Welcome to Year 1 

from

Mrs Allott, Mrs Lucas and Miss Mellor

Our email address is: year1@kingsleyschool.org.uk

This is checked regularly however, if you need to speak to a member of staff as a matter of urgency, please either speak to a member of the leadership team on the gate on a morning or ring the school office.

If you require any additional information regarding our curriculum, please do not hesitate to contact your child's class teacher or a member of the Leadership Team.

Our current topic is 'Exploring Africa'

We will be learning all about Kenya and some famous explorers who explored the continent of Africa, as well as comparing Kenya to the UK.

Scroll down to see some of our amazing work!

Spring Term

In Art we have used sketching techniques to create our own African inspired patterns. Take a look!

PE: Gymnastics

In PE we have been trying hard to learn different balances and rolls in gymnastics. We also enjoyed learning some rhythm gymnastics with the hoops. It was hard to hold a balance while the hoop was spinning!

Science - Plants

Our Science topic this half term has been plants. We have planted our own sunflower seeds and are excited to watch them grow! We have also been on a plant hunt around our school grounds and named the different plants that we can see. We have learnt about the different parts of plants and what they do.

We have been doing some cross-curricular writing using 'Handa's surprise' and learning about Kenya.

RE

We have been learning the story of the lost sheep and Zacchaeus- look at our fabulous writing!

Local History Week

We learned about what life was like for children in the 1900s and wrote about it 

PSHE

We have been writing about who is special to us and why.

DT: Fruit Salads

We have tried really hard to use a bridge and claw technique to chop different fruits for our fruit salads. After our fruit tasting we decided which were our favourite and created our own fruit salad. We then completed an evaluation to say what we would add in next time.

Science: Light and Shadow

Our first Science topic this term is Light and Shadow. We have been learning about sources of light and how shadows are created. We read the story 'Moonbear's Shadow' about a bear who tries to get rid of his shadow! We then experimented with teddy bears and torches to see if we could make the shadow disappear. 

Topic/Literacy: Fruit Tasting

As part of our topic on Kenya we have been reading 'Handa's Surprise'. We tasted different fruits and thought of adjectives to describe them in preparation for our writing. We tasted: mango, pineapple, kiwi, avocado, tangerine and banana. We were brave tasting some fruit that we hadn't tried before!

Computing: Coding

In computing this term we are learning about coding. We were introduced to the Beebots and had a go at programming them to carry out different commands.

We loved playing the 'guess the command' game. We had to all close our eyes while our friend programmed instructions into the Beebot. We then watched it move and guessed what commands it had been given. It was lots of fun!

Dance

In dance, we were using scarves to express our feelings. We created different movements around the room moving in different directions and speeds.

Autumn Term

Inspire Time!

We love our inspire time on a Friday afternoon. This is the time of the week where we take part in extracurricular activities and learn new skills such as crafts, outdoor games and board games. Have a look at some of the activities we have been doing in Year 1.

Science: Animals including Humans

In Science our Autumn term topic is "Animals including Humans". We have learnt all about the human body, carried out a 5 senses experiment and sorted animals by their different body parts. 

Take a look at some of our super Science work!

PE: Invasion Games and Dance

In PE this term we have been learning invasion game skills and dance. In dance we have enjoyed moving in different ways based on the season of Autumn. We had to twirl like leaves falling from the trees and jump up like fireworks!

Our PE days in Year 1 are Tuesdays and Fridays. Please ensure your child has a named PE kit in school.

Computing: Digital Painting

In computing this term we have been getting to grips with using the laptops. We have learnt how to use both a mouse and a trackpad. We have been using these skills to create some fantastic artworks based on the artists Mondrian and Kandinsky. Take a look at our amazing digital paintings!

We learned about Armistice Day and wrote the poem 'Little Poppy'

Writing Road Safety Instructions

History: Changes Over Time

As part of our topic "A Place Called Home" we have been learning about how we have changed over time in our History lessons. We learnt about how a baby's needs differ to ours and how we have changed since we were a baby. We played 'guess the baby' with our friends' baby pictures. Look how we have changed!

Scroll down to see what we got up to in the 2022-2023 academic year!

Drama!

In Literacy this term we read the book "Lost in the Toy Museum" as part of our toys topic. We had lots of fun pretending to be news reporters and reporting on the story of the toys coming to life!

STEM Week 2023

For STEM week this year we have had lots of fun creating glove puppets from recycled materials. We learnt how to use a pattern to cut out our shapes and how to create a simple running stitch. Have a look at some of out fantastic designs below!

