Year 1 - Lavender

Dear Lavender Class,

Thank you for visiting our class page. On this page you will find:

1. Parent messages

2. E-safety information and our class rules

3. Website links to help with home learning

4. Information on topics covered in class along with weblinks to support these

5. A week by week class diary

I will try my best to put new and exciting things on it as often as I can so please come back and visit it when you can. If you think of anything that you would like to have on our page then please let me know.

Love from Miss Jennings 

PS Please remember your e-safety rules before clicking on any of the internet links on this page. More information about our Lavender e-safety rules are below. For other information on how to stay safe, visit the main school e-safety page.

Our Class Diary 2023-2024

Week Commencing 4th September 2023

We had our first week in Lavender class. We  had fun getting to know all of our new friends and teachers. We enjoyed reading a book called 'Here we are' by Oliver Jeffers. We also did lots of counting and sorting in maths and we started to learn how to form our letter shapes correctly.

In art and design, we had a go at using clay to make tree boggart faces. In science, we went on a nature walk around the school grounds. We saw so many different things such as apple and plum trees, butterflies, frogs, spiders, dragonflies and many more things. In science, we also learned about different types of birds and how to identify trees by looking carefully at their leaves. 

Week Commencing 11th September 2023

This week, we learned all about recounts. We thought about our stunning start nature walk from last week and then how we could write this down. We learned about how to sequence events and also how to use words such as first, next, then, after that and finally. In maths, we learned about counting out a group from a larger group of objects. We also learned about representing numbers in different ways and how to spell number words. In science, we explored how to identify and classify different animals. We sorted them by which ones live in the woods, which live in houses and which can live in both. We also had a special focus on woodland animals and wrote lists of questions to find out all about them. In art and design, we explored colour mixing and used these skills to help us to paint pictures of woodland animals. In DT, we learned about food and sorted foods into animal source or plant source. We discovered that some foods like pepperoni pizzas are made out of animal sources and plant sources.

Week Commencing 18th September 2023

This week, we read a book called ‘Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?” We spotted the repetitive pattern in the book and had fun joining in with it. We then made up some new animals for the story and had a go at writing some more parts to go with the pattern. In maths, we learned to count on and back from different numbers within 10. We also learned to find one more, one less and count backwards. In science, we learned about deciduous and evergreen trees and had a go at sorting leaves. We learned all about autumn and seasonal change. We looked at different objects and learned how to sort things that are living, dead and have never been alive. We also did a pinecone science experiment to see what happened to them in cold water and hot water.

Week Commencing 25th September 2023

This week, we read lots of non-fiction books all about the forest. We explored how to write labels, lists and captions. We then made a little classroom display with all of our autumn objects. In maths, we learned how to use the words fewer, more, less than, greater than, equals and the same. We then learned how to use the more than, less than and equals symbols to compare numbers such as 5>2, 1<3, 4=4. In science, we did an experiment with cress seeds. We explore what they needed to make them grow by placing some of them in the sun and some in the dark and then giving some water and some no water. We watched what happened over the week. We also learned about the parts of a flower such as stem, leaf, roots, petals etc. In DT, we learned all about how to chop, peel, cut and grate. We had to learn how to use the equipment safely. In art and design, we learned about the artist Andy Goldsworthy and how he makes transient art using things that he finds outside such as leaves, rocks, sticks etc. We wrote fact files about Andy Goldsworthy and then had a go at making our own transient art using nature objects.

Week Commencing 2^nd October 2023

This week, we had a poetry week to help celebrate national poetry day. We read lots of Julia Donaldson books such as the Gruffalo and learned all about rhyming words. In maths, we learned all about ordering numbers and objects and how to use a number line. In science, we planted a mystery thing. We added soil, water and put it in the sunshine. We then predicted what we thought it would grow into. In geography, we learned all about maps and had a go at making up our own forest maps. In DT, we learned about healthy and less healthy choices. We then used this information to draw designs for our own fruit and vegetable kebabs. We also learned about design criteria.

Have you heard about our new Balliol thing? It's called street tag. Have a look here to find out more. 

