Welcome to 1 Elm

Mrs Kidd - rkidd@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 twice with an adult at home. 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.

PE

This half term we have PE lessons on Tuesday and Thursday. The children should bring their PE kit to school on these days (white t-shirt, navy/black leggings or jogging bottoms, a hoodie 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 Kidd and Mrs Rodgers.

We have loved dressing up and wearing our own clothes for World Book Day! We started by reading a beautiful book called "Isle of You" which inspired us to design our own islands with a special reading place on it. We shared our favourite books and drew self portraits with speech bubbles to say why we love reading or what our favourite books are.

1 Elm love to read!

Everyone looked fantastic dressed as a scientist! Well done on your amazing outfits!

Our theme was connections and we explored food chains and how vital they are for survival. We also asked the question "Which bird is the most common?" and found out about some birds we could spot at home or school. We made bird feeders to attract them to our school grounds so we can see and hear them.

In our PSHE lessons this half term we have been focussing on friendship and relationships. We worked in small groups to decide what we thought were the most important aspects of being a good friend. We discussed how we should respect our friends in a mature way by sharing our ideas and listening to each other. 

We are all respectful friends in 1 Elm!

As part of our art focus this half term, we have been learning about how to mix primary colours to make secondary colours. We are also studying the abstract artist Piet Mondrian.

Happy New Year everyone! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

This half term one of our PE lessons is gymnastics. We learnt 5 body shapes and worked with a partner to use some shapes to make a sequence.

This half term our science topic is Super senses. We have been finding out if our sense of touch is just as good when we can't see. We wore blindfolds and had to work out what object we were holding by feeling it. It was lots of fun!

Congratulations to Gracie and Thomas for their amazing achievements!

Thomas has earned his Blue Peter book badge after he sent in some fantastic work about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Well done Thomas!

Gracie has been busy making bracelets which she has sold to raise money for the local food bank. Gracie raised an incredible £290 which was used to buy lots of food and Christmas treats. What a wonderful, thoughtful and kind thing to do Gracie! We are very proud of you both.

Our design and technology project this half term was to create our own moving pictures for a story. We started off by exploring existing books with moving parts and we learnt how to make simple mechanisms called a slider and a lever. We then designed our own page from the Three Billy Goats Gruff story and made a moving picture using our new skills. Finally we evaluated our final pieces and here they are! We really enjoyed our project.

We read a beautiful story called "Where the poppies now grow" to help us understand the importance of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance. We enjoyed making our own poppies. 

On a misty Monday morning Year 1 walked to the park using our geography skills to describe our route and the directions we took to get there. We have since written instructions for our journey to the park. 

At the park we used natural materials to make our own "land art"  inspired by the work of artist Andy Goldsworthy. We had lots of fun and produced some amazing sculptures!

We set up an art gallery of sculptures by land artist Andy Goldsworthy. We found out about the materials he uses and described what we liked about them. They are amazing! 

We spent a lovely lesson outside collecting things to make a worry monster or a face showing an emotion. We all enjoyed our time with our friends and working together.

We have had a fantastic first week in Year One! The children are settling in really well and we are so proud of them!

We have been sorting and counting in maths, drawing around our partners and naming and labelling parts of the body in science and the children did well getting changed by themselves for PE.