Friday 11th July 2025

We have continued to enjoy seeing the progress of our beans this week in Year 1 and stalks and leaves  have started to appear. Some beans have even tried to escape their bags in the search for more sunlight and space to grow.

We have continued to use our growing knowledge of instructional writing to turn our bean growing recount into instructional texts for next years. Year 1 to utilise and considered how to teach an alien how to clean their teeth by writing instructions for them. Apparently, a broom and dustpan and brush don’t work as toothbrushes and coffee and orange juice is not acceptable to rinse our mouths out with!

In maths we have begun our unit on time by looking at what comes before and what comes after. The very Hungry Caterpillar has helped us to learn the days of the week too!

Perhaps the highlight of our week, though has been our sports day. The children were impeccably behaved as they made their way around the circuit and put in their best sporting effort and sportsmanship in supporting one another (including those not in their houses) and we could not have been prouder of them. It was lovely to get to spend some time with you as parents as we went along as well. We hope you all had an enjoyable time with us as we move closer to waving goodbye to Year 1 and hello to a happy holiday and start to Year 2.

 

Friday 4th July 2025

What a week we have had in Year 1! We have finally published our class book on bats and had the gold
seal of approval from Mrs Stewart as to its quality. The children have retained so much knowledge and
improved on their sentence structure during this English unit of work - we are all very proud of them.
We have also been introduced to our new class text, having discovered quite the mystery in our school
library on Wednesday! Mrs King alerted us to the fact that someone or something had rampaged through the room, leaving all sorts of clues behind. We took on the role of detectives to try and make sense of the clues left behind, before comparing our predictions and thoughts against our new book’s front cover and blurb! Take a look at the picture to see if you can work out who may have stomped its way through our library too.
Our beans have definitely begun to take on new life, and we were able to spot roots and shoots a week after planting them. So far our predictions have come true, with roots growing down and shoots growing
up but we will keep checking in every few days to make our observations in our bean diary.

 

                                 

                                          

Friday 27th June 2025

What a busy week we have had!

In English, we have been gathering facts to write a new page for a fact book on bats.  We will publish these next week.  In maths, we have been deepening our learning on numbers from 50-100 and have been looking at the number of tens and ones in different numbers and ordering larger numbers on a number line.

Science has turned our classroom into a greenhouse, where we have started watching how a bean germinates and grows into a plant - maybe you have seen our experiment in the classroom window?  And in PE, we have been exploring different types of jumps in preparation for Sports Day.

We had a fantastic day at Odds Farm Park yesterday, learning more about farm animals.  The weather stayed on our side for most of the day, and we made the most of being outside and met lots of animals.  Some of our highlights were seeing the piglets, learning about how a cow is milked and then getting to stroke the cow and, of course, taking a tractor ride and seeing the new Highland Cow calf, Porridge.

             

        

Friday 20th June 2025

This week in English, we have begun our journey into learning about the secret lives of bats. The children have thoroughly enjoyed our new class text and have concentrated on learning about the features of non-fiction texts and what they can teach us.  The children have studied facts and non-facts, labelled diagrams of their own hand-drawn bats and thought of questions to investigate for our own writing next week.

In maths, we have started to learn how to count forwards and backwards from 50 to 100 and played team games racing to given numbers.  We have utilised 100 squares to help us in our learning and counted in tens from given numbers too.

History this week saw us investigating toys from Mrs Griffiths' past!  We were lucky enough to handle Game Boys and Switches, Lego old and new and even got to cuddle a teddy bear from the 1970s!  We thought about what these items looked like and compared them to toys of 2025.  We looked at the similarities and differences and considered why these changes may have taken place. 

We loved sharing our science learning with our grown-ups on Thursday during Science Open Afternoon.  We went on a hunt for different types of leave and then did a detailed drawing of one of them.

                                                                                      

Friday 13th June 2025

This week, Year 1 went on a walk around our school grounds, spotting deciduous and evergreen trees.  We saw more deciduous trees than evergreens, identifying them on our spotting sheets which we carried around the field on our clip boards.  Be sure to ask your child what the differences are between the two types of tree on your next woodland walk! We look forward to completing some more detailed leaf work with you at our Science afternoon next Thursday if you can make it.

In Maths, we have progressed in our learning about halving into finding quarters of shapes.  It has been lovely to see the children developing in their confidence, coming to the front of the class to share their thinking and support the learning of others in the class. 

In Skills for life, we began to look at our end of year unit on ‘Money matters’.  The children were very aware of what money was and what it could be used for, but we discussed the different forms that money can take and which form may be suited to particular payments. 