Trip to Summerhill!

Year 1's enjoyed a fantastic trip to Summerhill. Everyone was so well behaved on our walk there and back. The children showed excellent teamwork skills during our den building activity, then enjoyed a play in the playground followed by lunch and a nature trail. We all had a wonderful time! Check out some photos from our trip below.

PSHE: Problem Solving

In PSHE our current topic is 'Going for Goals' where we will be learning about how to achieve our goals. This week we were given the task of rescuing some dinosaurs that had been frozen in ice! We have to think of possible solutions to this problem. We had to use our problem solving skills such as resilience and teamwork. We decided that it was important not to give up and to keep trying different solutions, and to listen to our friends when they had an idea.

Gymnastics

In Year 1 we have been loving going to Hartlepool Gymnastics Club every Wednesday. We have lots of fun trying all of the different equipment and practising our rolls, jumps and balances. Look how strong we are!

World Book Day 2023

Check out our fantastic World Book Day costumes! We enjoyed dressing up as our favourite characters and watching the 'masked reader' videos and guessing who it was! 

In Year 1 we have enjoyed lots of activities this week for Children's Mental Health Week. These have included: yoga, mindfulness, making emotions from playdough and making paper chains to show how we are all connected. Here are some pictures from the week. 

We celebrated 'Safer Internet' day by reading a story about Buddy the dog and learnt how we could be safer online. We learnt his song and practised it as a class. Afterwards, we wrote down his key message and coloured in a picture of him as you can see in the pictures above.

We read the story 'Ten Delicious Teachers' and then played a guessing game using clues to guess which monster our teacher was thinking about. We then created our own game and wrote down several clues for our peers to guess which monster we were thinking about. Can you guess our monster from using our clues?

This half term in Literacy, we explored the terms fiction and non-fiction. We learnt about the features of a non-fiction text and created our own about London. We practised writing questions and then answered them using knowledge learnt during our Geography lessons.

We enjoyed playing 'messy bedroom' during our outdoor PE lessons this half term. We were put into two groups and were tasked with getting any many balls as possible in our side of the playground. We had lots of fun!

In maths this half term, we developed our learning with numbers to 20. We practised using tens and ones as well as whole part models to represent different numbers.

We are enjoying getting to grips with how to use a computer (laptop). We know the names and purposes of different parts of a computer and enjoy exploring how to control the mouse to make the computer work.

We recieved a letter from the fairy tale police asking for our help to locate a little girl called Goldilocks. We read her story and learnt about her wrong decisions. We practised writing sentences about the story and then created a wanted poster to help find her. She was later found hiding in the woods but needed our help - she wasn't sure how to apologise so we stepped in and wrote an apology letter for her to send to the three bears. Take a look at our work above!

We enjoy observing the changes in seasons across the year. So far we have learnt about Autumn and Winter. We explored what we wear during the different seasons and learnt about trees. Have a look at our learning above!

After learning about the United Kingdom, Daniel drew his own map at home and proudly showed everyone at school his work! Well done Daniel - fantastic job!

In Geography we learnt about our local area. We began by learning about features of maps and mapped out our classroom. We had lots of fun learning about north, east, south and west and played a game to help us to remember. We then located our school on a map and learnt the school address. We also enjoyed learning about the United Kingdom and London. 

Our Science topic for Spring A is Light and Shadow. In our first lesson we carried out an investigation. There were items hidden in 5 boxes and we were only allowed to use our torches to guess what was inside each box!

In our second lesson, we learnt how a shadow is created and then explored how we could change the shape of shadows, or make them disappear altogether!

We then explored the meaning of the words transparent, translucent and opaque and carried out an investigation using different objects to test their properties.

During our last lesson for this topic, we learnt about reflection. We were given the task of classifying materials into reflective and not reflective. We were told that Cinderella needs our help to make a new reflective dress so that she can be seen in the dark after her ball with the Prince. We had lots of fun!

Local History Week

For Local history week, we investigated the question "What was is like to be a lad or lass in Hartlepool in the 1900s?"

We learnt about what key places in Hartlepool looked like in the 1900s and compared it to what it looks like today. We have explored a range of sources such as photographs, old toys and old clothes from the early 1900s. We learnt that school was a lot stricter then!

Then we practised our sketching techniques and used these to create a sketch of ourselves wearing Victorian clothes, which would have been worn by children in Hartlepool in the early 1900s.

We had lots of fun celebrating the launch of Times Tables Rockstars! We had a rockstar party and was given the opportunity to practise our times tables on the laptop.

