Week beginning: Monday 21st April 2025

All of the children now have access to all of the bug club books on bug club as we have now taught all of the sounds. 

Please send in any photos from your child at the seaside now and any from yourself or grandparents to use in our history lessons. We will be sending home a questionaire about the seaside in the past to ask grandparents and parents next week. Keep an eye on their book bags. 

In English we have started our new book called The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch and the children are loving that the seagulls we scared off by mustard sandwiches. 

In maths we have been learning about measuring in cm and then weighing objects to find out which are heavier or lighter or equal. 

In phonics we are revising all sounds but focused on ur as ir, er and ear. We focused on the tricky words Thursday, Saturday, thirteen and thirty. 

In PE we created spectacular sequences on the mats and benches, they were very creative in their ideas. 

In PSHE we learnt about how all families can be different. 

Monday 7th March 2025

The last week of term has certainly been a busy one with a great space day. We made rockets which we then launched using milk bottles. We did cosmic kids yoga followed by a space quiz-they are definitely experts on space now. We used chalks to create space art on the playground and then on the afternoon we created our own planets.

Thursday 27th March 2025

On Monday we went to make paperchains with Reverend Richards and his kind helpers. It was the length of the dining hall. 

In maths we have been partitioning numbers in to tens and ones e.g. 23 is 2 tens or 20 and 3 ones or 3.  Then we looked at numbers on a number line to 50 and estimated where they would go.

In English we have been learning about the features of a fact file, researching space facts and starting to create a fact file. 

In PSHE we learned safe ways to cross the road. 

In Geography we used compasses to find North, South, East and West and then we took them out on the playground to find out which features were in different directions. 

We have been learning about Eid and counting down the days till Mr Aziz finished his fasting. 

In Science we are learning about plants. 

In Phonics we have been learning the alternative oo sound of u-e, ew, ue, oul and u.

Please make sure they have their coat on Monday so they are warm enough to walk to the church and Wednesday is space day. 

Have a lovely weekend. 

Tuesday 25th March 2025

Last week Year 4 came to our classroom to read us some stories. We really enjoyed this. 

Thursday 20th March 2025

We had Year 4 come visit us on Monday to read us stories and then we played the hoop game together.

In English this week we have been writing instructions on how to catch an alien and the children have thought of great ideas some including banana skins and tall towers. 

We have had maths assessments which we called quizzes. The children were amazing and such great determination and resilience in trying to find the answers. 

We started a weather chart to observe the weather over the week. 

We are also doing a reading assessment  (quizzes) this week too.

Have a lovely weekend. 

Mrs Ward, Mr Aziz and Mrs Hutt

Thursday 13th March 2025

We have had a very busy week in Year 1 so far. 

In geography we went on a spring hunt. 

Thursday 13th March 2025

Wednesday 5th March 2025

This week in English we have become poets by performing a poem and then writing our own space poems. We have been looking at poems with rhyming couplets that rhyme. We decided that we liked funny poems!

In maths we have been finding the difference using subtraction e.g. the difference between 7 and 5 is 2 as in 7-5=2. 

Then we looked at fact families e.g. 6, 5 and 11 can be 6+5=11, 5+6=11 11-6=5 and 11-5=6. 

In PE we have started the new unit called Hit, Catch, Run and we are focusing on using overarm and underarm and finding a space to throw. 

In phonics we ee as e-e e.g. were, there, and the ee as ey, y e.g. donkey. Then we focused on the common words water and where. 

In Geography we named all the countries in the United Kingdom and their capital cities. 

In Design and Technology we are continuing to create our windmills. Last week we had to wok out how to make them stable. 

Have a lovely weekend and hope to see you on Wednesday for the maths morning. 

28th February 2025

We had a great start to the half term this week. The children were introduced to poetry in their English lessons. They looked through the features of a poem and then read them out to each other as well. 

In Maths, we have moved on to subtraction using a number line and the children did really well with their understanding of number bonds. 

We have started our D&T project for the half term and the children are very excited about being able to make their own windmills! 

Thank you to all of the parents who have started off our Reading schedule. It really does make a difference to the children and helps them progress as much as they can. 

Friday 14th February 2025

It has been a great term and the children have taught all the staff lots of new facts about space. We had a great visit to the library and are now experts on where to find all types of books. 

