WELCOME TO YEAR 1 BRAMBLINGS
The Brambling can be found most commonly in the British Isles during the cold winter months, the rest of the year it explores other regions of the world. They travel in large groups (usually in the thousands!) and we will take this characteristic of this bird and use it in our classroom to ensure that there is a sense of teamwork to encourage all children to work together and support each other in their learning journey!
THIS TERMS THEME
'# Explore More'
This term, we will focus on cross curricular Science learning by linking Science to Art, DT, Writing and Maths. We will be looking at naming and labelling a variety of plants and trees. We will also be looking at seasonal changes and presenting our findings in our learning celebration. Our class texts 'Jack and the Beanstalk' and 'Tree' will be used to link our Science learning to story writing and picture book creating.
P.E AND DANCE DAYS
P.E Days are Wednesday's and Friday's. Please ensure that your child has the correct kit in school all week. We will ensure that they are sent home at the end of every half term.
HOME LEARNING DAYS
Home Learning will be handed out on a Friday and collected in on a Wednesday. This will give you the opportunity to explore aspects of your child's learning if you wish.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Monday 19th April- First day of Summer Term
Monday 3rd May- Bank Holiday
Monday 17th and Thursday 20th May- Parent's evening
Friday 28th May - Break up for Half Term
Monday 31st May- Bank Holiday
Monday 7th June- INSET day
Tuesday 8th June - First day back after half term
Wednesday 7th July- Science Museum
Wednesday 14th July- End of Year Reports
Wednesday 21st July- Sports Day
Friday 23rd July- Final day of Summer Term
Meet the Team
If there are any issues or concerns, please feel free to contact your teacher (Miss Redmond) or alternatively please contact a team leader (Mr O'Sullivan or Mrs Jarrett).
eredmond@whiterockprimaryschool.co.uk
losullivan@white-rock-primary.torbay.sch.uk
sjarrett@whiterockprimary.torbay.sch.uk
ACADEMIC YEAR 2020/2021
Summer Term
Summer term curriculum map
Wednesday 21st July - Sports Day
Today we had our Sports Day. With our hats firmly on our heads, sun cream applied and drinks bottles full we set out for the field. The first race was the Hurdles, where we ran and jumped over the hurdles. Our second race was the Beanbag Balance race where we balanced the bean bag on our heads. Carefully we walked or ran to a cone and back again. Finally, the third race was the Egg and Spoon race where we balanced the egg on a spoon and had to walk as fast as we could down the course, around the cone and back again without dropping the egg. Have a look at our amazing action shots!
Thursday 15th July 2021
This week we have had great fun during our continuous provision. We have had the opportunity to practice our work on algorithms by programming Bee-Bots to move in the correct directions from A to B. We have also had fun buying different things with money and making leaf rubbings using different colours.
Friday 2nd July 2021 - Design Technology...All about Trees!
As part of our writing journey we are learning all about the different types of trees and the how to identify them from comparing leaves. In our DT lesson today we got to plan and begin creating a 'lift the flap' leaflet that will hold all of our brilliant learning. We started by adding to our plan in our writing journey. Using a post it note we decided where we wanted our flaps to go to reveal more interesting facts about trees and we then started to create our very own leaflet by designing the front cover with a drawing of a tree.
Tuesday 22nd June 2021: Maths and Science - Building a Zoo!
This week, the Bramblings class have been working hard in continuous provision to build a zoo! They wanted to expand on their science topic where we have been learning about different habitats. They worked together to make different animals we could find in a zoo and created them using our counting blocks. They then identified how many blocks they used for each animal to find the greatest and fewest number! Fantastic work Bramblings! Well done!
Wednesday 16th June 2021 - Writing/Reading
Today we were very lucky to watch a live link from Julia Donaldson and Alex Sheffler talking about all the different books Julia has written and Alex has illustrated for her. Julia read her great story of 'Tiddler' to us and Alex showed us how to draw the 'Gruffalo'. With some children on the screen, we also joined in acting out Julia's poem called 'Nut Tree'. Have a look at Julia live on our whiteboard!
