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.

October 2021

Art

In Art, we have been learning about the work of Leonardo Da Vinci, who was a famous Italian artist, scientist and inventor. We are focusing of drawing skills this half term, so have been exploring different media that we can draw with. We experimented with colouring pencils, sketching pencils, oil pastels, crayons, charcoal, chalk and felt tip pens to see which ones smudged and which ones didn’t smudge. We then learnt about sketching pencils more in depth and noticed how the grade on each pencil determines how hard/light or soft/dark it will be. We will then use these skills to do observational drawings.

English

In English, we have been focusing on Alan Peat SVO sentences (subject, verb, object). Some of us have also been using ‘Colourful Semantics’ to build sentences about Italy. We are leading up to creating an information leaflet all about Italy, so that others will want to visit this wonderful country. We have been focusing on a different topic each week. For example one week we write about where Italy is located and the weather there, the next week we focused on food and so on. When we return from our half term holidays, we will be writing our different sentences onto our leaflet layout and then publish our leaflet so that it looks ready for our audience.

Food Technology

This month in Food Technology, we made pizzas from scratch! We learnt that pizzas originate from Italy and had a go at following a recipe in groups. We found it very challenging to begin with because we had not handled dough before – it is very sticky! We enjoyed applying our taste senses when choosing which topping we would like on our pizzas. Year 1 has a very refined palate, with many of us enjoying olives and even capers!  It was so exciting to see our dough rise and then cook in the oven. We can’t wait to cook again next term.

Geography

In Geography, we have been consolidating our knowledge of the United Kingdom map. Now and then we have been doing pop quizzes of the countries, capital cities and surrounding seas of the UK. We learnt that the United Kingdom is in the continent of Europe. We looked at a blank map of Europe and identified the shapes of both the UK and Italy. We coloured each country to show its location. Italy looks like a boot, so it is quite easy to find. We also discussed the best way to travel to Italy – most of us would prefer to fly but some of us also like the idea of a road trip!

Maths

In Maths this term, we started learning about numbers up to 10 and how to split and double these numbers using part-whole models. We then used this knowledge to help us recognise our number bonds to 10.

After, we moved on to addition and subtraction, we were making maths stories to solve equations. We learnt that the part-whole model works by adding the two parts to make the whole, but we can also use it for subtraction by starting with the whole, subtracting one part and then seeing what part is left. We used cubes in our part-whole model to represent the numbers before writing our addition and subtraction equations.

Music

In Music, we are delighted to be able to resume our singing as both classes and as a whole school.

So far this term, Year 1 have been learning how to beat and follow a pulse and rhythms. We have done this through singing action songs, following body percussion pieces and beating pulse beats and rhythms using drums and chime bars.

In addition to this, the children have taken part in social music games. This has helped to develop their listening skills, turn taking and consideration to others.

Physical Education

In PE this term the children have been working on their balancing skills. They have been practicing different balances and learning how to hold balances for longer periods of time.

They have then tried to use these balancing skills to play River Cross.  River Cross is a team building activity where children have to work together to solve problems.  Through the game they learn that working together helps to achieve the objective and if they help each other by sharing their ideas and solutions they will get to the end point in the quickest time!

PSHE

In PSHE, we have been learning about democracy. We learnt that it is a about having a voice to make a collective decision. We took this opportunity to vote for our class representatives for Pupil Parliament. This gave us a real-life experience for how democracy can work when electing someone.

On Sunday 10^th October this year it was World Mental Health Day. We spoke about how to look after ourselves and our minds. To relax we often go for walks and bask under the trees, while enjoying the fresh air. Some of us like to colour to relax and others enjoy playing.

Religious Education

In RE, we have been learning about Christianity. As our topic is about the Colosseum and Italy, we discussed Roman Catholicism and some of the differences between different Christian sects. We then moved our learning on to learn about the Christian Creation Story and how Christians believe that God created the world in seven days. We created storyboards to show what was made on each day. We then discussed how God would want us to look after the world. We sorted pictures into what we thought God would be pleased to see and displeased to see.

Science

In Science, we have been learning all about our five senses. We used our pizza making session as a perfect opportunity to use all our senses. We had previously tasted the different ingredients in our tasting experiment, so made informed choices when we were choosing our toppings. We had a great experience of touch when we worked together to combine the flour, water, yeast, salt and oil. It was so slippery and got stuck all over our fingers. We could smell the delicious ingredients as the cheese and toppings melted into the baking pizza. Finally, we admired our pizzas using our sense of sight. We think that any restaurant would be happy to have them!