We have had a very exciting week this week with the hatching of 9 baby turkeys – the children have already enjoyed giving them cuddles. All the children have a ‘Chick Diary’ so that we can record everything about the chicks and how they are changing as they grow. This will be our literacy focus for next week.

In numeracy next week we will be doing some work on the addition of 3 or more numbers. We will be encouraging children to look for number bonds or doubles to help them when working mentally. Children will be bringing their new Rainbow Targets home in the next couple of days. These will be based on addition and subtraction. Click here for links to activities which you can use to help you child practice their target at home.

Sunhat reminder

Please could all children bring a sunhat into school everyday (or have one which they keep in their tray). We do have a few spares in each class but there were so many children without hats today that we ran out of spares.

Thank you

The Year 1 team

In our literacy lessons next week we will be doing some work using a short video called ‘Book of Butterflies’ as a stimulus. Children will be thinking about how they can improve sentences by adding describing (Wow) words and will have a go at innovating the story to make it their own.

In maths we will be continuing to work on Rainbow Targets as well as continuing to do some work on money including finding change and word problems.

Rainbow Targets

We will be continuing to work on doubles and halves Rainbow Targets for a few weeks after the Easter holidays. Some children have now moved on from doubles to halves and due to this half term being very short (and now even shorter due to the snow!) we would like to give more children the opportunity to have a go a halves. We will then move onto addition and subtraction targets later on in the summer term.

Teach your Child to Read Evening

Helping your child learn to read at home is a key way to support their learning. Literacy expert and lead literacy intervention teacher Kelly Child will be leading a parent and carer information evening in our school hall on Monday 19th March 7-8pm. Kelly will outline useful strategies and activities you can do at home with your child. If you would like to come along please email our school office – office@stmartins.sch.gg .This should be a fantastic evening so please make the time to come along!

Home Sharing

We have started using a website called j2e for the children to save their work. This could be a photograph (work selfie) of a piece of work that they are proud of or a photograph or video of something that they have made in the Discovery Zone. The children will have come home today with a QR code which is their log in for their personal j2e account. They will be able use this QR code at home to log on and share their learning with you.

In the Discovery Zone, Children will be able to choose for themselves when they save something to j2e so please don’t expect to find something everyday and some children will save things more than others. We will ensure that children save something at least each half term.

As part of our e-safety lessons we have explained to children the importance of not sharing their password/QR code or letting anyone else use it, so please could you let your child log on using their QR code rather than doing it for them. Your child will then be able to find their work on their account to share with you.

We are hope that you and your child enjoy this experience of being able to share your child’s learning together.

Please access j2e using this link: https://www.j2e.com/dashboard/#manage

then click on the QR code symbol which will bring up the camera for you to scan the QR code. Please note that you will only be able to access j2e if you have a device with a camera.

Thank you

The Year 1 Team

 

Dear Parents and Carers,

The children all looked fabulous dressed up as different book characters today and we enjoyed hearing about their favourite stories.

Science

As part of the whole school science focus next week, each class will be looking at paper spinners and children will be challenged to investigate different sizes and shapes to see which one stays in the air the longest. More details will be sent home next week if your child would like to continue this investigation at home.

Literacy

In Literacy next week we will be continuing our work on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The children are learning to re-tell the story using a story map and actions to help. The story map is below if your child would like to use it to re-tell you the story at home. We will also be doing some sentence work based on the story.

 

Maths

In maths next week the children will be using their addition and subtraction skills to help them solve word problems.

Spare Uniform

If your child has worn spare uniform home and you haven’t returned it yet, please could it be returned to school as soon as possible because we are very low on spare clothes and with the wet weather, we are finding that we are needing them more often than usual.

Thank you for your support.

The Year 1 Team

Dear parents and carers

 

The Daily Mile

You will probably be aware of recent concerns around physical inactivity and childhood obesity. As they go through primary school, many children put on weight and, across the UK, around 35% of pupils in their final year of primary are categorised as overweight or obese. Experts have described this as an epidemic and a crisis that must be tackled before it is too late.

However, there is an initiative called The Daily Mile which started in February 2012 by Elaine Wyllie, who was then a headteacher in Scotland. She was concerned by children’s lack of fitness and went on to prove The Daily Mile to be both sustainable and effective in improving activity levels and obesity in school.