Week Commencing 9^th October 2023

This week, we read a book called ‘Wolf Won’t Bite’ by Emily Gravett. We spotted the repeated parts of the story and had fun joining in with them. We thought about the main characters and how we could describe them and their feelings. We then thought about our own sentences that we could add to the book using the same ‘I can’ sentence starters. In maths, we started to learn all about addition and subtraction. We learned about parts and wholes and how you need the parts to make up the whole. We then moved onto using the addition symbol. In science, we had a look at our beans that we planted next week to see what had changed. Some of them had started to grow and some had not grown yet. We also thought about what animals live in our school grounds such as ants and spiders. After this, we compared plants and animals to see what was similar and different. In art and design, we used natural materials to make autumn artwork ready for our fantastic finish next week. On Tuesday, we celebrated world mental health day and thought about all of the things that we could do to improve our mental health such as exercise, singing, dancing, drawing etc.

Week Commencing 16^th October 2023

This week, we read a book called ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.’ We had fun joining in with the repeated parts and then had a go at making up our own versions with different animals and different settings. In maths, we started learning about number bonds. We found ways to make different numbers. We then learned how to use systematic methods to make sure that we didn’t miss out any of the ways. In science, we had a final look at our beans to see how much they had grown and how much they had changed. In DT, we followed our designs to make our fruit kebabs. We wrote instructions for how to do it and we also evaluated our finished kebabs against our design criteria. As part of our final finish, we made a journey stick, made owl masks, had a nature party and then wrote about everything we had learned about over the topic.

Week Commencing 30th October 2023

This week, we started our new topic called ‘Bright Lights, Big City.’ We learned all about King Charles and what happens in a garden party. We then had a go at having our own Balliol garden party in our outside area. We waved flags, danced and learned how to curtsy and bow. In English, we read a book called ‘Katie in London.’ We thought about what she did during her day and had a go at writing recounts in chronological order. We then had a go at writing our own recounts based on our day at school. In maths, we learned more about addition. We explored counting on from the greatest value in order to add up E.g. For 3 + 14, 14 is the greatest value and so you would put 14 in your head and 3 on your fingers and count on 15, 16, 17. In geography, we learned about physical features. We worked on naming and describing them. We also thought about what a city was and how it is different to a town and a village. In history, we learned about Guy Fawkes and the houses of parliament. We then thought about firework safety and made our own firework inspired artwork.

Week Commencing 6^th November 2023

This week, we read two books by Nicholas Allen. We read ‘The Queen’s Knickers’ and ‘The King’s Pants’. We had fun thinking of lots of different adjectives and then designing and describing our own designs. We also had a go at writing letters to the King to tell him some different plans to get his pants back. In maths, we started to learn about subtracting. We learned how to cross things out to subtract them, how to use real objects and also how to count back. We also learned that you always subtract from the whole. For example, if 6 is the whole, 2 is a part and 4 is a part, we could do 6 – 2 = 4 and 6 – 4 = 2. We then explored fact families e.g. if 6-2=4 and 6-4=2 then we also know that 4+2=6 and 2+4=6. In geography, we kept a weather diary for the week and looked to see what the seasonal weather was like. We learned about physical and human features that we can find at Balliol. We learned about the city of London. We also learned all about the countries and capital cities that make up the UK. In topic, we learned all about Remembrance day and why people wear poppies.

Week Commencing 13^th November 2023

This week, we read a book called ‘Fortunately, Unfortunately’. We learned about actions and consequences, cause and effect and then linked this to anti-bullying week. In maths, we learned how to subtract using a number line. On Friday, we also had a whole school maths day where we learned about tangrams and explored what shapes and patterns we could make. In geography, we learned about London landmarks. We learned about some of the famous ones and what makes them special. In art, we learned about famous artist Stephen Wiltshire. We then had a go at using sketching pencils to draw some London landmarks. In history, we learned about famous people from Bedfordshire such as Paula Radcliffe, John Bunyan, John Howard, William Harpur etc.