Friday 11th June 2021 - Science
For our science topic this term we are studying different types of trees. Today we went on a tree hunt around the school and we found out there are so many different trees outside. We have learnt that some are Deciduous which means they lose their leaves in the Autumn and some are Evergreen which means that they keep their leaves all year round. We were able to look at the leaves of the trees to identify what type of trees we have here at White Rock. It was great fun!
Thursday 27th May 2021 - Writing
This week we have been looking at suffixes. We learned that suffixes go on the end of a word. We have looked at 'ed', 'ing', 'er' and 'est' and learned all the rules that go with them. We then ordered ourselves in our lines of tall, taller and tallest.
Have a look at our great photos!
Wednesday 19th May 2021 - Finding Quarters
This week we have been learning all about finding half and quarter of an amount. We got to show our understanding by finding a quarter of a piece of paper. We started by folding it in half, then half again to make 4 quarters and then wrote the amount in each section that we had made. We needed to remember to fold our paper so that each group was the same size to make it equal and fair. What great work Bramblings, well done!
Monday 11th May 2021- Mental health awareness week: Cloud watching
This week is mental health awareness week and in Year One we had a circle time assembly to discuss how to manage our emotions. We discussed different strategies we could use such as mindfulness, breathing deeply and enjoying being outside. We went out and gazed up at the clouds. We saw that some clouds were big, white and fluffy and some were dark and grey. We learned the fluffy white ones are 'Cumulus' clouds and the dark and grey ones are 'Nimbus' clouds. We decided we preferred the Cumulus clouds! We also discussed and learned that the clouds move quickly or slowly by the wind. We enjoyed finding different shapes,animals and objects formed in the clouds.
Friday 7th May 2021- Science: Labelling the parts of a plant
Our budding Scientists have been learning all about plants. We have planted our very own beans which have started to shoot upwards, created playdoh flowers in continuous provision and made beautiful flowers using Art resources. Today we looked at Scientifically labelling the different parts of a plant. Everyone was amazing at this, well done Bramblings!
Monday 26th April and Thursday 29th April 2021 - Maths
In Maths this week we have been learning all about equal groups. We used resources such as cubes, counters, people and numicon to create equal groups. Once we had mastered this we learned about repeated addition. We used numicon to create our equal groups of 2s 5s or 10s and then wrote the number sentences underneath them. Take a look at the amazing Maths we have been doing!
Monday 19th April 2021- Science and Writing: Bean planting
For our new Writing journey, we are looking at Jack and the Beanstalk which links in with our Science topic on Plants.
We planned and set up an experiment to see what plants need to grow and have each been able to plant our very own runner bean seed.
We will also be using our observational skills to chart the growth of our plants and link this with our Maths learning on measuring and recording data.
ACADEMIC YEAR 2020/2021
Spring Term
Spring term curriculum map
Wednesday 31st March 2021- Outside Provision
This week we have had a lot of great learning experiences in the outside provision. We have used out phonics knowledge to roll graphemes on our dice and then think of words that contain them, then build them on the phonics poll. We have been working hard on our ordering and sequencing of numbers, we even tried to find our 2s, 5s and 10 times tables with the number cards. We have developed our fine motor skills by drawing tricky words in the sand tray and worked hard on team activities to think about how numbers can make us move around our hoop course. What a lovely week in the sunshine!
Friday 26th March - Continuous Provision
In our continuous provision this week we have enjoyed writing stories about Easter using the story stones to help us plan out our story. We have explored using different Maths resources to help us work out mathematical problems as well as adding characters to tell them. Using magnetic letter to help us remember out tricky word spellings has been so fun and we also practised writing them in the sand. We also enjoyed using plasticine, craft paper and straws and tape to sculpt animals that we had researched. Wow! What a great week of learning the Bramblings class have had!
Thursday 18th March 2021- Writing: Can I identify the features of an information leaflet?
