Parent Information

Big Science

We have loved completing our ‘Big Science’ project this week! Our Science focus this half term was seasonal change, and we are so lucky at Valley Road Academy to have such large outdoor areas to explore! We discussed the seasons, and the changes in the environment which occur as the seasons change. We identified that we are currently in Autumn, and put our knowledge to the test by finding things outside which show we are in Autumn. Well done Year 1!

Mark Making

We have loved our Art topic of Mark Making this term! We have explored the different repeating patterns we can make using our pencils, and this week we’ve stepped it up a notch, and practiced our mark making with paint. We are so impressed at how mature the children behaved whilst using the paint, as well as the quality of their work! Well done Year 1! 

Writing a list

In preparation of writing a list, we have looked at the characters of our focus story of ‘On the way home’ by Jill Murphy. We debated whether each character is good or bad based on their actions in the story, and took turns in discussing our views. We listened to each other carefully and voted as a class on whether each character was good or bad. Well done Year 1!

Phonics

We are phonics superstars in Year 1! This week we started our phonics groups, and we are so impressed at the children’s knowledge and enthusiasm for their phonics learning! Keep it up Year 1, you are blowing our socks off!

Composing sentences

Year 1 have been ordering super sentences! In our group, we looked at the words we had been given and discussed where we thought each word should go. We tried words in different locations until we were happy that our sentence made sense. We used our new knowledge of capital letters and full stops to help us find the first and last word in the sentence.

Settling in

We have had an amazing week in Year 1 as we settle into our new classes and learn our new routines. We have had great fun exploring our new environments, as well as making a start on our fabulous Art topic – Mark Making! We are all so amazed at the resilience of the children as they take the next step in their educational career. Keep it up Year 1 – we can’t wait to see where this year takes us!

Our messy maps

To kickstart our Geography topic, we became cartographers this week in Year 1! We looked at several examples of maps, and discussed how maps show us an aerial view. We looked at key features of our classroom, and used our observations to create our own messy maps of our classroom, using a variety of equipment! Well done Year 1!