Welcome to Life at KPS for Year 1

Mrs Sandhu and Mrs Richardson warmly welcome you to Year 1.

The aim of this page is to highlight some of the fantastic learning that has been happening in Year 1, this page will be updated monthly, with photographs and information about the learning we have completed during the month.

We hope you enjoy looking through these updates and do discuss your child’s learning with them to celebrate their success. We look forward to any suggestions you may have to make your child’s learning a pleasant experience.

January 2021

Art

In Art, we have been focusing on our drawing skills. We learnt about different types of lines, such as horizontal, vertical, curved, curly, zig-zag, dots and so on. We then had a go at observational drawings of fruit. We learnt to keep using our eyes to see the shapes and then we tried to draw these shapes, but it was really hard to not let our brains take over though! We also looked at colour and how it can relate to moods. We thought about how happy rainbows make us with their bright colours, and then discussed what a sad rainbow could look like. We made some fantastic drawings using our line and colour skills!

English

In English, we have been reading the story called Handa’s Surprise. We wrote a book talk on the story where we expressed our likes, dislikes and the patterns that we noticed in the story. We wrote Alan Peat ‘All the Ws’ sentences, using different ‘w’ words for each sentence. We then created a story map of Handa’s Surprise to show the sequence of the animals and fruit. We made spider diagrams of adjectives describing the different fruit, and then used those adjectives to write our own 1A sentences. We also wrote SVO sentences and used all of our skills from our previous lessons to create and write our own versions of Handa’s Surprise.

Geography

In Geography, we have been learning to locate using a map. We learnt about the hot and cold areas of our planet. We located the equator and the poles. Using a map, we coloured the cold poles blue and hot areas red. We also located the seven continents and the five oceans. We sang some songs to help us remember the order of the continents and oceans from biggest to smallest. We looked at Europe and Africa in more depth, where we learnt about different landmarks, food and countries located in each continent. We researched more about Kenya and created information leaflets.

Maths

In Maths, we have consolidated some of number work up to 20 and revisited different strategies for solving equations.

We learnt about time, starting with the months of the year – we made paper chains to show the order of the months. We discussed how our daily routine is ordered and learnt how to tell the time to o’clock and half past. We have also drawn the hands on a blank clock face to show a particular time. Now we are beginning to realise when morning is and when afternoon starts. We understand the importance of being able to read the time in real life, especially so we are on time for zoom!

Music

I’m so proud of how year ones are participating in online music lessons.

As it is important to stay fit and active, we have focussed on action songs, body percussion, and home percussion instruments such as saucepans or coffee pots.
The children have learnt to follow a graphic score (pictures of body sounds)

They have followed body percussion scores to popular songs. In addition we have developed control of their beats including tempo (speed) and dynamics (volume)

Panjabi

In Year 1, we gave been learning 3 sets of the Panjabi alphabet, and their corresponding sounds. To keep us excited, we have been using a variety of resources such as, flash cards, magnetic letters, white boards, and the interactive board. Another thing we have been studying is the weather in Panjabi. This includes learning the names of the seasons as well as their matching weather, to learn the weather we have been learning a song. After learning the song, we have been singing it together as a class and we have made hand signals to match the lyrics.

PE

This term, children have taken part in online Zoom PE lessons!

We have focused on fitness and exercise with workout routines as well as playing fun PE games such as ‘Would You Rather’ and ‘Deal or No Deal – Fitness’.

Children have learnt new exercises such as ‘Kangaroo Kicks’, ‘Frog Jumps’ and the ‘Cheetah Run’.

We have also spent a little time meditating towards the end of our lessons to help clear our mind and focus our thoughts.

It has been important that children do keep fit exercises daily so we have also challenged children to repeat the exercises every day at home to maintain their health and fitness!

PSHE

In PSHE, we have been learning about friendships. In the story of Handa’s Surprise, Handa was a good friend to Akeyo because she brought her a basket of fruit. We discussed what makes a good friend and shared how we are also good friends. We thought about the qualities of a good friend and created friendship flowers (or other pictures) to show the characteristics of good friends. We also discussed fair and unfair behaviours and how our actions make others feel. During Children’s Mental Health Week, we made extra efforts to show acts of kindness, both to others and ourselves. We sure know how to fill your bucket!

RE

In RE, we have continued to learn about Christianity and heard some stories about Jesus. We discussed and compared two stories where Jesus showed friendship, which tied in nicely with our learning in PSHE. One story was ‘Jesus Calms the Storm’ and the other was about ‘Jesus and Zacchaeus’. We identified how Jesus was a good friend in these different situations and we reflected on our own behaviours with our friends. We have also learnt about churches – the Christian place of worship – and we discussed how they are similar and different to Gurdwaras. We learnt about the Christian symbols of the cross and how some Christians where the cross to identify themselves as Christians.

Science

In Science, we have been learning to classify animals. We also learnt about vertebrates and also a little about invertebrates. We learnt that vertebrates have a backbone and are grouped into reptiles, fish, birds, amphibians and mammals. We drew animals for each group. Using our knowledge from previous sessions, we then did a comparison between mammals and birds, looking at their similarities and differences. To categorise animals in another way, we looked at their diets. We learnt about animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. We discussed which animal belongs to which group by looking at what they eat and their diet.