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.

June 2021

Art

In Art, we have been progressing our colour mixing skills by moving on to tints, tones and shades. We now know how to make secondary colours by mixing two primary colours together, but how do you make them lighter or darker? You need to add white or black! Or you can make tones by adding grey. We learnt the word ‘hue’ to describe our original pure colours. We practised mixing tints, tones and shades and then painted them into squares. We had to follow a rule with the squares – if it’s grey, paint it with a shade, if it’s white, paint it with a tint.

English

In English, we have started looking at our new text type – letters. We started by looking at the purpose of different types of letters, for example we might write a letter to complain or to invite and so on. We then identified the differences between formal and informal letters. We sorted different types of letters into these categories. We will be writing formal letters to a reader of our choice, who can hopefully make a difference to help reduce plastic pollution. We read the story ‘Dear Greenpeace’ and wrote about our likes, dislikes, patterns and questions we were wondering.

Food Technology

In Food Technology, we have been busy making some delicious treats in the kitchen! We have been focusing on our mixing skills and using heat from the oven to change the food’s state. Earlier this month we made chocolate chip cookies, which were very yummy! We first beat the butter and then mixed in the sugar and golden syrup. We chopped our own chocolate chunks and added those into our mixture along with the flour. We then mixed the dough together with our hands and moulded ball shapes, which flattened into cookies after baking in the oven. Delicious!

History

In History, we have continued our learning about Sir David Attenborough. We have been reading a ‘Little People Big Dreams’ biography of his life, which has been fascinating. We then learnt more interesting facts about Sir David Attenborough. Did you know that he has 32 university degrees? We wrote some facts down and collected images of Sir David Attenborough, which we then presented on coloured paper as a fact file. We have also been enjoying watching clips of some of his many documentaries about animals. He is such a great role model to us all and has inspired us to look after our planet!

Maths

In Maths, we have been busy moving onto our new topic about length and mass. We first learnt the correct language to use to describe height and width. We then moved on to measuring objects with our hands and feet, which progressed into using cubes, paperclips and lollipop sticks to measure objects around the classroom. We noticed that these non-standard units do not always give the same measurement. For example, the whiteboard is about 7 cubes long but only about 6 paperclips long. We discussed how the size of the unit will affect the measurement, and then learnt how standard units are used across the world so that we agree on how long objects are. We wouldn’t want a wardrobe to be measured in hands!

Music

‘I have been very proud of the attitude of the students this term as some music restrictions are still in place.’ Mrs Stoker

Year 1 children have been consolidating rhythm. They have continued to follow a graphic score using drums, guiros, tambourines and triangles. They are also starting to understand the difference in pitch and dynamics.

We have continued to use an online resource called Musication and they have followed graphics.
Not only have they played rhythms but when I stop them they have continued to internalise their rhythm in their heads. Keep up the super work Year 1!

Panjabi

In Year 1 we have been learning the first 5 letters from the first set of the Panjabi alphabet. To keep us on our toes we have been using a variety of resources such as magnetic letters and flash cards. This term, children have been learning the formation of letters and their corresponding sounds. To consolidate our learning, we have been practicing on our individual white boards and in our books as well. Children have also learnt the words beginning with those letters that they learnt. Our main focus for this term has been speaking in Panjabi. Children have also been learning family relationship names and how we refer to family members such as, (mummi ji ,daddi ji, bhan ji ,veer ji). This term they also have been learning about the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev Ji and the main message from Guru ji’s shahidi.

PE

This month we had our Sports Day!  Children took part in lots of fun races including Parachute Popcorn, Slalom and 50 metre dash!

There were lots of winners on the day and the fastest sprinters won Bronze, Silver and Gold medals.  We also gave away Frisbees and Sponsored water bottles as prizes to children who showed excellent team spirit by cheering their team on and encouraging others!

We also had a visit from our much loved mascot Ladoo and children enjoyed the lovely weather on the day by having a picnic on the field with their friends and teachers.

We hope to see you all at next year’s Sports Day as you were missed this year by all staff and children.

PSHE

In PSHE, we have been using our knowledge of Stanger Danger and applying it in an online context. We learnt about some of the problems that we may come across online and learnt what to do to stay safe. For example, if we were sent a message from a stranger asking us which school we go to, we might close the application or tell our parents. We learnt that our personal information is very important and that we need to keep it private to stay safe, but it is okay to share things with people we know well and trust.

Science

In science we carried on learning about plants. We dissected a plant and looked at it in details.

We have also carried on learning about recycling and how plastic pollution is destroying our planet as well as killing our animals. We looked at photos of different oceans that are covered in plastic waste and the effect that has on the animals. We found some facts that shocked us, did you know that we are polluting the ocean with around 12.7 million tonnes of plastic a year and more than 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine animals die from plastic pollution every year.

We have learnt the importance of recycling and how that will help our planet to survive.