Hummingbirds (Year 1)

Welcome to Year 1

Our class is called Hummingbirds.  We are taught by Mrs Watkins (Monday,Tuesday and Friday) and Mrs Campbell-Pugh (Wednesday and Thursday) with the support of Mrs Djafari.   

A little note to say...

Thank you so much for all your kind gifts and cards. We have been overwhelmed by your generosity. It has been such a pleasure to teach Hummingbirds this year and we are so proud of each and every one of them and all they have achieved. We hope you have a very restful summer break.

The Year 1 Team

Reminder: PE will be on both Tuesdays and Thursdays 

Pupils should come to school dressed in their full PE kit representing their house team.

Library is every Wednesday

Please continue to share these books with your child alongside their daily reading book.

Miss Potts reading blog, 'Grow a love of reading' offers top tips on how to support your children with reading at home.  https://www.margaretwix.herts.sch.uk/reading-blog/

We thank you for your continued support to help your child reach their 'Give Me Ten' milestones. 

Just to say...

A heartfelt farewell little Hummingbirds - keep shining brightly! 

Thank you so much to all parents/carers for your continued support, kind words and lovely gifts (especially the wonderful plant pot which I will treasure!) I have really enjoyed my time teaching your little ones! 

Have a lovely break.

Best wishes and thanks,

Miss Barrance

End of Spring 1 update

Hummingbirds have had a very busy and enjoyable half-term!

In English, we started the term by reading ‘Coming Home’ by Floella Benjamin. We explored the differences between Floella’s life in Trinidad and our lives in England and thought about the different foods she ate and the difference in climate and landscape. We considered how she must have arriving in London and starting at a new school and wrote some fantastic diary entries describing our feelings.  

We have also enjoyed reading the text ‘Mr Big’ by Ed Vere which focuses on a character who finds friends and happiness through jazz music. We loved listening and dancing to jazz music, describing how it made us feel! We loved doing some drama to explore how Mr Big’s feelings change as the story progresses and wrote a letter as though we were Mr Big, trying really hard to punctuate our sentences correctly and to extend them with ‘and’ ‘but’ and ‘because’.

In maths, we have been working on doubling and halving, using tens frames to support our learning. We have also explored which numbers are odd and even. We loved learning about 2D and 3D shapes and enjoyed our maths in art workshop, looking at paintings by Kandinsky. We have focused on using the correct language to describe the properties of different 2D shapes, such as ‘side’, ‘corner’, ‘straight’ and ‘curved’. We have consolidated our learning on number bonds to 10, focusing on calculating the missing number in an addition number sentence.

At the end of half-term we enjoyed supporting the NSPCC by taking part in Number Day. A great day which brought an element of fun to Maths activities. We enjoyed a number search, counting games and activities throughout the day.

In science, we have had a very exciting time using magnifying glasses to investigate different seeds, planting beans and cress seeds, making predictions about what might happen and observing them grow. We have learnt about what a plant needs in order to thrive.

In RE we have been considering what it means to belong. We created a fantastic display in the dining room to demonstrate the different groups we belong to, such as our family and school.

In PSHE we read the book ‘Incredible You’ and discussed our wonderful achievements. We thought about goals we want to achieve this term and how we can work together to achieve them. We created some amazing ‘stretchy handprint flowers’ to symbolize how they are trying to stretch our learning to achieve our goals.

In History we have thoroughly enjoyed learning about different monarchs, including Queen Elizabeth ll. We also learned why and how castles were built.  Our Kings and Queens Day workshop was a great way for us to immerse ourselves in History through arts, craft and drama, whereby we were able to imagine the life and times as a monarch hundreds of years ago.

In Art we have been exploring shape, patterns and colour mixing. We have really enjoyed getting messy and building confidence in our creativity, through painting, collage and drawing. We have produced some fantastic abstract art work based on Paul Klee’s ‘Castle and Sun’ with a focus on using shape to build images. We also worked on symmetry to design and draw a castle.

In DT we have worked on mechanics by learning how to make sliders, levers and pivots to create moving pictures linked to our literacy stories, Mr Big and Coming to England. We have learned how to make holes safely and how to use split pins.

In Computing we have been developing our digital writing skills. We have explored the keyboard and the tool bar to write and edit text to create a poster about ‘Ted’ the missing bear.

We wish you a restful half-term break!

The Year 1 team

End of Autumn Term

Year 1 have had a very busy half-term! Please read on to find out more...

In literacy, the children explored 'The Gruffalo Crumble' by Julia Donaldson. This helped develop skills in writing labels and instructions for a pizza! Yummy! In our most recent literacy lessons, we have explored 'The Jolly Christmas Postman!' by Janet Ahlberg. The class labelled and described Santa's appearance. They also wrote top tips about how and where to spot him!

