Welcome to the exciting world of the Wonderful Ones!
We are full of fun, laughter, enthusiasm and love.
There are 27 of us including Mrs Morland, Mrs Walton, Mrs McMenamin and Mrs Cale.
'For the spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but just gives us power, love and self-discipline.'
(2 Timothy 1:7)
How Does a Windmill Work?
We know a little about windmills from our geography topic about weather but in DT we are going to learn how they work.
We started by researching the different kinds of windmills and what they are used for. We know now that a windmill has three parts: a structure, turbines and an axle. We are fascinated by them and we have enjoyed using our classroom provision to create our own.
Now that we know more about what a windmill is, we have been set the challenege to design one for our school. We thought carefully about how we could decorate our structure so that it would be easy to recognise as belonging to St. Philip's. We decided to use our school logo and then add symbols, words and pictures that we think are important to our school. We also decided to only use maroon and blue as these are our school colours.
After that, we needed to make our turbines and attach them to an axle. It was hard but we persevered and helped each other.
At last came the part we had been waiting for, testing our windmills! We tested our structure to make sure it was stable. If it wobbled, slid or fell over, we addded plasticine to make it heavier. Then we checked that our axle was not too tight and the turbines rotated smoothly.
At every stage, we tested, evaluated and adapted our design to ensure that it would work well. This was hard because we were disappointed at first when the turbines didn't work as we thought they would. But we persevered and we are delighted with the results!
This week is Science Week and we started with a special story time where we read two non-fiction books about famous scientists with Miss Caulfied and Miss Carroll. Then we learnt about a famous scient called Charles Macintosh. We learnt that after testing lots of different materials, he helped to invent the first waterproof jacket.
We then did some experiments ourselves to find the best waterproof layer. We tested a glue stick, PVA glue and oil and we measured how much water went through the fabric. We used what had observed to explain to our friends which was the best waterproof layer.
We were very excited to celebrate World Book Day today! We started with a parade where we showed everyone our amazing costumes and tried to guess what our friends's ones were.
Then we shared a new story called 'That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown' by Cressida Cowell. We enjoyed looking at the different types of illustrations and the different ways the text was laid out. Then we decided to work in our classroom provision to create our own Stanleys.
After that, we found a river of books waiting for us outside and we found that we could choose one to take home! It was tricky to decide and we helped our friends by recomending books we thought they would like. Then we decided to take our new book and find an unual place to read it.
We ended our week with a visit to The Little Bookshop in Chapel Allerton. After we had listened to one of the librarians read a story, we used our World Book Day voucher to choose a new book for ourselves. We couldn't wait to start reading it!
One of the libarians then shared one of her very favourite books that was all about words and it helped us to reflect on why words are important. Have a listen....
Let's Get Ready!
This week, we have ntoiced lots of purple around school and in church when we went to see Father Jude. This means that we are in Lent! Lent is a time when we prepare for Easter by making a new start and it lasts for forty days.
Today we learnt about Ash Wednesday. We know now what ashes are and how they are made. In a special class worship, we added our own ash cross to remind us that we believe in Jesus and we want to make a new start.
Then we thought about what we are sorry for and we asked God to forgive us, watch part of our worship to find out more. Finally we made our own promises and we thought about how we can help others and who we can say an extra prayer for this Lent.
Amazing Animals
In science, this half term, we are learning about animals. We know now that there are five groups of animals: mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles. We are looking closely at the animals in each group and we are discovering that animals look different depending on what type of animals they are. Some are covered in hair, some in feathers, some in fur and some have scales. We have really enjoyed using the materials in our classroom provision to show our understanding of what animals are like.
We are not only learning how to describe them but we are also trying to learn some of their names.
Birds
Fish
Wow!
To finish our this part of our work identifying groups of animals, we put our scientific knowledge to the test with a trip to Yorkshire Wldlife Park. We were amazaed and excited to see so many animals close to us! We saw lions, wallabies, tigers, giraffes, leopards, otters, meerkats, fish, lemurs, birds, monkeys, rhinos, camels and polar bears. We looked carefully at each animal and described what it looked like to our friends. This helped us to know whether they were mammals, birds, fish, repitiiles or amphibians. We saw lots of animals eating different types of food, so after half term we have decided to find out more about what eat.
Christmas is Coming!
Christmas is nearly here and we have been busy getting ready. In RE, we have been retelling the Nativity story in different ways and to finish this topic, we decided to send some special Chistmas cards to the adults in our school to show them how much we appreciate everything they do for us.
