26/04/24

Its been another productive week for the Year 1 classes.The children have been learning about volume and capacity in maths, have been extending their knowledge of Our Amazing World by looking at Oceans and Continents in their topic work and have been looking in detail at plants in science. We have commenced our outdoor learning sessions again which the children thoroughly enjoyed and have started to develop our Sending and Receiving skills in PE.

Homework has been sent home again this weekend consisting of spellings,some phonics practice and some maths based on what we have been doing this week.

Could we also please ask that your child brings in a photo of his /her family or someone who is important to them.This is for our RHSE topic and we would appreciate it being in on Monday. Reading needs to be done and returned on Monday as well so the books can be changed.

Wishing you all a lovely restful weekend with your families.

See you on Monday.

As we come to the end of another productive term, we want to take a moment to reflect on what an exciting term it has been. A term filled with dedication, enthusiasm, and hard work from both the children and staff, incorporating Book Week,Science Week, Spring Concert , a school trip to the chocolate factory and many other exciting events. We are very proud of the children’s achievements and the way they have approached their studies with such enthusiasm. 
 

We would like to ask you over the holidays to read as much as possible with your children and to complete the homework sent home today in their book bags . Please continue supporting their phonic awareness as well as this is very important in their educational development. 
 

We would like to wish you all a joyful and peaceful Easter with your families and look forward to seeing the children again rested and ready to go in a couple of weeks time . 
 

Happy Easter to you all! 

What a fantastic week it’s been!

The children have tackled their lessons with lots of enthusiasm and creativity.

It was wonderful to have the opportunity to meet with each of you  at Parent’s Evening and discuss the progress and achievements of your children. Your support is invaluable to us, and we are immensely grateful for your involvement.

We've sent home this week's spellings along with some extra phonics practice sheets. Please ensure your children find some time to practice these.

Furthermore, to solidify the concepts we've been covering in maths, specifically focusing on money, we kindly ask that you encourage your children to handle cash when you are out and about at the weekend . Hands-on experience is invaluable as it brings learning to life.

We hope you have a relaxing and enjoyable weekend and look forward to seeing your children at the church on Monday morning .

 What an action packed week we have had again .

Yesterday we welcomed a visit from the Toy Museum. During the visit, the children had the chance to interact with toys that many of us, and indeed  even our grandparents, may have played with in our childhood. It was lovely  to witness them embrace these pieces of history with such enthusiasm.

For homework this week your  children have been asked to do some living history research . We would like them to talk to an adult (the  older the better)about their childhood and find out what toys they played with and to describe them .

They can ask questions like:

                •             What was your favorite toy when you were growing up?

                •             What made it special to you?

                •             How did you like to play with it?

We have sent a sheet home in this weeks homework folder  to record the information on . We look forward to hearing about these conversations during our class discussion next Thursday.

 We also wanted to gently remind you that Parents Evening is just around the corner, scheduled for next week.

If you haven’t already done so, please take a moment to book an appointment slot to meet with us. This is a valuable opportunity for us to discuss your child’s progress, achievements, and any areas where they may need additional support.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible next week .

We wish you all a restful and happy weekend with your families .Please remember to find some time to practice the phonics with your children and to read with them. Your support with this is invaluable!

Have a lovely weekend!

8/3/24

What a wonderful week it’s been for our Year 1 children.

They came into the school on Monday greeted by an explosion of colour from our Book Week decorations and the familiar faces of their favourite literary characters. Their excitement was contagious!

Throughout the week, we’ve had a fantastic time exploring stories through storytelling sessions, Maths , interactive activities, and creative projects. It’s been a delight to witness their enthusiasm for reading and learning flourish in such a magical atmosphere.

It was also lovely to have so many of you join us on Tuesday for the Phonic Screening information meeting. For those who couldn’t make it, we’ve attached the PowerPoint to this page for you to review. Your support at home is incredibly important . Please do take the time to go through it  and reach out if you have any questions or need further clarification.

As we mentioned in the meeting, we'll be sending home lots of practice materials, along with the weekly spelling lists, for you to work on with your child. Please remember that the practice materials don't need to be returned to school. It's important for continued practice at home. The only homework that needs to be returned this week is the math sheet.

We hope you have a fantastic and relaxing weekend with your families. Looking forward to seeing everyone again on Monday.

1st March 2024

It’s been another exciting week for the Year 1 children .

In mathematics, their exploration of place value within the range of 1 to 50 has continued, with a focus on identifying and arranging both numerical and written representations.