In English we started to plan a diary about a day in the life of an astronaut. 

In Maths we did doubling numbers up to 10. We found out that if you double any odd or even number the answer is always even. 

They had a lovely time on the science day and enjoyed it all from the planetarium to the marble run challenge. 

In PE we worked on our target hitting skills working as a team. The children were so encouraging of each other, it was lovely to see.

In PSHE we finished our dreams and goals lessons. We focused this week how we can overcome obstacles in all areas of our lives. 

Have a lovely half term. 

Thursday 6th February 2025

We have had another great week in Sycamore class and only have 20 marbles left in the jar to earn our next treat. We are still loving the space topic, so please keep sending in those space facts for our space wall.

In maths we have been learning about using our number bonds to add on ones and then adding ten more e.g. 6+2=8 is 16+2 is 18/ The class found this very challenging but have showed amazing resilience in their learning. 

In English we have been editing our alien stories and making sure we have used the right punctuation and adding noun phrases. We also learnt that a verb is an action word e.g. sit, jump, blow, writing and then we write sentences using ! and ?. They had some very interesting ideas!

In history we learnt about Mae Jemison who was the first black women in space. 

In phonics we learnt the alterative phonemes o written as wa e.g. was,  wash,  then u as o e.g. come, grandson. Then we focused on the words first, second and third. We have now covered all the phonemes in phase 5 and will now go back to beginning to reinforce the previous learning. 

In dance we continued to create our dance routines using the canon method but by adding the song of row, row, row your boat.

In PSHE we leant about setting ourselves targets are how we can achieve them by making a stretchy hand to develop our learning. 

Friday 31st January 2025

The children have written amazing adventure stories this week about their aliens and it has amazing to see how far their writing has progressed so far in year 1. 

In maths we focused on greater than, less than and equals and then we have been looking at ordering numbers from biggest to smallest and smallest to biggest.

In history we looked at the space race times line. Ask your child which three animals went into space before humans, (fruit flies, monkey and then a dog!)

In phonics we learnt about the ch wrtitien as tch, e as ea, sh alternatives of ss(ion), s(ian), c(ial), c(ian), and finally zh/ sound  which is spelled with an 's' before 'ure', 'ion', or 'ual'.

We also worked in groups creating a dance using the cannon format of 1, 2, 3. 

Thursday 23rd January 2025

We are very lucky to have welcomed a teaching student called Miss Middleton who will be with us till the week before the Easter holidays. 

English: we have been planning ideas for our alien adventure stories with a focus on the various parts of the story e.g. beginning, adventure, ending and the characters. 

In Maths we have been learning about 1 more, 1 less and estimating and using a number line to 20. We have also looked at the difference between odd and even numbers. Ask your child what happens if you add 2 odd numbers together or 2 even numbers?

In Dance we have been created a canon dance which is a dance where you work in a sequence of 3 e.g. number jumps up, then 2 and finally 3. They had great ideas. 

In PSHE we talked about how to create steps to achieve a goal by looking at the steps to make a jam sandwich!

In Humanities we acted out the moon landing focusing on how the astronauts felt and watched more moon landing videos. 

In Art they are focusing on mixing primary and secondary colours. 

Please return any reading books still at home as we seem to be missing some. Thank you so much. 

Friday 17th January 2025

We have had another lovely week and the children continue to work so hard and challenge themselves in their learning. We are also halfway through earning all the marbles in the jar to get a class treat. 

In maths we have been focusing on numbers 11-19 and exploring them using maths equipment so we can understand there value as ten and more e.g. 17 is ten and 7 ones. 

In English we have been learning about noun phrases which are a adjective and noun together e.g. blue whale, scary alien. Then we used these noun phrases in the descriptive writing. 

In phonics we have been learning the alternative phonemes for s of c(e), c(i), c(y) as in dance, celery etc. Then s as sc and st(l). We also focused on the key words once and two. 

In PE we incorporated marching in to our dances. 

In History we learnt about Neil Armstrong and watched the moon landing.  

Thursday 9th January 2025

The children have come back to school enthusiastic and ready to learn and are very excited about their space topic. We have started to create a wall of space facts so please keep encouraging the children to write them down to add them to our space wall. We also loved watching the Solar System song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2prtmPEjOc) about the planets. 

