Class 1: May 2017

Homework
As you've seen in the homework books We're trying out a new maths game. So far positive reviews from the children. They find it fun and have been raving about it in the classroom. On Friday I've booked the ipads so that we can have a go in the classroom and I can double check I've given out the right login and passwords and make sure everyone has a chance to have a play.

https://prodigygame.com/Play/

I have noticed that the time questions are ridiculous, we only need to know half past and o'clock times. I've emailed the website with feedback about their section on the "year 1 national curriculum". Also I'm sorry about the begging for joining to be a member at the end of every battle. The game is completely playable without needing to pay any money.

Be sure to leave me a message in the homework books if you would like me to continue to set prodigy as homework as I can control what types of questions I want it to focus on.

Maths

After feeling rather comfortable with halving, Miss Morris decided to take it a step further and moving onto dividing into different amounts. We used different apparatus from the maths area to help us work out problems.

6 ÷ 2 = 3?!!! Mind blowing I know.

"I get one and you get 1."

10 ÷ 5 = 2, 5 groups of 2.

The same problem shown in 2 different ways.

After a few weeks of brain busting, we moved onto 3D shapes.
Can you name all of the 3D shapes in my castle?

Some children built their own castles, but only if they could name the shape. They made some beautiful structures.

English

During our last week of traditional tales we read the story of Goldilocks and the three bears and came to the conclusion she is a rotten criminal. We made some wanted posters, pleading for her capture. There was a very quick response, as the next day we got a tip off she was hanging out in the corridor outside our room of all places :O

Well PC Cooke put some cuffs on her and brought her in for questioning. We held a trial to determine her fate.

Then we moved on to celebrating one poet, Julia Donaldson. Her books usually have poetic qualities, in particular rhyming couplets which we were interested in. The children decided "the rhyming words in the stories helps you read the story." We've got quite good at filling in the blank and predicting what rhyming words could go next.

On Tuesday we had a sit down a read of all the books. It's one of my favourite things to see children enjoying reading. They worked great as teams, reading together and discussing the story. I saw these two having a race to read through to find the next rhyming words.

"HAHA the dragons are like us in Year One, but they're learning to fly. Look at Zog having a try. ooo I rhymed!!!"

The children were so engrossed in their books we almost ran over into lunch time.

These two were reading beautifully together.

A rhyming story about a mermaid? Yes please! A rather popular book amongst at girls.

Tomorrow we move onto explanations, writing instructions of how to make a pom pom.

PE

Over this half term we've been very lucky to have Tuesday PE sessions with Ben. His rapport with the children is great. They really respond to his teaching and are now thinking much more tactically in playing games.

We looked at the netball skill pivoting. Then we applied the skill to a game of piggy in the middle.

We are trying to think strategically in rounders too. We've been playing different variations on rounders, using other skills to scatter the ball out into the fielders. Such as throwing balls, hitting balls with tennis rackets, sliding bean bags and kicking balls.

When indoors we sit down on the floor to play, it slows the game down and we can really think about where to position ourselves to give the batter less options.

We always make sure to shake hands at the end to wish the opposition a good game and celebrate taking part in sports.

D&T

Aren't Year One a lucky bunch. On Tuesday afternoon Mrs Pearcy made gingerbread 'men' with the children. Taking inspiration from our recent traditional tales and current unit on explanation texts.