We were lucky enough to take part in an online 'draw along' lesson with famous illustrator Nick Sharratt. We also had the chance to speak to Rico Hinson-King, the author of Strong and Tough. We were very inspired and created some fantastic artwork.

For Anti-Bullying week, we learnt about the qualities of a good friend and how to be one. We also chose a buddy who we took care of and looked after for the week (and beyond).

We have had lots of fun using the iPads in computing this half term. We have learnt about what an algorithm is and explored some simple coding games such as Daisy the Dinosaur and the BeeBot app. We have also enjoyed following agorithms to draw a selected picture - in our case, a snowman. Take a look through the photographs, do you think we did well?

We enjoyed creating a collage to represent ourselves during Art this term. We began by learning about the artist Henri Matisse and how he creates artwork using different coloured paper and scissors. We planned our collage first by choosing five words/objects that represent us and then used scissors to create our work. Take a look at our wonderful work above.

We enjoyed learning about Autumn. We explored the outdoors and collected a range of different sized twigs from the ground. We read the stories 'Stanley's Stick' and 'Not a Stick' and then used our own imagination to pretend that our twig was something else. We have also written an Autumn poem using our senses as well as writing about the story Stick Man. Take a look at our wonderful writing.

We had a great time on our trip to Hardwick Park. We learnt all about Autumn and went on an Autumn walk around the park. We used autumn leaves and other natural materials to create a piece of artwork inspired by the artist Andy Goldsworthy. Our favourite part of the day was playing in the playground! Take a look at our recount writing at the end of the slideshow.

In Science this term we have enjoyed learning about animals. We learnt how to classify animals into different categories. Have a look at our wonderful work above.

We loved reading the story Leaf Man. We used leaves from the school grounds to create our own artwork inspired by the story. Take a look!

We learnt about Rememberance day by creating a poppy to display on the window. We also wrote a sentence to remember those who died in the war.

We learnt about why we celebrate Bonfire Night and used oil pastels to create fantastic firework pictures. We then wrote about our pictures using adjectives. Take a look at our wonderful writing!

In Design and Technology this term we learnt about cooking and nutrition. We decided to make smoothies using different fruit and vegetables. We began by learning where our food came from. We tasted different smoothies to see which ingredients we wanted to use. We made sure to wash our hands first and practised our chopping skills to prepare the fruit. Then we got to taste the smoothie that we had made - some of us were more keen than others!

In PSHE this term we have been learning all about safety. First we came up with classroom rules to keep us safe in school. Then we learnt about safety in the home, people who keep us safe and how to be safe around medicine. We looked at pictures of different rooms in the house and worked with a partner to spot any potential dangers. 

We love reading a good book in our reading corner! What is your favourite book to read?

In computing this term we are learning all about online safety. We created our own 'golden computer rule' about how to be safe online. We also created a poster detailing our 'life online' and wrote a list of five people who we can trust to help us. Here are some useful links to talking about e-safety at home.

We enjoyed reading The Gruffalo during our literacy lessons. We created a character description of the Gruffalo by using adjectives and then created our own version of the Gruffalo. We then pretended that we were the Gruffalo and drew our favourite food - yum! We also completed a book review detailing our favourite part of the story.

We have recently begun using our Year 1 Maths No Problem workbooks. This half term we are working on developing our fluency with numbers to 10. We have been completing a range of problems involving addition, subtraction, comparing and ordering.

Our PE lessons this term are based around the film 'The Incredibles'. We are developing our invasion game skills by completing special superhero missions. It is lots of fun!

In Literacy we enjoyed reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We wrote simple sentences about the story before coming up with our own version of the story. We also created butterflies and wrote instructions detailing how to make them.

During our first few PE lessons, we learnt how to play playground games. We played hop scotch, duck duck goose and also practised skipping.

In Science we have been learning all about the human body. We had a great afternoon investigating our 5 senses. We had to use our senses of hearing, taste, smell, sight and touch to explore mystery items and guess what they were!

In History this term we have been learning about how we change from babies to adults. We had lots of fun playing 'guess the baby' and trying to decide who each baby photo belonged to! We learnt about how babies' needs are different to ours and wrote about how we have changed.

We love being active! Here we are completing the daily mile. We tried our best to complete as many laps of the playground as we could within a given time.

We enjoyed writing about ourselves during our first week in Year 1, as well as painting our self portrait. We talked about our interests and created a lovely display in our classroom, detailing how each one of us is different but together we make a team. We also had fun learning about our body during our first Science lesson.

Curriculum Information

Useful websites