Year 1 - Avocets
Summer 2010.
For the curriculum overview for the Summer term, please click here.
This half term we are writing non-chronological reports and extended stories by a famous author in our English lessons.
We will be examining other report texts to find key words and interesting facts and then write our own comparative text about our class’ chosen Comenius country and our own fair Bideford.
For our story block we will be learning The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl, which consists of a series of sequences of meetings with jungle animals and sequences of crafty tricks. This will introduce the children to writing their first chapter story.
For Year 1 Science this half term we will be investigating living things and then attempting to create a ‘mini-habitat’ for them. In order to do this the children will need to find out about their animal and choose appropriate living conditions, food and plants etc. We will also study the needs (similarities and differences) of young and old animals.
Spring 2010
For the curriculum overview for the Spring term, please click here
In Geography.
This term we will be investigating the differences between our own local area and a Comenius country. The children will be researching both of these places by using different research methods. They will be learning to safely search websites chosen by teaching staff, accessing them from hyperlinks. They will use these information sites to answer questions generated in class by the children themselves. The questions will be what the children want to know about Bideford and Italy/ Spain/ Hungary and India. They will also be looking for similarities and differences between the two countries.
In Science.
We have been finding out about the senses and the different organs. We carried out experiments to help us understand what these sense organs do for us and how important they are in our everyday life. The Science has also overlapped into our English lessons where it is helping us to write, using similies and metaphors, writing 'feels like' etc to compare one thing to another.
Our Science lessons about the anatomy and main organs will lead into maintaining a healthy body and all the things we can do to keep our bodies running well, including healthy diets and exercise.
Autumn Term 2009
In English, this term, Year 1, have been learning and remembering texts using the HMSS method:
Hear the text (story/instructions etc.)
Map the text (draw a picture map of the story/instructions etc.
Step the text so that we can put it into paragraphs.
Say the text so that we learn it off by heart.
This is a way of learning that uses visual, auditory and kinesthetic cues as support for the retelling.
We are encouraging children to generate vocabulary, use usual words in unusual combinations, expand on ideas and most importantly, develop their imagination.
We have learnt the Beauty and the Beast story, Hansel and Gretel story and we are just about to learn a biscuit recipe using imperatives and specific vocab.
To see the Beauty and Beast story by Lyla Tofield, click here.
Year 1 and 2 environmental studies
This term the children have been using their senses to explore the school environment and have been thinking about how the environment has changed as we moved from autumn into winter.
We have looked at the different colours in the environmental area and made colour palettes. We have also explored the different textures we could find in the environmental area and sorted them according to their different feels. We thought about special adjectives that we could use to describe these then used them to help us sort our finds.
We thought about hibernation and Puffins and Avocets created some hedgehog artwork to make people aware of hibernating hedgehogs in their bonfire piles.
More recently we have been thinking about the different changes that happen with winter and the Puffins and Avocets have created some winter art work using the Stick man story as a starter.
In History and Art we are researching changes in food and technology over the last 50 years. We will be examining packaging for details and design, we will be thinking about things we have now that our grandparents didn’t have and we will be looking at famous inventions.
We are going to visit Morrisons to examine the packaging and we are going to re-design packaging for a famous brand. We will also be putting inventions and products onto a timeline that will show us what our grandparents had in their childhood compared to what we have now.