Our writing journey will end with all children creating an information leaflet on their favourite animal. So today we worked in teams to identify the features of a leaflet so that we know what we need to include once we are ready to create our own.
Monday 8th March - Friday 12th March - OUR FIRST WEEK BACK
What an amazing first week back we have had! We started the week with some teambuilding STEM activities followed by our Phonics and Writing learning. We completed writing the story of The Mousehole Cat and creating our story maps whilst developing our skills in the continuous provision choosing activities.
It has been so lovely to be back together with the class and see our friends again. I am very proud of you all for the brilliant way you got back into learning after the lockdown and the energy and joy you all bring to the classroom. Well done Bramblings!
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Autumn Term
Autumn Term Curriculum Map
Letter for parents
Final week in school- Christmas dinner day and craft sessions
This final week before Christmas we have experienced Christmas dinner day with the rest of the class in the dinner hall. The hall was decorated beautifully and this year we had the most wonderful winter wonderland themed display in the middle which the children found delightful.
We hope they have enjoyed their final week in school as much as we have!
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Monday 7th December - Polar Express Day.
Today we got to wear our pyjamas to school as we were having a Polar Express day. Mrs Proctor stamped our golden tickets and we climbed aboard the Poloar Express bound for the North Pole. We listened to the story and sound clips from the film where we had to use adjectives to describe what we could hear. We heard the wolves howling in the woods, the train thundered along the track and the brakes screeching to a halt against the metal of the track. We decorated our own biscuits which we got to eat with a lovely mug of hot chocolate. Some of us were adventurous and had whipped cream on our hot chocolate. After listening to the story again, we story mapped out the story by drawing pictures to help us remember the correct sequence of what happened. Then, after watching the film we were given our first gift of Christmas. We learned that all of Buzzards believed in Father Christmas as we could all hear the bells when we jingled them. What a fun day we had.
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Thursday 3rd December - Fine Motor Skills
This week in our continuous provision we have used the play dough to recreate our dinners. We then used our fine motor skills to practise using our knife and fork correctly to cut up our food.
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Wednesday 25th November - Maths
For our Maths journey, we have been learning how to represent teen numbers using numicon and cubes. We enjoyed using the numberblock puppets to help us see how many tens and how many ones we needed.
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Week beginning 16th November 2020 - Continuous Provision learning.
This week we wanted to show how often we are busy learning through play in Year 1! We have been creating worry dolls in keeping with our topic 'Free to be Me' and used them to act out stories which we then wrote independently in our Learning Journeys. We used the magnetic letters to spell out some of the spellings we have learned during the term and then put these words into a sentence.
We have been zoo keepers at the Science table and classified the escaped animals and put them into the correct enclosure according to whether they are Amphibians, Reptiles, Insects, Mammals, Fish or Birds.
We sorted 2d and 3d shapes in a variety of ways.
In our role play area - Post Office - we have enjoyed using our Maths, Writing and knowledge of the World to have fun and learn. We have written letters, postcards and posted them into our post box, not forgetting the stamp of course! In our outdoor provision we have enjoyed using chalk pens to practise our number formation. We used our mathematical knowledge to order the pegs from 0 - 20 and found hidden treasure in the sand and had to match the labels to form one of our tricky words.
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Wednesday 11th November 2020- Geography naming the continents of the world.
In our Geography lesson this week we identified the World's continents. We found out there are seven continents, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Antarctica and Australasia. We also looked at a globe and a map and had a discussion about whether or not they were showing the same thing. We realised that they were both showing us the World! We then worked in teams to label the continents correctly.
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Tuesday 3rd November 2020- Science: Animals and their habitats
For our Science journey this half term, we will be looking at animals (including humans). This week we are focusing on sorting animals based on their habitats. We had to work scientifically by using our observational skills. We also ensured we looked and felt the part by wearing our very own scientist lab coats!
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Thursday 22nd October 2020- Spanish lesson numbers and colours.
We have Spanish once a week and the children thoroughly enjoy joining in with the fun learning activities Mrs Head does with them!
