Welcome to Life at KPS for Year 1

Miss Owoaje 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.

March 2022

Art

In Art this month, we have been applying our painting skills that we learnt during our Khalsa to Kenya topic. Our theme within our Vaisakhi learning is ‘Identity and Belonging’, so we have been looking at our names in their original language. We learnt how to write our name in either Punjabi, Arabic or Hindi and then created a gridded page. We used tints to paint the white squares and shades to paint the dark sections of our name.

English

In English we have been doing lots of short burst writing about the Five Ks and Vaisakhi. We are focusing on writing more independently while still remembering to use our capital letters and full stops. This will help us to get ready for our learning in Year 2! We learnt the story of Vaisakhi and sequenced pictures of each part. We then retold the story of Vaisakhi, focussing on using sequencing vocabulary and adjectives to add more detail. We also ensured we used capital letters for names, places and holy words.

Food Technology

In Food Tech this month we first made pancakes for Shrove Tuesday. We learnt about Lent and the lead up to Easter in RE, so these delicious pancakes linked in well with our learning. The children cut up strawberries, bananas and blueberries to top their syrup drizzled pancakes. We have also made rice cake faces as a fun healthy snack. We have been growing cress, so decided to make something that uses cress – lots of us tore stems of cress to make the ‘hair’. The children spread soft cheese onto their rice cake and then added carefully chopped salad and vegetables to create a face or creature.

Maths

In Maths this month we have been furthering our maths knowledge and learning about numbers to 50. We learnt different strategies such as ‘make ten’ and using a bead string to help us add and subtract or count on. We have also been comparing and ordering numbers within 50 using a number line. This then helped us in place value to recognise tens and ones as a unit.

After this, we then moved on to counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. We discovered that counting in lots of a number can make counting much more efficient!

Music

In Music, year one has been working really hard to follow and play simple rhythms.

They have followed a mixture of crotchets and quavers as above using the words ‘TA’ and ‘TE TE’ to keep in time to a pulse beat. They have used both body percussion and drums to follow their rhythms. In addition, the children have been singing ‘Good to be me’ which promotes positivity.

Panjabi & Sikh Studies

In Year 1 the main focus this term has been on Vaisakhi, since we are celebrating the creation of Khalsa by dhan dhan Shri Guru Gobind Singh Ji. First, we learnt how the Khalsa was created by Guru Gobind Singh Ji at Anandpur Sahib. We also learnt some key vocabulary from the story.

After, the children learnt about 5K’s which are called Panj Kakaar in Panjabi. Pupils also learnt the names of 5K’s and their meanings. Every child took part in the Vaisakhi assembly where they sung special related shabads. They also learnt about the Nishan Sahib and took part in the seva of Nishan Sahib.

Now, some children are making posters about the 5K’s and writing their names in Panjabi. In addition to this, we have been making 3D models of the 5K’s and making cross curricular links.

Physical Education

In PE, we have been learning to play Handball! We have been practicing the skills needed to play the sport by taking part in practice games and drills designed to improve spatial awareness. Handball is a team sport in which you have to score goals by throwing a ball past a goal keeper.  You are not allowed to move with the ball so your team have to be on their toes and be moving around for you. Children will be working on quick footwork skills and teamwork to improve their game play.  These skills are transferable to many other team and individual sports and we will be discussing this further in our lessons.

PSHE

In PSHE we learnt the story of ‘The Name Jar’ by Yangsook Choi. The story is about a Korean girl who moves to America, but begins to wonder if she should choose a new name. We learnt the importance of saying names correctly and also that most names are usually chosen because of their meaning.

We have also been looking at different families and what our own family looks like. The children did an activity where they each had a photo of an animal and then had to find their animal family by only making the sound of that animal! This showed them one way of how we can belong together.

Science

In Science we have continued our learning about animal groups. To categorise animals in another way, we looked at diets. We investigated some pretend poops and observed the food remains left inside. We could then identify which ones must have been left by a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore. We also learnt that most humans are omnivores as we eat from plants and animals!

Linking with our Vaisakhi learning, we revisited our learning about materials and identified the materials that each of the 5 Ks is made out of. We also looked more at ourselves and the parts of our body. To consolidate this the children sketched out the human body and labelled each part.