Welcome to Year 1!

Our Trip to Twycross Zoo

We had a fantastic day out at Twycross Zoo. The sun shone for us and the children behaved so well; they are a credit to you all. We saw loads of animals including elephants, giraffes, gorillas, leopards, meerkats, gibbons, zebras and penguins. The children also really enjoyed their packed lunches. Our first 'When is it dinner time?' was asked at 9.30 a.m. but we weren't surprised considering the feasts they had packed in their backpacks! Thank you mums, dads and carers! Keep watching this page for more photographs.

Beautiful butterflies

We have been learning about the life cycle of a butterfly this half term. When we visited the zoo, we went inside the 'Butterfly Forest' and saw the chrysalises hanging up in the 'Emerging Cage'. We even saw some butterflies which had only just come out of their chrysalis. They were beautiful. Some children even had a butterfly land on their bag!

This half term's project

This half term we will be finding out about flowers and insects. We have already been on a plant hunt around the farm, class gardens, pond and school greenhouse. We found honeysuckle, holly, grape vines, allium and lots of other plants. We especially enjoyed identifying mint and lemon balm by gently rubbing the leaves. We are a team of super plant spotters!

WOW Day!

We had a fantastic time during our WOW day last week. We looked great in our flag colours and enjoyed talking about the countries whose colours we were wearing. Then, we got our passports ready and flew all around the world - from China to Spain to U.S.A. In China, we had a go at writing our name in Chinese and made a Chinese dragon. We tried Chinese food such as prawn crackers, black bean and sweet and sour sauce and found out about important places. In U.S.A., we made a U.S.A. flag and tried muffins, doughnuts, cookies, popcorn and bagels - delicious! In Spain, we learned about Picasso's paintings and had a go at creating our own Picasso-style portrait; we have some very talented artists in Year 1! We also tasted Manchego cheese, corn chips, Spanish strawberries, cake and cherry juice. The children had a fantastic day and learned lots. Thank you all for your support. 

WOW Day - Miss Rose's holiday in Spain

During our WOW Day, Miss Rose came to talk to us about her holiday in Spain. She told us about exchanging pounds for Euros, travelling on the aeroplane and what she likes to do in Spain. We asked her lots of questions to find out more!

100% Superstars!

Well done to all of our children who came to school every day last term! As a special reward, Mrs Turner organised an exciting reward afternoon with a visit from Splats circus skills, a bouncy castle and a visit to our Timberley farm. What a special treat! Remember to come to school every day and you will be able to take part in our next special 100% day later this year.

World Book Day 2016

What a fantastic World Book Day we’ve had today! Thank you all so much for sending your children into school in their fabulous costumes. They looked great! We started the day with a book character fashion parade to show off our outfits. Then we did some work linked to the stories we’ve been studying this week by Claire Freedman – ‘Aliens Love Underpants’, ‘Dinosaurs Love Underpants’ and ‘Aliens in Underpants Save the World’. We created pants designs, painted our own designer pants and went on an exciting treasure hunt, following the clues that the pirates had hidden all around school, until we discovered the chocolate coin treasure. We even had a different teacher to come and visit our classes especially to read some stories. It was a great day!

Photographer Visits Year 1

Maths

We've been learning how to use the whole part diagrams... take a look!

We hope you have a lovely half term holiday and we look forward to seeing you all on Monday 22nd February.

Just to let you know in advance, we will be having a special Project afternoon on Thursday 25th February to launch our new project - 'Say Cheese!' We would like the children to take part in a fashion show wearing their favourite outfit. Please do not go to any extra expense and remember that the children will be wearing these clothes all day so will need to be warm and practical. During the fashion show children will be taking photos of one another and we will display them on the website for you to see.

We hope you have had a lovely half term break!

Welcome back! We hope you have had a relaxing break and hope to hear about all of the exciting things that you have been getting up to.

We have lots of exciting things planned this half term so watch this space for any notices or updates.

Please remember: PE is on Wednesdays  so please bring your PE kit in and leave it in until the end of term.

A Day in The Life - Things People do         

This half term in project we will be imagining what we want to do when we grow up and exploring how hobbies and interests, as well as learning at school, can help us to achieve our goals.

*If you have any costumes or props to represent different jobs we would really appreciate it if we could use them this half term please* (police, fire, doctor outfits would be brilliant) see a Year One teacher for more details.

