YEAR 1 BATS CLASS PAGE

Welcome back to a new school year. Here you will find all of the class documents that you may need as well as any useful information, and updates and photos to show you all what we have been up to in our learning.

Please feel free to contact me via the class email address bats@watlington.oxon.sch.uk, or catch me at pick up time if you ever have any queries.

For your information PE days will be Monday and Friday this term, so please send children into school already in their full PE kits please.

Useful Web Links for Home Learning

Week 3

The children are really finding their feet in Bats class now and becoming confident with their new routines. I am still making sure the children have lots of free 'play' time but Year 1 is a more structured way of working than Reception was.

I thought I would share a few important messages about Year 1:

1. Our library visit day is now going to be either on a Thursday or a Friday afternoon, so please make sure your children have their library books in their book bags on both of these days please.

2. We will do a show and tell session most Friday afternoons. I will run a rota so that all children get a chance to bring something in from home and show it to the class. Please ensure the 'show' is something related to our topic for the term. 

3. I wanted to clarify the choice of reading books that are being sent home in book bags. Your child will have two books each week; one being a specific phonics book that is linked to the sounds we are recapping/learning that week in our phonics sounds, and the other one will be more closely linked to their reading ability/level for them to read more independently. The phonics book is designed to be shared and we ask that you help your child to spot the sounds in the text that they have been learning that week (these will be listed on a slip in your child's yellow reading diary). Sometimes we will point you towards the online version of the book that can be found in your child's account on the Oxford Owl website. Please do ask if you need clarification of your child's login for this; it will be the same one from Hedgehogs though. 

A few highlights from this week include meeting our Year 6 buddies on Friday, learning about timelines in History, dance in PE, continuing with our Reading book 'Prince Cinders', as well as painting the seasons in Science.

Week 2

Bats class have continued to settle in extremely well into their new classroom this week and I am thoroughly enjoying getting to know all of the children. The children have been learning actions for our story of the term, 'The Queens Hat' and have learnt the story so quickly.

In PE this term we are leaning to develop our ball skills; and this week we learnt how to control the rolling of a ball. On Friday we held our PE session on the sunshine gym on the school paddock, so the children could all learn to use this equipment safely and responsibly.

In Maths we have been learning to count on from a given number and how to represent a number in different forms. We started our reading lesson book this week, 'Prince Cinders', which the children find so funny. We talked about what we think might happen in the story (prediction) and then started to look at the language used in the story more carefully. 

In Topic we held a mini coronation and crowned a king and queen to rule our class. We had to think about the role of a monarch and write a job description for them. By the end of the lesson we had changed our mind about being a member of royalty as it seemed like a lot of very hard work!

Week 1

The children have settled really well into Bats class and they have proved to me already that they are ready to be super Year 1's. 

The children have loved exploring their new outdoor space; the paddock on sunny days, and the playground and climbing frame at break times. We spent a lovely afternoon in forest school too, where we were able to stay lovely and cool.

This first week saw the children visit the KS1 library, go on a treasure hunt for Queen Heycock's lost possessions, do yoga in the hall, introduce our topic of Kings and Queens, as well as writing their first story of Year 1. In Maths the children have been exploring the resources as well as sorting objects into groups, and drawing their self portrait in Art. The children have shared their wishes for Year 1 and sprinkled them into our class wishing jar, and they have helped me to create our class rules that they feel will make our class a happy place to be. They have been busy!