In Topic, we have started to think about toys through time.  This week we thought about our favourite toys.  We shared details with our group about our toys, such as why we liked them, how they worked and what they were made from.

                     

Friday 23rd May 2025

Another week has flown by in Year 1 and the children looked at lots of new topics.

In maths, we have been learning about positional language - turns, left, right, forwards, backwards.  We have had some very active maths lessons where we did the hockey-cokey, danced the cha-cha slide and placed toys 'above' and 'below'.

In English, we have been thinking about the end of the story where a noo-noo tree grows in the garden.  We imagined what Marlon might do with all these noo-noos and then imagined planting something in the ground, hoping it would grow into a tree.  We then wrote about what it would be like to find a special tree growing outside.  

Science was a creative lesson, making flowers to help us to understand the different parts of a plant.

                              

Friday 16th May 2025

In Science this week, we have begun our learning on plants and growing. We studied the seeds of different fruits and made observations using magnifying glasses and prompt sheets. We recorded the colour, size and shape of the seeds and thought about any special things to note.
In maths, we have learnt about doubling, sharing and grouping. The children have used lots of resources to physically group and share.
In English, we went on a noo-noo hunt! We searched around the room for Marlon the monster’s noo-noos before writing prepositional sentences about where we had found them. We then made noo-noo snatchers with our junk modelling and labelled them with how they could also help catch noo-noos!

                                    

                                       

Friday 21st March 2025

What an amazing week!

It is so nice to see the signs of Spring. The children are certainly enjoying the warmer weather. 

In English, we have created our own biography and shared some important life achievements with our friends. 

In maths, we have started our unit on measurement using non-standard units such as measuring a book with cubes. It has been wonderful to see the children working so well together. 

The children collaborated with the Reception and Year 2 class to create some structures. 

We also got to hold some baby ducklings.

Check out the photos below!

Finally, we celebrated Red Nose Day by wearing Mufti! Thank you all for your donations!

Have a great weekend!

Miss MacKellar and the rest of the Year 1 team. 

 

           

             

Friday 14th March 2025 

Year 1 has had a wonderful week!

In English, we have been learning the features of a biography and about the life of 'Amelia Earhart'. A quote from her really resonated with the class :

        "Whatever your dream is, chase it. Work hard for it. It is the best lesson I can give you." 

The children then created their own biography about her life and achievements.

In maths, the children have been learning to count in tens to 100. They particularly enjoyed the 'Jack Hartman' video. 

In science, we have been continuing to explore materials. We made rocket mice and launched them in the air. We then used a metre stick to record how high our rocket mouse went. We also explored whether the size of the plastic bottle affected how high the rocket mouse would fly. 

We hope you have a fabulous weekend!

The Year 1 Team. 

          

Friday 7th  March 2025

Year 1 has had a fantastic week this week. 

We have continued our exploration of Space and we enjoyed designing our own planet. 

In maths, we are learning how a number is composed, e.g. 30 = 30 ones or 3 tens. 42 = 42 ones or 4 tens and 2 ones. 

In D and T, the children are going to make their own fruit salad. Today we enjoyed trying some new fruits. We talked about the texture, our tastes and whether the children wanted to add that fruit to their own fruit salad. 

Finally, we celebrated World Book Day and a lot of fun was had. Our text was 'Jonty Gentoo' by Julia Donaldson. The children wrote a description of an animal, made an animal and the habitat out of natural resources. We also created our own story maps in the beautiful sunshine.  We then made a collage and listened to 'Vivaldi-Winter'. 

At the end of the day, we were delighted to welcome Year 5 to complete a shared read. 

    

        

Friday 28th February 2025

Year 1 has had a super first week back! It is great to see how engaged they all are and ready to learn again. 

In English, we are reading 'Man on the Moon' and we have practised our question writing and made predictions. We have also drawn a story map. Some children think he is an astronaut and others a footballer!

In maths, we have finished our unit on addition and subtraction to 20. Next week we will meet the numbers 20-50! 

In topic, we have learnt about the United Kingdom and the Capital Cities. The children worked hard to label their map correctly. 

Well done Year 1!

Miss MacKellar 

Friday 14th February 2025. 

I can't believe we are halfway through the year. It is zooming by! 

In English, we have been creating our own alien and writing a character description. We have learnt the meaning of 'nouns' and 'adjectives' and have created posters to explain these concepts. 