You may like to do some research about this at home. You could always talk to members of your family and see what jobs they have and what their hobbies are. Any information you find out please share with us as we have lots of stickers and house points to award as well as displaying the information on our 'working wall'.

Poetry Week

We enjoyed Poetry Week and found that Year 1 has some super poets. Our 'Witch, witch' poems have lots of WOW words in them such as slimy, wiggly and fluffy. We used a special word bank to help us spell some of our witch words correctly. We will put our finished poems in our writing books so that you get chance to see them yourselves at our next Parents' Evening in the spring term. We think you'll be impressed!

Parents' Evening

Thank you to everyone who came to Parents' Evening or made an alternative appointment to discuss their child's learning last week. It was lovely to meet you all and talk about how your child has settled in and how his or her learning is progressing. If you were unable to make it, just let us know and we will arrange an alternative appointment after the half term break.

Works of Art

We have been studying paintings by famous artists. We then had a go at creating our own work of art in the style of our favourite artist. They are on display in the Year 1 area and look fantastic!

Home Reading Books

When you've read with your child at home, and written your comment in their home reading diary, don't forget to remind your super-reader to put his or her book in the 'Book Change Box'. We will then send home a new book that day.

Thank you.

P.E. Lessons

P.E. lessons take place twice a week in Year 1 on Wednesday mornings and Friday afternoons (1H, 1M and 1S). Please remove children's earrings before school on these days for health and safety reasons. Children will need to wear Timberley P.E. kit, which consists of black shorts, a white T-shirt and pumps or trainers. Thank you.

Year 1 Sculptors

This week, we have been learning about artists and sculptors, such as Andy Goldsworthy, who create art using natural objects. We went outside to collect some autumn treasures to use in our work. We found leaves, feathers, pine cones, stones, sticks and all kinds of things. Then, we worked outside together in our teams to create our own unique sculptures in our Timberley nature area. Watch out Andy Goldsworthy - you have some serious competition!

Out and about this weekend?

If you're out in the garden or park this weekend, perhaps you could work together to make your own natural sculptures? If you do, take a photograph and send it in to school; we'd all love to see it!

Project Update

We are learning so much about our world! Last week, we went out to study and sketch trees in the nature area. We then made bark rubbings of the trees, talking about how they felt when we touched them. We used lots of WOW words, such as 'crinkly', 'rough' and 'bumpy'. Then, we talked about the birds which visit our school gardens and the food they eat. We even worked with Mr Ball to make some fat balls to feed the birds during the winter. We love our wonderful Timberley world!

Year 1 Super Learners!

We've had a great first week back at school! The children have come in with bags of enthusiasm and such a positive attitude for learning. We are really enjoying getting to know one other. Keep it up, Year 1 children. We are going to have a fantastic year!

Happy to Help!

The start of a new year is exciting as we get to meet and work together with our new children and parents. Lots of children will see their friends and settle in straight away. However, we understand that some children might find it a little trickier to settle than others and might need a bit of extra help or support. If you have any worries or concerns, or if there is anything you're not sure about, just let us know and we will do all we can to help. 

It's Project time!

As part of our new curriculum, we will have a new learning project each half term. We won't always tell the children what it is straight away; we do a special activity first to get them interested. This half term, we will be starting with a 'good looking' treasure hunt! Watch this space for more information...

Our World

It's official! The title of this half term's project is 'Our World'. We started off with some super searching in our outside area using our 'learning telescopes'. "Super learners, super learners, what did you see?" The children spotted pigs, "hungry chickens", "a big fat turkey", "a massive apple tree" and "a spider in his web" amongst many other things. They enjoyed sharing their 'good looking' stories when they returned to the classroom. What an exciting learning adventure to begin our project!

Human or physical?

After talking about what we could see in the world around us, we moved on to thinking about whether things were human (built by people) or physical (not built or natural features). We looked at a range of pictures of things we see in 'Our World' such as beaches, towns, rivers, cliffs and bridges and sorted them into whether they were human or physical. The children showed a really good understanding. Well done Year 1 superstars!

Website News

Don't forget to check our website regularly for news, information and photographs of your children learning. If you don't have access to the internet at home, just let us know; we can arrange for you to use one of our school computers.

Welcome to Year 1!

Welcome back everyone! We are so looking forward to seeing you all in your smart uniforms, ready to do some fantastic learning in Year 1. We already have lots of exciting lessons planned for you. We are going to have a wonderful year.

See you all soon!

Mrs Hamley (1H), Mrs Marshall (1M) and Mrs Sheppard (1S)