Welcome to 1 ASH

Mrs Ward - mward@st-peters.wakefield.sch.uk

Mrs Goodrich - hgoodrich@st-peters.wakefield.sch.uk

You can find out what we are currently learning on our Curriculum Newsletter.

Reading

At our school we place a great importance on nurturing a love of Reading and we teach phonics and reading using the Little Wandle scheme. As part of this, the children will bring home 2 types of books each week: a sharing book and a reading book matched to their phonics level. The sharing book is a book to enjoy reading together, perhaps at bedtime. The reading book is read in reading sessions during the week and brought home at the end of the week. We would encourage you to listen to your child read this book and celebrate their achievement as they read it independently.

Please return your child’s sharing book to school on a Friday and their reading book on a Monday. It is important that these books are looked after and returned promptly.

Reading Challenge

Each half term the children can earn raffle tickets each time they read 5 times with an adult. At the end of each half term a winner from each year group is then picked out.

We also set a class target each half term and our reward for reaching it is a new class book to share. Please date and sign your child’s yellow reading record each time they read with an adult at home including their sharing book.

Home Learning

The children will all have login details for Mathletics and EdShed which can be found in the front of their reading record. These can be accessed at home and the children can earn certificates for earning points or completing tasks.

PE

This half term we have PE lessons on Monday and Thursday. The children should bring their PE kit to school on these days (white t-shirt, navy/black leggings or jogging bottoms, a hoody or jumper and trainers/pumps). It should be labelled with your child’s name please. You may also wish to send a waterproof jacket on these days.

Drinks and Snacks

We ask the children to drink water at regular intervals during the day so please provide them with a named, durable water bottle (water only, not juice). A fruit or vegetable snack is provided everyday for the children which they eat at morning playtime. You can send your child with their own piece of fruit or vegetable if you so wish but no other snacks are suitable, thank you.

And lastly, thank you for your support and if you have any questions or would like a chat, please catch a member of staff at the beginning or end of the day.

Thank you,

Mrs Ward, Mrs Goodrich and Mrs Endicott

In our jigsaw lessons we worked with a partner to 'mirror' one another. It was very tricky and we had to be patient and work carefully with our partner. Fantastic skills 1Ash!

As part of our topic we compared the weather in the UK with weather in Antarctica. We then dressed up ready for the weather in Summer and Winter in both the UK and Antarctica.

We have had a fantastic World Book Day snuggled up in our PJs and onesies! We read a book called "Isle of You" all about a lovely place to visit in your dreams or when you are sad or lonely. We have created our own 'Isle of You' maps, made wishes, designed our favourite desserts and dressed up.

We started our new topic of 'Poles Apart' by reading "The Emperor's Egg". We have found out some really cool facts about Emperor Penguins. We compared our height to that of a male penguin and then working as a group, drew a life size model of one. We have also felt how cold ice is, waddled around the classroom, tried to shuffle around balancing an egg on our feet and huddled together as the penguins do in the storms.

After learning about how to keep ourselves healthy some children wanted to write instructions to teach others how to stay healthy - we were very proud!

We made jam sandwiches in class and then wrote some instructions for How to Make a Jam Sandwich. 

We have been listening Michael Rosen performing his poem "Chocolate Cake" this week and loving it! If you want to have a listen follow this link here.

Our new Science topic is "Supersenses" where we study our and animals' senses. This week we have been finding out about why our eyes are important and how our sense of touch helps us when we can't see something. We had fun wearing blindfolds and guessing what objects we could feel! We also tried closing one eye to see how accurate we could see with just one eye. Try the 'pencil test' at home!

The rain didn't stop us having fun in PE. We are working on fundamental skills this half term and have been practising our overarm and underarm throwing and playing Dodgeball! We were very impressed with their skills, determination and competition skills!

Our art topic this half term is all about colour mixing and how the abstract artist Piet Mondrian used primary colours in his art. We made our own collages based on his work.

Fancy a family trip out to a local nature reserve?