Week Commencing 20th November 2023

This week, we read a book called ‘Handa’s Surprise.’ We had a go at acting out the story and then we thought about what aspects we could change in order to make it into a new story. For example rather than Handa putting fruit into a basket and the animals taking them, we could put toys into a box or food. In maths, we learned all about 2D and 3D shapes. We learned about their names and properties. We also explore repeating patterns. In geography, we learned about aerial photos and how to identify human and physical features. We also explored maps and how to give directions. We then learned about Kuala Lumpur and compared it with London to see what was similar and what was different. In DT, we worked on our cutting skills and made a class advent calendar.

Week Commencing 27th November 2023

This week, we read books by Steve Antony called ‘The Queen’s Hat’ and ‘The Queen’s Handbag’. We had a go writing a pretend diary entry for the queen based on events in the book. We also compared the books to see what was similar and what was different. We then wrote our own diary entries. In maths, we started our consolidation weeks. We reviewed related number facts, place value of numbers to 99 using tens and ones and also ordering numbers from least to greatest value.  In geography, we explored the four seasons and the typical seasonal weather associated with each season. We also explored the purpose of different landmarks and then worked on our navigation and map skills to direct people from underground stations to a landmark.

Week Commencing 4th December 2023

This week, we read a poetry book called ‘My Village: Rhymes from around the world’ by Danielle Wright and Mique Moriuchi. We had fun looking for the countries using Google Earth then then writing our own poetry. In maths, we explored writing number words, doubling, more and less, addition and also repeated patterns. In Geography, we made fact files about the UK. In science, we learned all about winter and seasonal weather. We also thought of questions about ice and snow and how we could find the answers. We then did some science experiments all about floating and sinking and what paper would be best to use to make a paper airplane. In music, we wrote our own recorder compositions.

Week Commencing 11th December 2023

This week, we read a book called ‘Would you rather’. We had lots of interesting discussions about what our choices would be and tried hard to give reasons for our choices to questions such as ‘Would you rather have feet that smell like strawberries or hands that taste like strawberries?’ We then had a go at writing our own questions for class discussion. In maths, we explored number bonds to 10 and then to 20. We also worked on our problem solving skills. In topic, we thought about everything we had learned over this half term and wrote lots of facts about London. We then had a class quiz to test our knowledge. We then made Christmas cards and calendars for 2024. On Wednesday, we had a Christmas jumper day.

Week Commencing 18th December 2023

This week, we had a very short week but very busy week at school. We read lots of Christmas and winter stories and also had a go at writing winter acrostic poems. We watched a virtual pantomime, had a visit from someone very exciting and also went on an orienteering whole school Christmas challenge. On Monday, we sang Christmas songs on the main school playground.

Week Commencing 1^st January 2024

This week, we had a very short week as well. We spoke lots about the New Year and New Year resolutions. We also had a go at using our new school orienteering course.

Week Commencing 8th January 2024

This week, we started our new topic called ‘Memory Box’. We bought in baby photos and talked about how we had all grown and changed. We also watched some of the younger nursery children playing to see how much extra support they needed from the adults. In English, we learned all about recipes. We read a book called ‘Sam’s Sandwich’ by David Pelham and made lists of all of the sensible and silly ingredients that were used. We then designed our own sandwiches and wrote recipes for how to make them. In maths, we worked on our number and place value skills. We explored spelling number words, counting accurately, counting on and back within 20 and also understanding the value of the ‘1’ digit in teen numbers. In science, we looked at different baby items such as plates, clothing, toys etc. We explored materials and properties. We also explored senses and thought about activities that used more than once sense such as eating. With eating, you can touch the food, smell the food, taste the food, see the food and sometimes hear the food when it is in your mouth.

Week Commencing 15th January 2024

This week, we read the Gingerbread man and thought some more about recipes. We looked at different recipe examples to see what words were used and what things they all had in common. We then had a go at making icing for a gingerbread face biscuit followed by writing instructions in a recipe format. In maths, we learned about place value to 20 and how numbers in the teens have a group of ten but 20 has two groups of ten. We then moved onto explore one more, one less and where numbers sat on a number line. In art, we explored celebration paintings and talked about the techniques and colours the artists had used. We then explored self-portraits through sketching and print making. After this, we explored painting self-portraits in the style of Picasso.