In English, their journey through our class narrative “Traction Man” continues, with an emphasis on incorporating time connectives and descriptive adjectives.

Additionally, the children have started their new topics of “Seasonal Change ”in Science and “Toys” for History.

Today, your children will be receiving their new spelling list. Our focus for next week will be on the "ea" sound. Please encourage regular practice as spelling is a crucial aspect of learning. Additionally, we'll be sending home some phonic screening sheets to aid in preparation for the mandatory phonics  screening at the end of Year 1. It's vital that children receive support at home as we approach this assessment. We'll discuss further details about the assessment in the upcoming meeting and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible next week for this.

We will also be sending home a lyric sheet for the song "I've Got Peace Like a River," which Year 1 will be performing at the spring concert. We kindly ask that you practice it at home with your children. For those interested, the song is available on YouTube for singing along!

All that remains now  is to wish you all a restful weekend with your families . Let’s hope the sun shines 😀

23/02/24

We wanted to take a moment to update you on the exciting activities and learning experiences your children have been engaged in during their first week back after the half-term break.

In our mathematics lessons, we have been focusing on number sequencing and number recognition up to 50. Through various hands-on activities and interactive exercises, the children have been developing their mathematical skills and building a solid foundation in numerical concepts.

In English, we have introduced the book "Traction Man". This captivating story has captured the imaginations of the children and has provided rich opportunities for literacy development, creative thinking, and discussion.

One of the highlights of our week was our visit to the chocolate factory on Wednesday. The children and staff were thoroughly delighted to engage in the hands-on process of creating their own chocolate delights. Witnessing the intricate production methods firsthand and sampling a variety of chocolate flavours provided an enriching and memorable experience for all. Thank you to those parents who helped with the transportation of children. It was much appreciated.

This weekend, we will be sending home some homework for your child to do.

Each child  will receive a homework folder containing their weekly spellings and an accompanying piece of work to complete. We encourage fostering independence in completing these tasks; however, any support or encouragement you can provide at home would be greatly appreciated.

Similar to our reading program, it is imperative that the children complete their homework and return it to school promptly. This enables us to assess their progress and record their achievements. We appreciate the need to time this according to when your child finds it best to complete homework, so in line with other year groups, please return this by the following Thursday.

Reading books will be sent home with your child every Monday and Thursday as of next week. It is essential that these books are read by your child and brought back to school on these designated days so that we can facilitate book exchanges.

Your cooperation in ensuring that reading materials are returned promptly is greatly appreciated. Consistent reading at home plays a crucial role in developing your child’s literacy skills and fostering a love for books .

Our history topic this term will be centered around Toys. We will be learning about  the evolution of toys and their transformation over time.

To enrich our discussions and provide a more interactive learning experience, we would ask that each child bring a small toy to school on Monday. These toys will serve as valuable resources for our classroom activities and discussions.

Please ensure that the toy your child brings is not of significant financial or emotional value, as there is a possibility it may be shared with the class or handled during our lessons.

Finally we would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for your continued support.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Our door is always open.

2/2/24

It has been a fantastic week filled with lots of exciting and enriching learning experiences for year 1.

Today we were lucky enough to have a visit from the Kent Fire Service who talked to the children about keeping safe and what to do in the event of a fire. We expect to hear many Smoke Alarms being tested over the weekend!

In Maths the children have been actively engaged in deepening their comprehension of subtraction,further expanding on previously acquired knowledge and connecting it to real life situations.

In English our focus has been on enhancing descriptive writing skills with emphasis on utilising adjectives effectively. Through various activities,we have encouraged the children to unleash their creativity creating interesting opposite stories to the book Lila and the secret of rain.

We are looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible on Monday afternoon.

Wishing you all are really happy and restful weekend with your families.

Friday 15th December 2023

What a busy and exciting last week we have had at school! We hope you enjoyed watching our Nativity performances across Tuesday and Wednesday. We have worked so hard to remember all the words and actions to every song, our teachers are definitely very proud of us!

On Thursday we were were treated to a Pantomime performance after our delicious Christmas Dinner which we all enjoyed. It was so nice to spend a lunch time having lunch and play with our Year 6 buddies!

Today we enjoyed performing two of our Nativity songs at St Stephens Church Service with Year 2. We got back to school and enjoyed some time playing with our friends and having some well deserved Christmas choosing time!

A note from Miss McAdam- I would just like to say a huge thank you to all of you for your generosity and kindness in the gifts and words you have given me this past week. It has been an absolute pleasure teaching your wonderful children and I am going to miss them all dearly. Thank you for being so welcoming and supportive during my time at Bishop Chavasse, it really has been great to getting to know you and your families. 

