1S
Welcome to 1S!
We hope you had a good summer break and are ready for learning in YEAR 1.
This Autumn 1 term we will be busy learning about Animals including Humans in Science, Free standing structures in DT and diary writing in English. We will be reading some great books, such as 'Wild' and 'Who lives here?' and practicing numbers place values.
Dear parents/ carers/ pupils,
Thank you to everyone who attended parents evening this week. It was a pleasure to meet you all!
Please continue to support your children's learning at home.
As a part of our collective worship, children will hold an assembly every Monday with the focus on specific meaningful vocabulary. Some of our discussions will be around morality, respect, anti-bullying, co-operation and responsibility. Children learn the importance and the meanings of these words through child friendly language and real life situations every child can relate to.
The science unit on "Animals including humans" was a fascinating subject. After learning about the different animal groups—mammals, fish, birds, amphibians, and reptiles—children are now able to list the characteristics of each group. By identifying carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores using actual foods like raw meat, fish, and plants, we have examined animal diets in great detail. We had a pleasant discussion about pets and wild animals, and I gave some excellent arguments against a family keeping a wolf or a shark as a pet. Remember why?
Through hands-on activities like taste sessions, feely trays, and listening games, we investigated the human senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste. To determine which eye color most children have, the children used a tally chart. In order to identify familiar sounds and noises, we played listening games. Children were able to learn about various material feels and textures thanks to the feely tray. We described a cold ice pack, a warm water bottle, a smooth straw, a soft cotton wool, and a spikey pinecone using specific words. Following the most thrilling activity, in which we tasted the sweet banana, the salty cheese, the meaty salami, and the sour lemon, we also had to use the subject-related adjectives to describe the taste of our familiar foods.
While creating their own free-standing structures in DT, children used a variety of materials, including paper, rulers, lolly sticks, blue tac, masking tape, and card. In their own classroom and on the large playground, they were also able to recognize freestanding structures. Children created their own labeled bird feeders in the shapes of houses or rockets after being inspired by pictures of bird feeders. We practiced the required skills such as gluing, rolling, cutting, folding, and using masking tape. It was a really interesting lesson to make and decorate our bird feeders.
We discussed our structures and evaluated them by thinking of how to make them stronger and more stable.
The autumn season has been our main topic in English. We discussed the seasonal changes after reading the nonfiction book "Who lives here?" and then went for a walk around our playground to look for them. To assist us with the autumnal sentences, we used a variety of objects that symbolized the season. Before writing them down, the correct sentences were formed independently using the colorful semantics.
Additionally, we learned about the characteristics of a diary, which we applied to our own diary entry about Autumn.
The Black History Month is a yearly event that supports children's learning about the significant people in our history. This year we learnt about Rosa Parks and her brave act that created fairer and more just society. We took part in LBBD exhibition dedicated to the BHM by drawing Rosa Parks portraits. Louis Armstrong was our amazing musician we have learnt about in our contextualised English lesson. His song 'What a wonderful day' inspired us to write our own illustrated poem.
This year YR1 have taken part in extra curricular activity to learn about Diwali. The children listened to traditional music from India and learnt few dance moves that they enjoyed doing together in the hall.
Welcome back!
This half term we will be learning about 'Cooking food' in DT, working on a description of a character in English through reading 'Claude in the city' and addition and subtractions in Maths.
To support the science topic of animals classification, YR1 will take part in an extra curricular activity to meet few live animals on 3rd December 2025. In order for children to fully enjoy this experience, please return a permission slip for your child by Friday 28th November 2025. Any contributions made via Parent Pay will be greatly appreciated.
The start of this half term is marked by Remembrance day, anti-bullying week and the Children in Need day.
We have talked about the importance of remembering the lives lost during the World War 1 and 2 and, as a sign of respect, all children held two minutes silence at 11 am on 11th November 2025.
Bullying is not the way we treat each other at Leys Primary and 1S had very meaningful discussion about treating people fairly and kindly. Children know when to say 'Stop, I don't like it!' and when to help friends to overcome negative feelings,
Thank you for everyone who supported Pudsey and the great cause of helping those in need.
The children looked very comfortable in their PJs! During the circle time they discussed the importance of charity, kindness and compassion.
Following the tragic loss of one of our staff members, our school will be closing at 11.30am on Wednesday 26th November 2025. The learning pack will be available from the school office on the day to cover the afternoon session. Please make sure your children are collected on time.