In maths, children have been learning different ways to complete subtraction problems. We have also made links to our number bonds to ten e.g. if I know 7-4 = 3, then 17-4 = 13. The children completed a carousel of activities, and you can see this learning in action in the photos below. 

In religious education, the children continued to explore friendship and designed and made a beautiful friendship bracelet for one of our class to take home. 

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful half-term!

Miss MacKellar 

         

         

Friday 7th February 2025

We have had a really reflective week and have focused on Children's Mental Health Week. 

In English, we read the story 'The Way Back Home' by Oliver Jeffers. The children have then been using the story to create their own alien and use an expanded noun phrase to describe it. I really enjoyed reading their descriptions. One child wrote "electric blue eyes", which I thought was great!

In maths, we have been learning to double and then looked at using our double facts to help us with near doubles, e.g 3 + 3 = 6. Therefore, 3+4 = double 3 + 1. The children enjoyed drawing their doubling machines.

In Skills for Life we learnt about different emotions through the characters in 'Inside Out'. The children also enjoyed creating their own Islands of Personality and thinking of all the things that are important to them. 

Finally, we celebrated 'Number Day' with lots of fun activities comprising a num bot creation, a treasure hunt, dot-to-dot and a near double board game. 

Have a wonderful and restful weekend!

Miss MacKellar 

Friday 31st January 2025. 

We have had a wonderful week!

In English, we read 'The Darkest Dark' about a real life astronaut called Chris Hadfield. The children wrote about his emotions at different times in the story.

In maths, we have started addition to twenty using our number bonds, e.g 3+7 = 10 so 13+ 7 = 20. The children shared tens frames and worked together to solve different calculations. 

In topic, we have been studying UK geography and maps. We looked at Stoke Mandeville and then the children explored other towns. We also learnt that a key helps us to read a map, and they enjoyed annotating their maps with the key just like a real cartographer!

We hope you have a wonderful weekend. 

Miss MacKellar

           

Friday 24th January 2025

I can't believe we have finished week 3 of the second term. Time is racing away!

In English, we have been reading 'The Night Pirates' and the children have been working hard to change elements of the story and add amazing adjectives. 

In maths, we have finished our learning on understanding numbers 11-20. The children are aware of different representations of these numbers. We have also begun to look at number lines and identify the missing number on the missing line. 

In science, the children were asked to design a new boat that could float after reading 'Who sank the boat?' I was really impressed with their creativity and nauticual knowledge, some even had turbo-engines. The children then tested their boat on the water to see if it would float. This is linked to our learning about materials. The children learnt that cardboard does not make the best boat as it disintegrates in the water. 

Have a look at the photos below! 

Have a great weekend!

Miss MacKellar 

     

    

Friday 17th January 2025 

The children have been really excited this week and have been busy preparing for the re-enactment of the Great Fire of London. 

In maths, the children have been learning to say the number which is one more and one less with numbers up to 20.  They have also been answering trickier questions such as," One more than my number is 11"," what is my number?

In English, we have created our own version of 'Pirates Love Underpants'. They planned their story using a story board and then used some amazing adjectives to bring their story to life!

In topic, we made bread as the Great Fire started in a bakery in Pudding Lane.  We went outside and watched how quickly the fire spread. Mr Lack and all the Year 1 team kept us safe! I am sure it will be an experience that they will always remember! 

Miss MacKellar 

                                                                        

Friday 10th January 2025 

Hello, Happy New Year and a warm welcome back! We hope you have all enjoyed the school holidays. The children have returned refreshed, ready to learn and excited to see their friends. 

In English, we have started a new book called 'Pirates love Underpants' and we have used our adjectives to create a 'Wanted Poster' for a pirate in our story. I was really impressed with how they described the pirates. 

In maths, we finished our week on understanding numbers 11-20. We used tens frames to show different amounts, using the numbers 11-20. 

In science, we have continued our observation of the different seasons. The children chose a tree in Autumn, we then drew this tree again in Winter and talked about the changes that we had noticed.

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Miss MacKellar 

       

        

Friday 20th December 2024

The children have enjoyed a fun-filled and action-packed last week of term. 

Firstly, huge congratulations on such a spectacular play. You all learnt so many songs and lines. We are really proud of you all!

We enjoyed our trip to the Pantomime and then shared our favourite parts when we got back to school. A special shout out to our Year 1 member who was invited on the stage!

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  We will see you all in January. 

Thank you for your continued support. 

The Year 1 Team 

Friday 13th December 2024

We are in our penultimate week of school. The children have been really busy learning their lines and songs for our Pantomime next week. We hope you can all join us. 

