It’s been wonderful being back together! The children in year 1 have enjoyed getting to spend time with their friends and have settled back into the routine extremely well.

In phonics we have been continuing to learn our phonics sounds and have been using them with growing confidence in our reading and writing. The children have been pushing themselves to form their letters correctly and ensuring that they use capital letters, full stops and finger spaces in their writing. During our maths lessons we have been recapping our understanding of place value to 50 as well as practising our addition skills. Some of the children have then used these mathematical skills to complete addition word problems and solve reasoning and problem solving challenges.

In project we have been exploring the question ‘ I wonder how plants and flowers grow’. The children were asked to watch a couple of time lapse videos showing flowers and seeds growing. Together they shared their initial thoughts about plant growth and what they think plants need to grow. As a whole the children suggested that seeds need soil, water and sunlight. They shared their thinking and understanding using drawing, loose parts, water colours and discussions. Some of the children were invited to explore their thinking by planting some seeds in the outdoor area.

Following on from this session the children were then asked ‘How do flowers and plants get their colour?’ The children have used drawings, loose parts, water colour, discussions and investigations to explore their theories and thinking.

“That will actually grow because some seeds need darkness. A dark colour goes in the darkness and light colour goes in lightness. Red flowers grow in the lightness but blue in the darkness because blue is dark.”

“I think you plant a seed put some dirt in it and water it. Then you wait a little bit for it to grow. Then the rainbow comes and makes the colour. The colour reflects on the flower then it bounces on the flower and stops on the flower.”

Each class has also conducted an experiment to find out whether their theory of seeds needing soil, water and sun in order to grow or can they grow if we take one of these conditions away. We have been quite surprised with the results so far! We will come back to this in the summer term.

In RE the children have explored the Christian and Jewish faiths and their holy buildings. Together we watched videos to find out what it is like inside a Jewish Synagogue and a Christian church and discussed the differences and similarities between the two religions and their holy buildings. The children were then asked to share their understanding using construction materials, drawings, paints and loose parts along with finding out more about the religions from information books.