So far we have learned the Spanish for; good morning/afternoon/evening, how to say our name, how we feel, some types of food, colours and numbers up to 10.
In this week's lesson we learned a song and recapped how to count to 10 in Spanish.
Here are a couple of phrases we now know;
Como te llamas? (pronounced commoh tay yammas)- this means what is your name.
Que tal? (sounds like kettle!) - this means how are you?
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Wednesday 14th October 2020 - Handwriting
This week in our handwriting we have been practising our Long Ladder Letters 'u' 'y' and 'j'. We practised them each day on our whiteboards. Take a look at our amazing letter formation!
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Friday 9th October 2020 - PE
Today in our PE lesson with Mr Leaman were were working on developing our teamwork skills. We took it in turns to move the beanbags or balls from one hoop to the other. We worked out that the beanbags could be dropped in the hoops, but the balls had to be put down carefully or they would roll away.
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Tuesday 29th September 2020- Writing
This week, we had an exciting incident on our playground!
An alien crash landed and we had to search around the outdoor area for clues as to its whereabouts. This was to help 'hook' the children into their new writing journey studying the story of Beegu.
We also received a letter from the 'Secret Alien Police Force' asking us to write them a letter explaining what we thought the alien looked like and were it might be. In class we acted out the story of Beegu to show a clear understanding of the beginning, middle and end of a story.
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Monday 21st September- Learning Journey: I am Amazing
For our learning this week, we have been thinking about what we are amazing at in school. We then went into our continuous provision activities to show our fabulous learning skills. We have made an amazing display of our writing and pictures of us doing what we are amazing at. We found out that Buzzards class are amazing at all kinds of things including Maths, Writing and different sporting activities. Check out our amazing display below!
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Wednesday 16th September 2020 - Science
This week, we have been looking at the materials that everyday objects are made from. We identified metal,wood, plastic and fabric. We have also had lots of fun sorting materials outside and creating structures from plastic only or wood only. See the pictures below!
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Monday 7th September 2020 - First day
Wow, what an amazing day we have all had in Year 1 today. Everyone settled back into school really well. I am so proud of you all, Well done.
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Monday 8th March - Friday 12th March - OUR FIRST WEEK BACK
Our first week back has been just brilliant! We started the week on Monday with some teambuilding STEM activities, and got to practice our Phonics and Writing skills. We completed writing the story of The Mousehole Cat along with our story maps and summery notes and had fun during our provision time to access more learning.
It has been so lovely to see everyone and hear all about their time during lockdown. I am so incredibly proud of all of the Bramblings class and how well we have settled back into school! Well done to you all!
Autumn Term
Autumn Term Curriculum Map
Final week in school- Christmas dinner day and craft sessions
This final week before Christmas we have experienced Christmas dinner day with the rest of the class in the dinner hall. The hall was decorated beautifully and this year we had the most wonderful winter wonderland themed display in the middle which the children found delightful.
We hope they have enjoyed their final week in school as much as we have!
Monday 7th December 2020- Polar Express Writing Experience Day
Today, we immersed ourselves in the story of The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. We came to school in our PJ's (including ALL of the Year 1 teachers and LSA's) and carrying our golden ticket and embarked on a train journey to the North Pole! We heard the train 'thundering' and the 'hiss and squeal' of the metal. The children worked in groups to story map and sequence the story. Then we had hot chocolate and cookies. The day ended with all children receiving the first gift of Christmas. We can't wait to see the stories they produce as a result of this fabulous day!
Thursday 3rd December - Fine Motor Skills
This week in our continuous provision we have used the play dough to recreate our dinners. We then used our fine motor skills to practise using our knife and fork correctly to cut up our food.
Friday 27th November 2020- Our Maths Journey!
For our Maths journey, we have been learning how to represent teen numbers using numicon and dienes. We enjoyed using the numberblock puppets to help us see how many tens and how many ones we needed. Take a look at the pictures to see how well we have done!
Week beginning 16th November 2020 - Continuous Provision learning.