In English, we have been writing a letter to Santa which Sparkles will deliver to Santa. We have written his address, a list of toys that we hope he can bring and even asked Santa a question! 

In Maths, we have started looking at the numbers 11-20 and understanding how they are composed. e.g. 15 has one ten and five ones. 

In Science, we have continued to explore materials and the children tested the strength of different materials to decide which one would be best to build a bridge. I was impressed with how they recorded their results and worked as a team. 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, 

Miss MacKellar 

Friday 6th December 2024

We are in December and the children are really excited. 

Our elf 'Sparkles' has been up to lots of mischief, and I am sure you have heard many tales.

In English, we have looked at writing our own fairy tale based on 'The Three Little Pigs'. The children had some wonderful ideas and their writing is really beginning to take off. 

In maths, we have reviewed our learning by comparing and ordering numbers to 20. The children are showing a deepening understanding of numbers and are able to recognise common formations. 

On Tuesday, we celebrated 'Christingle' and learnt about the representations of the different items. I was really impressed with how engaged the children were and how much they remembered from the service. The children really enjoyed the part where Jesus' light sparkled. 

We hope you have a wonderful weekend. 

Miss MacKellar 

Friday 29th November 2024

Another week has flown by!

In English, the children have used their senses to describe the Savannah where 'Giraffe' lives in our story. 

In maths, we have finished our unit on 'Shape' and will be using next week to review more/fewer, shape sorting and fact families to ten. 

The children have also been practising for the 'Nativity' and we look forward to welcoming you to share this special time with the children. 

Have a great weekend!

Miss MacKellar.

Friday 22nd November 2024

It has been a rather chilly week and the children have enjoyed exploring the snow. 

In English, we have been reading 'Yours Sincerely Giraffe' and we have wondered who Giraffe has written to? We composed our own letters from Giraffe and the children had some fantastic questions to ask our mystery animal. 

In maths, we have started 2D shapes. The children enjoyed using lolly sticks to create their own shape mats and they have designed their own shape pictures. We will move onto 3D shape next week. 

In D and T, we have started to create our animal enclosures based on their designs. Thank you so much for sending all the recycling. The children had a lot of fun!

Stay warm and have a great weekend!

Miss MacKellar 

 

Friday 15th November 2024

What an exciting week we have had in Year 1. 

In English, we have been looking at questions and how to write a question mark. We practised asking each other questions and had a go at writing a few. 

In maths, we have almost finished 'Addition and Subtraction to ten'. We have learnt to take away by crossing out, and we even saw a different way of writing a number sentence such as 7= 5+2. We are looking forward to starting 'Shape' next week. 

In Science, we used our detective skills to ascertain whether an animal is a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore based on bones and leaves hidden in playdough. The children then made the animal that they think they had, and I was really impressed with their creativity.

Next week is chilly, so please remember to wrap up warm! 

Have a great weekend. 

Miss MacKellar 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday 8th November 2024. 

What a fantastic first week back. The children have settled down really well, and I have been really impressed with their learning!

In English, we have learnt all about Fire Safety, and we have created our own leaflet to inform people about how to stay safe in a fire. 

In maths, we have finished addition to ten, and we are now learning how to subtract numbers to ten. We understand that addition is commutative and subtraction is not! That is a really big word for Year 1!

In DT, we have explored different animal enclosures at the zoo. Over the next few weeks, we will be designing and making our own enclosure for an animal. 

I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Miss MacKellar. 

 

Thursday 24th October 2024 

What a wonderful last week of term. The children have worked so hard and now we are all ready for some much deserved rest ahead of next half-term. 

In English, we have reviewed when to use capital letters and full stops. We have also learnt that we need capital letters for names, places, celebrations, days of the week and the months of the year. The children enjoyed pretending to be teachers as they needed to correct my sentences. 

In maths, we have been working on our number bonds to ten. 

In Skills for Life we discussed how the Internet is used and how to make sure we are not on it all the time. It was wonderful to hear all the different activities that the children partake in. 

Reminder - Children may bring in a book to share at the end of the day. Please could you ensure the book is clearly labelled. 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support and I look forward to seeing you in November. 

Have a great break!

Miss MacKellar 

Friday 18th October 2024

It has been a fantastic week of learning in Year 1. 

In Maths, we have been learning to create addition sentences. The children have used counters, drawings and their own ideas to illustrate their ideas. E.g. Pat has six sweets and Molly has two sweets. How many sweets do they have altogether? 

