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.

May 2022

Computing

In Computing, we have been busy becoming more familiar and confident on our classroom computer. We have been practising how to input our log in details using the keyboard and mouse. To link in with our topic, we have been improving out mouse control by opening the ‘Paint’ application and creating pictures of flowers. We have learnt how to select different brush tools and how to change the colours. We know how to erase anything we no longer want and we are beginning to remember how to save our work.

Design and Technology

In D&T we have been working on a very special project! Did you know that we received a letter from Her Majesty the Queen? To commemorate her Platinum Jubilee, she has asked us to design and create a seed packet with a Union Jack theme. We first looked at existing seed packets to give us some ideas for what to include. We then studied our design brief and thought how to include everything the Queen requested. We have been working hard on our designs in our sketchbooks and thought of different ways to decorate our seed packets. We hope that our prototypes will impress our monarch!

English

In English, we have been focusing on using descriptive language. During our short burst writing sessions, we have looked at the Dubai Miracle Garden to initially inspire us and we then drew and wrote about our own imaginary garden. In our topic, we have been learning about carnivorous plants and we now have our own trumpet pitcher in class, which eats small insects! We wrote about Venus Flytraps and used interesting verbs, such as captures, dissolves and digests. This then supported our final writing about our own imaginary plants! We had some fantastic, original ideas!

Food Technology

In Food Technology this month, we have been inspired to use food grown from our year 1 garden. In the winter we planted garlic, which was recently about ready to harvest! We decided to make garlic bread and used some fresh parsley for added taste. We worked together in teams to soften the butter, chop the garlic into small pieces and tear or cut the parsley into small bits. Once we mixed all the ingredients together and added a pinch of salt, we then spread it onto a slice of bread and some of us topped it with grated cheese before we toasted it in the oven. It was a delicious snack!

Maths

In Maths this month, we first started with consolidating our learning on addition and subtraction and finding the differences between two numbers up to 20. We then moved on to a new unit on fractions. We started looking at how to make a half and a quarter of a whole object, as well as of a number whole. We cut bread in half to apply our halving knowledge in a real-life situation. We had to be really careful when making our cut, as we know that when we half, both sides or both amounts must be equal.

Music

In Music, year one has been learning about the names and sounds of different instrument families in the orchestra.

They have listened to live music from a trumpet, a horn and a clarinet and can now tell the difference between woodwind and brass instruments.

In addition, they have learnt to sing the national anthem in readiness for the Platinum Jubilee. We are so impressed with how quickly they have learnt the words!

Panjabi

In Year 1, we have been learning 2 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.

Physical Education

In PE, we have been continuing 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.

Science

In Science we started our new topic ‘Sun, Soil and Sunshine!’ We have been learning all about plants. We dissected flowering plants from our field and looked at the petals, stem, leaves and roots in more detail. We went on our first ever school trip and visited Iver Environment Centre. The trip was amazing and gave us lots of understanding about plants and how we use them in everyday life.

We have also focused on setting up simple investigations and predicting results. With our enquiry question of ‘Do seeds need soil to grow?’ we are observing beans in a bag with tissue and water. We were also curious to see where water travels to in a plant, so we put flowers and celery in coloured water to see if the colour appeared on the petals or leaves. Guess what… it did after only one night!