English: our book this term is Beegu, this is the link to watch it on You Tube- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaX_zGZO0Y8. We are making our own aliens and naming them.

Maths: We have learnt about number up to 20 and beyond and looking at the repeating pattern of 0-9. We have been using number lines and even drew them on the table. We have been looking at different ways we can make 10 e.g. 5+5 or 2+2+6. 

Science: We have just started the topic of Plants. The children have been observing the plants around them in the school grounds and will be learning about the effect that light has on plant growth. 

PE: We have started our second term of dance based around building simple movement patterns from given actions. Compose and link actions to make simple movement phrases. This week we focused on animals on the farm.

We are also focusing on the ball skills of send and return Able to send an object with increased confidence using hand or bat,  moving towards a moving ball to return and sending and returning a variety of balls. This week we were sliding and receiving beanbags and balls. 

In phonics we focused on c as c e.g. cat, c as k e.g. kite, c as ck e.g. duck and c as ch.

In Art we are focusing on knowing that the primary colours are red, yellow and blue and knowing the primary colours can be mixed to make secondary colours.

We are having a space day at the end of term but it is a surprise. The children will be welcome to wear space themed clothes e.g. spaceman, a space t shirt or full-on alien outfit. I wanted to give you advance warning in case you see a suitable outfit!!!

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Ward and Mr Aziz

Thursday 19th December 2024

Wow, what a great term it has been, all the children have been so fun to teach and so keen to learn. They have settled so well into Year 1 and are Sycamore Superstars! Thank you for all your support and help this term, it is vey much appreciated. 

Mrs Ward, Mr Aziz and Mrs Hutt

This week we have been creating maps of the playground and creating our own dream playgrounds in Geography. 

We have been looking at the many ways to make 10 in maths e.g. 5 lots of 2, 4+4+2 etc.

We also finished our puppets and they look great. 

In dance we have been adding more moves to our Jungle dances. 

We had great fun at the Christmas meal too. 

Have a lovely Christmas we look forward to more fun in Year 1 next term.

The topics we are teaching next term will be on our class website page in the next few weeks. 

Thursday 12th December 2024

 Well done Sycamore class on being so amazing in the nativity play, we certainly has some amazing acting and the sheep definitely got deep into their roles! The staff were so proud of them and know we know they have some funky dance moves!

Here are some lovely photos of them in their costumes.

Friday 6th December 2024

The children have been working so hard on all of their learning. We invited their Year 5 buddies in to work with them on identifying 2-D shapes and their properties. They have been practicing their Christmas performance and are looking forward to showing you all on the day of the performance. Thank you for sending all of the costumes back in! 

We had a lovely time visiting the Church too. 

We started the week with a lovely visit to see Reverend Richard at St. Mary's Church for our annual Christmas service and then on Wednesday we made Christingles with the lovely helpers Wendy, gay and Reverend Richard. 

Week beginning 18th November 2024

In English this week we have been learning about the difference between formal and informal letters. Then we thought of ideas for problems that Percy the Park Keeper could solve for them and they will write a letter to him. We have also been reading a wide range of the Percy the Park Keeper books and we love them!

In Maths we have been learning the number bonds that make 6 and subtraction by crossing out and taking away.

In PSHE we focused on how we can be different and the same and how this makes such interesting friendships. 

In Geography we made messy maps of our classroom and labelled them. This is where you use objects from around the classroom e.g. blocks, pencils to create a layout of the classroom. 

In PE we continued to create a jungle book dance. 

In Phonics we learnt the alternative diagraph or written as aw e.g. saw, au e.g. autumn and al e.g. call or small. 

Welcome to the Sycamore Blog page. 

Friday 8th November 2024

The children have settled quickly back into school and have enjoyed listening to our new book for the term called One Snowy day by Nick Butterworth. We have been discussing the features of the story. The You Tube link to hear the story is below: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-8AAisU1w0

In maths we have been learning about adding more and addition number problems. They loved created their own number problems using a wide variety of animals. 

In PSHE our new topic is celebrating differences. This week we focused on our similarities between us as friends. 

Don't forget your blankets on Monday.