You would have all received a letter explaining the new reading books. We have sent home a Practice book which is part of the new phonics programme ‘Little Wandle’. This book is in addition to your library book. Please look after these books and ensure they are returned to school daily. There is a helpful video for you to watch by Mrs Gibbs and Miss Pott, which explains how you can best support your child with their reading at home. The page has been added to our class Reading star or https://www.margaretwix.herts.sch.uk/english/

In maths, we have deepened our understanding of areas in number and place value. We have placed a big emphasis on learning new mathematical language and applying new vocabulary in various contexts. Language such as: fewer, less, altogether, more than, less than and total. As ever, our lessons always include practical learning. For example, we have been using tens frames and counters to build numbers up to twenty. We have demonstrated our understanding of a number in other representations, such as part-whole models (cherry models). 

We have also had an exciting few weeks in other curriculum areas:

In science, we have learnt about seasonal changes and the weather.  The class looked at animals and how they hibernate. In R.E. we explored the meaning of Christmas, including learning about Advent and The Christmas Story. A Rabbi also delivered a special assembly about Hanukkah. In history, the class explored The Bonfire Night and The Great Fire of London. In our Jigsaw lessons, we have discussed important topics such as: similarities and differences between each other, understanding what bullying is and how it might feel, and learning how to be a friend to others.

As you can tell it's been busy but also very exciting exploring all this wonderful learning together!

Mrs Barnes would like to say a big thank you to all the kind leaving messages and gifts! Thank you! We welcome Mrs Watkins who will be teaching Year 1 on Mondays and Tuesdays from January.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Thank you,

The Year 1 Team 

                                                         As we approach half term...

Wow, we are already coming to the end of our first half term in Year 1! We continue to try our best at embedding our Learning Powers and Values; coming to school ready to learn and having a positive attitude towards all that we do in Hummingbirds.  We have been celebrating such positivity and kindness by awarding our 'Secret Student' trophy - well done if you won this in the last couple weeks. Keep up the hard work Hummingbirds!

In our literacy lessons, we have been exploring 'Rosie Revere Engineer', by Andrea Beaty. We have discussed what is means to be an engineer.  Considered questions such as:

What do we do if something fails the first time we try? We persevere of course!

We have enjoyed talking about inventions such as 'Helium Pants' and 'The Hot Dog Dispenser' Rosie made!

We have continued exploring numbers in maths. We have used a variety of strategies to deepen our understanding. Please look at the photos to see what we have been up to in class!

We have been considering what 'technology' is in computing. We have developed our skills in using our school laptops, such as learning how to navigate around software with a mouse and keyboard. We have demonstrated skills in partner work and sharing. 

Please remember to practise your spellings for home learning in Year 1. Reading at home everyday for 10 minutes too.  All pupils should have access to Numbots and TT Rockstars. Please speak with a member of our Year 1 team should you need support logging in to your child's account at home. 

We hope you have a well-deserved break in half-term. 

Thank you.

Hummingbirds Year 1 Team

Weeks 3 - 5

During this time, Hummingbirds continued exploring Stanley's Stick. They used their imagination to come up with ideas for what the dinosaur-stick might be saying to Stanley in the story, such as,  "I am the biggest dinosaur!". The class practised writing their ideas down in full sentences. 

In Maths, we have been learning to sequence numbers up to 10, and numbers beyond when we were ready for a challenge! We also spent time using positional language (above, below, right, left), in our Maths Fluency learning. 

We are having lots of fun in other areas such as Music, playing instruments and moving to the sounds!

Please continue to read everyday at home and remember to aim for our Give Me Ten milestones!

Thank you,

Mrs Barnes

Start of Autumn Term

Wow! I am incredibly proud of how well our Year 1s are adjusting to the beginning of KS1. Thank you for your continued support as we progress further into this busy term. 

In Literacy the children have enjoyed exploring our whole school text - LIFT by Minh Le. We have had lots of discussion around the character's feelings. We have enjoyed role play and travelled to places like the jungle - describing what we can hear, see and feel. We have also begun to look at our class book called Stanley's Stick by John Henley. In our photos, you can see us exploring and searching for our own special stick. We will use this to inspire our writing further!

We have been focusing on numbers from 0 - 20 in Maths. We have explored different concrete resources as a way to help make the value of a number. We have rearranged objects within a set/ group, knowing the value remains the same. We have practised writing numbers accurately too.

Reading plays an important part in every child's education. It is important our Year 1 pupils read with an adult everyday at home for ten minutes. Should you have any queries regarding your child's reading record/book, please feel free to speak to me during morning registration. Please refer to the Curriculum Newsletter, located in the relevant star above, for further information.

Spellings will go home in their Home Learning exercise book tomorrow (Friday 17th September). After two weeks of practice, which should be recorded in your child's textbook for marking, we will go through them together as a class. For this occasion, please ensure textbooks are returned by Wednesday 29th September, allowing time for new spellings to go out on Friday 1st October. We will repeat this pattern fortnightly. 

We look forward to more fun in our learning!

Please make a note of Meet the Teacher (via Teams) next Wednesday at 4pm. Invites will be sent out. 

Thank you

Mrs Barnes

Year 1 Class Teacher