It has been a busy first full week of Year 1 for the children full of lots of lovely learning and a visit from Sarah McIntyre. 
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On Monday, we had our first Saints PE session, the children did very well listening to coach and practising their balancing of balls, quoits and beanbags on different parts of their bodies!

Just a quick reminder that your child needs a PE kit in school, we have PE lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays. 

At the beginning of the week, we read Grumpycorn, Dinosaur Police and Dinosaur Firefighters in preparation for Sarah's visit. We were practising making predictions about what might happen next in the story. During Sarah's visit, she read Dinosaur Firefighters to us and we learnt how to draw Dipsy from the book. We also created our own job for Trevor the dinosaur, we decided he should be an Astronaut. Here are some of our drawings: 
Photos taken by Sarah herself and shared on her twitter as she was so impressed with the children's art!​

In Science, we have been discussing what a material is and the grouping objects by what they are made from, here are some photos of our learning:

In English, we have been reading Ruby's Worry. At the beginning of the story, Ruby says what she is good at. This week we have been reflecting on our own strengths and writing sentences using our phonics to describe what we are good at and like doing. 
In Maths, we have been practising our counting to 10 and matching numbers to groups of items. We have also started to recognise numbers when they are written in words using our phonics knowledge and initial sounds to help us. 

Things you could do at home this week to help us with our learning:
- Science: Find different objects around the house and talk about what they are made from e.g. plastic, metal, glass, wood etc. 
- Maths: Counting groups of objects; can you label how many toy animals you have or how many pieces of carrot do you have on your plate at dinner time? Encourage the children to write the number first and they try writing the number in words if they want a challenge. 
- Phonics: Can you spot the 'ay' sound in your books or writing on packets of food or on posters you pass in the street? (ay as in play, may, clay, day, tray, stay etc.)

The children have made an excellent start to Year 1 and have settled in well to the new room and routines. We spent a lot of time this week getting to know each other and exploring the resources in the classroom. 

We have read 'Perfectly Norman' about a boy who has wings but keeps them hidden, when he does share them he feels much happier. We have been thinking about what our special characteristics are and how to share them with others. The children decorated their own unique feathers and we plan to put these together to create a set of Beech Class wings. 

In music, we have been practising our listening skills and keeping a beat with percussion instruments which has been fun! 

We are looking forward to next week when we are aiming to get some of our new practices up and running such as reading records and reading books to take home. There will be more information about this in the welcome meeting. 

Here are some photos of your children enjoying their new environment:

​Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. 

Best wishes, 
Miss Coleman