The Daily Mile is very simple to start in schools. Without wasting time to change into kit, children go out into the fresh air to run, jog or walk for 15 minutes. It is not competitive: most children will average a mile in that time, with some doing more and some doing less. It is not PE, sport or cross-country but a physical activity which is aimed at improving children’s physical, social, emotional and mental health and well being. It can also help children to focus and concentrate in the classroom and raise their attainment.

Since 2015, The Daily Mile has been adopted by over 1,600 schools in the UK and interest from Belgium and the Netherlands has been expressed.Therefore, we would like to introduce The Daily Mile, and it’s health and well being benefits, for the children at St Martin’s.

In Year 1 we have begun our Daily Mile four mornings a week at 9.15am. The children do not need to change into trainers as the activity is no different to the running around that they do during playtime. Already the children are really enjoying taking part with lots of chatting and excitement.

As a school we are really excited about this new initiative and we are looking forward to the benefits it will bring to your child/children. To find out more we strongly recommend you visit the website: www.thedailymile.co.uk.

 

Telling the Time

Your child may have already come home and told you about how we are going to work on telling the time in Year 1. Each class has some watches and every week a group of children will be allocated to be ‘time monitors.’ They will get to wear a watch and help their teacher keep track of time throughout the day. The rest of the children are encouraged to use the classroom clocks.

We are also using timers in the Discovery Zone for certain activities linked to the money that we are using eg. 5 minute turns in the playdough for 10p and 10 minutes in the construction area which will help the children develop a sense of the duration of time.

 

Library Trips

We still require additional help for our trips to the library. If you are able to join us please let your class teacher know as soon as possible.

Tuesday 23rd Janurary – Miss Horsepool and Mrs Bramley’s classes

Friday 26th January – Mrs Boscher’s class

We shall be leaving on the buses at 9.15am and will be back at school for 11am.

 

Discovery Zone Open Afternoons

We would like to invite you to come into school to join your child for a session in the Discovery Zone so that they can show you their learning and give you the opportunity to see them in action!

The dates are as follows:

Tuesday 30th January @ 2.00-2.45pm- Miss Horsepool’s class

Wednesday 31st January @ 2.00-2.45pm – Mrs Bramley’s class

Friday 2nd February @ 2.00-2.45pm – Mrs Boscher’s class

 

 

Rainbow Maths Targets

Your child has brought home a letter explaining their new Rainbow Maths Target. This term we are working on doubling numbers. We will then move on to halving even numbers. Click here for some online activities which you can do to help your child at home.

 

Keyrings

We are finding that lots of children have bookbags with a lot of keyrings on them. This means that their trays do not shut properly and it makes it difficult for other children to open and shut their trays. Please could we ask that children choose just one keyring to have on their bag.

 

Many thanks

Year 1 team

The children are enjoying our new topic of monsters in the Discovery Zone and were very excited to find that Marty the Monster has moved in with his dark den. Marty only comes out at night because he is afraid of the dark so he writes letters to the children. The children have been enjoying writing back to him and posting their letters in his post box.

In literacy next week we will be looking at descriptions and asking the children to write sentences to describe a monster.

In maths next week we will be looking at doubling with monsters.

 

Discovery Zone Open Afternoons

We would like to invite you to come and spend an afternoon with your child while they are learning in the Discovery Zone so that they can show you their favourite activities.

Miss Horsepool’s Class – Tuesday 30th January 2-3pm

Mrs Bramley’s Class – Wednesday 31st January 2-3pm

Mrs Boscher’s Class – Friday 2nd February 2-3pm

 

Library Visit

We will be visiting the Guilles Alles Library in town where the children will listen to some stories about monsters and do a craft activity based on monsters. We will need some parent helpers for this trip please so that we have the right child to adult ratio. If you are able to help, please could you let your child’s class teacher know.

Mrs Bramley and Miss Horsepool’s Class will be going on Tuesday 23rd January from 9-11am

Mrs Boscher’s Class will be going on Friday 26th January from 9-11am

 

Thank you for your support,

The Year 1 team

 

 

 

Dear parents/carers

Thankyou to all the parent and grandparent helpers who came with us to Candie Museum. The children really enjoyed the visit and the experience of visiting a museum, meeting people who work in a museum and looking at the old toys is very valuable. We are following up on this work in school, mainly in the Discovery Zone where we have some examples of old toys for the children to handle.