This week we wanted to show how often we are busy learning through play in Year 1! We have been creating worry dolls in keeping with our topic 'Free to be Me' and used them to act out stories which we then wrote independently in our Learning Journeys. We used the magnetic letters to spell out some of the spellings we have learned during the term and then put these words into a sentence.
We have been zoo keepers at the Science table and classified the escaped animals and put them into the correct enclosure according to whether they are Amphibians, Reptiles, Insects, Mammals, Fish or Birds.
We sorted 2d and 3d shapes in a variety of ways.
In our role play area - Bramblings Classroom - we have enjoyed using our Maths, Writing and knowledge of the World to have fun and learn. We have written letters, stories and made sure to take the class register and lunch order! In our outdoor provision we have enjoyed using chalk pens to practise our number formation. We used our phonic knowledge to think of sounds that falling leaves will make and had fun listening to them drop from our parachute. We used our mathematical knowledge to order the pegs from 0 - 20 and found hidden treasure in the sand and had to match the labels to form one of our tricky words.
Wednesday 11th November 2020- Geography naming the continents of the world.
In our Geography lesson this week we identified the World's continents. We found out there are seven continents, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Antarctica and Australasia. We also looked at a globe and a map and had a discussion about whether or not they were showing the same thing. We realised that they were both showing us the World! We then worked in teams to label the continents correctly.
Tuesday 3rd November 2020- Science: Animals and their habitats
For our Science journey this half term, we will be looking animals (including humans). This week we are focusing on sorting animals based on their habitats. We had to work scientifically by using our observation skills. We also ensured we looked and felt the part by wearing our very own scientist lab coats!
Looks at the photos to see how we got on!
Wednesday 21st October 2020- Spanish lesson numbers and colours.
We have Spanish once a week and the children thoroughly enjoy joining in with the fun learning activities Mrs Head does with them!
So far we have learned the Spanish for; good morning/afternoon/evening, how to say our name, how we feel, some types of food, colours and numbers up to 6.
In this week's lesson we learned a song and recapped how to count to 6 in Spanish.
Here are a couple of phrases we now know;
Como te llamas? (pronounced commoh tay yammas)- this means what is your name.
Que tal? (sounds like kettle!) - this means how are you?
Wednesday 14th October 2020 - Handwriting
This week in our handwriting we have been practising our Long Ladder Letters 'u' 'y' and 'j'. We practised them each day, take a look at our amazing letter formation!
Friday 9th October 2020 - PE
Today in our PE lesson with Mr Leaman were were working on developing our teamwork skills. We took it in turns to move the beanbags or balls from one hoop to the other. We worked out that the beanbags could be dropped in the hoops, but the balls had to be put down carefully or they would roll away.
Tuesday 29th September 2020- Writing Hook Lesson An Alien has Crash Landed!
This week, we had an exciting incident on our playground!
An alien crash landed and we had to look around the outdoor area for clues as to its whereabouts.
This was to help 'hook' the children into their new writing journey studying the story of Beegu.
We also received a letter from the 'Secret Alien Police Force' asking us to write them a letter explaining what they thought the alien looked like and were it may be.
We then acted out the story of Beegu to show a clear understanding of the beginning, middle and end of a story.
Monday 21st September 2020 - Learning Journey: I am Amazing
For our learning this week, we have been thinking about what we are amazing at in school. We then went into our continuous provision activities to show our fabulous learning skills. Check out our amazing learning below!
Wednesday 16th September 2020- Science sorting materials
This week, we have been looking at the materials that everyday objects are made from. We identified metal, wood, plastic, and fabric. We have also had lots of fun sorting materials outside and creating structures from plastic only or wood only. See the pictures below!
Monday 7th September 2020 - Our First Day!
Wow, What an amazing day we have all had today! Everyone settled back into school really really well I am so proud of you all well done! We have been working together to build structures, we showed perseverance when making straw houses and showed off our creative side making puppets.
Check out some photos of our amazing learning.