Week Commencing 22nd January 2024

This week, we read learned all about poetry. We read a book called ‘A great big cuddle’ by Michael Rosen and Chris Riddell. We explored rhyming words and then had a go at writing our own family based rhyming poems. In maths, we explored place value. We looked at where numbers came on a number line and how we could estimate where numbers would go based on their value. We then moved onto comparing numbers using the more than and less than symbols. In history, we compared and contrasted schools in the past with our school today. We compared old and new toys. We also looked at how photograph taking has changed over time and discussed why it has changed. In geography, we looked at pollution, litter and the environment. We then did some fieldwork and went on a litter pick around school. We looked at what litter we found and where we found it. We then discussed how keeping the planet tidy and recycling more would improve the world.

Week Commencing 29th January 2024

This week, we read ‘Owl Babies’ by Martin Waddell and ‘The Ugly Duckling.’ We spoke about the feelings and emotions covered in each book and then wrote about our own personal experiences. In maths, we worked on our adding up skills. We worked on using counting on by putting the greatest value first e.g 3 + 11 = would be easier if we swapped it round to be 11+3 and then we could put 11 in our heads and count on 3 more to be 12, 13, 14. We then moved onto adding up using number bonds to help us. In history, we looked at old artefacts. We thought about what they looked like, what they were made from and how they might have been used. We then looked at transport over time and how it has changed and evolved. In geography, we looked at natural and man-made materials. We went on a walk around our school to see what we could find out.

Week Commencing 5^th February 2024

This week, we read ‘Daisy, eat your peas’ by Kes Gray and also ‘My dog is as smelly as dirty socks’ by Hanoch Piven. We spoke about their word choices and then wrote about our own personal experiences of things we liked and didn’t like. We tried to extend our sentences with and, but, so and because. We also started to explore similies such as ‘I am as clever as a calculator. I am as tall as a tower.’ In maths, we learned all about doubles. We then used this skill to work out near doubles. For example, if you know 3+3=6 then you can work out 3+4=7 as it will be one more. If you know 3+3=6 then you can work out 3+2=5 because it will be one less. In DT, we explored making memory boxes to help us celebrate and learn about children’s mental health week. We also did a well-being orienteering course. On Tuesday, we celebrated safer internet day with the rest of the school.

Week Commencing 12th February 2024

This week, we read ‘Paper Dolls’ by Julia Donaldson. We made our own paper dolls and then had a go at writing instructions of how to make them for other people to follow. We also wrote acrostic poems about friends. In maths, we learned more about subtraction. We worked on counting back and then moved to finding the difference. E.g. 19-18 = This is easier to work out by realising that the difference is one rather than counting back eighteen steps. We then moved onto related addition and subtraction facts. In art and design, we learned how to do a quick sketch first to plan out our picture before painting it. We then painted portraits of our families. In science, we learned about seasonal change and focussed on spring. We then thought about everything we had learned over the topic of memory box and wrote down some key information.

Week Commencing 26th February 2024

SOMETHING HAPPENED AT LUNCH TODAY! We heard a big BANG and then when we went outside, we saw something very interesting…We think an alien spaceship might have crashed!

In English, we read a book called ‘Beegu’ by Alexis Deacon. It was all about a lost little alien that crashed. We thought about how Beegu might have been feeling at different points in the story. We then wrote about our own experiences. In maths, we worked on our counting skills. We counted forwards and backwards within 50. In science, we explored samples of things from the crash site and used different words to describe them. In DT, we learned all about axels, wheels and chassis. We also had a go at attaching wheels to a piece of card.

Week Commencing 4^th March 2024

This week, we read ‘Peace on Earth’ by David Litchfield. We explored the meaning of different words and then had a go at writing our own free-verse poems. We looked at the different birds in the book and then had a go at using adjectives to describe them. We wrote instructions for how to play our favourite games. We also read lots of jokes and had a go at writing our own ones. On Thursday, we celebrated world book day as a whole school and enjoyed more activities based on this book. In maths, we explored numbers to 50 using number lines. We worked on our estimating skills to work out where numbers would go on the number lines. We then moved onto working on our more than and less than skills. In geography, we explored using compass directions to navigate around different spaces. In science, we explored different materials and their properties and then moved onto exploring how to light up bulbs using circuits. In DT, we designed our own moon buggies and wrote design criteria to go with them. We also learned about Mothering Sunday and made special gifts to give to our mummies and people that we love.

