12 Apr 2019

Yr1 Curriculum Update – 12/04/19

Working together to achieve success for every child

Year 1 Working together to achieve success for every child

It’s our 15th edition!

We write a regular newsletter keeping you up-to-date and informed about your child’s learning. This will provide you with a good understanding of happenings in Year 1 and how you can support these learning experiences.

Let’s Inquire – Sharing the Planet

We are finding out what Sharing the Planet means to us, our friends and our school. Throughout this unit we will be inquiring into: ‘People’s choices can help or hurt the Earth’.

Earth Hour was a huge success in Year 1 and across the school. Thank you for your support and please remember to continue your pledges throughout the year. Children have collected rubbish in their classrooms and are beginning to group and sort it. We have organised regular compost collections and we are hoping to use our compost to start growing some plants and flowers very soon! Students have inquired into reducing, reusing and recycling and the Year 1 classes have begun to direct their inquiry towards areas that they find interesting. Across the year group, pupils have been looking at endangered animals, systems and cause and effect. We are gearing up for our visit to Discovery Bay after Easter and the beach cleanup supported by Plastic Free Seas (PFS). We were visited on Friday by Dana from PFS who told us all about marine debris, the problems caused by it and how we can help. Please ask the children to explain their understanding and suggest some ways in which we can all help the Earth.

Mathematics

We are continuing to explore the concept of adding two groups together. We are consolidating our understanding through real life number problems, presented as word problems. For example, “Jaeyoung had 12 pencils and he found 8 more. How many pencils does Jaeyoung have altogether?” First of all we examine the problem closely to identify what it is asking us to do (combine 12 and 8, or 12 + 8). Then we look at ways in which we can solve the problem and show our understanding of it in a variety of ways, e.g. as a picture, a number line, using Numicon etc.

Student Led Conferences

This week the children had the chance to show you and talk about their learning. It was great to see parents and children so excited about the learning that has been going on in Year 1. The children were confident talking about their learning and parents were asking questions to understand more.

Sports Day

Year 1 had a great time at sports day on Wednesday. We worked as a team and were enthusiastic throughout. It really reflected the elarning the children have been doing in the Who We Are unit throughout the year, working collaboratively and supporting each other. We enjoyed spending time with so many of our parents- thanks for coming!

Mandarin

Year 1 children continue to inquire into Chinese learning through stories and rhymes and how Chinese characters are formed. Connections to learning are made through songs, rhymes and games.

Here’s a glimpse of the happenings in some of our classrooms: