St Michael's Primary School And Nursery

Year 1 - Hedgehogs

Autumn Term

Autumn 1

English

In Talk for Writing, we are learning the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The children will develop a good understanding of the plot, setting and characters and will eventually write their own version of the story.  You can watch this animated version at home and ask your child questions to deepen their understanding. 

Maths

We are learning all about place value in Maths.  Children will learn how to count accurately, represent number in different ways and develop their understanding of the number system up to 100.  You can practise counting to 100 with your child using this fun video:

Topic

The theme for this term's topic is 'Stories from Around the World'.  

Art

We are learning about the Artist Van Gogh, his life and some of his paintings ('Bedroom in Arles'; 'Starry Night'; and 'Vase of 12 Sunflowers'). We had a visit from Art Solutions and with their help we recreated 'Starry Night' learning new techniques such as folding and twisting newspaper to make the artwork 3D. We explored colour mixing using the 3 primary colours (red, blue, and yellow) to make secondary colours (purple, green, and orange). We investigated mixing different shades of one colour; looking at what we needed to add to change the shade.

Science

We are learning how to classify animals using terms such as mammals, amphibians, birds, fish and reptiles and can also identify which animals are carnivores (only eats meat), herbivores (only eats plants), and omnivores (eats both meat and plants).

Computing

We are learning to use the Chrome book: logging on and off, using the mouse mat to move the mouse and using the letters on the keyboard. We will be using the computer programme Purple Mash, this will allow us to learn lots of different skills such as creating pictures, saving work and opening work to edit.

History

We are learning about significant people and places in our local area. We will be focussing on St Mary's Wall and the link to Humpty Dumpty, and Jane Taylor in Dutch Quarters and the link to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Here is an information PowerPoint which you may wish to look through with your child.  How much can your child remember about Van Gogh from our lessons?

Please see the slideshow below to show a snapshot of our topic learning this term...

Autumn 2

English

In the second half of Autumn term, we have focused on the story of 'The Bog Baby'.  We learned a poem based upon the story and have deepened our understanding of the plot, characters and setting.  We have improved our use of adjectives (describing words) and time connectives (first, next, after that, then, finally) and have explored and learned to use new vocabulary.  We will be writing our own poem based upon a fantastical creature in the first part of Spring Term.

Maths

We have continued with our place value learning journey and are now focusing on counting back from 100 in ones.  Children understand how to find one more and one less of a number and can order and compare numbers, thinking about numbers which are greater than and less than.   We have also explored how numbers are made up of tens and ones and have been working hard to improve our number formation.  Children can represent numbers in different ways and are beginning to identify odd and even numbers.  We will be continuing with addition and subtraction of numbers to 10 in the Spring Term.

Topic

The theme for this term's topic is 'Stories from Around the World'.

Art

We continued studying the works of Van Gogh and recreated some of his paintings ('Bedroom in Arles'; 'Starry Night'; 'Vase of 12 Sunflowers' and 'Self Portrait') using different media such as ICT, string and paint, chalks, pastels and collage materials. We have also compared Van Gogh's work with the artist Arcimboldo, considering their similarities and differences.

Computing

The children have worked hard on learning about algorithms and how important it is to provide clear instructions so that a computer program runs smoothly.  We have enjoyed using Purple Mash to explore other computer programs.

Science

We have continued our learning on how to classify animals using terms such as mammal, insect and reptile and can also identify which animals are carnivores, omnivores and herbivores.  We have been able to compare animals based upon their characteristics.  

We have also looked at the body and can talk about our senses and basic parts of the human body.

Geography

We have looked at the 4 countries which make up the United Kingdom and are now able to name them and find them on a map.  We progressed further to find out what a continent was (a large area of land over different countries) and have identified the 7 continents of the world and located them on a world map.

Please see the slideshow below to show a snapshot of our topic learning this term...

PE Days

Our PE day is Thursday.  For PE, we wear red shorts or jogging bottoms in cold weather, white t-shirt with St Michael's badge, plimsolls/trainers.  The children can come to school in their PE kits but please make sure that any jewellery, including earrings, is left at home.

Wild Wood 

Every Monday and Wednesday we visit our wildlife area in school.  The children wear coats and wellies when we visit the area.