In English, we read 'Pumpkin Soup' and we have written instructions to create our own. The children were really creative and ideas included fairy dust, glitter, unicorn slime, spiders and sequins. They really enjoyed using 'bossy' verbs to give the reader clear instructions. 

In art, we finished our work on 'Wassily Kandinsky' by creating a shape picture. 

We hope you have a fantastic weekend. 

Miss MacKellar

Friday 11th October 2024

We have had a wonderful week! 

In English, we have adapted the story of 'We are Going on a Bear Hunt' and changed the animal and the weather. The children were really creative, and my favourites included looking for a giraffe, a koala and a strawberry hunt! We looked at how adjectives give us more information and the children incorporated these into their work. 

In maths, we are beginning to look at early addition using a part-whole model which you can see on See Saw. We used the words 'first', 'then' and 'now' to tell our addition stories e.g. first there were three giraffes, then two more giraffes joined, and now we have five giraffes. 

We have used our sorting skills in science to put the animals into groups. We learnt some really big year 1 words (amphibians, reptiles and mammals). The children sorted the animals really well. 

Have a great weekend, Superstars!

Miss MacKellar 

Friday 4th October 2024

We have had a fantastic week!

The children have finished the unit on place value, and we will move on to addition by exploring a part-whole model. We made our own number line and used Fred the frog to help us jump between the numbers. 

In English, we have put our phonics skills to the test, and we have rewritten the chorus of 'We are going on a Bear Hunt'. I was really impressed to see the children using their sound mats and reviewing their work. It was also wonderful to see the children use BSL to support their understanding and memorisation of the story. 

In Science, we learnt three new Year 1 words (herbivore, omnivore and carnivore) and sorted pets into the correct category. 

I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Miss MacKellar 

 

Friday 27th September 2024

We haven't let the abysmal weather get us down in Year 1!!! We have enjoyed wearing our wellington boots to school.

In English, we have finished 'Toby and the Great Fire of London'. We created a diary entry as Toby and used our feelings mat to help us explore how Toby might have felt when he saw the red sky and enormous fire!

In maths, the children have explored number sentences using greater than and less than. We put our arms out like a crocodile, and we used this to help us write the correct sign. A key trick is to remember the crocodile is really hungry and always eats the largest number. 

We are also learning how to read some basic music notation, and we met the notes C, D, and E. The children explored making different rhythms on the glockenspiels and showed great respect to the instruments as well as taking turns. I was really impressed with their improvisations. 

Finally, please can I put a big call-out for Reading Records. There are house points available for each night read. 

I will leave with a quote:

"You can find magic wherever you look.  Sit back and relax. All you need is a book" - Dr Seuss. 

Have a great weekend. 

Miss MacKellar 

             

Friday 20th September 2024 

It has been another fantastic week in Year 1. 

In English, we have created our own story map and can retell the story. We have learnt to add some sentences to our story map and make sure that our sentence starts with a capital letter and finishes with a full stop. 

In maths, we have learnt one more and one less. We enjoyed singing different counting songs to practise these concepts. 

In science, the children explored our 5 senses. We also explored how it feels when we don't have our sense of sight. The children enjoyed guessing the objects in the touchy-feely bag by drawing a house blindfolded and trying to pin the tail on the donkey. 

Finally, we said goodnight to our tortoise who is going to hibernate. 

Have a great weekend!

Miss MacKellar 

                      

Friday 13th September 2024

It has been a busy week in Year 1. 

We have started our story 'Toby and the Great Fire of London' and have written some super sentences. We have worked hard to remember our finger spaces and use capital letters and full stops.

In maths, we have revised our counting to 10 forwards and backwards and starting from different numbers. We listened to 'The Gingerbread Man' and used our tens frame to show one more. 

In science, we are looking at the understanding of time passing and how we have changed from a baby. If you have any photos you would like to share, please put them in your child's Reading Record. 

I have been really impressed with how quickly the children are settling into their new routines and have been trying really hard with presentation in their new Year 1 books. 

We will send spellings home soon and homework from now on will be posted on SeeSaw. 

We hope you have a restful weekend. 

See you all on Monday. 

The Year 1 Team

                                         

Friday 6th September 2024

Welcome to Year 1.

There will be lots of fun and learning, and I am excited to work with the children.  I have been really impressed by their name writing and phonics!!

The children are eager to learn, and I have enjoyed hearing about all of their adventures over the summer along with new siblings, puppies and kittens. It is such an exciting time!

Please note our P. E days are Mondays and Wednesdays. (Please label all clothes as some get mixed up during changing)

Year 1 you are superstars!

 

 

 

 

 

 

               

              

          

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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