This half term we have been studying the famous scientist, explorer and pioneer nature conservationist Charles Waterton. He created the world's first nature reserve here on our doorsteps in Wakefield in the grounds of Waterton Park. We have talked about this in class and the children said they wanted to visit it. So if you get the chance, take a nice walk around Angler's Country Park and Waterton Park and enjoy the nature reserve, look for birds in the hides, enjoy a nice walk around the lake and you can even enjoy a nice hot chocolate and play in the playground at the end. Please feel free to email pictures through if you do.

Merry Christmas from the staff in 1Ash.

We've had some fun and games in our last week working together and taking turns playing some games and making jigsaws - the children were so good at patiently waiting their turn, sharing, helping and congratulating others. What a fab team we are in 1Ash!

After making our split pin santas, one boy in our class invented a game - Santa Yoga, where you had to copy the pose of the Santa! The game then caught on! Fantastic fun!

We had great fun in our Christmas Fun Run! Our Y5 Reading buddies came along to cheer us along too! Great determination here guys! Well done!

We learnt how to make sliders and levers and then designed our own moving pictures for the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. There were some great ideas and the children persevered really well to complete their designs. Well done everyone!

We are working on developing our Design & Technology skills this half term to make a moving picture for younger children to enjoy to tell part of a traditional story. We have started by making a slider. The children persevered with cutting, folding and drawing lines to make their own sliding picture.

We've started 'Stamina Writing' every morning to improve handwriting and independence. We were very impressed at how hard they have worked.

We have worked hard with 2D and 3D shapes to name, describe and sort them. We have had lots of fun. Can you go on a shape hunt around your home?

We were very proud of all children who, on Wednesday, all went above and beyond in their learning and made it on the rainbow. The class worked in pairs to produce some fantastic writing and showed great partner work too. Well done everyone!

Roger Parkinson from Wakefield Tree Wardens came to visit on Monday to talk to us about the importance of trees. He then planted 2 special trees (a Ginko Biloba and a Dawn Redwood) with us in 'Woody', our mini woodland.

In Science this week we had a 'guest teacher'! One of our children knew lots about Carnivores, Omnivores and Herbivores so he helped Mrs Ward out! We all now know actions to help us remember... Carnivores eat meat, Herbivores eat plants and Omnivores eat both. Ask your children to give you some examples.

The children in 1 Ash and 5 Rowan were really excited to start Paired Reading this week. Each child has a Reading Buddy who they will read with each week. They can't wait until next Monday!

We've started a new unit of Dance in our PE lessons. We are focusing on holding certain positions using balance and control as well as moving around in different ways. Our theme is animals. Can you guess what animal some of the children were being?

Loving a good book! We have been enjoying looking at and reading some of our favourite 'sharing books'.

We enjoyed a lovely walk around our Andy Goldsworthy art gallery this afternoon. We talked about what we liked in his sculptures and what we could see he made them from. We will be creating our own pieces of natural art inspired by Andy Goldsworthy soon. Watch this space...

We are learning the parts of our body in Science so we drew around each other and labelled the body parts, played 'Simon Says' and sang 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees & Toes'. Can you practise labelling body parts at home?

We're loving our Rugby sessions with our coach! We've been practising moving around the court in different ways (hopping, sidesteps, jumping, running, etc) learning new skills and playing some mini games. This week we worked on avoiding defenders by dodging and changing direction. It was tricky but we worked hard and enjoyed ourselves.

We've made a super start to Year 1 and are practising lots of grown up skills!... Writing, Lining up, Counting, Getting changed, etc.

We've been practising sitting in chairs properly, holding pencils correctly and forming letters neatly. 

We're so proud of the children for getting themselves changed for PE and then back again into their uniforms again. We were impressed at how neatly some of them folded their clothes too! We then had lots of fun in our first session with the coach. We played a game of 'Follow my Leader' and then a tig game called 'Mr Freeze and Mrs Sunshine'. Mrs Ward couldn't miss out on the fun!

And to remember the Queen the children planted spring bulbs in our Jubilee Woodland 'Woody'.