to use to make our Autumn leaf hedgehogs. 

Unfortunately our village walk was postponed again due to the poor weather. We will try to get out around the village again next Tuesday afternoon. 

In Phonics this week we have been focusing on the long 'oo' (as in moon) and short 'oo' (as in book). These word lists along with the Phase 2 sounds and other Phase 3 sounds that we have practised so far in Year 1 have been put onto Spelling Shed. 

Please can homework books be returned into class on Tuesdays so that we can get the next homework notes stuck into the books ready to be sent out on Fridays. 

Unfortunately our village walk for our local area Geography focus was postponed due to the heavy rain. We are hoping to do the walk next Tuesday if the weather is kinder! 

In Maths this week we have been comparing groups and using key vocabulary such as more/ less than and equal to. We will be moving on to look at using symbols for comparing numbers next week.

As part of our work on Harvest in RE, we focused on how the Jewish faith celebrates Harvest. We learnt about the Jewish Harvest Festival of Sukkot and saw photos of Sukkah's. We then worked together to create our own Sukkah in our class role play area. We are looking forward to enjoying some meals in it next week. 
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