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas holidays and I wish you a happy and healthy 2024.

Lots of love, Miss McAdam 

Friday 1st December 2023 

This week has been all systems go with Nativity practice! We are so excited to show you how hard we are working to remember all of our words and actions in our songs.

This week in English we have re-told the story 'Grandad's  Island' in our own words which we are very proud of.   

In Maths we have been recapping all of the learning that has happened this half term including using part whole models to add and subtract and then using these to write fact families. We have discussed how we can move the whole number to the front of a number sentence when writing our fact families as well. For example we can say that 2 + 4 = 6 (four plus two is equal to six) as well as 6 = 4 +2 (six is equal to four plus two). This has been a trickier concept to understand so please practise at home if you can! 

Next week in English, we will be busy writing our own adaptations of the story 'Grandad's Island'.

In Maths we will continue to look at addition and subtraction.

Friday 24th November 2023

This week in English we began reading our new class book ‘Grandad’s Island’ by Benji Davis. We spent some time looking at the items Grandad had collected in his attic and used our question hand to ask questions about them.  

In Maths we continued using the ‘part whole model’ to build on our previous learning. We explored how we can use part whole models to solve subtraction problems and then we practised writing fact families (two addition number sentences & two subtraction number sentences) to represent each model. 

In PE we continued to build on skills learnt in Hockey, passing the ball to a partner and dribbling it around the playground with control. 

We also started to design and label our very own yummy fruit kebabs that we will be eating towards the end of the term! 

Next week in English we will continue to use the story 'Grandad’s Island' to create a story map with sequencing vocabulary. 

In Maths we will be spending time reflecting on this terms learning so far and recapping key parts of our learning, 

Friday 17th November 2023 

This week in English we finished reading our class book ‘Claude in the City.’ We reached the dilemma of the story where Claude catches a robber who is attempting to steal a sculpture from an Art Gallery in London!  We learned about the main features of a newspaper article and then carefully wrote our own including headlines, illustrations and reports. 

In Maths we have continued learning about addition, using both part-part whole and bar models to understand and solve addition sums to 10.  

In History we are learning about what History is and focusing on our own history. We have explored our own personal history and have discussed and ordered key events in our lives so far. 

PE sessions this week have sadly been affected by the poor rain, but we still enjoyed a gym session where we have continued to practise holding and controlling different balances. 

Next week: 

In English we will be starting a brand new book called ‘Grandad’s Island’ written by Benji Davies. 

In Maths we will start to use our previous learning about addition to solve simple subtraction sums. 

Friday 3rd November 2023 

Welcome back Year 1!

We have settled back into school life and have been as busy as ever with brand new learning!

We have started reading our new book ‘Claude and the City’ and have used this to write descriptions of London. We finished the week by writing a postcard from Claude’s point of view, sharing some of his highlights of his trip to the city!

In Maths, we have begun partitioning numbers using a ‘part, part, whole model’. We have used cubes and counters to represent the different ways we can spilt a whole number into two different parts. We have also explored how we can put two parts back together to make a whole number.

We are continuing our topic ‘Animals including Humans’ this half term and have started to classify different animals such as mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish. Maybe you can test our knowledge at home!

In PE, we started our second gym block exploring balancing. The children found lots of different ways to balance on both hands, feet and larger parts of their body, like their tummy. This was incorporated into simple routines linked to last terms learning on travelling and making shapes.

Next week

In English we will be creating our own story map using an extract from the book 'Claude and the City'.

In Maths we will continue to build on our knowledge of using the part part whole model for solving addition and subtraction.

Friday 20th October 2023

Happy Half Term!

This week has been as busy as always in Year 1 and we have continued to shine.

In English, we ended our week by writing some fantastic poems about Autumn, we included both adjectives and verbs and then finished our poems with beautiful illustrations. 

In Maths this week we have practised our problem-solving skills and have explored grouping objects in different ways. 

We had a very special visit on Friday from our Year 6 buddies, who had written some fantastic leaflets that they were proud to share with us. Our buddies then listened to us read and gave us lots of compliments!

Miss McAdam and Mr Manning would just like to say how proud we are feeling of each and every one of you. You have settled into Year 1 so well and we look forward to all the learning that is to come. 

We hope you have a lovely half term break and we will see you back at school on Tuesday 31st of October!

Friday 6^th October

We have continued to shine bright this week and have shown some fantastic learning!