Literacy

Next week we shall be continuing our work on old toys and the story ‘Dogger.’ We will then begin work on the Christmas Story.

 

Visit to the Church

We shall be visiting the church to watch Year 5’s Christmas Concert on Wednesday 13th December.

We will need some additional adult helpers to accompany us. If you are able to join us from 11am please let your class teacher know. We should be back at school by 12.15pm.

 

Christmas Concert

Please could all children bring in their costumes for the concert in by Monday 4th.

Well done to all the children with speaking parts who have already learned their lines. It would be really helpful if these could continue be rehearsed at home as this will make the children feel more confident when it comes to the performance.

The concert performance for parents will be at 2pm on Tuesday 12th December. As space is limited in the hall, two tickets per child will be sent home.

 

Christmas Party

The Infant Christmas party will be on Thursday 14th December. On this day children can come to school in their party clothes but please can we ask that sensible shoes are worn. (no heeled shoes please)

A separate paper letter has been sent about food. As a reminder please could you provide the following foods (enough for 5-6 children)

Mrs Bramley’s class – sandwiches/rolls e.g. egg, ham, cheese, marmite, tuna (no nuts please)

Miss Horsepool’s class – sausage rolls, pizza slices, cocktail sausages, mini cheeses

Mrs Boscher’s class – small cakes and chocolate biscuits

Please bring in food on the morning of the party. School will provide juice, crisps and fruit.

 

Parent help

If you would be able to come into school to help wrap ‘gifts’ for the children please speak to your class teacher. This could be at any time next week.

 

Thank you for your continued support

Thank you to everyone who has sent in photographs or brought in old toys to share with their class. We will be continuing our learning about old toys this week with our trip to Candie Museum where children will learn about old toys from the fifties and sixties as well as from the Victorian period. Thank you to everyone who is able to accompany us on these trips. We will also have old toys for the children to explore and play with in the Discovery Zone.

In literacy next week we will be looking at the book Dogger by Shirley Hughes. This story is about a little boy who loses his toy dog so we will also be linking this to our PSHE work by thinking about different feelings.

In maths next week we will be continuing our work on addition; starting with the largest number and counting on and using cubes and number lines to help us.

Christmas Concert

We are now beginning our Christmas Concert rehearsals. Children should now have brought home a letter letting you know their part and the costume they will need. Please let us know if you have are having any difficulties sourcing anything for your child’s costume. Children who are saying lines will bring these home to practise.

Christmas Hampers

Thank you to everyone who has already donated items for the PTA Christmas Hampers. Year 1 are asked to bring in anything ‘Christmas’ eg wrapping paper, ribbons, baubles, cards, food (please ensure the useby date is after 8th December). Items can be left in the box by the office.

High Visibility Vests

Blue Islands have very kindly donated some high visibility vests for Reception and Year 1 children to help them be seen better in the dark. Your child will be bringing theirs home today.

 

Thank you for your support,

The Year 1 Team

Thank you to everyone who has sent in photographs of places around Guernsey. The children have enjoyed looking at maps and Google Earth to find the different places. Please continue to send in photos as you go out and about to different places at the weekends as we will display these on our walls.

Thank you as well to everyone who has bought in Autumn objects – the children are enjoying drawing and finding out about them.

Yesterday Mrs Bramley’s class had some visitors from Le Platon Residential Home. The visitors enjoyed meeting the children and working alongside them in the Discovery Zone. Some of the children also read their reading books to the visitors. The residents will be visiting Mrs Bramley’s class every Thursday.

We have a busy week coming up next week.

On Monday there will be a whole school assembly to launch Guernsey Recycling Week. As was mentioned in the letter that you have already received, please could children bring in a empty, clean tin or can to recycle on this day.

In our literacy lessons we will be doing some follow up work about recycling and encouraging the children to recycle their rubbish in class.

In maths next we will begin to start work on number bonds which will be the theme for our Rainbow Maths Targets.

Please click here for some activities focused on number bonds which you might like to do at home with your child.

On Friday we will be launching our ‘All about me’ topic with a visit from The Explorer Dome. The focus of this will be ‘our body’.

Thank you for your support,

The Year 1 Team