Week Commencing 11th March 2024

This week, we read lots of different non-fiction books and learned lots of space facts. We had a go at writing these facts into reports. In maths, we learned about length and height. We explored comparing objects and also using non-standard units of measure such as cubes and paper clips. In the afternoons, we did lots of science activities to help celebrate science week. We explored different materials and we also carried out lots of different experiments such as seeing how the amount of air in a balloon affected how far the balloon would travel.

Week Commencing 18th March 2024

This week, we read a poetry book all about space. We learned some from memory and then used them for inspiration to write our own ones. In English, we also read books by Oliver Jeffers called ‘A way back home’ and ‘How to catch a star.’ We had a go at using story mountains and writing to retell them. In maths, we explored using rulers to measure using centimetres. We discussed how it was a better way rather than using cubes, paper clips etc due to rulers being the same all across the country.  In DT, we followed our plans to build and decorate our moon buggies. In history, we learned about different famous astronauts and then thought about space travel timelines. In geography, we learned about having a birds-eye view and what the Earth would look like from above. On Monday, we also had a very exciting day! We had a visit from astronomer Dave Eagle and his planetarium dome. We had fun going inside and learning all about the planets.

Week Commencing 25th March 2024

This week, we ‘Can’t You Sleep Little Bear’ by Martin Waddell. We thought about how the main characters were feeling at different parts of the story. We then wrote about our own experiences. In maths, we started to learn all about mass. We compared objects to see which were heavier and which were lighter. We then used cubes to find equal mass e.g. pen = 10 cubes. We noticed that when we used small cubes, we needed more of them. When we used big cubes, we needed less of them. In DT, we explored levers and cutting skills to make a chick in an egg Easter card. In DT, we also evaluated our moon buggy models against our design criteria. We thought about what went well and what we could improve for another time. In art and design, we used strips of paper to make alien playground structures but bending, folding and twisting. To end our topic, we thought about everything that we had learned about space and wrote some of our favourite facts. We then had a little space party and made alien masks and head dresses to take home.

Week Commencing 15th April 2024

This week, we started a new topic called ‘Paws, Claws and Whiskers.’ We spoke about all of the animals that the children could name. We explored how some can live with us as pets and some are not suitable for this. We spoke about wild animals and animals in captivity. We also spoke about what animals need in order to survive. In English, we read a poetry book called ‘Perfectly Peculiar Pets’ by Anja Boretzki. We then had a go at making up our own animal combinations and writing these in poetry form E.g. It has eyes like a tiger. It has a tail like a rabbit. It has a shell like a turtle etc. In maths, we learned all about capacity and volume. We explored the fact that capacity is the maximum amount that something can hold inside it whereas volume is the amount of something actually inside a container. In art and design, we explored using pencils to sketch different animals. We thought about how to use pencils to draw fur, feathers, scales etc. We used different pencil pressures. In art, we also had a go at looking at artwork and discussing what we liked and disliked as well as the techniques used. We then had a go at recreating the artwork. In science, we learned all about carnivores, herbivores and omnivores.

Week Commencing 22nd April 2024

This week, we read some traditional tales. We focussed on Goldilocks and the three bears and also the three little pigs. We explored how there are different versions with slightly different events but the main events always stay the same. We had a go at using different voices to read them out loud and then we tried retelling them through writing. In maths, we started to learn about multiplication. We worked on counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. We explored the patterns these made when we put them onto a 100 square. We then moved onto making equal groups ready for repeated addition such as 5+5+5+5=20. In DT, we started our new project to design, make and evaluate an animal shelter or house model (product) for an animal (user) for shelter (purpose). In science, we thought about big cats and humans. We looked at what body parts were the same and what were different. We then did an experiment all about camouflage. We explored butterflies and moths and how they did this. After this, we explored how to collect data about our classmates using tally charts and bar charts and we also explored similarities and differences between lots of animals. On Wednesday, we had a visit from some farm animals. We got a chance to learn all about them as well as touch them with supervision.