In English, we have learned a poem called ‘Fire’ written by Shirley Hughes. We have learned actions to go with each line and have enjoyed performing this to each other! Next week, we are going to use this poem as inspiration for writing our own poems all about ice!

In Maths, we have been comparing numbers using the greater than, less than and equal to signs. We have compared numbers using a range of resources and have been using the stem sentences ‘____ is greater than ____,’ ‘_____ is less than ____’ and _______ is equal to _______’ to support our learning. Next week we will begin to order objects and numbers.

We have had lots of fun in Geography this week where we have been exploring directional language in preparation for some map related activities. We have learned ‘left’ and ‘right’ and had lots of fun directing our partners around the playground using this language.

We have also been working hard to learn the words and actions to our whole year song ‘If I were a butterfly’. We are very excited to perform this at the Harvest festival celebrations on the 16^th October!
 

We wish you a lovely weekend and we will see you on Monday.

Friday 29th September 

What an exciting week we have had in Year 1 this week!

 In English, we have been busy adapting the original Jolly Postman story. We have introduced new fairy-tale characters and settings, where the Jolly Postman has even stopped in some places to have a cheeky cup of coffee!

In Maths this week, we have been focusing on finding one less. We have been counting back from any number up to twenty, all the way to zero. We have also been comparing different groups of objects. You might want to try some simple food games with your child as an engaging way to support this learning! Start with 10 edible items and ask your child to roll a dice to then take that many away. Who gets to eat the most?

After a busy weekend of bramble removals, we were able to start using part of the forest school area with both Year 1 and Year 5. We paired up to play team games and then learnt how to light a fire. This involved talks about safety, how to set the fire and then finally using a flint of steel to light the fire. (Well done Kyle and Toby in Year 1). We then ended our outdoor learning with a hunt for parcels which contained two marshmallows which we then got to toast on the fire!

Have a lovely weekend and we will see you on Monday.

Friday 22^nd September

This week has been very exciting as we began learning in our new Phonics group! We have met our wonderful new Phonics teachers and have begun to learn new sounds and books together.

Because we have been having so much fun during Forest school on Thursdays, it has been quite tricky for adults to change reading books. In order to keep book changing consistent, we will now be changing reading books on Tuesdays and Fridays. We apologise for any books that were not changed on time this week and ensure this is a priority moving forward! Thank you for your patience and understanding.

In English we have been continued learning about ‘The Jolly postman’.

1M shared their brilliant story-telling with Squirrels class which was enjoyed by all. We also discovered hidden letters within the story this week and have used these to experiment with different styles of writing such as postcards, shopping lists and commands. We particularly enjoyed writing commands for the Big Bad Wolf!

In Maths we have been representing numbers in different ways including writing numerals, words, tens frames and Numicon.

1A got to enjoy their first outdoor learning session this week. We found lots of different minibeasts on our senses hunt linked to our Science topic ‘Animals including Humans.

We are already excited for next week where we will be map making to find treasure around school!

We hope you have a lovely weekend and we will see you on Monday!

Friday 15^th September 2023

We have had an exciting week this week in Year 1 as it has marked the start of Forest School! 1M have been on a senses walk exploring the school site looking for Fauna and Flora that they can hear, see, touch and smell. Mr Manning even lit a fire for us!

1A are very excited for their turn next week.

In English this week, we have begun learning the story of ‘The Jolly Postman’ and have made our very own story roads to support our understanding of the story (we have a copy of this in our book bags if you would like to see!).

We have looked at repeating patterns in Maths and have practised making our own.

We have had lots of fun in P.E as well this week, as we have begun to learn the 5 basic shapes in gymnastics. Maybe you can test our knowledge at home!

Today your children have come home with their first assigned reading book. Please remember to record in your child’s reading record each time you read the book so that they can be changed regularly.

We can’t wait to start our Phonics groups next week.

Friday 8th September 2023

Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely, restful summer.

This week we have spent time getting to know your children and have enjoyed lots of fun and games through Maths challenges. In English we have shared news about our holidays and also written about it in our brand new English books!

We have also been looking at expectations in school. We have discussed our rules and class expectations including our ‘It’s Good to be Green and Zones of Regulation’.

In the afternoons we have been exploring the parable of the ‘Wise and Foolish Builder’. We have discussed what the parable means and how we can link it to our school vision and values.

We have had a very exciting Friday today where the children got to meet their Year 6 buddy and listen to the wonderful letters that the Year 6’s had written to them.  

Today your child will be bringing home their brand new reading records and a choosing book from our book corners. Please enjoy sharing these with them and enjoy the sunshine!