We were also busy in class with lots of Christmas themed activities of our own.
Finally, we had a special treat when Mrs Tempest, Mr Sandbach and Miss Scales came to read us one of their favourite wintery stories.
We Are Going On A Tree Hunt!
We decided to put our scientific knowledge to the test with a walk through Middleton Woods. We worked in teams to find different trees and we used what we have learnt so far to describe them. We identified the trunks, roots, branches and leaves and described what they were like. We also spotted lots of deciduous and evergreen trees. Finally we used our leaf spotter sheets to name the trees we found. We are now tree experts!
We know that we are very lucky to have lots of trees growing in our school grounds but which one has the largest trunk? We decided to use tape measures to measure around the trunks of the trees we found and we wrote each measurement down so we didn't forget. We discovered that one of the silver birch trees has a thin trunk because it is only 10cm around. One of the trees we found was 109cm all the way around!
Celebrating Christ the King
Today we led the whole school in our worship all about a special day when we celebrate Christ the King. We took our responsibility very seriously and respectfully; everyone was very proud of us. To make sure that everyone celebrated with us, we chose to end with one of our favourite songs. Watch and listen to the video carefully and you will hear our friends in other classes joining in too!
Partner Reading
Friday is one of our favourite days of the week as we are excited to have our first read of our new home reading book. We have just started partner reading and we know that we each have a job to do. We take it in turns to point to each word for our partner to read and we listen carefully so that we are ready to help our partner if they get stuck.
We read each sentence three times. The first time we read, we might have to segment and blend new words. The second time, we are more accurate and fluent. The final time, we can add expression when we read. Reading like this helps us to understand more about what we are reading.
Brilliant Mr Burt!
This half term we have continued our singing lessons with Mr Burt. We think Mr Burt is amazing and he has really helped us lean how to sing using our voices in different ways; it is always our favourite part of Thursday.
Have a watch and a listen to the videos below and we're sure they will put a smile on your face too.
Hello Reading Buddies
This week was very exciting in Year One as we met with our Reading Buddies for the first time. We were parterned with a new friend in Year Six at the start of the week and then we found out that we were going on a special visit together to Middleton Library. It was a long way for us to walk but we talked with our buddy the whole way. When we got to the library, we had lots of fun sharing books together and we even found some that we have back in school. All the adults enjoyed reading and sharing books that they had found too.
We can't wait to do some more reading together this year!
Middleton is Marvellous
This half term in geography, we have been learning all about where we live. We know that we live in the city of Leeds in a town called Middleton. We looked at maps and aerial photographs to describe what Middleton is like. We found symbols on some of the maps and we worked out that these were for the restaurants, shops and other important buildings.
Then we put our new found knowledge to the test by going on a walk around our local area. We worked in teams to draw our own maps of what we could see and we used words like left, right, near, far, to describe where places were.
Back at school, we used lots of different materails to make big 3D maps and we used maps and photographs on the board to help us. We used our own symbols such as tyres for the cars in the car park.
We are now experts on Middleton!
We are thankful
Today we led the whole school worship for the first time! We chose to tell everyone about harvest and being thankful for the food we have as this links with our RE topic and our virtue for this week. We decided together on the cloth, candles and objects for our focal point as well as which part of the Creation story we should use.
We used our big, clear voices and Mrs Morland and Mrs Walton were very proud of all of us. Watch the video below to find out more and don't forget to say thank you!
Comparing Numbers
Over the last few weeks we have been learning more about numbers to 10. We started by counting forwards and backwards to and from different numbers. Then we used the <, > and = symbols as well as 'greater than', 'less than' and 'equal to' to compare numbers. We built on this knowledge when we ordered numbers and objects.
Hello Hedgehog
We found a hedgehog scurrying around our outside area today! We were very curious about where it had come from and where it was going so we decided to find out more. We were concerned that it might get hurt so we found out what hedgehogs need and made it a safe place. Hedgehogs are now our favourite animals!
Friday is a very exciting day in Year One because we get to take home a new reading book AND a library book! We visited the library today and we really enjoyed choosing a book and talking about it with our friends. We can't wait to share our library books with our grown ups at home.
Welcome to Year One
It was wonderful to see so many of you at our parents and carers meeting this week, some familiar faces and some new! Please find the PowerPoint below with all the information that we discussed. If you have any questions, please speak to a member of the Year One team.