Week 5

Hello and welcome to the end of week 5...isn't this term flying!

SCIENCE
This week we had our final assessment for the Science unit we have been studying. We began this unit by reading non-fiction books and talking about the seasons, how many there are, what they are called and what months cover which seasons. We found this so interesting and have begun to notice the change in the trees outside our room. I look forward to seeing how much knowledge children have on this subject after looking around our school, taking note of the setting and all the different materials within our school grounds.

Some of our gorgeous Season charts

A close up. So beautiful

We looked for natural things that change position - we choose the sun

We looked for things that have not changed for some time - we chose the playground

We looked for natural things that change how they look seasonally - we chose on the trees outside our class.

We have discussed how the tree was a bright green when we took our photo at the beginning of this unit and have noticed it changing into the beautiful Autumn colours we had seen in the non-fiction books we read about seasons.

An Autumn update of the tree

 We have really enjoyed this unit and look forward to more scientific learning.

MATHS

We love learning maths through our PR1ME books. We have currently been learning about subtraction. Mrs Campbell has taught us lots of little tricks to help us solve subtraction number sentences and problems. We are starting to learn how addition and subtraction are related. We now know that these are called Fact Families. We decided that our fact families needed a home, so Mrs Campbell made us a Fact Family house and we are thinking about making a Fact Family Neighbourhood!

 To play the game, you need a game board, a dice and a marker. First, you roll the dice and write that number in one of the 'part'sections of the number bond, then you roll the dice again to find the number for the other 'part'. Then you need to add both the numbers in the parts sections together to find the 'whole' number. Then you have to use these numbers create two addition number sentences and two subtraction number sentences. (Instructions written by Fact Family experts of Room 13)
Here is an example from two of our little experts.

In order to practice at home and extend the learning and FUN! I have included a link to both the colour version (we laminated our to ensure we can use them over and over again) we have been using for practice in class and the black and white version we used as our final assessment.

Fact Family_colour

Fact Family_black and white


Here are some more photos of our Year One Smarties using the Fact Family Houses

English

In addition to our stable rotations such as guided reading, comprehension, phonics, writing and word work we have a Literacy Focus for the week and sometimes spreading over a few weeks. Our literacy focus for the past two weeks has been contractions.

A contraction is a shortened form of one or two words (one of which is usually a verb). In a contraction, an apostrophe takes the place of the missing letter or letters. Some contractions are: I'm (I am), can't (cannot) and how's (how is). For example, "don't" is a contraction that is short for "do not"; the apostrophe in "don't" takes the place of the missing "o". Another example is "o'clock," a contraction "of the clock."  In order to ensure children understood the concept of removing letters and replacing them with an apostrophe, we took part in a Contraction Surgery. Each child received two words that needed surgery. Our specialist surgeons had to then write a 'prescription' indicating which letters would need removal. We then stuck our words back together using bandaids (plasters) which acted as our apostrophes. Surgery was a success. I think we may have some budding surgeons on our hands.

Some examples of our successful surgeries

Thank you for all your support with homework. The children love seeing how each other practice their spelling words. Some parents definitely have some great ideas and supports in place to ensure their children's spelling success.
Below is a great idea by Naomi Bailye, one that I will be implementing in class!

Such a great way to practice spelling and support fine motor development

Finally, I will sign off with a final photo of all the beautiful artwork I receive from your gorgeous children. The children call this the 'Wall of Love'...so cute!

 
Wishing you all a great weekend.

Kirsty Campbell